Club History

The Beginning

Hanworth Villa were formed in 1976 following a managerial disagreement at another long established Hanworth club. In the early years the team struggled in Division One of the Hounslow & District League, scoring a goal was usually celebrated with a public holiday. During the close season and following hard work by Jimmy Connors, who rebuilt the team, they finished Division One Champions.

The following season saw the club start an incredible run in the league, which finished 68 matches later, with 'The Villains' winning the Hounslow Premier League, and the West Middlesex Division One and Two Championships. The success continued with Hanworth being elected to the newly formed Middlesex County Football League.

Home at Last

From 1980 the club had a nomadic existence but in 1997 moved to its existing Headquarters at Rectory Meadow. This move led to the formation of Hanworth Villa Sunday, and later a reserve team, being an amalgamation of teams from - The Sawyers Arms, The Queen Dowager, and Feltham Railway Club, not that the lads like the odd beer! A Chiswick League double in 1993 and a 19-0 Cup Final victory in the National Railways Cup (did the opposition run out of steam?) cemented the successful amalgamation.

Following hard work by Dave Brown the club was granted a lease at Rectory Meadow. At last we had a permanent home and could set about converting an existing pavilion into a clubhouse, which has became known locally as “The Ranch”. With a permanent base we were able to concentrate on improving our football, and recent years have seen all our teams win numerous trophies, the most notable performance being by our Sat 1st team who landed “the treble” in 02/03, winning the Middlesex County Premier league, the Open Cup and the League Cup. After another premier league title in 2004/05, this time with a record number of points, it was decided that it was time to move on and the club were elected to Division One of the Combined Counties League in time for the start of the 05/06 campaign.

The Combined Counties Experience

It took a while to adapt to the new level of football, but in our second season we managed to win the Challenge cup. The following season, 2007/08, we successfully managed to defend the Challenge Cup and narrowly missed out on the league title, finishing a creditable second; our facilities however, prevented our promotion into the Premier Division. The club were determined to ensure that that situation wouldn’t arise again, and, with typical determination, the committee managed to raise the funds to ensure that floodlights and a spectator stand were installed in time for the start of the 08/09 campaign. The effort wasn’t in vain as we once again finished second in what was a very tight end to the season with the top 5 sides being separated by just 3 points. After a successful ground inspection we were promoted to the CCFL Premier in time for the 09/10 season.

Our debut season in the Premier proved to be as difficult as we expected. Points were few and far between for the first half of the season, but we gradually started to come to terms with the improvement in standard required, and we managed to put together performances worthy of a CCFL Premier side. By the end of the season we had obtained enough points to finish in 17th position, 3 clear of the relegation places.

That 1st season taught us a lot and changes put in place during the close season allowed us to have a more comfortable second season, in which, we not only finished a creditable 5th in the league, but also reached the finals of the Middlesex Senior Charity Cup and also, for the 2nd consecutive season, the Southern Combination Cup. Unfortunately we lost out by the odd goal in both finals.