A LOOK INTO HISTORY 197

A LOOK INTO HISTORY ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN

AVELEY FLOODLIGHT OPENER

To those of us in advancing years, memories of visiting your local non
league club were somewhat tainted in modern day thinking by the fact
that, particularly if your club were Amateurs there would be no
floodlights, and cup ties would go to replays and there was always the
chance of those going on forever but didn’t we love it !
The semi-professional clubs followed the main League ones quite early
in time with floodlights, Kidderminster Town coming to mind, in 1951 and
League wise, Portsmouth v Newcastle in 1956.
Typical of so many Amateur clubs was one close to home, Aveley FC,
who having started out at Lodge Meadow moved to their brand new
ground called Millfield in 1949, Aveley, originally formed in 1927 and
after WW2 moved from the Thurrock Combination to the London League
in 1949. Their progress from the Delphian through more senior leagues is
well documented but our interest falls on a major transformation for the
club with installation of Floodlights at Millfield.
Our Match Programme is for the Official “ Switch On “ of floodlights for a
Essex Floodlight Competition Match v Grays Athletic on Monday 27 th
November 1967. Priced 6d, the blue and white 12 pager gave a full
summary from the Chairman, E E Foster on the progress made in the 15
years since 1 st November 1952. They built a stand with 500 tip up seats,
seemingly unigue at the time in Amateur football ! De luxe dressing
rooms, a bar and committee room plus one of the finest playing surfaces.
A warm welcome was given to all the guests from the Chairman of
Thurrock Urban District Council, F A, ECFA, Senior Amateur Clubs and
local organisation. They were in a group of four with Walthamstow
Avenue, Tilbury and Grays and he asked for just one more thing and that
was more spectators to enjoy the facility. One page had the teams
another was Observations from the very successful Supporters Club and
the Athenian League table that had Aveley third behind Herne Bay and
Lewes and level with Boreham Wood !
Finally, the Social Club was 5/- annual fee and Saturday evenings would
have a dance band with admission of 1/-. Keeping up the high standards
over all the years found new facilities built at Parkside which they enjoy
now.