Football in Crockenhill goes back to the 1920's when two clubs represented the village in the Dartford League. Crockenhill FC and Crockenhill United FC, with the latter playing at Wested Meadow, the traditional field name for our ground today.

The present Crockenhill Football Club was formed in 1946 following a friendly match played between Crockenhill Youth and Mudhole Dynamo on Boxing Day 1945. The Mudhole is the locals name for our nearest pub, The Fruiterer's Arms. Many of the Dynamo side were former players of Crockenhill United.

The post-war club was very ambitious and it had its application to join the Kent Amateur League accepted for the 1946/47 season.

The club soon became an established force in local amateur football, and won the Sevenoaks Charity Cup at the third attempt in 1949 in front of a crowd of 3'500 at Radley's Field. It is said that the village emptied and a special train ran from Swanley Junction. The team continued to improve under the guidance of Cyril Nicholls and the Western Regional Premier Division was won in 1953/54.

The club looked to progress further and competed with great credit in both the Aetolean and Greater London Leagues before being invited to become one of the founding members of the Kent League in 1968. Further success came in 1980/81 when the Kent Senior Trophy was lifted and in 1982/83 the club were Kent league Champions. The league was won after a pulsating 1-0 victory at home over the eventual runners-up Hythe Town.

During the 1980's the club had also been the scene of the all too brief Kent League career of Tony Cascarino, whose transfer to Gillingham was the clubs most famous deal and main claim to fame.

Success has been in short supply in recent years and the club had to drop back down to the Kent County League in 1999 due to the lack of floodlights. The 2000/01 season saw an upturn in fortunes for the Crocks when they won the Kent County Division One West title, followed 3 years later with the Kent County Premier title.

During August 2006 a group of 12 year old boys and their parents were invited to attend a meeting held at Westcombe Park RFC. The meeting had been called by Mike Delaney and Micheal Rogers to address frustrations at the structure and failings of youth football for talented individuals and to offer an initiative that would attempt to address and rebalance these failings.

The majority of the young players at the meeting had attended the Skills Academy sessions from 6 years old and had, purely by chance found themselves attending Warren Road Primary School in Green Street Green.

Under Mike's tutorship the Warren Road team won every single league, cup and tournament fixture in which they competed. It was clear even at this tender age that here was a unique group of talented individuals brought together by chance and circumstance.

When it came to trialling for the u11's Orpington School District representative squad, seven of the Warren Road team made it into the starting line up.

The Orpington District squad went on to represent Kent in county finals and ultimately to win the competition.

During the Westcombe Park meeting Mike Delaney offered his support and guidance to the assembled players for whatever period time it would take for them to realise their footballing potential. This might be weeks, months or years, whatever the period of time, Mike would be there to offer guidance and support.

The Skills Academy School of Excellence was formed.

During this period we also expanded the group of players to include a second group of talented individuals born during 95/96 at u13's level. Skills Academy School of Excellence Level Two coach Marc Cumberbatch regularly trains this second group and everyone at the Skills Academy School of Excellence is excited at the potential for this new team.


Of the original group of seven young players, four remain at the School of Excellence and these four have been joined by a group of equally talented individuals all benefiting from Mike's patient coaching methods. The coaching team has been expanded to included a dedicated Goal Keeping Coach - Mick Strain, Level Two Coach Richard Percy.