About the Club

Club History

The Minute Book of the Walsham-le-Willows and District Cricket club dates from 1897, by which time it was well established on the Summer Road Cricket Ground with its thatched pavilion. Almost certainly football was also being played in the village but unfortunately, records were not kept until after the 1939-45 war when Walsham Le Willows Football Team was once again in action. Games at that stage had to be played on alternate meadows in the village as the Summer Road Ground had reverted to farmland during the war although the pavilion had survived. Football came back to Summer Rd in 1951.

In 1952 a decision was made to amalgamate Football and Cricket so the official life of the Walsham Le Willows Sports Club had begun. Both teams shared the ground in Summer Road with only a small stand erected adjacent to the football pitch whilst both teams had the use of the old pavilion which at some stage lost its thatch to be replaced with pantiles.

In 1974 a new pavilion with changing rooms and showers was built in the S.E. corner of the ground and the Club had started its march to what it is today. In 1978 the first extension to the clubhouse provided a bar area. Meanwhile, discussions had started with the Bowls club in the village High St as although they had a bowling green by the Victory Memorial Hall, they had no facilities and felt that the scope to get a pavilion built would be better under the Sports Club umbrella; which duly happened in 1980.

During the eighties, further extensions were made to the Clubhouse which enabled the housing of two snooker tables and an enlarged bar area. 1990/1 saw an important growth factor to the club with the first of the youth teams, a U11’s team featuring sons of the Club’s current chairman and treasurer.

Modern Day

Progress by the football team in 2004 to a higher league required improvements to the ground which encompassed floodlights, 100 seats stand and new changing rooms for players and officials in the clubhouse. In 2011, Club president, Richard Martineau, secured further land for the Club from a family trust on a 25-year lease which enabled the construction of three more grass football pitches, an artificial grass training pitch, and a tennis hard court that are both floodlit; it also enabled a significant increase in parking spaces. These additional facilities spurred a significant expansion for the provision of youth football, the introduction of walking football/netball, and other exercise activities. In 2016 a new pavilion was built to provide additional changing rooms and a top-of-the-range servery.

Back in 2008, the Club had been designated as a CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) a formal requirement to establish legal leases on the land and buildings enabling the significant grants needed for the expansion. In 2019 a further process took place in turning the Club into a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) which then enabled our Landlords in an act of great generosity to terminate the leases and hand the freehold over to Walsham Le Willows Sports Club CIO.