History & Gresford Colliery Club

History of Garden Village Football Club

Garden Village Youth Football Club was formed in October 1984 at a meeting in the Wrexham Lager Sports & Social Club when a number of parents showed some interest in forming a club. This interest was taken up by Stan Roberts & Ron Owen who arranged the first meeting and invited officials Bob Douthwaite & D Wright from the Wrexham & District Youth League for advice on forming the Club.

There were some 27 parents present and a committee was formed. This was chaired by Stan Roberts with Linda Owen & John Crosbie Club Secretary & Treasurer respectively. The Team Managers were Tony Nantcurvis & Ken Massey of the Under 10's, Dave Campbell & Alan Dutton of the Under 12's and Ron Owen & Bob Hughes of the Under 14's. The first training session attracted 43 boys and they formed the first two teams that played for the club in the 1984-1985 season. Both teams did well with the Under 10's finishing in Fourth place and Runners-up in the Supplementary Cup. The Under 12's finished a creditable Ninth place out of Sixteen teams - they also won five of their last six games.

The teams played their home games at Wats Dyke and shortly after the club were successgul in securing a further pitch at Gresford Colliery Club. The club still uses both venues as Garden Village is inextricably linked to Gresford Colliery as the houses were built for the miners who worked at te Colliery.

By the end of the 1998-1999 season playing membership had fallen dramatically to less than 50 players. A new committee was the formed by Chaiman Paul Norton, Club Secretary John Parry and Treasurer Rob Jarvis. Playing membership rose that season to 68 players.

Playing membership continued to increase and in 2003 a new senior team was entered into the Welsh National League (WNL) Division 3. The first Manager for the seniors was Deri Jones who was then followed by Matthew LaCourse & Kevin Arthur. Today's senior Management Team is David Williams & Karl Millington as Assistant. The team secured promotion to WNL Division 2 in the 2005-2006 season which was then followed up in the 2007-2008 season with the WNL Divison 2 Title, WNL Division 2 League Cup & Horrace Wynne Runners-up. There was also a new Garden Village Colts team formed for the 2007-2008 season who began playing in WNL Division 3.

The Club nowhas 14 teams tanging from Under 7's to Under 16's, including a girls team at Under 13 level and two senior teams with over 200 players registered for 2007-2008 season.

The present committee of Chairman Adrian Rogers, Vice-Chairman Paul Norton, Treasurer Jason Taylor, Welfare Officer John Arnull and Club Secretary John Parry remain as committed as ever to the club and hope that we can build on the success we have achieved in recent seasons.

Come on the Village!!!