Officials of BROUGHTON AMATEURS AFC
1947 - Present

Brief History
(See 50 year History at bottom left of this Page)

Presidents :

How it all began . . .
The Club was formed in 1947 as Fulwood & Broughton AFC. Although the nucleus of the original squad came from Broughton Youth Club some of the founder members were also members of Fulwood & Broughton Cricket Club and it is thought that is where the name was derived from. Gordon Spicer our first Chairman was a former Captain of the Cricket Club and pictures can be seen of him in F&B CC clubhouse along with several Broughton footballers from that era. For many years (till the late 80's) we used to go back to the Cricket Club for after match refreshments. 

Then we started playing . . .
The newly formed organisation applied for and were granted playing membership of the Preston & District Football League, two teams were entered in the 1947-48 season.

At the end of the 1949-50 season the club left the District League and joined the Lancashire Amateur League. The LAL asked them to change the name of the club as a team called Fulwood were already playing in the League so we became Broughton Amateurs. This move was viewed as a definite step up in standard from Local to County standard.

Then we started winning . . .
The Club won its first trophy in 1952/53 season when we finished level on points with Old Blackburnians, goal difference and penalty shoot-outs were not used as tie breakers and the teams had to play off on a neutral ground. We won 2-1 with Jackie Edwards and Colin Flintoff (Grandad of Andrew) scoring the goals.

The remainder of the 1950's and most of the 1960's saw a period of consolidation for the club with some occasional trophy wins for one team or another 1955-56, 1961-62, 1963-64, 1967-68, just enough success to keep things ticking over. During the late 1950's a young lad called Dave Wilson joined the Club.

Then we couldn't stop winning . . .
From the moment when the 1st team won the LAL Challenge Cup and Div 2 championship in 1971-72 season till the late 1980's we went crazy. In those 16 or 17 seasons we won 38 trophies. Some were club awards but most were league titles and a few Cup wins. During this period the 1sts won the Premier Division twice and were runners up 4 times, they also won the LAL Cup in 85-86 and the Jack Kelly Memorial Trophy (Preston based Cup comp) in 87-88. The 2nds won their league a staggering 8 times in 11 seasons, 3rds won their league 7 times in 11 seasons, 4ths only won 1 league title, mainly because they were in same division as our 3rds. For a few seasons we even had a 5th Team and they managed to win their league in 87-88. All this success contributed to the Club winning several Aggregate and other Club Trophies.

During this spell came the Clubs finest achievement when, with Eddie Brown as manager, we won the LFA Amateur Cup in the 1980-81 season defeating Sefton 3-2 at Burscough in the Final.

Stability is the key . . .
During this time Dave Wilson was the Chairman and now in 2008 - guess what? He still is. Having been involved with the club for over 50 years now, Chairman since 1971, we owe him a great debt and in 2007 tried to recognise this by giving him an award for his 50 years service presented by his hero Sir Tom Finney. He was President of the Lancashire Amateur League in 1988-89 and in March 2008 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sport an honour bestowed on him by the City of Preston.

What are we up to now . . .
The 1990's and noughties have seen us with sparse return as far as trophies are concerned with the last successes being 3rds winning their league in 1996-97 then in 1997-98 both the 2nds and 4ths won their Leagues, plus we had Trevor Lafferty as LAL Secretary of the Year in 2004. In 2005 Mick Jones and Dan Spensley were selected (and played) for the League Representative side. The 3rds and 4ths got to their Divisional Cup Finals in 2005 and 2007 but both lost.

Come and find us . . .
Since around 2001 the first and second teams have played their home games on the wonderful pitches at Myerscough College, thirds and fourths are still at Broughton. You're welcome to come and support them any Saturday, go to the Current Season page (link on the left navigation panel) for Fixture details.

   Arthur Dickinson

1947 - 1965

   Francis Eden-Wilson   

1965 - 1975

   Michael R. Dolphin

1975 - Present

Chairmen :

   Gordon H. Spicer

1947 - 1959

   F. Hunter

1959 - 1960

   Hayden Sigley

1960 - 1961

   Brian Hawkes

1961 - 1963

   Norman Archer

1963 - 1964

   John Howard

1964 - 1966

   Michael R. Dolphin  

1966 - 1971

   David Wilson

1971 - Present

Hon. Secretaries :

   Harry Foster

1947 - 1950

   Cyril Archer

1950 - 1954

   D. Ryan

1954 - 1955

   Jim Tyrer

1955 - 1956

   Norman Archer

1956 - 1979

   Tommy Taylor

1979 - 1988

   Gordon Owen

1988 - 1997

   Trev Lafferty

1997 - 2005

   Stuart Spensley

2005 - Present

Hon. Treasurers :

   J. Monaghan

1947 - 1949

   Harry Lawton

1949 - 1972

   Henry Clarke

1972 - 1982

   Alan Roberts

1982 - Present

Here it is
The History of Broughton's first 50 years
Just click on the pic below
(it'll open in its own window, but beware it could
take a minute or two to download - but it's worth it!)

NOTE: You will need an application called
Acrobat Reader in order to view the History.
It's probably already on your computer but if not . . .
the good news is, it can be downloaded FREE
from the Adobe website @ www.adobe.com