Club History

The earliest evidence of Hayle FC is a photograph, taken in 1906, which is in the clubs possession. The club then seems to have come and gone over the years, several older gents in the town, tell of playing between the wars, oddly enough not far from where the club has its present home. There is evidence of a club, post war, with the clubs name engraved on a Mining league trophy, as winners in 1946.A brief flirtation with West Penwith football in the 1950's and thus into obscurity. Come 1972 and Tom Magee, a power station employee, in Hayle having nowhere for his son to play soccer, re-founded the club, with financial backing from 3 local businessmen.

Back Row:Alf Hubbard, Dick Horwell, Morvin Munday, Brian Kent, David Thompson, Albert Williams, John White, Peter Hubbard, David Hollow, Eric Constantine, Henry Mitchell, Bill Rogers.

Front Row:Keith Rapson, Clive Barrett, Philip Beare, Terry Tredinnick, Jeffery Cock, Roy Summers, Kelvin Magee, Thomas Magee.

The club led a nomadic existence, various farmers and schools hosted the club for 10 years. Then in 1981 a plot of land was given to Penwith DC, for recreational purposes.

Hayle managed to secure, after much negotiating, a 21 year lease, at a peppercorn rent, thus was birth of the club we see today. Several businesses, in Hayle, along with support from the Town and District Councils, allowed the club to construct two wooden sheds, as changing and shower facilities. In the 90's,with the growth of youth football and constant vandalism, it became obvious that the club was rapidly outgrowing its facilities, of 2 sheds and a pitch. Two strokes of luck came the clubs way, firstly a local farmer was considering giving up, his good lady persuaded him to sell the club, one of his prime fields of 5 acres of flat land. With Sports Council backing and fund raising, the club managed to scrape up £13,000 and buy the land.

Then came the second stroke of luck, as we were wondering how we were going to develop this land, the National Lottery came on line. A hasty bid was put together, the lottery liked it, and we were given enough money to self build and lay out 2 pitches. Over the next 2 years club members built 4 changing rooms and a clubhouse, developed two pitches, and somehow gained 6 extra teams. In 1999 we finally moved into our new permanent home and set about making it work. Since then the club has been able, with more lottery assistance, to purchase an adjoining 4.5 acres and develop two dedicated youth pitches, a mini and full size, a floodlit MUGA for all year round training, and an extra 8 teams.

Promotion to Senior Football for season 2001/2002, saw the club start to achieve one of the objectives, set out in the plan, devised when moving to the new complex in 1999. Success was hard to come by in the early days of senior football, but the club flourished under the guidance of an experienced and dedicated committee. Youth football expanded at a phenomenal rate, now that the club could provide separate and dedicated facilities for them. A Multi Purpose Games Area was provided to facilitate an easier training regime. At one stage the club was almost overwhelmed with 17 teams active in various leagues, though this has now stabilised to approx 11 teams, which eases the strain on the pitches during the ravages of winter. The club were reasonably successful in the Combination League, always in the top 6 and once as runners up (2002/03), twice in third place (04/05, 05/06) but never realising their full potential, one season winning the Supplementary cup (2004/2005). Made us reasonably consistent, but never show stoppers.
Finishing well in the JCCL in season 2006/07, and having the required level of facilities, saw us invited to be founder/members of the South West Peninsula League.
In the three seasons since its inception the club has not disgraced itself, but there again, has not set it alight. Our highest finish was in season 2009/10, with third place.
Apart from this, what could have been a major setback was narrowly averted with the prompt attention of the Cornwall fire service. In March 2009 the containers housing our kits, club records, training aids and 20 years of accumulated goodies, were set alight, by some drunken vandals, early one Saturday morning. The damage was extensive; however it was limited by the fire service. Two changing rooms were badly damaged and the gable end wall was terminal! The insurance was more than happy to cough up for the damage, and allowed us to repair. By building in house we were able to construct two new changing rooms, to the latest FA regulations, an enlarged garage and kit store. So we go forward into the future and hopefully securing promotion through the pyramid system. How far, who knows, we have come a long way in ten years what is there to say we can’t go farther.