Kiveton Park F.C.

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Kiveton Park
150px
Full name Kiveton Park Football Club
Founded 1877 – first game
1883 – affiliated to Sheffield FA
1892 – official foundation date
Ground Hard Lane
Ground Capacity 2,000 (50 seats)
Chairman Bob Poad
Manager Chris Nelson
League Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Division 2
2013–14 Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Division 2, 10th
Website Club home page

Kiveton Park F.C. is an English football club based in Kiveton Park, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. They play in the Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League Division Two, at level 13 of the English football league system.

History

Although the club's official foundation year is given as 1892, the club has recently been found to have been playing in Sheffield football as early as 1877,[1] and competing in the 1884 Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup. Its first club colours were believed to be red and black quarters.[2]

The Kiveton Park team which won the 1914 Portland Challenge Cup

In 1891–92 they were founder members of the Sheffield & District Football League[3] (being Chesterfield F.C.'s first ever league opponents on the first day of that season) and lifted their first trophy after beating Sheepbridge in the final of the Sheffield Minor Cup.[4]

For 1893–94 the Minor Cup changed from a knockout competition to a league, and Kiveton moved to join, also entering the Hatchard League at the same time. They were the first winners of the latter in 1894[5] and repeated the success two years later,[6] remaining in the competition until the outbreak of the First World War.

Kiveton spent the majority of the time between the two world wars in the Sheffield Amateur League, with the exception of brief spells in the Sheffield Association League and the Holbrook & District League. They made their FA Cup debut in 1921, and reached the 3rd qualifying round of the competition two years later, losing to Rotherham Town at Clifton Lane.

The club, like most others in the country, did initially break up when the Second World War broke out, but in 1942 they joined the Worksop & District League, remaining in this competition until the end of the war. The 1945–46 season saw the club come close to winning two prestigious competitions – going out in the semi-finals of the Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup and finishing as runners-up in the Sheffield Invitation League play-offs, after beating Sheffield United reserves in the semi-final at Hard Lane.[7]

They spent the first four post-war years as Kiveton Park Colliery in the Sheffield Association League, before joining the Yorkshire League in 1949.[8] After suffering two disastrous campaigns at this higher level, they moved back to the Worksop & District League, where they stayed for the duration of the 1950s. By the early 1960s Kiveton were competing, and finding great success, in the East Derbyshire League (in 1961–62 they won seven trophies in one season[9]), and so in 1963 the club successfully applied to re-join the Yorkshire League.

A Kiveton Park programme cover from 1977

In 1967 they won promotion to Division One and two years later finished in third place – the club's highest ever league finish. [3] A year later however they were relegated back to Division Two. For a while during this era the club was known as Kiveton Park United.[10] In 1972 they completed a league and cup double, winning the prestigious Sheffield & Hallamshire Senior Cup for the first time, and gaining promotion back to the Yorkshire League's top flight.[3] Their yo-yo existence would continue however – up to 1982 they flitted constantly between Division One and Two, winning the Division Two title in 1978.[3]

A year after Kiveton reached the 4th Round of the FA Vase in 1981, the Yorkshire League merged with the Midland League to form the Northern Counties East League (NCEL), and Park were among the founder members of the new competition.[3] They spent the first three years in Division Two South before being moved to Division One South when the competition went through a restructure in 1985.[3] They were promoted to Division One in 1986, but were relegated back again in 1990 because of ground grading issues. At the end of the 1990–91 season they left the NCEL to join the Central Midlands League (CMFL)[3]

Park finished as Premier Division North runners-up in their first season, and a year later won promotion to the CMFL's Supreme Division. In 1994 the village's colliery closed, and two years later, after losing its biggest financier, the club went into hibernation.[11] The club was reformed in 1999, re-joining the CMFL Premier Division. In 2003 they finished as runners-up, gaining promotion back to the Supreme Division, but were relegated back again two years later because of their failure to install floodlights.[12] This blow came just days after they had won the Sheffield & Hallamshire Association Cup for the second year running.[13] It wasn't until the league restructured in 2011 to form North and South divisions that the club regained Step 7 status in the English football league system.

The year of 2013 was a busy one for the club. It decided, due to the cost of travelling to away games, to leave the CMFL, and join the more local Sheffield County Senior League (S&HCSL).[14] Kiveton entered the Second Division of the S&HCSL for the start of the 2013–14 season, with hopes of eventually reaching the Premier Division – a step 7 league. The year also brought much needed ground improvements thanks to a grant from the Inspired Olympics Legacy Fund.[15]

League and cup history

* League play-off winners
** League play-off runners-up
*** League play-off semi-finalists

Managers

Notable former players

Herbert Chapman

Kiveton's most famous sons, Harry and Herbert Chapman, played for the club during this era before going onto greater things – Harry became a Sheffield Wednesday legend while Herbert went on to become one of the most successful managers of all time. In 2004 the Sunday Times voted Herbert the greatest British manager ever,[21] and in 2014 the club featured prominently in Patrick Barclay's book – The Life and Times of Herbert Chapman. Barclay wrote: "Kiveton Park could claim to have been a cradle of two revolutions, one industrial and the other sporting, and beyond question it is the birthplace of at least one great man, widely considered the father of football as we have come to know it."[22]

Although Harry Chapman could claim to be the best player to hail from the village, he never won an international cup – although another Kivetonian did. Bert Morley played for England against Ireland in 1910, just six years after leaving his local football team.

In 1940, Empire News reported that, pro rata, the village had turned out more professional football players than anywhere in England apart from the Shropshire town of Oakengates.[23] The following players played in the Football League either before or after playing for Kiveton Park.

Ground

The club used to play on the ground of Wales Cricket Club (which was destroyed to make room for the M1 motorway in 1960), but has played at its present home on Hard Lane for over 85 years. The ground was paid for by the local Miners Welfare scheme and also hosts the village's cricket club. Initially Park played on the pitch nearest Hard Lane, but in the 1960s they moved to the central pitch and built a stand to hold 200 seated spectators.[24]

Gallery

  • KivetonHardLane.jpg

    Match action at Hard Lane, with the main stand in the background.

  • KivetonHardLane2.jpg

    A freight train passes on the Sheffield to Lincoln Line behind the southern end of the Hard Lane ground

Honours

Records

  • Best League performance: 3rd, Yorkshire League, 1968–69
  • Best FA Cup performance: 3rd Qualifying Round, 1921–22
  • Best FA Amateur Cup performance: 2nd Qualifying Round, 1946–47
  • Best FA Vase performance: 4th Round, 1980–81
  • Record attendance: 2,500 vs Bramley Sunnyside, Whitlam Memorial Cup final, 1961–62[9]

References

  1. ↑ Sheffield Independent, 23 November 1877, page 4
  2. ↑ Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 3 November 1906, page 4
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Sheffield Independent, 18 April 1892, page 8
  5. ↑ Sheffield Independent, 30 April 1894, page 8
  6. ↑ Worksop Guardian, 10 October 1896, page 6
  7. ↑ Worksop Guardian, 3 May 1946, page 4
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Worksop Guardian, 11 May 1962, page 4
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Rotherham Advertiser, 23 August 2013, page 28
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Rotherham Advertiser, 28 November 1986
  24. ↑ Green Un, 21 December 1968, page 13

External links

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