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In July 1948 an ex Portsmouth man, Reg Dicks, along with accomplice Ron Miles, fixed posters to telegraph poles, Naenae Road Post Office and the Naenae Railway Station, requesting anyone interested in establishing a soccer club in Naenae to please attend a meeting at 14 Keys Street, the home of Reg. Eventually a meeting was held and attended by Reg and Ron along with Tom Morgan, Murdo Graham, Jack Middleton, Eric Britton, Mick Goggin and Jack Wing. It was unanimously agreed to form a committee of the Naenae Association Football Club, and our club was born.

 

The first elected committee was:

Patron: Dr Robert Scott

President: Eric Britton

Secretary: Mick Goggin

Treasurer: Reg Dicks

Committee: Gordon Acon, Jimmy Hunt, Jack Middleton, Ron Miles, Tom Morgan, and Jack Wing.

 

Following our affiliation to the Wellington Football Association, the Committee worked hard on achieving goals to have two boys’ teams playing in the Hutt Valley Junior Saturday morning competition. A drive to encourage as many Vice Presidents as possible to join with a donation of ten shillings was successful, and with the required finance in hand the young lads in their green and grey were ready to play. In a very short time the club had increased its numbers dramatically and by the early fifties eleven junior and two senior teams were playing in club colours. With that, along with all the above mentioned men, came others that would leave their mark for their involvement in the club’s early years. They included George Brooks, Harold Joseph, Frank Murphy, Henry Salt, Peter Wright, Bernie Clentworth, Ivan Conway, Stan Ashman, Bill Fleet, and Maurie Fox. A younger brigade who assisted in coaching junior teams in those years included Neil Tucker, Paul Coxon, Ray Stevenson, Bryan McIntyre, George MacLennan and Les Morgan.

 

Throughout the fifties and early sixties our senior club battled hard to consolidate our position and make progress through the grades. During the early fifties most parks had very basic changing rooms, some none, and showers in most cases, was a cold tap to wash dirty knees. A beer after the game was passing a bottle around whilst changing, although a keg was known to have been organised on occasions at the sawdust floor Naenae Park dressing shed. It is also told of playing on a very muddy Naenae Park while three stumps were being blasted out of the ground alongside. Despite all these rough beginnings, all our teams were playing well and climbing up championship tables. Following a couple of successes winning various grades, the senior team won the 1957 knockout tournament and collected the “Victory Cup”. During these years we were fortunate to have some excellent footballers playing for us and their contribution to our club is recognised as many of them could have played at a higher level should they have wished.

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The sixties saw our senior teams enjoying better player strength, with the majority of players having come through from our junior grades. As the decade progressed it appeared to be a matter of time before we joined with other exclusive clubs playing in the Wellington 1st Division. With many players competing for 1st team positions, we finally achieved our ambition by being promoted from Division 2 in 1967. That year saw the club’s 1st & 2nd teams being so evenly matched we were always in the position to be able to use any of the 26 players to remain successful. To confirm this, it should be mentioned that in a specially arranged fixture at Bell Park the 2nd team defeated the 1st team 3-1. We then became one of the foundation clubs to start playing Central League football when it commenced in 1968. The following year the club played its first Hilton Cup Final. The team attracted notice with its performances and after upsetting Waterside then beating Northern, Petone & Western Suburbs, played Wellington Diamond United in the live telecast final in which we lost 3-1 in an evenly contested game. We ended the sixties with a great deal of satisfaction what had been achieved on and off the field.

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The seventies, eighties up to the present has seen the club consolidate its activities with the main aim of having our own Clubrooms. Talks with the Naenae Cricket Club finally eventuated with the first building on the present site being completed in 1971. Whilst competing successfully on the field we quickly outgrew what we had and plans to extend the building were finalised in 1981. Although many people assisted to achieve this result, special mention must be given to then Club President, Ray Torrie, who gave hundreds of hours driving the project from start to finish. Another who gave his total commitment during this time was Sol Hema. A tireless worker for both juniors and seniors, he also edited “Striker” the excellent club magazine, and we were fortunate to have had his dedicated efforts. The inconvenience of walking to and from the Council gym for a shower after the game came to an end in 1995 when two further changing rooms and showering facilities were added and an asphalted car park was installed between the Kindergarten and the Children’s Play area in the early 2000’s.