An account by Rob Sharp, one of the BAJFC's first players
26 Jan 2009

You may be interested in a little club history - we formed Backwell Athletic in 1972/3 & first played in the Woodspring League in 1974/5 at u/12 level.

Whilst not having the resources of bigger clubs we finished 1/2 way up the table & shocked Nailsea Utd by beating them 3 -0 in the semi final of the Cup which was held at the Victoria Ground in Portishead.

In our first year we played in a faded red kit borrowed from somewhere but for the League we picked the Club colours of green/black which still appear in the emblem today. The colours were chosen by one of the dads, Les Gooding who still lives in Backwell (his club colours as a kid apparently). His son Steve Gooding is now a commentator on Sky TV.

We used to play on Backwell United's ground as Bill Coggins, who recently died had his twin boys in the side. Both Bill & recently Barry Coggins have passed away, tragically young.

Gerry Hughes & Frank Ward were other founder dads along with my dad John Sharp who passed away in 98.

We got the new pitch & changing room sorted in the mid/late 70's.

Some old boys played decent senior football & one in my brothers side still plays Dr Martens for Clevedon (Steve Lester).

At various times city players like Terry Coopers boy played before he went onto a league career as well as Jantzen Derricks & Peter Mccalls boys (both ex city circa 60's).