Club History
21 Jun 2009

BRISTOL NORTH WEST F.C.

The club was formed in 1978 by a group of friends and players from Southmead Athletic Reserves. Their first home pitch was next to Southmead’s at Baddock Wood by the Greenway Centre until the move to Pen Park Road in 2007.

Starting in Division 5 of the Suburban League the club enjoyed great success with successive championships being won in their first three years and in 1983 they achieved promotion to Divison 1. For most of the 1990’s they played in Division 2 until promoted as runaway champions in 2003. Then in 2008, together with neighbours Southmead United, they won promotion to Premier 2 and are looking to go further.

Club President and local estate agent, Doug Wood is the last remaining of the original 1978 founding members. If you catch him in the bar, after he has valued your house, he will no doubt tell you stories of some of the characters who have played for us below:

Nigel Lennard, player/secretary and manager, who was noted for his legendary half time team talks and off field exploits; John Elliott, Russell Cheesman and Neil Underwood (player and secretary for many years) all played with manic passion for the game. The fearsome Eddie MacDonald scored an incredible 194 goals in the three successive promotion years and was the man most feared by the opposition, who often chased him in vain with shouts of ‘stop the jock’ as he hurtled down the wing. Pete Kellaway, a redoubtable defender served the side as player and captain with distinction and who along with Doug claims over 500 collective appearances for BNW. Phil Dow ‘the dribbling king’ was a terrific player during the 1980’s.Mark Newton, an immensely gifted player during the early 90’s won many games with his mixture of raw pace and skill. The player of the current decade has been Rich Coward, a player with blistering pace who averages over 40 goals a season. In his spare time he is an internationally renowned paediatrician, currently on an assignment in Canada, and due back later this year.

The club has always maintained a strong connection with Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Dean Hodgson still plays and still shares the record opening wicket stand for Gloucestershire with Billy Wright ; Mike Smith, England International fast bowler played on the wing in the early 1990’s and featured in goal in several games last season. Another England international and current Gloucestershire captain Jon Lewis played regularly for us in the past and last season Steve Snell, Ian Fisher and Mark Hardinges featured regularly. Other past Gloucestershire players include Bobby Dawson, James Whitby-Coles and James Averis, who also played rugby for Bristol. Until recently the News at Ten and HTV presenter, Steve Scott, also turned out regularly for the club.

The team manager for the last 5 years has been Andy Lennard, Nigel’s brother. He played local football for many years, starting at Clifton St Vincents on the downs before moving on to play for Almondsbury-Greenway, Pucklechurch Sports and Cirencester Town in the Hellenic League.

We have a promising squad for 2009-10 which is capable of doing very well this season.
We like to win by playing an open game of football but, whatever happens, we always look forward to a bit of banter at the bar afterwards!