Crouch End vs. Vampires
19 Sep 2008

The merger with Norbury-based Vampires F.C. took place in 1897 to give us the present day title of the club. In 1907 the club sided with the amateurs in the great split between the Football Association and the newly formed Amateur Football Association (now the Amateur Football Alliance). The club was a founder member of both the AFA and the Southern Amateur League. The club won its first honour in 1912-13 by winning the championship of Section ‘B’ of the Southern Amateur League (equivalent to Division 2). The following season the club retained its top flight status only to disband at the outbreak of war.

After the cessation of hostilities the club was not immediately reconstituted but another club was formed in Crouch End, using the title of Mount View F.C. As the club contained a member of former Vampires it successfully requested permission from the Football Association to take on the title of Crouch End Vampires which it has held to this day. The Middlesex County Amateur League in which the club played was disbanded and Crouch End Vampires became founder members of the Nemean Amateur League.

A return to the S.A.L.
19 Sep 2008

The Vampires were Senior Division champions in 1926-27, winning promotion to the Premier Division of which they were champions the following season. This success helped the club gain election back to the Southern Amateur League where it has stayed ever since. In its first season back in the SAL handbook lists the club’s ground as being the Hare & Hounds Ground in Clapton, but the club moved back to its heartland the following season, playing in the grounds of Alexandra Palace, at Nightingale Lane in Hornsey (the current Alexandra Park ground is at the Wood Green end).

That move lasted just two years, however, before the club relocated again to Folly Farm in New Barnet. This served as the club’s home until 1939 when it moved on again to the Woodside Park Garden Suburb Club opposite the present-day Old Finchleians Memorial Ground. The move to Woodside Park happened just in time for World War II with just enough time for the team photo to be taken before hostilities caused the League to cease operations once again.

The Vampires did, however, managed to accrue their second major trophy before this happened by claiming the AFA Middlesex Senior Cup in 1937-38 as an SAL Second Division side, having won promotion as runners-up in Division Three two seasons previously.

The move to Coppetts Road
19 Sep 2008

In 1945 the club returned to action immediately with a makeshift SAL competition being played in 1945-46 with the Vampires finishing 2nd in Division 2. Promotion back to Division 1 for the first time in 34 years occurred in 1949-50 when the 1st XI became champions of Division 2 for the second time. This was followed by the move to the current ground in Coppetts Road, Muswell Hill. The clubhouse was built by club members and originally consisted of just the two bar areas and changing rooms but was later extended to include the food hall.

The team won Division 3 in 1960 under the astute tutelage of J.W. Lingwood, whose son Jimmy was captain. In the team photograph of that year it is possible to see a number of future stalwarts looking much younger than many will remember them. Among these is a certain R. Swinburne, who went on to become a personification of Crouch End Vampires F.C. for much of the next half century until he passed away in 2004. Another character at the club then was Jack Bruce, who served on the committees of both the Nemean and Southern Amateur Football Leagues.

Centenary Silverware
19 Sep 2008

During the next two decades the 1st XI flitted between the Second and Third Divisions with a 3rd placed finish in Division in 1974-74 the best to show for their toils until promotion back to Division 1 was gained in 1979-80. In the build up to the club’s centenary it was fitting to see the side in the SAL’s top division once again but the pinnacle of the club’s achievements came three years later when, bang on schedule for the 100th anniversary celebrations, the club became champions of the League for the first and only time. For good measure the 2nd XI also brought home the AFA Middlesex Intermediate Cup.

Despite slipping back into Division 2 in 1986 the side returned to the top flight at the first attempt meaning that for the 1986-87 season all seven Vampires sides were competing in Division 1 of their respective sections of the SAL.