CLUB HISTORY
02 May 2007

Football has been played in Romsey for over a century and there has been a Whitenap team on and off for over thirty years.

The original team, AFC Whitenap were founded in 1976. They played in the then popular PM Section of the City Of Southampton Sunday League and proceeded to win five successive promotions (including two titles) to reach the Premier Division, but after just one season in the highly competitive top flight they disbanded in 1982 with the Reserve side breaking away to form a seperate club.

At the same time there was another side, known as Whitenap Flyers. They were originally founded in 1978 as an U16s Youth side by a group of Mountbatten School friends. From 1980 they played in the PM section of the New Forest League, reaching Division 1 in 1983 where they remained, generally in mid-table until their demise in 1990.

Today's club originates from the summer of 1990 when a group of local school friends would gather at the near-by Mountbatten School for a kick-about amongst themselves. This soon became a regular and popular event as numbers quickly increased.

In 1992 the lads began playing organised friendly matches and entering various small sided competitions. It was then that they decided to adopt the Whitenap name, in connection with the area and in an effort to re-vive the famous club name. However, with many of the team still young progress was slow during these early years.

Finally in 1995 Whitenap FC properly took off! They became an affiliated club and enrolled in the New Forest League where they were placed in Division 3. The thriving team spent two mixed seasons with the competition before making the ambitous switch to the City Of Southampton League in 1997 where they were highly placed in AM Junior Division 3 - missing out the bottom three divisions altogether! However, on limited resources they did well to consolidate for three seasons before winning two successive promotions, by default, to reach Junior Division 1 in 2001 where they steadily remained until the highly successful 2006/07 season when the clubs fortunes dramatically took off as they clinched the league title and were also finalists in the DR Ryder Trophy.

Whitenap soon adjusted to the Senior ranks and clinched a second successive promotion after finishing runners-up in the Senior Division, missing out on the title by just a single point.

After a 26 year absence, the famous Whitenap name made an overdue return to the Premier Division but sadly life in the highly competitive top flight was frequently tough for the team, despite a 3rd place finish in 2009/10, two prestigous enties into the national FA Sunday Cup and three cup semi-final appearances.

After three seasons at this level, it became clear that these high standards couldn't be maintained much longer and so at the end of the 2010/11 campaign, Whitenap made the reluctant decision to withdraw from the CSSFL and transfer to the Winchester & District Sunday League where they could again play at lesser level where enjoyment takes priority over winning at all costs.

Despite thie upheavel, Whitenap as ever remain ambitous to consolidate and progress, whilst maintaining the clubs excellent reputation for their conduct and friendship.