History of the Chad Mansfield Youth Football League

The original Mansfield Minor League was formed in 1950, with representatives of the the local senior Leagues seeking to introduce youngsters progress into the older elements of the game. At the time there was an acute shortage in post-war years of young men going into the adult game and the Minor League was seen as it's saviour.

It formed with just 2 divisions, Under 18's and Under 16's with a handful of local Clubs grasping the nettle. From thereon, with Mr Lol Heath at the helm, the League grew steadily through the 50's and 60's where Mr Heath stepped upto Chairman and later in his life became the Youth League's President. Mr Heath lived well into his 80's and even at his death still had connections with the Youth League.

During the 70's the League grew dramatically in size, firstly through the chairmanship of Colin Watson and then Ralph Surgey. Indeed during the 60's the League was one of the first in the region to undertake an annual football tour to Germany (Heiligenhaus) near Essen which was eventually twinned with the town of Mansfield, many visits were then exchanged between the 2 market towns, football being one of the main activitists, but there were other cultural visits arranged. These visits carried on into the late 70's but the demise of the Under 18's League up to that time saw the organisation of the visits pass onto Mansfield Town Football Club and ultimately to a British Coal side.

Mr. Watson was the mainstay of the Heiligenhaus visits. He is still involved with the League in that he is a Life Member. Mr Surgey picked up the baton as Chairman when Mr.Watson retired and through his leadership the League grough the eighties into a much healthier competition in the numbers stakes. The League at this time was running teams right the way through from Under 12's to Under 16's. Mr Surgey was a big believer in encouraging the younger element to become involved and this process carried on into the 90's with firstly Bill Pearce then Dennis Banner being appointed League Chairmen.

Under their leadership the League ventured into Mini Soccer and membership grew from about 120 teams to 180 teams in just 4 seasons by the mid 1990's. It was in 1992 that we were approached by the then Managing Director of the CHAD (Mansfield's local weekly newspaper) to become involved through sponsorship and we became the 'CHAD’ Mansfield Youth Football League'. Through the CHAD's financial support we flourished to having 200 teams in membership ranging from Under 8's to Under 16's and for 3 seasons we ran football for girls' teams until they formed part of the recently formed Nottinghamshire Girls & Ladies League.

In 1996,as a gesture of remembrance of Mr Surgey,who died the previous year, we staged an International Youth Football Tournament in Mansfield with teams coming from as far as Denmark,Spain ,Poland and Russia. This was a huge success, and with the CHAD's support it was very much our biggest venture to date.

With Bill Pearce handing over the reigns to Dennis Banner we reciprocated some of the visits which saw representative teams go to Denmark & Poland and this saw new links open up into Finland.

In 2001 we were approached by Mansfield Town FC.,our local Football Club to become associated with them and ultimately in late 2002 a 3 year Agreement was signed,leaging to the League's current status. We have still retained the support of the CHAD and indeed the current MD there is our League President.

For Season 2003/2004 we will have in excess of 200 teams again, including ,for the first time in 20 years, an Under 18's section, and we hope to maintain this rediscovered status for years to come. Our new Chairman is Les Sharpe, appointed in 2002 and under his guidance we aim to go from strength to strength.

As Club Secretary ,Graham Hall has been involved with the League for almost 30 years as Committee Member, Treasurer and then League Secretary .Recently an Assistant Secretary ,Sue Paling was appointed to relieve the workload somewhat. We have a healthy Committee consisting of 25 members,a far cry from the original 10 people who first thoght of the idea at the time,in 1950 to organise a Youth League.

IN HINDSIGHT IT WAS AN EXCELLENT IDEA - we salute all of our forerunners who at some time in the past 52 teams their main aim was to ensure the youth of the Mansfield area had an outlet for their ambitions to play what is after all, our country’s national game.