“Playing it on the floor since 1864”
So runs the Holt FC motto. That’s 159 years of football in this village (minus a few years recently while the changing room showers were condemned and the club defunct). Let’s just put that in perspective for a moment. In 1864 the American Civil War was juddering towards its ghastly climax, though slavery had been abolished by President Lincoln just three years earlier. Italy was newly unified as a nation, but Germany was still a patchwork of smaller states and principalities; while here in Blighty Prince Albert was three years deceased, Queen Victoria was in deepest mourning, and the Crimean War was still fresh in people’s memory. The British Empire was approaching its zenith and pretty much everyone was defined by the rigid British class system and their religious affiliation.
Here in Holt the men worked in leather, wool, milk and cheese; they were mostly unable to vote and were expected to doff their caps to their betters. The women worked for even less than the men and none of them could either vote or open a bank account in their own name.
The village itself though was thriving in its modest way. There were shops and pubs and a recenty buit railway station. No cars, of course, but many horses. Its day as a spa destination had passed but it was busy with industry.
The past is a foreign land, but in that distant time a group of Holt men formed a club to play Association football, a sport then in its infancy. They were only the fourth club nationally to join the newly formed Football Association and the first in only the fourth cakes us one of the oldest football clubs in the world and that seems to me a wee bit special. The shouts and buzz from the playing field on match day had gone largely silent though and some of us keenly felt
re-establish the tradition.
There was a lot to do. The changing rooms, the pitch, the Parish Council, the Wiltshire FA; all had to be negotiated before a single player could be signed up. Funds were needed and sponsorship. Kit to be designed and bought, both home and away. Footballs to buy, lots of them. Thanks to the enthusiasm and energy of the committee members the club was up and running in good time for the new season (and special mention here for Joy’s administrative competence and John Fletcher’s support from the PC). There is heartening enthusiasm too from the players. We have a big squad now and a lot of youngsters, all keen. With substitutions and squad rotation it will be a balancing act to keep them all happy, but there is a palpable sense of ambition and togetherness. Training on Wednesdays is vibrant and energetic.
