A brief history of Norris Villa
The early days and the Seventies
Norris Villa S.M. was founded in 1963 when a group of teenagers in
Heaton Norris,
In the first ten or so years St Mary’s team changed very little with a group of lads playing for pleasure and the taking part. In 1972 Graham Hadfield joined the club as manager and very soon the first trophy was won although it was only a Five-a-side competition at Bredbury, Seasport but it was the start of victories to come.
The 1974-75 season saw St Mary’s lift both the Second Division Championship and the Cheetham Cup.
The next four seasons were trophy less and saw St Mary’s consolidate their position in the League. One notable game in the clubs history was the game of the famous “Magnificent Seven” when a team of just seven Billy Gaffey (GK), Terry Poole, Dave Jennings, Kevin Bramhall, Ken Newton, John Dickinson and Julian Adshead claimed a hard fought 2-2 draw away at high flying Red Lion.
Norris Villa had some early success in the 1970’s too
following their decision in 1972 to go it alone following the split from St Mary’s.
In 1972 they lifted the Supplementary Cup and the following season saw them win the
Stockport League Second Division. Promotion followed to the Premier Division and in this
first season in this tough division they lifted their first major trophy the Presidents
Cup beating Red Lion 3-2 in the final. The
following year the team finished runners-up in the league to Edgeley Park Rangers.
Following that the team found it hard to get going and spent the next couple of years in
mid table holding their own and hard to beat but never challenging at the top. In 1979
Norris again joined up with St Mary’s.
At the end of the 1978-79 season Norris Villa and St Mary’s made the decision to amalgamate and pool resources to form the club as it is today Norris Villa S.M. Football Club.
The Eighties
Into the eighties and Norris Villa S.M had immediate success winning the Stockport Football League Premier Division title two years running losing only one game in the process a magnificent achievement considering the formidable strength of the Stockport League at the time. The team at this time featured some well known former players like Walt Barratt, John Arnold, George and Julian Adshead, Ian Bailey, Dave Thorneycroft and Phil ‘Skids’ Jones to name a few. In 1983 the first team once again won the Presidents Cup beating Brinnington Celtic in the final. The following year they were runners-up to Davenport.
In 1985 Jack Crossthwaite took over from Graham Hadfield as first team manager. The back end of the eighties was to be years of rebuilding as younger players were brought to the club. The first team reached the Presidents Cup final in 1986-87 at Edgeley Park where they were narrowly beaten by the infamous Hurst Cross 1-0. The beginning of 1989 saw several experienced players brought into the club and they immediately complemented the younger lads already there and the club won the Premier title for third time in 1990, 10 years after the first title. The following season the first team won the Premier title for a third time. There was never a dull moment at the club in these days as Jack brought in a number of lads from Levenshulme and Longsight area including Colin McFadden, Ian Doran, Stuart Ely, Chris Fawley, Tommy Cunny, Trevor Francis, Terry Walker, Andy Irvine and Gary McHugh.
The Nineties
Following on from a number of managerial changes during 1994 in October 1995 Micky Bowen took over as first team manager and success followed immediately. Mickey assembled a strong squad of players who went onto to win the double in 1996. Mickey has continued in his role as first team manager right through to the present day and has won countless trophies including 5 Premier titles and numerous cups.
2000 onwards
The year 2000-01 will go down as the most successful in the clubs history as Norris won all 5 trophies on offer that year under the management of Mick Bowen and Terry Poole. The first team won the treble including the Premier League, Presidents Cup and the Manchester F.A. Amateur Cup. The reserves also picked up the Division 1 title and beat Phoenix Res 2-0 after extra time to win the Challenge Cup.
The Manchester Amateur Cup victory of 2001 remains the clubs high point despite it being won in controversial circumstances. After beating Salford City in a pulsating semi-final Norris met East Manchester at FA county headquarters in the final. The game finished 2-2 in normal time with goals from Carl Ince and Gavin Roberts. East took the lead in extra time to make it 3-2 but were later thrown out of the competition for playing an illegible player. Norris were also forced to replace striker Roberts with sub Andy Ryan at half time as Roberts was ridiculously forced to attend a Stockport FA disciplinary hearing the same night where his case was thrown out with no charge to answer. The teamsheet that night read Halliwell, Bowen, Douglas, Pennington, Sampson, Moran, Keane, Ince, Burke, Chapman, Roberts.
Sadly in 2002 Jack Crossthwaite died aged 60, it was a big blow to the club to lose a real stalwart and someone who knew amateur football in Stockport as well as any one.
More league titles and cup victories followed in the next few years for both the first team and the reserves, as a mixture of old heads, like Brian Chapman, Paul Sampson, Steve Douglas, Carl Ince, Peter Ralph, and new younger players kept Norris at the top of the Stockport Football League. Unfortunately the Stockport Football League suffered from the general malaise in grassroots football and as the number of teams in the league suffered continual decline the decision was made to wrap up the league at the end of the 2003-04.
Norris Villa S.M. applied and were accepted into the Lancashire and Cheshire League in 2004-05. Progress has been swift with Mick Bowen’s First team gaining promotion each year straight from Div 3 to the Premier where they are currently holding their own in the top half of the table. Terry Poole’s Reserves team had immediate success winning the Division C Championship with games to spare and scoring 128 goals in the process. Brian Chapman scored a remarkable 56 goals that season, despite being the wrong side of 40!
Unfortunately the move to the L&C League coincided with Norris having to relocate to White Hill as Heaton Norris Rec has no changing rooms at the ground. After 40 years of life on the San Siro it’s sad that both Norris Villa and Norris Albion no longer play there. They call it progress! The club is still based at the Grapes in Heaton Norris.
As we look back over the years it is good to note the number of recent players whose fathers also played for the club. Generations of the Chapman’s, Ryan’s, Poole’s, Jennings, Hostlers, Bowen’s, Dickinson’s are all well represented over the years.
Norris Villa has now been going for over 40 years. Their success and longevity is down to the hard work and perseverance of people like Terry Poole, Dave Jennings, Jack Crossthwaite, Graham Hadfield, David and Alan Woolf, Mick Bowen, Walt Barratt, Chris O’Brien. Not to mention valuable support from the club sponsors, in particular David Woolf and Ian Riley. Without the efforts of these and many others, that long list of honours Norris can look back on would not have been achieved. Remember this on Saturday afternoon when you’re putting your boots on.
Extracts written by
Walt Barratt and Terry Poole in 1991. Compiled by M Poole Dec 2006