DUNSTABLE TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB YOUTH SECTION

The History of Dunstable Town Icknield

Icknield Youth Football Club was formed in the summer of 1998,consisting mainly of children attending Beecroft lower school in Dunstable.Enough enthusiastic young players were recruited so as to field three sides in their inaugral season.

These were an under 8's,under 9's and under 10's teams,all registered to play in the Milton Keynes nursery league.The teams were all sponsored by Axle Haulage Ltd,supplying all three teams with a kit and equipment that had been begged,stolen or borrowed from a variety of soures.

The club had no pitch to play on.Having tried the local council and local schools they could still not find anywhere to play.A visit to Luton Borough Council was undertakenand the cub was allocated a pitch in Icknield Way,Luton.This is where the name Icknield Youth originated from and not as folklore has it,Icknield Lower School in Luton.

The very first season saw the club build it's roots with Steve Addlesee as Club Secretary with Pete Burgoyne as his right hand man and future Club Chairman,Duncan Bedford running the Under 9's team with Kerry Dixon overseeing anything and everything on the football front.

In the not too distant future other important influences on the Club such as Lee Connelly,Neville Small and Iain Mills among others were to become involved.The first season saw incredible success on the field with the Under 8's completing a League and Cup double,the Under 9's gaining succcess in the Cup and the Under 10's winning the League.

From humble although very successful beginnings,the Club that started out with three teams, sudddenly became a huge Club attracting players from Luton and the surrounding villages as well as the local Dunstable lads.Within five years players were travelling from surrounding Counties just to play for a Club that had built up a massive reputation.

In the ensuing years the Club won numerous League Titles,Cups and pre-season tournaments,picking up an average of over thirty Trophies each season.Within seven years the Club was running Eighteen teams incuding one Ladies teams which unfortunately disbanded midway through the second season of it's existence.Several teams went on pre-season tours to places such as Somerset,Norfolk,Lancashire, Sussex and even Cornwall,winning many National Titles.

Over the last few seasons the Club has begun to restructure and has trimmed the number of teams that it runs. Most of the teams were playing on local parks with some teams fortunate to be allocated school pitches.This caused logistical problems,having so many teams and it was decided to do away wth some of the B teams.The Club for a long while has tried to purchase some land for a home pitch,but this search has proved friutless.In 2003 Dunstable Town invited Icknield to become it's Youth arm.

Both parties knew it would take two to three years before this association bore fruit as far as players were concerned.The two clubs worked together with a vision for the future.The vision has now become reality with a number of Icknield Youth players playing in the Dunstable Town first team.Dunstable's Under18's and Reserve side is predominately made up of ex Icknield Youth players.

The Clubs sealed their amalgamation in the summer of 2007 when Icknield Youth became Dunstable Town Icknield.

The development of Creasey Park in 2011 has seen all the mini-soccer teams playing matches at their 'proper' home venue with superb 3G training facilities and fastastically maintained grass pitches.