Such proud tradition and on the Hunt for more glory

The name Oliver Cromwell looms large in the county of Huntingdonshire with numerous pubs and schools named after the English Civil War leader and local MP.

Less well known is that Cromwell was a keen football player in his youth at Cambridge University. As an adult, though, he took a Puritanical approach, frowning on sport and banning football being played on Sundays.

These days Huntingdonshire punches above its weight in the football stakes despite its relatively small size. It has a vibrant local club scene. Moreover, the game is helping to keep the name of Cromwell’s historic county alive.

Lying to the west of Cambridge, Huntingdonshire formally lost its county status in the local government boundary changes of 1974. It now forms part of Cambridgeshire.

The name lives on through local sport and its district council. Indeed, Huntingdonshire Football Association recently celebrated its 125^th anniversary season, brought to a premature close by the coronavirus crisis.

Dotted with bustling and growing historic market towns such as Huntingdon (Cromwell’s birthplace), St Neots and St Ives, its rural landscape comprises large areas of farmland. It is largely flat, although not exclusively so like neighbouring Fenland. To the north, the county borders the growing city of Peterborough. With the East Coast Main Line bisecting the west of the county, this is commuter belt territory for London, while others work in agriculture, on the numerous local business parks that have sprung up locally or in science and tech jobs in Cambridge.

Football is thriving too. Huntingdonshire boasts some 94 affiliated football clubs and more than 300 individual teams, including six Non League sides.

Hunts FA’s Stefan Renwick told NLP: “We’re punching above our weight. I think it's probably understated just how small the county really is. And for a small county, we really are firing at a high level.”

Renwick gives credit to numerous volunteers who help run those 94 clubs and the number of teams that stem from them. Some clubs field over 40 teams.

“We've got a really vibrant scene. Season in, season out we’re retaining a lot of clubs. The credit for that is we've got a really strong volunteer workforce within the clubs that ultimately are responsible for them retaining, building, growing.”

Hunts FA ran a packed programme of events to mark its anniversary including the 125 Premier Cup. The women’s competition ran through to completion, but sadly the men’s final could not take place due to the pandemic. Other events included legends matches and awards.

As a registered charity, Hunts FA supports local clubs and provides them with county affiliations. It also provides courses for coaches and referees and has 200 affiliated referees ranging from 14 to 80. Alongside that, it provides clubs with support and advice in how to improve their facilities and access funding.

The county has strong working relationships with its two closest League teams Peterborough United and Cambridge United and their respective foundations.

A healthy local club scene provides a steady feed of players into the academies at Peterborough and Cambridge. On the flip side, players who are released from those academies often feed back into the local grassroots game.

Having marked their 125^th anniversary, Hunts FA are now looking to the future and determined to continue supporting local clubs both through this current crisis and beyond as well as championing inclusiveness and diversity.

The big challenge is to bring more people into the game.

Says Renwick: “We’ll continue to provide the highest level of support that we can and give everything to our clubs, our volunteers, to any potential players, referees and coaches. But ultimately, how do we bring more people in? That’s our biggest objective over the next 10 years. How do we continue to build as a county and provide the best level of support possible?”

Huntingdonshire’s population is continuing to grow exponentially with major new housing developments across the county.

It offers a huge opportunity for football, says Renwick: “Once they’re up and running, they are going to be vibrant areas, thriving with schools and everything that brings. We need to utilise that opportunity and grow with it.”