Banbridge
Rangers was formed from a idea from a group of friends on the way home
from a Loughgall game. At first it was just talk but the more talking
done the more interested people became on getting a team formed.
A
decision was taken to try a get a team together and get a friendly
played and see from there was there enough interest to take it forward. A friendly was arranged for March 2005
against Dromore Utd, a mid Ulster team. The match was played down in
Dromore and the Banbridge team showed up for their first match with
skips borrowed from Dromore Utd. Even at this early stage of Banbridge
Rangers there was a large support coming to watch. The match was played
and despite going 1-0 down the 'gers' went on to win 3-1 with goals from Neily Wilson and two from Peter Gilchrist.
Everyone
was happy that there was enought support and interest to form a team
and apply for a league for the following season. The club had decided
to apply for the Mid Ulster League but the application date had past
for the 2005/06 season. As a result of this applications went in to
the South Antrim League and the Newcastle League, both were a
ccepted.
A meeting took place and a decision was made to join the Newcastle League.
At
this point the club was official but had no skips or money and alot of work had to be done to get the
club ready for the up and coming season. The club formed a partnership
with NA sports in Portadown who supplyed the team with training equipment,
and it wasnt long till a sponsor was found for the skips. Alan McMinn
of McMinn P.V.C Services came in and offered to supply the team with
their skips (picture to the right).
Everything
was now ready for Banbridge Rangers to play there first competitive
match and on the 10th August 2005 they did this by playing, local
rivals and good friends, Moneyslane. The game finished 4-1 to 'the
slane,' but the result was soon forgotten as this was the first chapter
in the history of the club.
After finishing the season of in mid table, the club again showed
interest in Joining the Mid Ulster set up, and on the 1st July 2006
club Chairman
Stuart Magill and Secretary Richard
McMinn went to a meeting of the Mid Ulster League Committee and a week later got a letter to say we were accepted into Division 4. It took time
and alot of work to get the club ready for the journey they are now
on but things are on the up for the 'Gers' and lets hope that they are here for many years to come.
The
club played its first game league in the Mid Ulster on the 23rd
of September 06 and traveled away to Garvey Boys with a 3 - 1 win,
this was a good start to the season as we carried on to win our
first 6 league games in a row scoring 26 goals in the opening fixtures.
The club was now on a high and we all had high hopes in finishing
in the top half of the table. This soon ended when the club lost
its first game playing Ambassadors at home and lost 5 - 1, This
followed a 5 game unsettled period when some dout was in the minds
of the players and manager but this was soon forgot about as on
the 9th of December 06 we played The Dons away and came away with
a 1 - 0 win. At this stage we had no idea what was going to happen
and the club carried on winning the following 11 fixtures. With
the league title now in our sights and also Baileys Tigers & Ambassadors the club only had to win its next fixture against Granville if Baileys
Tigers lost their last game of the season but this was not meant
to be as even tho Baileys lost we could only manage a 2 - 2 Draw.
This
left us only having to draw our last game of the season which was
away to Armagh Atheltic on the 14th of April 07. The players, manager,
officials and supporters were nervious at this point and at the
same time was looking forward to finishing the season.
The
club booked 2, 52 seater buses for the last game and filled both
with the large support the club had and we all headed away for
the game. All eyes were now on the players to do the job as we
were sitting second in the table, the game started well with the
Nicky Ireland scoring first in the 39th minute, Armagh were to
score next but at that stage all we needed was the point to win,
with a good half time talk from the manager the players went out
and scored twice in the second half with goals from Colin Cousins
(54) & John McCahon (80), the final whistle went and we were league champions topping
the table with 56 points 2 ahead of Baileys Tigers. The club was
now playing in Division 3.
The
2007/08 season will always be one to remember as the club got word
our home ground was going to be redeveloped. Meetings were held
with the council and were informed Cheney Park was also being redeveloped
into a state of the art 3G pitch which the club was going to share
with Banbridge AFC. All work was meant to be finished for the start
of the season but after a number of deadlines had passed we never
kicked a ball on the new surface that season, in fact we recorded
4 different home pitches which is never good for any team. The
club went on to finish 5th in the league recording 12 wins, 6 draws
and 8 defeats. The club held its AGM and plans were brought to
the table to apply for the Intermediate league of the Mid Ulster
following our move to Cheney Park, the club committee had also
be informed the members were now in the club to start a reserve
team, as the committee was in agreement the paper work was submitted for the club to play in the Intermediate B and Reserve Division
3 league in the 2008/09 season.
Chairman
Stuart Magill, Secretary Richard McMinn and Treasurer Stephen Magill went to an interview meeting with
the Mid Ulster League Committee and a week later got a letter to say we had been accepted into both leagues. Work
was now underway to make sure both the first team and newly formed
reserve team were ready for the season ahead. Going into the first
games of the season the club aimed to find its feet playing at
a higher level and hope to finish in mid table for both teams with
we done, the first team finished 8th in the league while the reserve
finished in 6th. This alone was a great achievement and the club
was every happy with the season with the first team going through
2 managers and at times the team was unsettled. But now the season
was over the coach George McCallister was hard at work already
with pre-season plans and on the look out for new players.
