Team History
Icknield Youth Football Club was formed in the summer of 1998 consisting mainly of children who attended Beecroft Lower School in Dunstable. Enough enthusiastic young players were recruited so as to field three sides in their inaugral season. These were an U8, U9 and an U10 team all registered to play in the Milton Keynes Nursery League. Although the club had three teams, sponsorship from Axle Haulage Ltd to supply all three teams with a kit, and equipment that had been begged, stolen or borrowed from a variety of sources, the club had no pitch to play on. Having tried the local council and schools a playing surface in Dunstable could not be found. A visit to Luton Borough Council was undertaken and the club 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 Dunstable. The very first season saw the club build its roots with Steve Addlesee as secretary, Pete Burgoyne as his ‘right hand man’ and future club chairman, Duncan Bedford running the U9 team and 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. That first season saw incredible success on the field with the U8’s doing a league and cup double, the U9’s gaining success in the cup and the U10’s winning the league.
From humble although very succesful beginnings what started out as three teams for the local youngsters suddenly became a huge club attracting players firstly from Luton and surrounding villages, as well as the local Dunstable lads, and within five years players were travelling from the 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 were running eighteen teams including one ladies team which unfortunately disbanded midway through the second season of its existence. Several teams went on ‘pre season tours’ to places such as Somerset, Norfolk, Lancashire, Sussex and even Cornwall and the club won many national titles.
The club over the last two seasons have began restructuring and trimming down the number of teams it runs. Most of the teams were playing on local parks with some fortunate enough to be allocated school pitches. This caused the club a lot of logistical problems with having so many sides, and it was decided to do away with some of the ‘b’ teams. The club has for a long while tried to purchase land so as to have a home pitch but this search has proved fruitless. In 2003 Dunstable Town F.C. invited Icknield to be its youth arm. Although both parties knew it would be two or three years before this association bore fruit as far as players were concerned the two clubs worked together with a vision for the future. This vision has now become reality with several Icknield players having represented Dunstable Town at 1st team level. Dunstable Towns U18 and reserve sides are predominately made up of ex Icknield Youth players and the clubs sealed its amalgamation in the summer of ’07 when Icknield Youth became Dunstable Town Icknield