Original CAWFC team (back row): Linda Mundy, Ruth Bryant, Terri Forward, Tracey Chapman, Tracy Kelly, Zoe Squires, Amelia Culshaw, (front) Becky Bull, Anne-Marie Kiely, Morven Sinclair, Zoe Waghorn, Kerry Waghorn, Gen Potts.

Founded by Guy Hewett originally as Beacon Community College's Under-14 girls team, the Club joined the South East Counties League in September 1991, finishing in 8th place in Division Three in our first season.

(Other founder members not pictured: Charlotte Cass, Caroline Martin.)

The 1992/93 season saw us finish as runners-up in Division Three and also as top scorers in the League with 149 goals in 18 games. The players ranged in age from 11 to 27 (FA Rules now require players to be 14 years old to play adult status football).

Our first season in Division Two was one of mixed fortunes, an encouraging start which saw us go into Christmas in second place being replaced by a string of six successive losses after an unfortunate injury to our top scorer Tracey Chapman, with the team eventually finishing sixth.

However, in the following season (1994-95) we won the Division Two Championship and Chairman's Cup "double", losing only two games in the process, and also progressed to the Semi Final of the Sussex County Cup, narrowly losing out 1-2 to FA Premier League side Horsham (became Three Bridges).

Team (back row): Monica Corder, Ellie Scott, Nat Bungay, Wendy Johnson, Becky Bull, Amy Neale, Kate Crook, (front) Angie Sutcliffe, Andi McManus, Carly Ibbott, Emma Weston, Michelle Clifford, Jamie Johnson, Tracey Chapman.

Team (back row): Tracey Naden, Nat Bungay, Wendy Johnson, Monica Corder, Tracy Kelly, Ellie Scot, (front) Tracey Chapman, Michelle Clifford, Emma Weston, Jamie Johnson, Bogi Jancso.

[Image ©Eric Marsh 152A Longacre, Ash, ALDERSHOT, Hants. GU12 6RS]

Over the summer we remedied the goalkeeping problem by signing Helen Best from Three Bridges, and showed good form in our pre-season friendlies. However, we struggled to adjust to the higher standard, beating the bottom sides Walkern and Hassocks before Christmas but losing all our other fixtures. From March 1999 our form improved drastically, and we picked up 15 points from our last 11 League games and ran Three Bridges close in the Sussex County Cup semi final.

The following season we carried on the same form and gained with 17 points from our first 14 games (at the same stage the year before we only had six!). The tail end of the season was disappointing, though, with only a battling display against Chelsea of note. Amazingly, our final League record was identical to that of the previous year (although we had scored and conceded more goals).

After two seasons of struggle, we hoped to progress and consolidate our position for the new Millennium, but it was not to be. Despite playing better football and having closer results than the previous two seasons, we only managed to win four games and were relegated for the first time in our history.

After relegation , we found ourselves in the unusual position of being one of the Championship favourites, and with new Manager Gary White, expectations were high. However, our bubble burst in the very first match with a 6-1 thrashing at newly promoted Redhill, and we lost three of our first six matches. However, from there our form improved considerably, and we enjoyed our best-ever FA Cup run, reaching the 2nd Round Proper, and again reached the Semi-Final of the County Cup scaring the pants off Premier League Brighton before going down 2-3 in a superb Cup tie. Our League Cup run ended in the quarter final where winners Woking needed extra time to edge us 1-0, and despite our awful start we were two games away from winning the League come April. However, it was not to be and we lost our only home League game all season to Champions Malling, eventually finishing fourth due to a combination of final day results.