In 1967 a group of people put their heads together, with some notion of starting a soccer club, and bringing the sport we all love to the heart of the Hawkesbury!

This vision began life as the Belmont Rangers, which was based at Belmont Park, now St John of God Hospital grounds. This was because some of the local schools at the time would not even entertain the thought of a soccer ball hitting their sacred grounds. The original team started with a faded, second-hand red shirt, but this was quickly changed to blue t-shirts with red stripes, as this was all that could be afforded at the time. Club name and colours were changed with the support of the then Richmond Ex-Servicemen’s Club, at a Special General Meeting held 29th March 1969. The Ex-Servicemen’s Club had requested these changes in view of their support. All at the meeting were in favour. The colours also then evolved, with approval from NDSFA, to blue shirts with three vertical gold stripes on the front, and blue socks with a gold turndown. Over the years different versions of the vertical stripes have been utilised, from pin stripes to three-inch stripes have at some stage been implemented, and in 2012, reverting back to the popularity of all things retro, we also went back to one and a half inch blue vertical stripes on gold jerseys! Keeping our blue socks, with the gold turndown, and adding the word “Richmond” to the sock. The club also found its permanent home at Icely Park. Not a lot of things change. One tidbit of information is that the old house resided in by the first President, Andy Bacznskyj, where quite a few of those very important initial meetings were held in those inaugural years, is in fact still the residence of current President, Paul Boyd! Paul is the longest serving President of 41 years, and the longest serving member of 46 years, a phenomenal effort in anyone’s eyes. You could say, it is literally, the house of Richmond Ex-Servicemen’s Soccer!! Over the 55 years of Richmond ExSSC, we have witnessed a plethora of local football. The club has been able to stay strong, whilst mixing it with the biggest clubs in the Nepean Association, and further afield, with representation. We have remained whilst watching other clubs come, and sadly go. We have also weathered the storm of neighbouring clubs moving in, or popping up in our backyard, and have stood solid throughout. At its capacity in 2001, Richmond fielded 34 teams! This has increased and decreased over the years, from the humble number of 15 teams in 1982. Sadly, we are missing some records from 1971 to 1981. In 2022 we have 20 teams. Being a club of this size, we have experienced the lion’s share of success. 1982 saw the clubs first, 1st Division team title, going to the U14/1’s! Coached by Steve Gainsford, managed by Fred Teunis, this team made it to the quarter finals of Champion of Champions. Two years later, they were comp winners again, made the final of the State Cup and represented in Champion of Champions for a second time. Another team making this prestigious accolade were the U18’s Div 1 in 1992, Coached by Chris Ryan and managed by Jim Hunter. To date the most successful team has been a female team, coached by Paul Boyd and managed by Ray Gabriel. It started in 2004 as U14G1 and ended in 2011 as U22Ladies. This team were comp winners for 7 years - 5 consecutive, and 1 undefeated! They represented in the Champion of Champions 5 times and made Round Robin and Grand Final appearances no less than 5 times. A fantastic effort by all involved! In 2017 we also had our U12girls Div 1 team enter into the champion of champion experience. In 2019 we had the most local success with AAW1, U14Girls, U12Girls and U14 boys all winning their respective Championship Series Tournament Finals with the U12Girls and AAW1 going on to win the Nepean Cup Finals, as you can see our female contingent has continued to grow even to this year where we had 7 out of 20 teams all female! 2021 saw our first ever U7 girls’ team and U13girls teams, they were a long time coming, and we finally got there. Another first was our Under 5s in 2021. Some other bits and pieces worth noting over the years are things like requiring lights for All Age training in 1969. These needed to be erected at the players own expense, and the electricity consumed was financed by each player at training contributing 20c each week. In 1983 Richmond fielded our first ALL FEMALE team in an ALL-MALE comp! The Little Belles U10/7’s, coached by Kris Costa and managed by Faye Costa. In 1992 we fielded an O30’s team for the first time. Richmond ExSSC have won the Sid Horley Trophy for best performing juniors three times, in 2006, 2014 and 2015. The NDSFA’s Referee Trophy in 2013, and the Bill Morris Club Championship Trophy in 2014. We have around 150 members in the 10-year service category, 3 with over 30 years’ service, and 1 member reaching the 45 year category. Life members number 33, and they are listed at the end of this yearbook. As we evolve with the times, running a sporting club has not been made any easier, we are lucky enough to have many, many dedicated people to deliver a family friendly sports experience, an attribute we hold dear to our hearts. The last few years especially have thrown quite a few curve balls but hopefully we are seeing our way out the other end clear to continue what we do best. With this rich history, it is no wonder we have survived for 55 years, and are still pumping along, hopefully for another 50!! Please note, these records and information are taken only from what is available to us.