THERE is sadness in an East Cornwall village with the demise of the local football club after almost 80 years.

Stoke Climsland football club is being forced to close because of problems finding a manager and players.

This season will be the first since the club's formation in 1922, that the village has not had a team.

In the club's hey-day in the 1960s and '70s, the team won every trophy in the local and district leagues, except the Cornwall Junior Cup. The club won the Plymouth Combination League Challenge Bowl four years running in the 1960's — a record they still hold.

The team had been struggling to find a manager last year, when their season was also disrupted by the foot and mouth crisis. This season the team lost their manager and were unable to find enough players committed to travel across Cornwall for away matches in Duchy Division Two.

Lester Colwill, former player and club secretary said: 'It is very sad, the football team is a tradition in the village.'

But Mr Colwill said Stoke Climsland might not be gone as a footballing force forever. He said the Stoke Climsland sports and social club had been keen for the beleaguered team to carry on this year and remained supportive.

'There is always hope for next season,'he said.

During the club's golden years Stoke Climsland's team was predominantly made up of players from within the parish itself, with a handful from Callington and Plymouth.

The team was founded in 1922 by Canon Leonard Martin Andrews, when he was appointed Rector at Stoke Climsland.

Former player, manager and president of the club Cliff Skeet held the managerial reins for much of the club's most successful era. He said the disbanding of the team was a great shame.

Mr Skeet fondly remembers coachloads of supporters travelling to away matches to support the team and putting up the nets and marking out the pitch himself on the morning of a home game.

Last year, Stoke Climsland players from the past gathered for a reunion. More than 100 former players came from as far as the tip of Cornwall, Somerset and Surrey to celebrate the village's past footballing success.

The reunion was organised by Larry White from Saltash and Roy Sandover and Ivor Evely from Stoke Climsland, and was attended by two of the oldest surviving ex-players, Ed Wills and Tom Werring from the post-world war two team.