Crawley Town
Officially Crawley were formed in 1896 when they joined the West Sussex League transferring to the Mid-Sussex League in 1901. Some historians associated with the club, however, maintain that the their true genesis was in 1938 when all the other top clubs in the area closed down in order to allow a single team to survive. We have no information about what the team wore between 1902 and 1938 but from that year quartered red and white shirts became their signature strip.
A photograph of the team from 1946 show the players in scruffy dark shirts and a mixture of knickers and socks, possibly because they played in scratch kit because of the rationing of clothing. The quartered tops reappeared at some point after this and in 1953 were replaced by hooped shirts.
Crawley continued to play at local level until 1951 when they joined the Sussex County League and in 1956 they joined the Metropolitan League. In that year Crawley Urban District Council was formed and in 1957 the new body was granted a coat of arms. This change of status was reflected by the football club who changed their name to Crawley Town in time for the 1958-59 season and wore what appears to be the new borough arms on their shirts (the graphic is an approximation).
Crawley remained amateur until 1962 when they became semi-professional before joining the Southern League First Division. In 1984 they were promoted to the Southern League Premier Division where they remained for the next twenty years.
Because records are sparse, it is not clear when the club, which had become known as "The Red Devils", started to wear a crest but certainly badges were regularly appearing after the mid 1980s although HFK does not have details. The drawing on the right is taken from a 1996-97 programme. It is clearly a rather badly drawn version of the town coat of arms and may be more representative than the 1959 version illustrated above.
In 1991-92 the team defeated Northampton Town in the FA Cup and went on to reach the third round where they met neighbours Brighton & Hove Albion in a money-spinning tie at the Goldstone Ground in front of 18,000 supporters.
In 1997 the club sold their Town Mead ground to property developers and moved into the brand new Broadfield Stadium, which was owned by the borough council and had a capacity just under 5,000.
The first reliable evidence we have of a crest is from 2000 and was worn on the Errea kits of the period. This featured a cartoon red devil (the team's nickname) bearing the modern Crawley coat of arms (which date from 1974) and a burst football impaled on his tripod.
The crest was replaced in 2004 or 2005 with a central motif loosely based on the Crawley coat of arms. The central cross (representing the town's importance as a cross roads) is rendered in red rather than blue and a red devil replaces the lion sitting in the crown above the shield.
In 2004 Crawley were promoted to the Conference, having won the Southern League Premiership title along with the Southern League Cup and Championship Match Trophy. After a mid-table finish, the club became fully professional in 2005 but over-reached themselves and were only saved from liquidation in August 2006 by a last-minute rescue package. The following season Crawley just managed to retain their place despite a ten-point penalty, by securing a point in their final game.
A further six-point penalty was imposed the following season for financial irregularities but they again held on to their place in the Conference. In April 2008 Prospect Estate Holdings Limited took control of Crawley after buying it from the SA Group in conjunction with former owner John Duly. The club finished in ninth place but again were handed a four-point penalty (later reduced to one point) for fielding an ineligible player.
In February 2010 the club once again faced extinction when HMRC brought another winding-up petition to the High Court over unpaid tax. The case was, however, dismissed a month later when the management were able to prove that the debt had in fact been paid. A slightly modified version of the crest was introduced in 2010-11.
After a season of consolidation, Crawley £1m debt was cleared and the owners made a large budget available to enable manager Steve Evans to assemble a squad to challenge for promotion to the Football League. The estimated £500,000 spent on the transfer market was more than offset by a remarkable FA Cup run that netted the club around £2m and ended with a tie at Old Trafford, when Manchester United snatched a 1-0 win. Because of this cup run, Crawley, sitting in second place in the Conference, had games in hand over leaders AFC Wimbledon and soon overtook them, finishing the season as comfortable champions with 15 points to spare.
The run-in to the Conference title was marred by the death of long-time supporter and co-owner Bruce
Winfield in March 2011: nineteen days after Winfield's death the club secured promotion to the Football League.
A brand new crest was unveiled in May with design elements intended to broaden the club's support. The rather obscure diamond motif on the top left represents aircraft taking off from Gatwick Airport while "West Sussex" is printed round the football on the right: "Noli Cedere" is Latin for "Never Give Up."