Team History

The idea of creating a 6-a-side team, came about through Adam Davy in late October 2009. After receiving positive responses from a number of friends, the final group of 8 players was put together in time for the start of the season in mid-November.

The squad consisted of:

• Russell Leeming
• Adam Davy
• Rob Whittaker
• Luke Smith
• Jonny Turton
• Danny Rodgers
• Neil Hunter
• Jason Sedman

As the founder of the team, Adam therefore took on the role of team manager, with Danny Rodgers appointed as the man to step in and take care of things if ever Adam was unavailable.

With only a short length of time between the side being set up and the season starting, a team name had to be chosen relatively quickly. Everyone agreed on the suggestion put forward by Danny, and INTER ME GRAN were formed - joining the Football Mundial Tuesday Night leagues at Huntington School.

The kit colour that we chose to play in when applying for the league was RED, with people simply bringing their own shirts from home for each match, to begin with. However, we decided that it would look much better if we invested in a proper kit towards the end of the first season as we were currently a bit mismatch and didn't look very professional or like a 'team'. The fact that we now also had the same regular set of 7 or 8 players playing each week was a big influence too.

We decided to go for the old 'Denmark-style' HUMMEL kits that were available from Newitts, as they were a good price at £6-8 each and also quite a unique design that is rarely seen worn by other teams.

The new shirts then proved to be a lucky omen for us after making their debut on Finals Night of our first season. We went on to lift the Cup that night before winning the league title in the following two seasons. Unfortunately, luck seemed to go the other way for Pooley; as after only one-and-a-half games in the new strip, he dislocated his shoulder, had to have his shirt cut off by the paramedic, and went on to miss the majority of the next season!

After completing our first season as INTER ME GRAN (based off Inter Milan), we came to the decision that we would change our team name before the second season started. Despite the fact that this would mean other teams not now knowing who we were (from our first season success), we felt a change was necessary as there were currently a large number of teams with either the same or a similar name to ours playing in other Football Mundial leagues.

A number of good suggestions came up from the lads, including Real Betis Hotpot (Real Betis), Anderect (Anderlecht), and FC Twenty-somethings (FC Twente) amongst others. But the most votes went to one of Pooley's creations, and as of our second season as a club, we became CFR CLUNJ (CFR Cluj).

With the news coming around midway through our second season that we could no longer play Tuesday nights at Huntington School, we had a decision to make on what to do the following season, or whether the team would have to fold. We had been struggling to get a regular team out on a Wednesday, and so that was one option which was ruled out straight away.

As nobody really wanted the team to go under (considering our recent successes), we made contact with the PLAYFOOTBALL leagues up at Roko Gym on Clifton Moor. They soon after offered us a place in one of their Tuesday night leagues, and we willingly accepted. It was going to provide a fresh challenge for us having won both the cup and league with Football Mundial. Also, the pitches there have walls and so the gameplay was to be totally different to what we were used to.

With the winter months of Season 3 seeing us play in some terrible weather conditions - including torrential rain, snow, and temperatures as low as -10°C - we decided that it would therefore be a good idea to invest in some waterproof training jackets.

Once more we chose to go with the HUMMEL brand as the products they offered matched up with the style of our shirts, whilst they were also available at a reasonable price of around £15. Eventually deciding upon a smart black with grey trim design, we then again placed our order using the Newitts website.

Furthermore, we also decided to personalise the jackets slightly by having the lettering CFR CLUNJ printed in white across the back.

Having grown increasingly frustrated by the poor organisation and rising match fees of PlayFootball during our three seasons with them, we then decided as a team that we were to return to FOOTBALL MUNDIAL for our next campaign. Considering our previous successes playing in those leagues, everyone was more than happy to go back - plus we felt that the gameplay there was slightly more suited to our style of football.

Applying to play at our preferred venue of Huntington School once again, we found that there was no longer a Tuesday night league available however, and so we chose instead to move to Monday nights as it was considered to be the best standard, whilst also being the most convenient for everyone in our team.

We made the decision to invest in some new team kits around midway through our 12th season as our current Hummel shirts were now over four years old (having worn them since the end of our first campaign). We chose to stick with RED for our tops as it was the colour everyone now associated with our team, but then also decided we would invest in some shorts and socks to go with them (as people had currently just been wearing their own mixture of colours and styles).

Once we had considered all of the different designs available, we then ended up going for a shirt made by NIKE; the Victory II model in RED and WHITE. We once again bought these from the Newitts website (as we had with our old Hummel ones) - with them working out at around £14 each. There was then some discussion needed to determine which colour shorts we should go with, before we eventually agreed upon BLACK. However, as most people already owned a pair of these, there was no need for us to make a bulk order. Finally to complete the strip, we then purchased some rather unique RED and WHITE hooped socks from ACA SPORTS, with these costing just under £4 per person.

In addition to the above, we then also bought a new goalkeeper top for James so that we had a full team strip. In order to keep it consistent, we again went with a design by NIKE - the Park Goalie II in bright ORANGE - with this working out at about £22 from Newitts.

Since becoming CFR Clunj at the end of our first season, our team badge had then simply been a slightly modified version of that of the real-life club CFR Cluj (who our name is based on). But following our recent purchase of some new team kits, we then decided that this would also be a good time to freshen up the badge with a proper design - which we could then proudly display on our website and other various social media accounts.

Rich volunteered to work on developing the new crest; using a professional graphics software package to do this. He cleverly managed to retain many parts of the existing design (so as to provide some continuity), whilst also giving the badge an overall shape that was (ahem!) quite relevant to our team name. The final design was then officially unveiled on 1st April 2015; with it deservedly receiving a fantastic reception all round.

After playing four successive seasons in the Premier League of the Huntington School Monday Night leagues, we then came to realise that things were starting to get a bit repetitive - with us facing more or less the same sides every season, and the final league tables often looking pretty similar. We therefore decided we probably needed a change to freshen things up and keep us from losing the enjoyment of it all, whilst a move would also offer us a new chance of gaining silverware as we were never likely to win the league we were currently in.

In order to keep the same squad together we planned to stick with playing on Mondays, and as Football Mundial had always been a reliable organisation for us and also offered good value for money with their match fees, we ideally wanted to continue on in one of their leagues. This therefore only really left us with one option - although one that suited us well - a move up to YORK COLLEGE. The changeover process between the two then also worked out quite kindly for us; as following the conclusion of our Huntington season at the beginning of November, we then only had to wait a couple of weeks before returning to action.

After four seasons of playing in the Football Mundial York College leagues, summer 2017 would see us decide to bring our participation at this location to an end. Despite having managed to work our way up through two divisions to the Premier League during this time, we just never really felt settled here, and no longer seemed to enjoy our football as much as the other places we had played over the years.

One of the main contributing reasons for this was down to the extremely poor standard of refereeing and the continuous issues we faced with the officials on a weekly basis - this finally coming to a head midway through our final season when, amazingly for the second time since moving to York College, the man in the middle sent off so many of our players (via some terrible decisions) that he then had to abandon the match. This would simply prove to be final straw for the Clunj; and so following this tie, we unanimously decided to withdraw our team from the leagues with immediate effect.

With everyone still wanting to continue playing however, there was only really one clear stand-out option for us; a return to HUNTINGTON SCHOOL - a place where we had not only started out originally, but also had numerous enjoyable and successful years in the past. Also with their new season restarting only a few weeks after we had left York College it worked out perfectly for us.

Due to the bottom division (where 'new' entrants are usually placed) already being full though, this instead meant that we were put straight up to Championship level - eventually going on to make our return to action at the beginning of September.

For the start of our 23rd season (Sept 19) we decided to invest in some new shirts. With Jake having been a regular for a while, and George and Matty now also becoming permanent members of the side, it seemed a good time to do it - as well as the fact that our existing shirts were now almost five years old and so were getting a bit worn.

We decided to stick with RED due to it being the colour we had always played in, whilst keeping the black shorts and striped socks from our existing kit. Trying to find a design which offered both long-sleeve and short-sleeve did limit our options a little, although we eventually managed to find one we were happy with from Pro Soccer UK. This was actually an unbranded shirt from their EURO budget range (only £10 each), but was still smart and decent quality, whilst keeping a slight similarity to our previous two kits. We also purchased Tomas a new padded goalkeeper top to replace his existing orange one.