It’s a question I’ve pondered from time to time, admittedly not all that often, but nonetheless its one I wanted answering – why are there clubs from Oxfordshire in the Berks & Bucks County FA Cup?
Earlier this season, Steve Jinman reminded me it was on my to-do list when he shared an image from the County Cup Wikipedia page where someone has listed all the teams in the Senior Cup and included their county flags next to the team names. Which is lovely.
Firstly, did you know Berkshire had its own flag? No? Me either. But it does and its recently been updated from a nifty blue, white and yellow number which also pictured a stag grazing under and oak tree.
Berkshire of course covers Newbury and Hungerford in the West, through Reading and on to Maidenhead and Slough in the East. Add to that the Buckinghamshire sides covered by the County FA, but what about Oxfordshire’s Shrivenham, Wantage Town and Didcot Town?
So what is the answer?
It is a simple one really, in 1974 there was a bit of a boundary change that saw the three towns along with Abingdon (home to the Berks & Bucks FA headquarters), Wallingford, and Faringdon transferred to Oxfordshire.
Berkshire might have lost those towns, but it did gain Slough and Eton in the East from (as far as we can tell) Buckinghamshire.
It would seem that when the clubs switched counties at a government level, they didn’t switch County FA allegiances. One ‘ex’ Berks & Bucks County FA side has won the Senior Cup – Abingdon Town who are currently playing in the Uhlsport Hellenic League Division One East.
That leaves the County FA map looking a little bit like this:
