Aylesbury Vale Dynamos: The only club in a two-club town
“One minute we had to deal with Covid, then some pipes burst, then the pitch might flood. Somewhere along the line there’s some football to be played too!”
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Hide AdIt’s now been five years since Aylesbury Vale Dynamos FC became known by that name.
Created by a merger between Aylesbury FC and Bedgrove Dynamos, the club competes at step five of the non-league pyramid in the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division and has sat comfortably at the level since Aylesbury FC were relegated from the SPL Division One Central in 2019, at which point the merger took place.
It wasn’t the first time the club’s identity had changed. After the original club was formed as Negretti and Zambra back in the 1930s, it’s also been known as Stocklake, Haywood United and Aylesbury Vale.
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Hide AdBut now, thanks to Aylesbury United’s enforced exile having had to leave the area in 2006, Dynamos are now the only major club to be based in Aylesbury itself.
So does that benefit the club in any way?
"Ultimately, United haven’t been here for 18 years now so it’s not something we’re hugely conscious of being a benefit as such,” said Willcocks, who was previously with Bedgrove Dynamos before the merger took place and who subsequently took over as secretary of the ‘new’ club.
"We’d like to have them back in the town as it’s nice to have the rivalry, but they don’t pull any of our fans away nor vice versa.
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Hide Ad"People often wonder why we don’t just merge, but there’s a big history there, not nasty but just as two good rivals, and a lot of the junior sides all play each other most weeks at one age group or another.
"Everyone gets on well and we shake hands afterwards, there’s no animosity, likewise at the pre-season friendlies we play against them.”
There are currently 44 teams that fall under the Aylesbury Vale Dynamos banner, including junior sides, U18 teams, a side that plays in the Aylesbury & District League, four girls teams and a pan-disability team too.
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Hide AdThe club’s 12-person committee covers every single team as a whole, and Willcocks says it doesn’t differ too much from any other non-league club.
He said: “The club’s been through a number of different identities but as with any non-league club, it’s always a struggle to survive.
"But we’re more stable now than we have been for the last few years. The Covid period was difficult, then we suffered burst pipes that flooded the clubhouse and have had pitch issues too.
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Hide Ad"But we try and run it as much as a business as possible and have stabilised things, with a good manager in Paul Batchelor and a settled first team.”
As Aylesbury FC, the club played as high as step four and Willcocks says that’s where it would like to return.
He said: “That’s always been the plan, namely to stabilise and then push to go back up. We’re now at the stage where we feel ready to start pushing.
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Hide Ad"The ground will be fine – we’d need very minimal work doing to make it fit ground grading criteria. The clubhouse was refurbished after the major pipe leaks and it’s a great facility which, as with any club, is a key source of income.
"The football side of things is a hive of activity. It can be difficult being on a flood plain but we had some work done to help the drainage on the part of the pitch where the water sits, putting a pump there too, and we’ve reaped the rewards from that.”
Funding largely comes from the usual sponsorship avenues, plus clubhouse/tea bar takings on not just first team match days but also from days when lots of junior teams are playing, emphasising the importance of the pitch being well drained should the rain threaten to wipe out matches and subsequently takings too.
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Hide AdBut Willcocks says the club is always open to more sponsorship and investment.
He said: “We have board and kit sponsors, plus lots of local businesses will do jobs here and there for us, perhaps with free labour or something like that.
"With 700 players registered, 600 of those being kids meaning 1,200 parents with different trade skills, companies and so on, it’s usually not hard to find someone to help!
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Hide Ad"Our playing budget exists and isn’t high but can be topped up if we get good cup runs etc. You can sometimes adjust things if a promotion push is on the cards at Christmas but as always, it’s a ‘see how it goes’ mentality.
"We’re confident we can challenge. With play-offs now back at step five you always have a chance – fifth-placed Leverstock Green went up last year despite finishing a long way behind second place.
"So we’re ready for that move and the benefits that could bring.”