At the beginning of March 2020, Broadfields United FC club gave notice to our amazing Landlords Harefield United. We have enjoyed six full seasons at Harefield and have been privileged to call them our Landlords.

First of all, we would like to place on record our thanks to the following people; Ray Green, Dawn Lacey, Gary South, John Lewis, Robin Holloway and last of all, the late Keith Ronald and the late Jamie Peverill.

All the above have supported us in every way possible over the last number of seasons. Keith was an instrumental part and factor in our initial move to Preston Park and we will be forever grateful to him getting our first groundshare agreement signed with Harefield United FC along with the rest of the above for allowing our club to operate during a period which has seen us secure two promotions, with numerous cup success and appearances in the FA Cup! Running a club without its own ground/facilities is a tough task but with people like this it makes that task just that little bit easier.

Both ourselves and the Hares have shared many a great game at Preston Park and its fair to say we will both miss these Landlords vs Tenants derbies. Both sides participated against each other in the Middlesex Premier Cup Final in the 2017/18 season, but we won’t bring that up again now! Harefield and Broadfields both obtained promotion to the Spartan Premier at the end of the 2018/19 season with The Landlords coming top and us second. A huge success for both and a first in non-league. It’s fair to say both of us struggled at times over the course of the past season but both squads and management have a huge respect for one another and a friendship we will never forget. (Until the next fixture anyway!)

The move to Tithe Farm wasn’t an easy decision to make and not one taken lightly. We as a club have had to groundshare at several venues for almost the last 10 seasons and the last 6 of these have been spent at Harefield where we found a true home. The club originates from Headstone Lane, Harrow and with roughly half the team still living and being from the local area, a move closer to ‘our roots’ was an appealing one.

As a self-funded club operating through groundshare agreements for almost 10 years, along with the expense of external training venues, it’s cost us well in excess of £100,000. As a club with no clubhouse, pitch or youth sides to bring in revenue to put into the side we are highly dependant on local companies and sponsors to support the club, many of which are local friends and families of people involved at the club. We hope that by moving closer to our historic home we may be able to attract additional sponsors in the area. We are only a small committee and the work done by these 5 people is astronomical.

Before the season was curtailed both us and Harefield had a record number of postponements due to the adverse weather and so the committee thought a move to an all-weather pitch would allow us to get these fixtures that would be otherwise postponed played. Having said that, artificial surface isn’t for everyone and the club accepts it may lose one or two players who prefer playing on grass. We do however feel we will reap the benefits of playing more games come the end of the season which we have seen with other clubs in our league playing on these types of pitches. Playing these postponed fixtures on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays isn’t attractive and is a big ask on players that have jobs, young families and other commitments.

The location of Rayners Lane offers better transport for a few our players coming from a further distance with buses very close to the ground as well as the train station being a 10-minute walk away. With the proposed restructure of the non-league system we are hoping by this move, our away day travel also reduces drastically.
We are very much looking forward to our move to Rayners Lane at their recently built state of the art facility. The players know it well as we have been training there for the past two seasons. With this, we would like to thank the Rayners Lane FC committee of Martin Noblett, Richard Mitchell, Tony Pratt, Colin Seal and Danny Maher and not forgetting the Tithe Farm staff of Cordelia Spreadborough, Danny Mills and Monika Blackburn who have all assisted in making this move happen.

Finally, again we would like to thank everyone again at Harefield from their committee all the way through to their bar staff, Jason and his team who have been superb to us throughout. We move on and wish them all the very best. We couldn’t recommend them enough as landlords for any club. It would not go amiss to say that without the help and support from all at Harefield United there would be no Broadfields United and for that we will be eternally grateful. We now look forward to a move nearer to our home of Harrow at Rayners Lane and we look forward to welcoming our friends from Harefield next season, whenever that may be.

Should anyone have any questions or queries in relation to the above please feel free to contact us on the website.

The Broadfields United Committee