Having been in existence for two years, the Y.M.C.A. club showed their ambition by opening up membership to everyone and not just members of the Y.M.C.A., non Y.M.C.A. members however could still not serve on the decision making committee. Carn reported that, at the time, the move to allow non members of the Y.M.C.A. to join had not made much difference to membership numbers but it was obviously an important step to becoming the team that would eventually represent the whole town in later years. The club also changed its name to Saxons as Kingston & Surbiton Y.M.C.A. was considered a bit too much of a mouthful, but the name change did not sever links with Y.M.C.A. whose name was still included on their fixture card. The club also changed it's colours to white with a scarlet facing containing a badge of a white horse closely linked to the old Saxons. A proposal by Surbiton Hill to amalgamate was rejected by the newly named Saxons. It was no doubt seen as more of a takeover than an amalgamation with Surbiton Hill the more senior and successful of the two teams.

For the three seasons played under the Saxons' name the games continued to just be friendlies although they were now playing a better quality of opposition as the Association game became more established. There were visits to far flung places such as Streatham, Leatherhead, Putney, Richmond and Chertsey. The Saxons also experimented with a reserve team for the first time. The reserves only managed 4 matches in season 1887-1888, staggered throughout the season, which included a 16-0 defeat in their opening game against Surbiton Rovers when Saxons Reserves only managed to field 9 men. In later years though, a reserve team was to become a regular feature of the club.

The First Team were to have their best season to date; winning 12 and losing 7 of their 19 games. One of these was a 1-0 win at home to Surbiton Rovers which led to Saxons cancelling all other engagements with the Surbiton club after "unpleasantness on the field". It was not the first time they had had a run in with a Surbiton club. The Saxons committee stated that "the game was made unpleasant by the quarrelsome behaviour of some of the Rovers, who evidently cannot take a beating with that good humour which is so much needed in football". There were issues with other teams as well and Weybridge Rovers twice failed to turn up to scheduled games in sufficent numbers as well as cancelling a third fixture because of a clash with the F.A. Cup final. The first mention of a team photo being taken was noted during that particular season but sadly it is unknown if a copy still exists.

The club had also lost George Peck who had been injured in a horrific train crash at Hampton Wick and, despite two attempted comebacks, was never to play regularly for the club again. 4 people were killed in the crash that had been caused by a passenger train and a light engine on the same track. Peck has serious leg fractures and was considered by the doctor who treated him as being "in danger".

The First team however remained in good form throughout the season and were also now managing some high scoring matches including an 11-0 win against Streatham Bees (in a game reduced to just 60 minutes) and there were several games in which they scored four or more goals. One of these at home to Hampton United just before Christmas was limited to 40 minutes because of the weather but still gave Saxons time to score four. In general the defeats they suffered came in matches where regular players were absent. Jones ended up top scorer with 10 goals followed by Philip Marsh on 8 despite Marsh spending half the season playing at Centre Half. Marsh also received a lot of positive mentions in reports for his general play and his brother Bedford Marsh, more often seen playing for Surbiton Hill, chipped in with two goals of his own in the only game he played. There were plenty of goals to be shared around though with a total of 56 goals in just 20 games.

Games were usually sporting although Weybridge Rovers, who had scratched two matches against the Saxons in the previous season, carried their unpopularity into the current one. A 3-0 home win by the Saxons was marred by the Rovers team who "showed much greater proficiency in the use of offensive language than they did in playing the game".

There was no doubt that the club was on the up and the AGM reported a successful season with receipts of £13 and a profit of £1.

The 1889-1890 season saw a move to the Fairfields, where Middle Mill were also playing, but, despite a good start, coincided with the first step back in progress since the formation of the club. Only 16 games were played and reliability became a problem with substitutes often having to be obtained from spectators and "A.N. Other" regularly featuring on the team sheet as well as sometimes having to play short. Ironically, of the players who turned out in the first match of the season, only 2 were missing from the final game played that year, but inbetween the team was seeing changes on a weekly basis. The Forward line was relatively consistent with Ocock and Kemp ever present and Jones still a regular having moved to the Centre Forward position. Ocock and Kemp couldn't get enough of football and on a couple of occasions even turned out for the Reserves when the first team was without a game.

However, despite a decent enough forward line, the goals of the previous season were drying up. This was put down to a deficit of supply from the Half Back line where only Charles Collins remained a regular. George Whenman was also a regular but he was being asked to fill in wherever needed and had no chance to form much of a partnership with Collins. Goalkeeping problems also returned as Chapman played only a handful of games with outfield players going in his place and one game even saw William G Carn brought out of semi retirement to go between the sticks. As a consequence results dropped off with 8 wins and 7 defeats including a 9-0 defeat at the hands of St. Margaret's. The 56 goals of the previous season had been reduced to 24 with no single player getting more than a handful. The 2nd team was even worse and won just one of their 15 games and that being a game where they included several first team players, including Ocock, who scored the only goal of the game. They had been affected by having to supply players to fill gaps in the First Team but there was still a big turnover among the other players as well.

One key game that stood out in a poor season was early on when Saxons defeated Middle Mill before a "considerable number of spectators", some of whom were not well behaved and were criticised for crowding the players out on the touchline and acting "contrary to the English idea of fair play". A Smoking Concert held in March recalled this particular game with fondness, with the first known Kingstonian football song (of sorts) composed by William G Carn for the occasion who performed "The day we played The Mill" in commemoration of a 2-1 victory against their Kingston rivals. Carn cites this win as the time that they edged ahead of Middle Mill as the top team in Kingston and never looked back.

However there was little of other note during a season that included 2 defeats to Surbiton Hill. In one game it was reported that the Surbiton Hill keeper had not touched the ball throughout and in the other Surbiton Hill were a player down for the full game. There was also a bad 5-2 defeat against Cobham Hawks although Saxons had an excuse on hand as no umpire was available and the job was taken by a volunteer "having but a limited knowledge of the game"- a situation that many claim still exists in the modern era.

Despite a poor season, Carn was still trying to push the club foward and, after 3 seasons as The Saxons, the club agreed at the AGM to make a further name change to more closely associate itself with the town and the club became known as Kingston Wanderers.

STATS PAGE:
Results, appearances, scorers, links to match reports etc and any articles not linked on this page.

1890-1893 Seasons

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