Letchworth Garden City were one of our nearest neighbours and fiercest opponents – but the club sadly went under in 2002. Like us (sort of), LGC went under the name Town and Athletic. In 1976, however, the club decided to adopt the Garden City name. This came at the same time of growth of ’em; finishing second in the Athenian League in 1977 and then joining the Isthmian League that same summer.
Despite a promising start to life in the competition, LGC couldn’t make it up from Division Two. It’s why they were there in Division Two North when we joined the larger competition in 1984. But we’d already met before that; first in summer 1981 with our Woolwich Trophy defeat. We won the second encounter in an East Anglian Cup tie – before losing the next three to nil. After joining them in the Isthmian League, our fortunes improved.
Not massively, however.
As our overall record shows, five wins from 16 compares poorly to their eight wins. To be fair, we may have made it a little more kinder if we’d met them during our dominant 1990-1 campaign. Letchworth Garden City had already left the competition, however; relegated as the bottom ‘North’ team after a playoff with Horsham. It left them facing the step down into the South Midlands League Premier Division in summer 1990.
Five years later, Garden City was dropped from their name and a further seven years after that came the end of their story. An unconfirmed source on the club’s Wikipedia entry says it followed a dispute with the Herts FA. Whatever the reason, the club hasn’t returned.
