Cribbs

Cribbs Football Club was founded in London in 1958 as Sun Life Assurance. The Bristol team was established in 1976 when Sun Life first relocated to Bristol. Initially, two teams were run, participating in the Bristol and Avon League, playing at Dundridge Farm. However, when the Cribbs Causeway ground was opened in 1978, the first team were promoted straight to the Avon Premier Combination League (later renamed Bristol Premier Combination), where they stayed for 20 years until they eventually won promotion to the County League in 1999–2000.

In the summer of 2011, the club changed its name from AXA to Cribbs Friends Life FC, ready for the 2011–12 season. The season was Cribbs’ most successful season to date, as the club claimed its first
Gloucestershire County League title on the way to an unprecedented League and Cup double. The
team later added the Les James League Cup to the League Championship and, in the process,
becoming the first and only side to achieve this feat at that time.

As a result of winning the league, the club earned promotion to the Western League Division One for
the 2012–2013 season, subsequently changing their name to simply Cribbs FC.
Cribbs were promoted into the Western League Premier Division for the commencement of the
2015–2016 season and obtained numerous top-half finishes until, at the end of the 2020–21 season, the club were transferred to the Premier Division of the Hellenic League.

Under the stewardship of Richard Luffman, Cribbs, in their first full season in charge, recorded their
highest Step Five position of fourth in the Hellenic League. They also were winners of the League Cup,
defeating Hereford Pegasus 1-0 through a George Kellow goal.

Cribbs gained Southern League status in 2023 after becoming champions of the Hellenic League,
clinching promotion with a 1-0 win over Wantage Town with a match to spare. 2023/2024 was the first season in the Southern League and saw a third-placed finish and a play-off for promotion to the Premier Division, where we lost 2-1 against local rivals Bristol Manor Farm. Our second season at Step 4 proved a tougher proposition than the first, finishing in relegation places
and, as a result, returning to the Hellenic League.
At the end of the 2025/2026 season, Cribbs finished in the second relegation place but received a
reprieve to remain in the Hellenic League Premier Division.

Since its inception, the club has run multiple sides across the Bristol Premier Combination and Bristol
& District League. The Reserve Team won the Premier Combination in the 2021/2022 season and did so
in numerous seasons prior. They were granted entry to the Gloucestershire County League for
2022/2023. In their first season in the GCL, they finished six points in front of Bromley Heath United to clinch the title and earn promotion to the Toolstation Western League Division One.

The Reserves finished sixth in the Western League Division One in 2023/2024 and twelfth in
2024/2025. For the 2025/2026 season, they return to the Gloucestershire County League, keeping the
requisite number of divisions between themselves and the 1st XI.