The Vallance Community Sports Association (VCSA) has evolved from participation and activity around 2 sports - FOOTBALL and CRICKET - these are the traditional sports in the inner city areas as young people can play them anywhere with next to no facilities i.e. bats and balls.

 

a. Vallance Football Club was established in 1997, at a time when community football in Tower Hamlets was undergoing major structural changes, e.g. formation of the BFA (Bangladesh Football association UK), introduction of League Bangla and the prestigious Mayor's Cup.

 

Although officially formed in 1997, the team existed in the Vallance Road area for many years, hence the name "Vallance".

 

Known as the 'Brothers Team', (i.e. Junel, Runel, Rubel, Ruhel, Nanu), they entered local 5-a-side and 7-a-side football tournaments. They forged relationships with the local youth project at Osmani School on Vallance Road and the venue was used for training.

 

Vallance typified football at grassroots level, e.g. lack of facilities, lack of funding and organisationally naive but the team survived which is now testament to the hard work put in by Junel and later Iqbal Hussain, who enjoyed success at Newark United where he developed his football and coaching skills.

 

Vallance Youth Academy which consists of 8 teams was formed in 2001 after the Vallance Football team toured Holland in 2000. In the tour they visited AJAX FC which has a history of producing young world class players i.e. Marco Van Basten, Dennis Berkamp, Edgar David & Wesley Sneider.

 

Junel Uddin and Iqbal Hussain met with the youth development officer at Ajax and got ideas of how to run youth football and the Vallance academy was formed.

 

b. Vallance Cricket Club (VCC).

The Bangladesh Cricket team generated intense enthusiasm in the east End following their phenomenal success in the 1999 Cricket world Cup, especially the historic victory over the tournament favourites, Pakistan. Ever since that day, an increasing number of people have taken up the sport with great interest and enthusiasm, making it a mainstream sport for expatriates in Tower Hamlets. Vallance cricket Club has played an important part in that revival.

 

As we became more successful and dramatically increased the number of young people wanting to take part in the football club, we also decided to expand the services we provided to cover cricket, which has become increasingly popular in the last 8 years.

 

Established in 2000 it is the first organised cricket club in Tower Hamlets. It has achieved phenomenal success in terms of promotion and development of the sport and making it accessible, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

 

In 2001 VCC made its debut in the ALL LONDON CRICKET LEAGUE and won promotion to the WESTERN UNION LONDON CRICKET LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION, formally Elliot Davies Cricket League.

VCC received a lot of praise for their hard work. The Western Union London Cricket Official League Handbook 2002 describes VCC as: "The Bengal Tigers (VCC). They can bite and bite very hard..." During the Summer of 2002, VCC juniors participated in the LONDON DOCKLANDS OUTREACH PROJECT KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT and became champions.

 

And in 2002 VCC received the prestigious "Group of the year" award from the Canary Wharf Group.