As in the First World War, the YMCA organisation were once again heavily involved in the Second World War and, when a scaled down version of the Reading & District League reformed in the 1945/46 season, YM were not in a position to enter a team.

It was during the War that YM’s greatest ever figure first came into contact with the YMCA. Wilf Fewtrell joined the Mount Pleasant Boys Club (boys branch of the main YMCA) in 1942 at the age of 14 in what would become a 60 year association with the YMCA.

The Mount Pleasant Boys Club was situated in one of Reading’s more troublesome areas and helped many young men pour their energies into more constructive pursuits. For such a small club, it saw a remarkable array of talent pass through its doors with Ken Barrington (Surrey & England cricket player), Johnny Brookes (Spurs and England footballer), Ray Reeves (Reading FC captain) and Les Slatter (Luton Town) all spending their formative years at the club.

YM rejoined the Reading & District League in Division 2 for the 1946/47 season again playing at King’s Meadow – the club’s home since 1929. The season was a great success with YM winning their first 7 league games and eventually finishing runners up and securing promotion to Division 1. YM would not be outside the top 2 divisions for the next 30 years!

Initially, YM struggled in Division 1 but in 1949/50 they won the Division 1 championship and won promotion to the top flight for the first time since the 1913/14 season.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Reading manager Ted Drake would regularly attend YM’s presentation evenings and insisted that all of Reading’s youth players were affiliated to the YMCA so he knew what they were doing in the evenings.

The Young Men were relegated in their first season back in the Premier Division (the league’s top division) and spent the next 7 seasons yo-yoing between the top 2 divisions but YM were no longer the whipping boys they were before the War.

The Reading & District League suffered a blow at the end of the 1952/53 season when several clubs left to join the newly formed Hellenic League. Clubs of the calibre of Wallingford, Thatcham Town, Newbury Town, Henley Town, Morris Motors and Didcot Town all left to further their ambitions but whilst, initially at least, this may have weakened the league there was now opportunities for local sides without the resources of the big boys to start winning honours more regularly.

YM had moved to Christchurch Meadow by the mid 50s with stars such as Wilf Fewtrell, Maurice Knapp, Jack Rowe, Norman Parker, Len Minns and Joe Downer forming the basis of a good side.

This period saw Reading YMCA sign the man who is widely regarded to be the club’s greatest ever player.

Bill Piercey had played for Reading during the war and had had a distinguished amateur career when he joined YM from Windsor & Eton in 1955. Although nearing the end of his career he would become the figurehead for the club’s greatest period of success in the late 50s and early 60s. Bill was regarded as the best player ever to put on a YM shirt by none other than Wilf Fewtrell who has seen pretty much every YM player since the Second World War.

The club was in a period of transition during the mid to late 50s with the old guard gradually being replaced by a younger generation of players, many of whom had come through YM’s youth system.

By the end of the decade future YM legends like Colin Brunsden, Brian Sayers, Den Lambden, Ray Cook, Fred Farina, Brian Maskell and Ron Brind were all beginning to establish themselves in the side.

In 1958/59 YM enjoyed one of the club’s best ever seasons when they convincingly won the Division 1A championship. Despite suffering early cup exits in the Reading Senior and Berks & Bucks Cups, YM won their first 15 league games eventually finishing the season unbeaten winning 23 out of 26 games.

YM did not actually drop any points that season until 17 January 1959 and were praised in the Berkshire Chronicle as “one of the district’s best footballing sides for many years” and as a side who would “grace the Premier Division”.

This season paved the way for YM’s Golden Years and an unbroken 17-year spell in the top flight of local football.

Take me to the next section - The Golden Years - (1959 - 1976)