Congleton Town

The Cleric Stadium sits on Ivy Gardens, a ground Congleton Town moved to in 1903 after leaving the Chaddock-Lowndes field on Booth Street; it holds 1,500, with 250 of those seated.

Congleton Town formed in 1901 and won the Crewe and District League in each of its first three seasons. The nickname, The Bears, has nothing to do with the club's colours or crest: it comes from a town legend that Congleton once sold its Bible to pay for a bear, which is why the place is still called Beartown. The yellow-and-white diagonal sash on the home shirt, worn over black shorts and socks, dates from a merger with Congleton Vale — white for Town, yellow for Vale.

For most of a century the honours were local: Mid-Cheshire League titles in the 1970s, Cheshire Amateur Cup wins. The FA Cup run of 1989–90 is the entry that points beyond the county, when Congleton beat Witton Albion in the First Round before Crewe Alexandra ended it. It took until 2022–23 for the club to add another Cheshire Senior Cup to the one won in 1938 — 85 years between them — and that season also brought the North West Counties Football League Cup. The following season, 2023–24, they took the Midland Football League Premier Division title.

A community benefit society took over running the club in May 2014. Tom Pope, who had captained Port Vale and been named League Two Player of the Year, turned out for Congleton between 2021 and 2023.