Paul Clark, David Horyczun and Jon Jennings were just chatting at work (Safeways Abbeydale) about starting a team. James Morgan overheard this conversation and also wanted to join in. From this they added friends Rob Merrett and Glenn Browning. Rob's brother Bjorn Merrett and David's cousin Michael Jacques completed the first squad. The amazing thing is that seven of the above are still involved (2015) with Evolution as players.

For the inaugural season Dave Horyczun was elected Captain with Rob Merrett as Vice-Captain. They decided to enter the Bentham Country Club 5-a-side competition and played their first game in the Summer 2005 Division C Qualifications on Tuesday 29 March 2005 against Winkers FC. Unfortunately they lost the game 2-5 and the inaugural team was Rob Merrett, Paul Clark, Glenn Browning, Jon Jennings, Dave Horyczun and Michael Jacques.

For the Summer 2005 season Abbeydale Arrows had a moderate time finishing about half way on both occasions.

On the 7 May 2005, Jon Jennings broke the record for the most goals in one match when he put five past Beer Goggles

Before the 2005-2006 season it was decided to change the name of the team from Abbeydale Arrows to Evolution. This seemed to be a shot in the arm as Evolution finished second in the Winter 2005-2006 Qualifications earning them a spot in the second tier of Bentham.

On the 1 May 2006, Marc Sanders broke the record for the most goals in one match when he put six past In Dad Club.

In 2006 Rob Merrett took over as Captain pro tem with Paul Clark as Vice-Captain but that same year Paul Clark assumed the role of Captain, which he has held ever since, with Rob Merrett back initially as Vice-Captain.

After one season in the second tier and in spite of finishing 6th out of 12, Evolution were demoted back to the third tier for the Summer 2006 competition.

Glenn Browning on the 27 March 2007 had played 27 consecutive games a record at the time.

After four seasons in the third tier Evolution finished runners-up in the Winter 2006-2007 Finals and were inextricably bounced straight up to the first tier playing on the ‘pitch of dreams’. However, this lasted one season and they dropped to tier 2 for the Summer 2007 Division 2 Finals which they finished runners-up and bounced immediately back to tier 1.

On the 21 August 2007, Ian Lewis broke the record for the most goals in one match when he put seven past Real Arcadians. That evening Paul Clark also became the first player to reach 100 games.

For the next three seasons Evolution yo-yoed to and from tier 1 finishing runners-up again in the Winter 2007-2008 Division 2 Finals.

On the 6 November 2007, Andy Follows became the first Evolution player to exceed 100 goals.

On the 22 January 2008, Lee Smith was to smash the record for the most goals in one match when he put thirteen past Bath Road Boozers.

In August 2008 it was decided to change the evening from Tuesday to Monday. This was mainly due to top Premiership and European football games on TV making it difficult to recruit players for matches. And so on Monday 1 September 2008 Evolution played Corndogs Reunited in a 2-2 draw in the Winter 2008-2009 Division C Qualifications. Evolution finished Champions in the first season of Monday football.

Meanwhile, Jon Jennings overhauled Glenn Browning’s record of 27 consecutive games and by 22 April 2008 had reached the figure of 39. Paul Clark had then increased this to 48 by 20 April 2008, 51 by 30 August 2010 and 53 by 27 August 2012.

After one season in tier 2, Evolution found themselves back in tier 1 football remaining for the next three seasons when they were relegated after the Winter 2008-2009 season.

On the 18 January 2009, Paul Clark became the first Evolution player to reach 200 games.

In 2009, Jon Jennings took over as Vice-Captain, a post he still holds.

Two seasons later, Summer of 2010, Evolution were back in the top echelons of Bentham Monday night football and remained there until 2012. During this period Evolution finished runners-up in Winter 2010-2011 Division 1 Finals and the Summer 2011 Division C Qualifications. I think it is safe to say that from this moment on, apart from The Galacticos, Evolution became the team to beat.

On the 18 January 2010, Lee Smith again smashed his own record for the most goals in one match when he put fourteen passed Shurdy Rovers surely a record that cannot be broken but…you never know!

The 1 March 2010 became the moment that the leviathan known as Lee Smith soared past 200 goals becoming the first to reach this…goal!

On the 13 September 2010, the ‘Nantes Nightmare’ Romain Lefebvre was introduced becoming Evolution’s only foreign player thus far. It was against A Swing & A Miss with Romain scoring three in a 7-6 victory. In his brief time with Evolution he scored 42 goals in 16 games.

On the 22 August 2011, the last Monday of the season, later to be called infamously as ‘8/22’, and what should have been Evolution’s finest hour, a meeting against Headliners was soured when they produced ringers in a Championship deciding game. Evolution had already promised not to play Lee Smith and we trusted Headliners integrity. It has to be remembered that they had postponed the fixture from 11 July 2011 when Evolution were flying as they could not raise a team and as we had beaten them the two previous occasions the odds were very much in Evolution’s favour. To compound Evolution’s misery that evening they had to play a second game immediately after and ran out of steam at half time when leading against a team that Evolution would beat 99 times out of 100. And so Evolution missed out on Championship medals and runners-up medals within one hour. However, Tim Clark awarded the squad medals for being the 'Unluckiest Team of the Season'.

This night seemed to be the catalyst. From this point on Evolution became very erratic with their performances. Sometimes hitting the heights prior to ‘8/22’ but most times playing below par. Evolution played on for another four seasons. However, it was becoming clear the Bentham experience was beginning to sour and not helped by a deception on 20 August 2012 when Evolution were due to play The Galacticos only to be confronted with The New JS United in what can only be politely called a ‘misunderstanding’. Needless to say Evolution played with little enthusiasm and lost against a team they had a good record against.

Between and during these events James Hawes whizzed past 300 goals on 16 January 2012 and Paul Clark became the first Evolution player to reach 300 games on 18 June 2012.

Therefore it was no surprise that in August 2012 Evolution decided to move on and entered the Gloucester-East 6-a-Side League run at Brockworth Enterprise School. This was an outdoor league on an all-weather pitch.

The adventure began on 8 October 2012 in a losing fashion when, still in 5-a-side mode, Evolution lost to 1-4 to Barnwood Dynamo. However, they learned quickly and by 19 November 2012 Evolution were topping their league in the third tier. Since that first game Evolution went on to record 14 straight wins!

On 14 January 2013 in their inaugural season at Brockworth, Evolution played their main rivals, Men United, in what would turn out to be the Gloucester-East Division 1 Championship decider. In a tough, tough game Evolution were victorious by 3-1 and therefore put themselves into pole position to win what is effectively their best prize since they were established in 2005...and this they did.

On the 25 March 2013, James Hawes became the first Evolution player to score 400 goals.

The following season, on 29 April 2013, Evolution completed a back-to-back title by winning the Championship at a canter. This was followed by a runners-up spot in their first season in the top division - the Premiership.

Three more runners-up positions ensued and that elusive Premiership title missed two seasons in a row by goal difference only which was gutting. Their nemesis during this period being Fistall Palace who folded later in 2014.

On Monday 18 November 2013 Paul Clark decided to stand down as Captain, a position he has held for most of Evolution's existence and handed the reigns over to Jon Jennings. Paul continued as Vice Captain.

On Monday 3 February 2014 Evolution at last after almost nine years existence won their very first Premiership title and the joy was unconfined. When Fistall Palace folded a period of domination was expected but a resurgent Gloucesterica put paid to this and Evolution became runners-up for another two seasons.

In May 2014 Paul Clark was restored as Captain with Jon Jennings becoming Vice Captain.

When Gloucesterica dropped out in 2016 it appeared open for Evolution to dominate the league but a team called Finter Milan were promoetd and then they became the nemesis.

On 28 November 2016 Evolution played their last fixture at Brockworth with the intention of joining the Plock Court 5-a-side competition.

Wednesday 29 March 2017 marked the 12th Anniversary of Evolution FC. Over the years 103 players have been used by Abbeydale/Evolution.

After the longest winter break in history Evolution were accepted at the third attempt and resumed on Monday 11 June 2017...in the Premier Division!

Throughout the history of Abbeydale Arrows/Evolution the one sure thing you can say about the players are that they are a credit to their mothers...and there is no higher praise.