After a summer of uncertainty, Harwell International had their place confirmed again amongst the North Berks elite thanks to Wallingford’s 'A' side finally folding. Inter looked to have fallen just short of promotion with a 3rd place finish in 2006/07 but Wallingord’s decision to pull out of Division 1 opened up a spot for Roger Bartlett’s team to go up.
Formed in 1946, The Atomics celebrated their greatest success in the 1999 season when they picked up the North Berks Cup. Since then, the Atomics have reached several more finals, including the North Berks Cup again, The War Memorial Cup and the Charity Shield, but each time ended runners up.
A host of big name managers have graced the hotseat over the years including, Dave Pike, Bob Saunders, Dom Granito and Tony Smallman. But none came quite as close as Roger Bartlett in 2005 to landing the ultimate prize of the Division 1 title.
Bartletts first season in charge saw the Atomics take the Division 2 title, losing just once along the way. The following season Inter won their last 10 league matches in the space of 3 weeks to set up a final day league decider against Drayton. In the end a Drayton team packed with stars such as Danny Current proved just too strong for a shattered Harwell side.
The 2005/06 season started with a real optimism in the air as new manager John King looked to take Inter one step further. However Kingy’s spell in charge was catastrophic and he took the Atomics to rock bottom of the league. After a boozy bust up with club captain Tom Baptie, no nonsense chairman Chris Salmon showed Kingy the door in January.
A host of candidates came forward to succeed King, and Salmon eventually appointed Mark Smith as the man to save Inter's season. Unfortunately the damage had already been done and an Inter team, almost unrecognisable from the season before, slipped through the division 1 trapdoor.
The summer saw the partnership of Dave Davies and Roger Bartlett re-united and the duo guided the side to the 3rd place finish.
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