Stade Jules Jacques, Graide (SC Graide, formerly ES Ardennaise)
Belgium, province: Namur = Namen
12 IX 2026 / SC Graide - Rienne Sports 1-7 / Namur, Provincial League 4C (= BE level 9)
Belgium, province: Namur = Namen
12 IX 2026 / SC Graide - Rienne Sports 1-7 / Namur, Provincial League 4C (= BE level 9)
Timeline
- 1953 / Foundation of a football club in Graide, a village in the vicinity of Bièvre in the southeast of the Province of Namur, with the new club taking on the name Sporting Club (SC) Graidois. The first pitch of the club is situated at Rue de Gedinne, with a move being undertaken to Route de Naomé in one of the following years – not the current ground on the same road, but a pitch on the southside of the road closer to the village centre.
- 1954 / SC Graidois joins the Belgian Football Association with a slightly adapted name, SC Graide, acquiring registration number 5698 upon being accepted as a new member club. The club is placed in Provincial League 3, the bottom level of the Namur provincial pyramid at that time. No data are available regarding the club’s performance in the first forty odd years of its existence, other than that Provincial League 2 was attained on one or more occasions.
- ± 1962 / Moving away from its pitch on the southern side of the Route de Naomé, SC Graide moves to a newly laid-out pitch in the woods on northern side of the same road, only a stone’s throw farther to the east. At its inauguration, the ground is given the name Stade Jules Jacques in honour of the local sports journalist who had been the founding chairman of the club.
- 1996 / In the 1996-97 season, the oldest of which we have data regarding the performance of SC Graide, we find the club in Namur’s Provincial League 4C.
- 2001 / With Provincial League 4 being abolished in Namur – a one-season experiment, with the level duly returning in 2002 – SC Graide is placed in Provincial League 3 for the new season.
- 2005 / Clinching the title in Namur’s Provincial League 3C with coach Frédéric Colaux, SC Graide wins promotion to Provincial League 2.
- 2006 / SC Graide drops back from Namur’s Provincial League 2 into Provincial League 3 after one season only.
- 2011 / In its last season as an independent club, SC Graide finishes in third place in Namur’s Provincial League 3C, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, in which the club is drawn in group A with R Anhée FC and Flavion Sport, suffering a 1-2 home defeat against the former and a 5-1 away defeat against the latter. Still, due to extra promotion places being at stake, SC Graide is drawn into a lucky loser play-off against the bottom club in group B, FC Saint-Germain, but the encounter against that club also finishes in defeat (6-2). Following the 2010-11 season, a merger is concluded between SC Graide and FC Monceau-en-Ardenne from the eponymous village situated some 9 km to the southwest. The merger club is given the name Entente Sportive (ES) Ardennaise, with Graide’s registration number 5698 being retained; Monceau’s number 5941 is struck from the Belgian FA’s membership list. First team football moves to Stade Jules Jacques in Graide, with Monceau’s pitch at Rue de la Rochette being retained for training sessions. Taking the place of SC Graide, the new club starts its existence in Provincial League 3.
- 2013 / Finishing in second-last place in Namur’s Provincial League 3C, ES Ardennaise descends into Provincial League 4, along with RCS Condruzien B, US Viroin-Treignes, and bottom club REFC Evelette-Jallet. Also in or around 2013, some two or three years after the merger between SC Graide and FC Monceau-en-Ardenne, the pitch of the latter at Rue de la Rochette is abandoned.
- 2020 / In the 2019-20 season, cut short due to the first COVID lockdown in March 2020, ES Ardennaise finds itself in third place in Namur’s Provincial League 4A. On that basis, due to extra promotion places being available, the club is placed in Provincial League 3 for the new season, along with the numbers 1 and 2 of its series, RCS Onhaye B and US Saint-Hadelin Haversin B.
- 2023 / Finishing bottom of the table in Namur’s Provincial League 3C, ES Ardennaise drops back into Provincial League 4 after three seasons, along with RCS Hastièrois and ES des Frontières. That summer, the club reverts to the name of the original holder of registration number 5698, SC Graide.
Note 2 – Below, a compilation of photos of two different visits: pictures 1-5 = non-matchday visit, May 2016 / photos 6-22 = match visit, September 2026.
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