Brazil, Mexico, the United States, the Middle East, Germany, Holland and Belgium... Easton Cowboys are sporting world travellers on a remarkable scale given they are based at a pub in Bristol.

When a Sunday football team was formed at the Plough Inn in Easton back in 1992, no-one could have foreseen its development into the groundbreaking sports and social club that it is today.

There are now more than 150 members of the Cowboys, and the club is proud to have made hundreds of friends around the world through its sporting and social trips and initiatives.

The Cowboys and Cowgirls, as they call themselves, field men's and women's football sides, as well as three cricket, two netball and basketball teams.

And it all grew from the ashes of the Bristol Thrash music scene in the summer of 1992, bringing together a strange collection of punks, interested bystanders and talented teenagers

For more than five years, Sunday afternoon kickabouts in St Paul's and Easton had been "primeval soup", culminating in a team whose players wanted to join a league.

Before anything could happen, the club had to be given a name. The secretary, a Country and Western singer, had struggled vainly to interest "the kids" in the delights of Hank Williams and Dolly Parton, so, in a last attempt at "converting" them, he named the club Easton Cowboys.

The Cowboys entered the Wessex Sunday League with an enthusiasm that far outstripped football ability. The first season ended in mid-table obscurity, but the story was beginning.

In May 1993, a trip was organised to a football tournament near Stuttgart, Germany, where Bristol band the Herb Garden had played a gig the year before.

The event was a big success, despite the Cowboys losing 3-1 in the final. The five days were to forge the Cowboys into a socialising machine.

As the club expanded, two teams were added in 1998 and a Saturday side was formed from an influx of enthusiastic "youths", well into their late 20s, and the Casuals, from an outflow of over-35s.

In their second season, the Cowboys were champions of Division I of the Bristol & Avon League and were runners-up in the cup, while the Casuals were trophy winners, then divisional champions in successive years on Sundays.

The Saturday team entered the Bristol Downs League in the 2001-02 season under manager Nick "The Count" Dashboard and stormed up the divisions, achieving promotion three years running and winning the All Saints Cup in 2002.

A Saturday B side was formed in 2002, and they lifted the Downs League Division III crown last season.

In the first game of the 2007-08 season, the Cowboys made Downs League history by signing Morad Fareed, who was a member of the Palestinian national football team in their failed attempt to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Morad was in England to fulfil obligations planned for the Palestinian Under-19 team, who had been invited to play Chester City and Blackburn Rovers but had been refused a visa.

The Cowboys' brown-and-white kit was inspired by Hamburg-based FC St Pauli, a second division side in the Bundesliga, who became the first club in Germany to ban right-wing nationalist activities in their stadium.

The club's women's football side, the Easton Cowgirls, came into being following an anti-racist tournament in Hamburg.

In 1994, a second Sunday football team was set up along with a cricket team. The club's fanzine, the Gunslinger, was launched and sold out immediately.

The year also marked the first attempt at organising an international football tournament in England. It was held at Oldbury Court, Fishponds, and four teams were invited from Germany, as well as others from the UK.

The weekend was a great success and led to two other tournaments, in 1995 and 1996 at Shipham, Somerset.

Meanwhile, the cricketers entered the North Somerset League and also organised a tour to Amsterdam, the highlight being a game against the top Dutch side in the national stadium.

The summer of 1996 also saw the Cowboys launch a rugby league team, but this brave attempt by "Speccy" Mike Preece was short-lived.

The Cowboys' European travels continued, and in 1997 they embarked on the mother of all football tours.

The players travelled to Bradford, Oxford, Bad Muskau (East Germany), Stuttgart and finally Antwerp, where they became "champions" of Europe after beating friends and rivals ICE Neckarstrasse 1-0 in the final.

In 1998, the Alternative World Cup was staged, with the aim of bringing 20 teams from around the world to England for a weekend of football, music and socialising. It was a great success and attracted national TV coverage.

The following year, the Cowboys became the first European team to travel to Chiapas, in southern Mexico, for a series of matches against the Zapatistas, a movement of indigenous people opposing 500 years of exploitation.

They had risen up in 1994 and taken control of vast regions of the area that had been stolen by landowners and corporations.

Who better than the Cowboys to provide their first overseas sporting visitors in a solidarity trip that opened many eyes to the struggles of exploited people around the world?

Two further tours followed and since then the Cowboys have helped to raise thousands of pounds for freshwater systems, murals and sports projects in the Zapatista zone, as well as providing volunteers for these activities.

Not be outdone, the rapidly expanding cricket section travelled to Compton, Los Angeles, to play the only all-American cricket team on the continent.

The Compton "Homies and Popz" were made up of community-minded ex-gang members and provided a great opportunity for the Cowboys to see US inner city life firsthand.

It was an amazing experience for the 25 men, women and children who went, and was matched only by the superb hospitality of the Homies and the people of Compton.

A bond was forged between the communities, as shown by the BBC documentary made about the trip.

The Compton cricketers visited Bristol in 2001 and rapped their way through an emotional night at The Plough, bringing a flavour of South Central LA to Easton.

The team inaugurated a new trophy in the cricketing world, the "Indigenous Ashes", when they played the touring Aboriginal youth side from Australia in the home of English cricket at Hambledon, Hampshire.

Also in 2001, the Cowboys launched their second World Cup, this time called 2001 A Football Oddity, including a squad made up of Rangers and Celtic fans opposed to sectarianism.

The 15th anniversary of the Easton Cowboys was marked in 2007 with a tournament in Cullompton, Devon.

More than 1,000 people gathered on a hot August Bank Holiday weekend to engage in five sports a day, including men's and women's football, cricket, basketball and netball. There were also four nights of entertainment, two bars, a cinema, an internet cafe and a talent show, as well as events for children.

In the final of the men's tournament, Yard Un-Unlimited Totnesia beat Bad Muskau, largely because they refused to drink – perhaps nobody told them the rules – Cullompton won the women's competition and the Cowboys took the cricket trophy.

The end of the decade was celebrated with a trip to Sao Paulo in Brazil which was about much more than football.

The visitors contributed backing vocals to a Brazilian punk band song which talked about the Cowboys and freedom through football, and also watched Corinthians play in the Maracana Stadium. which brought to life every lazy cliche about South American football and its passion, as well as reminding everyone what a deeply sanitised experience the English Premier League can be.

The next target for this remarkable club is this year's Alternative World Cup being held in Yorkshire. The members who visited Autonponous FC last summer are raising funds to bring over the Brazilian team, who represent disadvantaged communities in Sao Paulo, for the tournament.

The Cowboys' newest men's football team is the Ultra Casuals, who play in the Over-35s league, and are currently taking the lead in organising the return of the Cowboys to the West Bank in Palestine., where double-figure defeats were inflicted on the Bristolian visitors in 2007.

All of the players return after the games to The Plough Inn, which has been the spiritual home of the Easton Cowboys since almost the beginning, where a warm welcome is guaranteed and it has been the scene of many a memorable shindig.

More about the Cowboys and their activities can be found on the website www.eastoncowboys.org.uk, which is regularly updated by Rich Grove.

Cowboys' A team player-manager David Owen is a regular in defence, which includes Jack Kelly, Ali Dale, Will Sanzo, Paul Smith and Dave Williamson, in front of Shane Bowen, Angelo and Kai Newman, who share the goalkeeping duties.

Among the players in midfield are Martin van der Rijst, Khaled Miah and Jesse Tate, behind front-runners Will Stewart, Corin Renoldson, Charlie S, Ashley Sands, Ollie Black and Richard Dixon.