| ***quick links*** |  |
***latest news***fixtures***table***directions***forum***home*** |  |
UP
TO-DATE* |
| WHO THE HELL WERE...SITTINGBOURNE? |
| who are they? |
The forerunners
of Sittingbourne Football club commenced playing
on the  newly-opened Recreation Ground in
1881, being known as Sittingbourne United.In what
must have been one of the first local derbies in
the early days of the game, United met Faversham
in 1885, winning 3-1. The two clubs met again in
1886, with United again victorious, this time by
3-2. The first match with Sheppey Rovers took
place on a field near the Halfway, with United
coming out on top 1-0. In 1886 it was decided to
lapse the old united and form a new team-
Sittingbourne Football Club. Another local club
calling themselves "Nil Desperandums"
had been formed, and during the following season,
(1887/88),the "N.D" were growing in
enough strength for many of their players to
regularly turn out for the town team; and so an
1888 meeting of local footballers decided that
the Sittingbourne and Nil Desperandums clubs
should merge as one. By 1890 many junior clubs
were springing up in the area and, with the
"Rec" becoming crowded each Saturday,
Sittingbourne migrated to the Gore Court Cricket
Ground in London Road. By 1892 the club was
experiencing some bother with Mr. Jessup of
nearby Trotts Hall Farm, to the extent that a new
home for the club had to be found. A field at the
rear of the Bull Hotel, Vallences Meadow, could
be obtained on good terms if taken on a five year
lease. Consequently, the club secured the field,
fenced it and made a charge of 3 old pence (1 old
penny for children), for admission. That
"meadow" was to become the club's
ground until 1989! On October 8th, 1990, both
teams turned out in Black & red and these
have remained the official club colours. The
1893/94 season saw the club gain senior status,
entering the English Cup for the first time,
while being invited to compete in the Chatham
Charity Cup. The Kent League was formed in
1894/95, and the club had a team in each of the
two divisions although the first team also played
a large number of games against opponents outside
of the League, including Arsenal, Millwall and
the Orient. Sittingbourne won the Kent League in
1897/98, their first major title, while
professionalism was adopted during the 1898/99
season. Sittingbourne won the Kent Senior Cup in 1902, while a year later they were  once again Kent League champions.
The club left the Kent League in 1905/06 to enter
the South Eastern League Division One, but by
1909/10 they had returned to familiar territory.
The First World War brought a temporary closure
but the club was reformed for the start of the
1919/20 season. The Kent League was restarted on
5th June, 1919 and the Thames and Medway
Combination League on August 16th that year,
Sittingbourne joining both. Success came in the
late twenties when they won the Kent Senior
Shield in 1927 and 1928, the Kent League Cup in
1928 and the Kent Senior Cup in 1929 and 1930.
They competed in the Southern league (Eastern
Section) from 1927/28 to 1929/30 with final
league positions of 8th, 17th, and 15th
respectively. Their second spell in the Southern
League spanned the 1959/60 to 1966/67 season
finishing 6th, 5th, 7th, 19th and 24th. There was
a financial crisis in 1932/33 and the club went
into liquidation. The Supporters Club took over,
however, and Sittingbourne survived to the second
world war when hostilities once more brought
about their enforced closure. In 1946 the club
was reformed but three years later it was again
in financial difficulties. The hat was passed
round at the AGM and this enabled Sittingbourne
to start the new season. In January 1954 the Bull
ground was purchased with the help of a £3,000
loan from the FA and help from the supporters
association. The "Brickies" or the
"Bourne" as they are known, won the
Kent Senior Shield that year beating Canterbury
City 4-2 in the final. They ended the days of the
old Kent League as the strongest team, winning
the championship by seven points in 1957/58 and
by nine points the following season. They won the
Kent Senior Cup in 1958, beating Ramsgate 1-0 in
the final at Gillingham in front of a crowd of
10,066. In 1959 they won the Kent League Cup and
finished Runners Up in the Kent Senior Shield. In
1959, Sittingbourne joined the Southern League
along with a number of other Kent clubs. Having
missed promotion to the Premier division on goal
average in their first two seasons, they might
have been excused in thinking that it would never
come, however hard they tried. Subsequently,
their results deteriorated and after finishing
7th in 1961/62 they ended in the bottom half
dozen each season before resigning from the
Southern League in 1967. They had won the Kent
Senior Shield in 1960 winning 1-0 away to
Tonbridge in the final and runners up in the Kent
Senior Cup final the following year.
Sittingbourne returned to the reformed Kent
League in 1967 winning the title in their first
season. They repeated this feat in 1975/76 and
were runners up in 1972/73, 1973/4 and 1976/77.
They won the Kent League Cup in 1974 beating
Chatham 2-1 in the final at Sheppeys ground and
were beaten finalist in 1973, 1975 and 1976.
Since 1977/78 when they finished 13th, they
always finished in the top six. They came 6th,
5th and 5th again before finishing runners up to
Erith and Belvedere in 1981/82. Fourth in 1983,
they won the title by eleven points from Sheppey
United in 1984. Thereafter they finished 3rd, 2nd
(to Alma Swanley), 6th, 4th and 5th before
finishing Runners up to Greenwich Borough in
1987. In 1989/90 they beat Whitstable Town 2-0 at
Gravesend to win the Kent Senior Trophy. In
February 1990, Sittingbourne made what was
probably the most important decision in their
history when they opted to sell the Bull ground
for development. This venture enabled the Club to
move to a 23-acre site quite near to the town
centre. A 2000 seater stand complete with
executive boxes, executive lounge, boardroom,
restaurants, bars and sports hall have been
constructed, while greyhound racing was
introduced in 1994. In the season 1990/91, the
Club's first at Central Park, Sittingbourne
became the Winstonlead Kent League Champions,
remaining unbeaten throughout their entire League
campaign. A fact recorded in the EUROPEAN
newspaper as not only a record first for the Kent
League, but also a record for the 1990/91 season
as the only senior football club in Europe to
remain unbeaten within their own respective
league. Promotion to the Beazer Homes (Southern)
league followed in 1991/92, with the pinnacle of
achievement finally being realised in 1992/93,
when Sittingbourne won the Beazer Homes League
Southern Division  championship to gain promotion to
the Beazer Homes League Premier Division for the
first in the Club's long history. An incredible
1992/93 season, during which Bourne lost only
four League games, saw the Central Park ground
attendance record broken no less than FIVE times,
with 5,951 spectators turning up to watch the
friendly with Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday
January 26th 1993- an all- time ground record. A
crowd of 3,074 watched the local derby with
Gravesend and Northfleet to set a new Beazer
Homes League Southern Division attendance record,
while BBC television described Sittingbourne as
"the Manchester United of Non-league
football"during a full-length feature on the
Club in their Newsroom South East programme,
broadcast to millions in the Home Countries and
Northern Ireland. All this seemed to bode well
for the future but little did the fans know about
the financial problems that were just around the
corner. It seems that Sittingbourne not only
spent the 4.5 million pounds that they received
for the Bull ground but a further one million
pounds plus as well! With little money to spare
to spend on the team, results suffered and they
were relegated back to the Southern Division.
Swale Council seemed to be the saviour by
spending £750,000 to purchase the ground and
leasing it back to the club. Under Steve Lovells
management, Sittingbourne bounced back by winning
the Southern Division championship again. The
next season saw yet another crushing blow,
because of a worsening financial situation, (not
surprising when it is rumoured that the
electricity bill at Central Park was £1000 per
week!) Swale Council locked the club out for non
payment of rent. Greyhound racing was stopped and
all the restaurant and main bar facilities were
closed. This was followed by the liquidators
pulling the plug. It looked odds on that
Sittingbourne would be no more, however an
agreement with the council and the liquidators as
well as financial support from the supporters
club allowed the club carry on. The situation was
obviously extremely serious with them surviving
on a match to match basis. Popular manager Steve
Lovell resigned in September because of the
uncertain future of the club and joined Gravesend
and Northfleet. Ironically, after Alan Walker
took over, results improved and Sittingbourne
were climbing the table. Sittingbourne fans were not happy with the way that Swale Council had  handled the matter, particularly
when at that time, Woking Council were sponsoring
their local club to the tune of £30,000. What is
ironic about this is that Sittingbourne were
locked out of Central Park for owing £35,000!
Before Caerns took over, the Council had spent
over £135,000 of tax payers money on security to
keep the football club out of certain areas. All
this time, the Stadium was getting into disrepair
and Sittingbourne FC appeared to be no nearer
getting the 7 year lease they required to secure
their future in the Dr Martens League. At the
beginning of March, 1997 Barry Bright announced
that the football club could no longer promise to
pay the players. Most players, however, showed
great loyalty. The main loss for Sittingbourne
came when Barnet moved in the summer for Stevie
Searle and didn't have to pay Sittingbourne a
penny for him as all contracts had defaulted
because of the non payment issue. The club were
finally saved from extinction when Roger Cearns
signed a lease with Swale Council to run
Greyhound Racing at Central Park and he, in turn,
allowed Sittingbourne to sign a seven year lease
for the use of the facilities that satisfied the
Dr Marten League. Although the immediate future
was now secured, with little money coming in and
the crowds having dwindled to the 400 to 500
level (750 being a break even figure),
Sittingbourne were always going to struggle in
season 1997 - 1998 in the Premier Division. It
came as little surprise, therefore, that they
finished third from bottom of the league and were
relegated to the Southern Division. This could
have been thought of as being a blessing in
disguise as the money savings on shorter journeys
could be substantial and should help the
"Bourne" inch closer to financial
stability. Midway through the 1998/99 season
Barry Bright felt that he had taken the club as
far as he could and handed over the Chairmanship
to Andy Spice. Andy and the new committee took a
long hard look at the finances and made a few
drastic decisions in the best interests of the
club. Out went the full-time secretary, closely
followed by the Assistant Manager Paul Haylock,
and the Manager Alan Walker. Hughie Stinson took
over as (unpaid) Manager and the only paid
employees of the club were two players on
contracts. Sittingbourne finished this season in
13th position in the Dr Marten Southern League
Southern Division. So the new millennium saw
Sittingbourne in a healthier financial position
than they had been for some time and with a
Chairman and committee pledged to making them a
successful club with a sound financial footing.
(www.sittingbourne fc.co.uk) |
| the last time we met |
| Home: Saturday 1st November 1997 Halesowen Town 3-1 Sittingbourne Att: 638 Halesowen Scorers: Evran Wright, Steven Piearce, O.G. Halesowen: Daniel McDonnell, Richard Crisp, Adrian Cooper, Phillip Wood, John Snape, Stuart Evans, Matthew Gardiner, Evran Wright, Steven Piearce, Luke Yates, John Sharpe. Subs: Jason Owen, Kevin Harrison, Carlos DeAzevedo. Away: Saturday 4th April 1998 Sittingbourne 0-0 Halesowen Town Att: 454 Halesowen Scorers: None Halesowen: Daniel McDonnell, Richard Crisp, Jason Owen, Phillip Wood, John Snape, Stuart Evans, Stuart Skidmore, Evran Wright, Steven Piearce, Paul Harding, Adrian Cooper. Subs: Kevin Harrison, John Sharpe, Simon Swallow. |
| how they've done since? |
Not very well in all honestly. 1997/1998 proved to be their last in the Dr Martens Premier to date as they fell into the Dr Martens Southern Division, as it was then, with south-east neighbors Stamcroft St. Leonards and Ashford Town. 1998/99 did not prove fruitful although the club were still suffering from the financial constraints caused by their over-ambition in the early 1990's and finished 13th. Sittingbourne started to push forward once more behind the scenes but this meant sacrifices in the way of playing staff and 1999/00 brought a 16th place finish. 2000/01 lead to a very lucky escape for the "Brickies" as a finish in the relegation zone should have lead to their exit from the Southern League altogether, but Wisbech's resignation saved the club and gave them a second chance. 2001/2002 ended up being their last in the clubs ridiculously oversized stadium which was designed to host Sittingbourne's ambition of league football. A finish of 17th place somehow summed up the club's luck at the ground. A move down the road to a temporary stadium has given the Brickies a new lease of life. The club finished 12th last season a certain improvement and a good sign for the future. Can they once again be a force in non-league football? Only time will tell. |
| has anybody played for us as well? |
| Surprisingly, yes. Lyndon Rowlands was with Sittingbourne in the 97/98 season and joined Halesowen in mid 99 from Gresley Rovers. These days Lyndon plays his trade in the Leicestershire League after a successful spell with Kings Lynn after leaving the Grove. |
| CLUB
CALL --------------------------- For all the latest up to the minute news from The Grove call: 09066 55818 |
| USEFUL
LINKS --------------------------- Yeltzland HTSA Non-League Daily Halesowen News Western Division Forum Fanzone Pyramid Football |
| AROUND
HALESOWEN --------------------------- Pub Guide Hotels AA RAC Merry Hill Travel WM Central Trains |
This website has been designed and edited by Christopher Davis. This site has no official connection with Halesowen Town FC Ltd and that all comments/views posted onto the site are those of the editor or its contributors unless stated.