Lewes and District Sunday League

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

About 20 years ago I used to turn up with a stinking hangover to potter around to no great effect for a pub team in division 5 (I think) in this illustrious competition. I'm pretty sure that there was at least a dozen teams in the division and I'm certain that the shower of shit I played for were in the bottom division. That still means that there were at least 60 teams. There now appears to be 14 in total.

WTF has happened to Sunday league football?

Return of the Rev · Nov 9, 2015

Pevenseagull said:
About 20 years ago I used to turn up with a stinking hangover to potter around to no great effect for a pub team in division 5 (I think) in this illustrious competition. I'm pretty sure that there was at least a dozen teams in the division and I'm certain that the shower of shit I played for were in the bottom division. That still means that there were at least 60 teams. There now appears to be 14 in total.

WTF has happened to Sunday league football?

Thinking of posting a similar thread as my boys are playing in the sussex sunday and it seems there are only 5 leagues back when i played a few times i'm sure it was 13 divisions :down:

More people working on a sunday plus small sided leagues also a night out on saturday does not end at 2am anymore. What a shame :down:

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

Sunday league football was brilliant (apart from the football ............which was piss poor)

BigGully · Nov 9, 2015

Sunday football was a serious affair back in the 70's and 80's.

There has been an evolving snobbery around the players that play Saturdays that now would not consider playing on Sundays.

A few contracts at clubs also forbid them for playing anyway, its a shame.

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

I once got sent off for throwing up

Return of the Rev · Nov 9, 2015

Was the sussex sunday the biggest sunday league in the country? Got told this yesterday?

Hillian1 · Nov 9, 2015

Pevenseagull said:
About 20 years ago I used to turn up with a stinking hangover to potter around to no great effect for a pub team in division 5 (I think) in this illustrious competition. I'm pretty sure that there was at least a dozen teams in the division and I'm certain that the shower of shit I played for were in the bottom division. That still means that there were at least 60 teams. There now appears to be 14 in total.

WTF has happened to Sunday league football?

My first ever team played in Div 7 (bottom league) of this, our first season 1988/9 was highly impressive.

Played 10
Won 0
Lost 9
Drawn 1
Goals scored 13
Goals conceded 125

Coming from Cuckfield it meant every other week driving to Lewes or Eastbourne with furious hangovers.

God I miss those days.

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

BigGully said:
Sunday football was a serious affair back in the 70's and 80's.

There has been an evolving snobbery around the players that play Saturdays that now would not consider playing on Sundays.

A few contracts at clubs also forbid them for playing anyway, its a shame.

Serious? Gloriously shambolic by the mid 90s

There was one bloke who nominally played at centreback who wrote a 4 letter word beginning with 'C' on his forehead with a marker pen for each game in the belief that it intimidated the opposition.

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

Hillian1 said:
My first ever team played in Div 7 (bottom league) of this, our first season 1988/9 was highly impressive.

Played 10
Won 0
Lost 9
Drawn 1
Goals scored 13
Goals conceded 125

Coming from Cuckfield it meant every other week driving to Lewes or Eastbourne with furious hangovers.

God I miss those days.

Lost 18-0 at Cuckfield .... marvellous scenes

Da Man Clay · Nov 9, 2015

Costs. Fortune now for pitched and refs and get very little return for that money. Pitches poorly maintained as well as changing rooms and similar. Sussex Sunday League is pretty poorly run which has moved other sides to the Worthing league as well.

BigGully · Nov 9, 2015

Pevenseagull said:
Serious? Gloriously shambolic by the mid 90s

There was one bloke who nominally played at centreback who wrote a 4 letter word beginning with 'C' on his forehead with a marker pen for each game in the belief that it intimidated the opposition.

Over in Brighton well organised and very competitive, I guess we are talking about the upper end stuff but I do remember on an adjacent pitch to where we were watching a bloke got sent off, only to return with his car jack to attack the referee, luckily his team mates talked him round.

Trying to think of the names 'Snipe' was one I am sure Alan Pook was involved and as you would expoect from him, it ended up an 'all star' team, but the better players throughout Sussex were playing Sunday football at the time.

Hillian1 · Nov 9, 2015

Pevenseagull said:
Lost 18-0 at Cuckfield .... marvellous scenes

We lost 21-0 to Lewes Mayflower that season, played the game at Plumpton Colledge in a mudbath. I scored a 20 yard own goal screamer.

Scenes.

Pevenseagull · Nov 9, 2015

Da Man Clay said:
Costs. Fortune now for pitched and refs and get very little return for that money. Pitches poorly maintained as well as changing rooms and similar. Sussex Sunday League is pretty poorly run which has moved other sides to the Worthing league as well.

The 'changing rooms' at Uckfield were an alfresco bin store with a hosepipe

theboybilly · Nov 9, 2015

There were about 9 divisions in the South East London (Combined) Sunday Football League when I was playing in the 70s and 80s. That League gradually reduced in size and no longer exists as seemingly a few other Sunday leagues don't any longer. This is the one thing I have noticed since moving to Sussex - the lack of organised weekend football. Even up my local park (Buckingham Park in Shoreham) a lot of football played seems to be run by 'Soccer Schools' but they don't seem to be competitive.

Hillian1 · Nov 9, 2015

Pevenseagull said:
The 'changing rooms' at Uckfield were an alfresco bin store with a hosepipe

Did you ever play at Wealden?

Changing rooms on stilts, ankle deep mud, showers never worked.

turienzo's lovechild · Nov 9, 2015

i play in the brighton & worthing league (which is a saturday) which is split geographically below the top division. There is only ONE Brighton (and hove) division.

We've only started this year which and it's a bit incredible that we could be in the top division next season (we probably won't be, we're currently 6th).

I just think the general hassle of organising an 11 a side team and the cost for the player is putting a lot of people off. 5 a side is just so much easier to organise and it's generally cheaper to play in. Pitches are generally pretty poor and you're charged a lot to use them. The guys that run the league try their best but they're dealing with very little resources and get little to no funding from the FA so have to get their income from the clubs

This is a shame as for me 11 a side is a lot more enjoyable but I can see it dying a slow death at the lowest level

drew · Nov 9, 2015

Remember as a 16 yr old joining a new club at the Stanford Arms in 1979 and started in Div 14 of the Sussex Sunday League. Within 5 years we had climbed up to Div 8 before cruciates gave up. Just had a look at their website and now only 5 divisions! Think back then the County league clubs started to introduce a rule where their players couldn't play on Sundays.

Hillian1 · Nov 9, 2015

Standard of refereeing wasn't up to much either.

We had our own Ref, local bloke from Cuckfield.
One Cup game we played, losing 1-0 I asked him how long to go.
His reply, "Well times up, but your looking like getting one so I'll give it a few more minutes"
Cue penalty, extra time and a win on penalties.

BigGully · Nov 9, 2015

Hillian1 said:
Standard of refereeing wasn't up to much either.

We had our own Ref, local bloke from Cuckfield.
One Cup game we played, losing 1-0 I asked him how long to go.
His reply, "Well times up, but your looking like getting one so I'll give it a few more minutes"
Cue penalty, extra time and a win on penalties.

God forsaken job refereeing on a Sunday then or now.

The biggest problem are the linesman (ok assistant referees), plucked from the subs of the teams or even a more dedicated cheat from within the ranks of the two participating teams, shocking truly shocking.

Today the linesmen tend to still play the 1980 version of offside anyway and not the new version, so always worth a near mass ruck at some point.

Cadiz Seagull · Nov 9, 2015

I used to referree in the Lewes Sunday League back in the 80´s as well as the Sussex Sunday League. The highlight of my referreeing career was as senior linesman at a Cup Final at the Dripping Pan. Not exactly the World Cup final but I did get a medal.

Which I lost.

Then I got pissed off with lack of support from the Sussex FA so I resigned.

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