Club Celebrations and Reunions

21ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Icklesham Recreation Ground

Friday, 23rd May 1958

The 1957-58 season marked the twenty-first for the club and this was celebrated on Friday, 23rd May 1958 with an event that was attended by nearly two hundred old players, supporters, current players and their guests, many of whom had come considerable distances to be present.

EVENING FOOTBALL MATCH

Icklesham Recreation Ground

The celebrations started at the Recreation Ground at 7 p m with a football match in which the present first team played a side composed of old players. This was half an hour each way and substitutes were allowed for the old players! The game ended in a 5-2 win for the 1st XI although the result hardly mattered.

EVENING CELEBRATION

Icklesham Memorial Hall

After the game, spectators and players gathered in the Memorial Hall to reminisce and to replay past matches. Food was provided and there was a bar and also a radiogram. William Dunlop recalled the highlights in the history of the club pointing out that season 1957-58 had very appropriately been the most successful to date. The Vicar of Icklesham, the Reverend B H Heywood Brown and Jack Merricks, in an amusing speech, congratulated the club on behalf of the spectators and supporters.

Much to his surprise, William Dunlop, ‘the man who started it all’, was presented with a wrist watch by chairman, Frank Crisford, in recognition of his services to the club and to football in Sussex. William had seen all 584 games the first team had played, although as he explained to the Hastings and St Leonards Observer ‘I was not always there at the beginning because often I was hunting around for someone to complete the team’. Many tributes were paid to William during the evening with Frank Crisford saying that ‘his achievement is even more remarkable because he is not on the telephone and does not drive or ride a bicycle’.

Even though William had no telephone, phone messages were taken from players and officials for many years by Mrs E L Morris at the Royal Oak in Pett. In recognition of this, Mrs Morris, who was over 70 years old, was presented with an oak biscuit barrel by first team captain, David French. Although she had never been to a match, she had taken a keen interest in the club and knew every player – by voice!

The final presentation of a pewter tankard was made to Andrew Dunlop, who had managed the second team for many years. Bob Rich, a player since the foundation of the club made the presentation.