William Dunlop

CLUB SECRETARY 1937-38 TO 1986-87

Without William Dunlop there would be no Icklesham Casuals Football Club.

Will was a gentleman, a scholar and a true character. He was born on Friday, 1st October 1915 at Lunsford Farm in Pett and was the son of a family that had farmed there since the 1880s. Will married his wife, Ann in 1963 and they had two children, Ruth and Tom.

Having attended Rye Grammar School, Will had been involved in forming Rye Old Grammarians Football Club, a club whose main object initially was to give a game of football to old boys of the school who were ‘decent chaps’ and would otherwise not be playing. Whilst accepting it for the first season, Will, it appears, was not in favour of the name Rye Old Grammarians, preferring the suggestion of Rye Casuals as this did not limit the club to old boys of the Grammar School. At the start, the club were short of playing members and were particularly lacking forwards but Will ‘didn’t feel particularly well qualified to take on the centre forward position himself’ and hoped a few more players could be encouraged to join in order to avert this possibility.

After one season as secretary, Will left Rye Old Grammarians and a meeting at Thompson’s Tea Rooms in Rye was held on Saturday, 3rd April 1937 to consider the possibility of forming a football club whose headquarters would be at Icklesham. One reason for choosing Icklesham was that there was a set of goalposts lying idle in a field there! Those present were Percy Allen, Les Beeney, Frank Crisford, William Dunlop, Jack Munn, Geoff Smith and Robert Woolley. A considerable amount of discussion took place after which Icklesham Casuals Football Club was formed and Will was elected as club secretary.

Will was elected to the Hastings and District Football Association committee in 1946 and became vice-chairman in 1972 He played a full part in the business of the Sussex County Football Association as an eastern division representative from 1947 to 1949 and 1955 to 1972, chairing the County F A in the 1964-65 season having served one year as vice-chairman and was later made a vice-president of the Association, a position he held until his death. Not being able to drive, Will regularly made the long evening train journeys from Hastings to Brighton to attend meetings. He proposed the merger of the Hastings and Eastbourne Leagues in 1970 and served on the management committee of the combined league and was a member of the committee which revived the Hastings Boys League which later developed into the South East Sussex Youth League.

On Wednesday, 5th May 1982 he was honoured by the sport he served at a surprise ceremony at the Smugglers Inn at Pett Level and was presented with the Fred Crouch Memorial Trophy by Wally Peters, the recipient the previous year, in recognition of his services to the sport he loved.

His outstanding contribution over fifty years was recognised in 1986 when the Football Association and Sussex County Football Association attended a special reception in his honour. Will was one of soccer’s campaigning administrators and was concerned about the indiscipline in football and at the fifty year reception F A representative John Davey said “the reason the players of his club do not misbehave is that he engenders a spirit that ensures they don’t want to.”

As Sussex County Football Association chairman, Will was a guest at the luncheon given by the chairman and directors of Wembley Stadium Limited on the occasion of the F A Cup Final between Leeds United and Liverpool on Saturday, 1st May 1965. Other guests included Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister at the time, James Callaghan, a future Prime Minister, Alf Ramsey, the England manager in 1965, Walter Winterbottom, his predecessor, Sir Stanley Rous, the then President of FIFA and Field Marshall The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein.

In the later era of accusations of ‘bungs’ and the ridiculously high signing-on fees paid to players, perhaps it was Icklesham Casuals who started this trend. Will would often walk miles in order to sign-on a new player and if the lure of playing regular football for Icklesham Casuals was not quite enough to secure the signature, Will would often knock on the door armed with that extra incentive – a cauliflower tucked under his arm!

It was also in the 1964-65 season that he watched his 1000th consecutive Icklesham Casuals match although about seven years previously Will didn’t see the first eight minutes of a fixture against Frant as he missed the coach taking the team to the game because he was delayed trying to find players to fill the third team. Will was given a lift into Hastings, took a train and then a taxi and arrived at the match eight minutes after the start with Icklesham 2-1 up. On another occasion Will watched a game at Robertsbridge even though he had chicken pox. He didn’t travel with the team but sat on the top deck of a bus away from everyone else, although few people would talk to him for a long time afterwards!

Will’s raincoat was legendary and he would regularly be seen running the line in his coat waving his white handkerchief to signal an offside. One story involving the famous coat was the Robertsbridge Charity Junior Cup Final against Pevensey II on Saturday, 30th May 1970 and kicking off at 6.30 p.m. Will had been up in Scotland and travelled back down by train, via Southend, on the day of the game, getting off at Robertsbridge station and arriving at the ground around forty minutes before the start. He walked in carrying his suitcase and the first thing he did was put down the case, open it up and take out his mac!

David French, as first team captain, would go over to see William on a Friday evening for a ‘team talk’ regarding the following days match. William always knew the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition as well as how strict the referee was and therefore which Icklesham players would need to watch their behaviour – quite often this would be Chris and David Ades according to Will!

Will was not a great one for rule changes and certainly did not agree with the introduction of substitutes. John Dunk was the first captain to bring on a substitute for the Club when he replaced the injured Keith Holdstock with Colin Cooke in an evening game against Beckley in May 1971 and Will, clearly unhappy at this, could be seen walking up and down the touchline muttering ‘I hope you lose, I hope you lose’!

There is a similar story from Will’s last season as secretary in 1986-87. The 1st team were involved in a three-way battle at the top of the table with Willingdon Athletic II and Eastbourne Fishermen and had an important home game with Eastbourne Fishermen in early April. All the players came off the pitch in high spirits having achieved a 4-0 victory before Will walked into the changing rooms and the first words he said were “Oh well, the best team lost”!

There are so many other stories about Will, none more so than the legibility of his handwriting. Players would receive a postcard giving them details of the match on the Saturday but would still need to wait until the local paper was published to find out where the game was! There are too many stories to mention and everyone who knew him will have their own particular memories of such a great character.

William Riddell Dunlop died in his sleep at home at Lunsford Farm, Pett on Saturday, 30th April 1988 at the age of 72. Will had been ill for some time but had still regularly attended the club’s games and arrangements had been made to give him a lift that afternoon to watch the East Sussex League Challenge Cup semi-final against Sandhurst at Icklesham Recreation Ground.

A funeral service was held at Pett Church on Tuesday, 10th May with the church packed with friends and acquaintances wanting to pay their respects. This was followed by a private cremation in Hastings.