Season 2010-11

74TH SEASON

SEASON REPORT

The 2009-10 season was a difficult one and 2010-11 was not a lot different with both sides once again struggling. In the event, the first team avoided a second successive relegation, but the second team could not this time prevent themselves dropping out of Division Four of the East Sussex Football League.

1ST TEAM

The first XI, managed by Martin Tytherleigh and Mike Beaumont, started the season with two useful draws and optimism was quite high for a reasonable year, but six defeats in the next eight matches left the team near the foot of the table. The side then achieved the first of the two main highlights of the year when inflicting the first defeat of the season on the then leaders Sandhurst with a 3-2 away win. This was followed by a 4-0 success over Hurst and it was felt that the corner had been turned. However, three consecutive losses, including two against fellow strugglers, Northiam ’75 and Cinque Ports meant the 1st XI dropped to bottom of the table and had to win two of their last three games to avoid relegation. Two of these matches were against Eastbourne Galaxy, the eventual champions and like Sandhurst, undefeated at the time. They say lighting doesn’t strike twice but in this case another tremendous team performance with a weakened side ensured that it did and again by a 3-2 margin. The following Saturday was expected to be a crucial game at home to Crowhurst, but they were unable to raise a team so the points were awarded and relegation averted. Division Two was a fairly tight league with the 1st XI eventually finishing eighth out of ten teams but only two points off a mid-table position.

1st Team v Hurst

Icklesham Recreation Ground – Saturday, 5th February 2011

1st Team v Crowhurst

Icklesham Recreation Ground – Saturday, 9th April 2011

The third round of the Sussex Junior Cup was reached following a 13-2 home win over Roffey and a good 4-3 away victory after extra time versus Rottingdean Village where Ben Rootes scored all four goals, before going out to eventual semi-finalists Fittleworth.

Phil Badrock was leading scorer with 32 goals in all competitions while Ben Rootes with 10 goals also reached double figures. Stuart Pearson did not miss a match all season. Alfie Weller was voted 1st XI Players’ Player of the Year with Jamie Walker taking the Manager’s Player of the Year award.

1ST TEAM PLAYING RECORD

DATE	OPPONENTS	VENUE	COMPETITION	RESULT	GOAL SCORERS
11/8/2010	Lydd United	Away	Friendly	2 – 3	Val Newman, Adam Knight
14/8/2010	Peasmarsh and Iden	Away	Friendly	2 – 1	Ben Rootes 2
18/8/2010	Hollington Oak	Away	Friendly	1 – 4	Emile Tambeh
21/8/2010	Hastings Town Youth	Home	Friendly	0 – 2
28/8/2010	Wittersham	Away	Friendly	2 – 1	Phil Badrock, Ben Rootes
4/9/2010	Hurst	Away	League	2 – 2	Phil Badrock, Val Newman
11/9/2010	Eastbourne Dynamos	Home	League	2 – 2	Phil Badrock 2
18/9/2010	Sandhurst	Home	League	3 – 6	Emile Tambeh, Val Newman, Phil Badrock
25/9/2010	Battle Baptist	Away	Hastings F A Junior Cup 1st Round	2 – 3	Emile Tambeh, Phil Badrock
2/10/2010	Roffey	Home	Sussex Junior Cup 1st Round	13 – 2	Phil Badrock 5, Dave Pugh 4, Val Newman 2, Ben Rootes 2
9/10/2010	Cinque Ports	Away	League	3 – 2	Phil Badrock 3
16/10/2010	Ticehurst	Home	League	0 – 3
23/10/2010	Hastings Rangers	Away	League	3 – 4	Phil Badrock 2, Emile Tambeh
30/10/2010	Battle Rangers	Away	Wisdens Sports Challenge Cup 2nd Round	5 – 6 *	Phil Badrock 3, Emile Tambeh 2
6/11/2010	Rottingdean Village	Away	Sussex Junior Cup 2nd Round	4 – 3 *	Ben Rootes 4
13/11/2010	Northiam 75	Home	League	4 – 1	Phil Badrock 3, Ben Rootes
20/11/2010	Eastbourne Dynamos	Away	League	2 – 5	Jon Fitton, Emile Tambeh
6/12/2010	Fittleworth	Away	Sussex Junior Cup 3rd Round	1 – 5	Phil Badrock
8/1/2011	Crowhurst	Away	League	2 – 4	Phil Badrock, George Richardson
22/1/2011	Hastings Rangers	Home	League	1 – 2	George Richardson
29/1/2011	Sandhurst	Away	League	3 – 2	Martin Tytherleigh, Phil Badrock, George Richardson
5/2/2011	Hurst	Home	League	4 – 0	Phil Badrock 2, Jamie Walker, Own Goal
19/2/2011	Northiam 75	Away	League	1 – 4	Phil Badrock
5/3/2011	Cinque Ports	Home	League	0 – 2
19/3/2011	Ticehurst	Away	League	1 – 5	Nick Bellhouse
2/4/2011	Eastbourne Galaxy	Away	League	3 – 2	George Richardson, Jamie Walker (pen), Alfie Weller
9/4/2011	Crowhurst XI	Home	Friendly	3 – 3	Phil Badrock, Val Newman, Jamie Walker (pen)
16/4/2011	Eastbourne Galaxy	Home	League	1 – 2	Jon Fitton
14/5/2011	Hastings Town Youth	Home	Friendly	4 – 5	Phil Badrock 3, Sam Richardson

NEWSPAPER REPORTS

2ND TEAM

Division Four of the East Sussex League proved to be very strong and with new players taking time to gel it was always going to be a difficult year for the second team. Nigel Sellman and Neil Hastings took over the management role from Michael Hambridge and it is to their credit that morale remained high despite a number of heavy defeats which saw the side finish in bottom position.

The highlights of the season were a 5-1 drubbing of Travaux and a hard fought 2-1 home victory over Mayfield. In the Robertsbridge Charity Cup, the team were unlucky to concede two late goals and go down 3-0 to Division One leaders Bexhill AAC. There were joint top scorers in George McEwan and Dan Russell who both notched 5 goals. Tom Beazer, a local player from Winchelsea who joined the Club at the start of the season and missed just two games, won the 2nd XI Players’ Player of the Year trophy with Michael Chester named as Manager’s Player of the Year. Adam Murphy, who also played in all but two matches was Young Player of the Year.

2nd Team v Peche Hill Select II

Icklesham Recreation Ground – Saturday, 29th January 2011

The Club maintained it’s excellent showing in the League sportsmanship rankings with both sides finishing top of their respective divisions with the 2nd XI finishing overall runners-up out of eighty-one teams. The achievement of both sides resulted in an award of £100 from the East Sussex League. Keith Swallow was in fifth place for the Assistant Referee Award.

2ND TEAM PLAYING RECORD

DATE	OPPONENTS	VENUE	COMPETITION	RESULT	GOAL SCORERS
31/8/2010	Sedlescombe Rangers II	Home	Friendly	1 – 1	Chris Sanders
7/9/2010	Peasmarsh and Iden II	Away	League	1 – 7	Jon Fitton
11/9/2010	Mayfield	Away	League	0 – 1
18/9/2010	HG Aerospace	Away	Live4Soccer Challenge Cup 1st Round	0 – 5
25/9/2010	Wadhurst United II	Home	Hastings F A Lower Divisions Cup 1st Round	2 – 4	George McEwan, Jimmy McGachy (pen)
2/10/2010	Peche Hill Select II	Away	League	0 – 7
9/10/2010	The Junior Club Tackleway II	Home	League	0 – 6
16/10/2010	Victoria Baptists	Away	League	1 – 3	George McEwan
23/10/2010	Mayfield	Home	League	2 – 1	Dan Russell, George McEwan
30/10/2010	Punnetts Town II	Home	League	0 – 2
6/11/2010	Pebsham Sibex	Away	League	1 – 5	Nigel Sellman
13/11/2010	Travaux	Away<	League	0 – 3
20/11/2010	Victoria Baptists	Home	League	3 – 4	Jimmy McGachy, Dan Russell, Nigel Sellman
27/11/2010	Peasmarsh and Iden II	Home	League	3 – 3	Dan Russell, George McEwan, Phil Badrock
11/12/2010	Punnetts Town II	Away	League	1 – 4	Nick Bellhouse
22/1/2011	The Junior Club Tackleway II	Away	League	2 – 5	Nick Bellhouse, Ben Rootes
29/1/2011	Peche Hill Select II	Home	League	0 – 2
5/2/2011	Bexhill Amateur Athletic Club	Away	Robertsbridge Charity Junior Cup 1st Round	0 – 3
12/2/2011	Travaux	Away<	League	5 – 1	Phil Badrock 3, Dan Russell, Own Goal
19/2/2011	Pebsham Sibex	Home	League	2 – 3	Nick Bellhouse, George McEwan
26/3/2011	Orington	Home	League	2 – 4	Tom Beazer, Dan Russell
9/4/2011	Orington	Away	League	0 – 12

VETERANS

The veterans under Stuart Adams were unlucky to bow out of the Hastings F A Veterans Cup at the group stage. After losing the first match 5-0 to Little Common, a game that was much closer than the score line suggests, the side then defeated The Junior Club Tackleway Veterans 10-0. This meant a victory was required in the last game to progress to the semi-finals. The match was against a very strong Ore Athletic side which included two former professionals in Chris Whyte (ex-Arsenal and Leeds United) and Peter Heritage (ex-Gillingham, Hereford and Doncaster). Despite missing a number of key players, the veterans put up a tremendous performance to earn a 1-1 draw therefore narrowly missing a semi-final spot by just one point.

Veterans v The Junior Club Tackleway Veterans

Dave Brown Memorial Playing Fields, Barley Lane, Hastings – Wednesday, 1st September 2010

VETERANS TEAM PLAYING RECORD

DATE	OPPONENTS	VENUE	COMPETITION	RESULT	GOAL SCORERS
24/8/2010	Little Common Veterans	Home	Hastings F A Veterans Cup	0 – 5
1/9/2010	The Junior Club Tackleway Veterans	Away	Hastings F A Veterans Cup	10 – 0	Martin Tytherleigh 3, Steve Tytherleigh 2, Nigel Sellman 2, Pete Gumbrell, Mike Beaumont (pen), Own Goal
8/9/2010	Ore Athletic Veterans	Away	Hastings F A Veterans Cup	1 – 1	George McEwan
13/3/2011	Magham Down Veterans	Away	Friendly	8 – 2	Martin Tytherleigh 3, Bob Baker 2, Vernon Deller, Steve Tytherleigh, Mick Burt
30/4/2011	Bullsoor Allsorts	Home	Friendly	1 – 2	Bob Baker

SEMI-VETERANS

SEMI-VETERANS PLAYING RECORD

DATE	OPPONENTS	VENUE	COMPETITION	RESULT	GOAL SCORERS
12/9/2010	Viking	Home	Jon Fuller Memorial Shield	5 – 6	Steve Baker 2, Phil Badrock 2, Sean Baker

SEASON AWARDS

JON FULLER MEMORIAL MATCH

The fifth annual memorial match between Icklesham Casuals and Viking saw the debuts in the fixture of Vernon Deller, Tony Whiteman, Phil Badrock and Ollie Beaumont. An enjoyable encounter saw a Viking victory for the first time since the initial game in 2006 by 6 goals to 5 although Russell Drew did miss a penalty to level the scores. Kelvin Wall of Viking took the Man of the Match shield.

The sum of £287.38 was raised for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Photographs from the game…..

CHRISTMAS RAFFLE

Queen’s Head, Icklesham – Saturday, 15th January 2011

Despite a postponement due to the snow, the Christmas Raffle still raised the sum of £182 for Club funds with Michelle Baker winning the first prize of a hamper.

At the raffle, George McEwan received his 1st Team Manager’s Player of the Year award for season 2009-10 and Jon Fitton was presented with a shield to mark 200 appearances for the Club.

QUIZ NIGHT

Icklesham Memorial Hall – Saturday, 26th March 2011

A quiz night was held in March in the Village Memorial Hall. This was excellently organised and run by Stuart Baker with assistance from Stacey Baker. The fun and enjoyable evening was well attended and raised £277 for Club funds. The thanks of the Club went to both Stuart and Stacey for all their hard work which was very much appreciated.

ICKLESHAM CASUALS v ICKLESHAM CRICKET CLUB

Icklesham Recreation Ground – Sunday, 29th May 2011

After the unexpected victory for the football club of the previous year, normal service was resumed in the annual cricket match against Icklesham Cricket Club at the end of May. The weather was not as kind as in the past with overcast conditions and a very strong wind blowing but the rain stayed away therefore depriving the footballers of their main weapon in avoiding defeat.

The Casuals team included Bill Beaumont and Martin Tytherleigh who had warmed up for the game by competing in the Bexhill Triathlon a few hours earlier in the day.

As the 2 pm start approached, the football club had only 8 men – Martin Tytherleigh, probably needing an extra half-hour rest after the triathlon (not sure why as a large part of the event merely involves sitting on a bike for 20km), claimed he thought the game started at 2.30. Unfortunately, he had also informed Stuart Pearson and Steve Tytherleigh of the same start time. It was the cricket club who once again batted first and with Stuart and Steve having arrived, the footballers took the field with 10 players with Martin joining them an over later.

Adam Stunt and Ben Croucher gave the cricketers a solid start against the opening bowling attack of Aaron Leech and Ollie Beaumont. Adam went on to make 21 with Ben contributing 11 before the Casuals struck back with four quick wickets. Hard hitting knocks from Dean Earl (56), Sean Baker (28) and Kevin Earl (25) took the cricket club to 172-9, a fairly respectable effort in the footballers eyes until a rapid last wicket stand of over fifty between the experienced pair of Wayne Carter (28 not out) and Stuart Baker (34 not out) took the game away from the football club with the cricketers declaring at tea on 230 for 9.

There was the very welcoming sight of drinks being brought out mid-way through the innings and it is at this point that the football club would like to apologise for and distance itself from Martin Tytherleigh’s complaint about the lack of biscuits!

The fielding was a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. Some decent catches were taken, four of these by Bill Beaumont behind the stumps, several chances went down with a few mis-fields creeping in, notably one by Neil Hastings who, clearly believing himself still to be playing in goal, let a ball go through his legs to the boundary!

The wickets were shared out amongst the bowlers with Nigel Sellman taking 3-42, Keith Swallow 2-12, Joe Beardsley 2-37, David Mayne 1-9 and Neil Hastings 1-24. Despite not taking a wicket, Stuart Pearson impressed with the ball in his first ever proper game of cricket.

In reply the footballers got off to a reasonable start nearly reaching fifty for the loss of only one wicket thanks to excellent knocks from opener Steve Tytherleigh (25) and Keith Swallow (23) with David Mayne chipping in with 12, but the wickets then fell at regular intervals with only last man Martin Tytherleigh (12 not out) reaching double figures. Martin responded to the barrage of sixes in the cricket club innings with one of his own – not quite the superbly struck drive or pull over the ropes, but a risky two to mid-wicket followed by four overthrows.

Nigel Sellman was a very good captain but may need a quiet word in his ear after coming in at number ten and irresponsibly changing down the wicket second ball to Sean Baker and being bowled when a football club victory was still a distinct possibility (well, maybe not!).

For the cricketers, Sean Baker finished with figures of 4-6, Tony Corke took 4-24, Stuart Baker 1-1 after capturing the final wicket of Aaron Leech and Kevin Earl 1-13.

The Casuals star man was all-rounder Keith Swallow, who in addition to his runs and wickets, took a magnificent diving catch on the boundary. Keith’s performance was even more remarkable as, during the course of the fielding display, he managed to injure almost every part of his anatomy, apart obviously from his beer-drinking arm. At one point Keith pulled a muscle in his neck watching another six sail over his head into the field behind the far goal then tweaked a hamstring climbing over the stile to retrieve the ball. Still Keith can console himself in having such a set of understanding and sympathetic team mates (particularly Bill).

The Casuals team was – Nigel Sellman (captain), David Mayne, Steve Tytherleigh, Keith Swallow, Stuart Pearson, Ollie Beaumont, Joe Beardsley, Neil Hastings, Bill Beaumont, Aaron Leech and Martin Tytherleigh.

The football club would like to thank the cricket club for another really enjoyable afternoon and Mags Baker and her helpers for the lovely tea. Thanks also to Keith for organising the team, Nigel for captaining the side and to everyone who took part.

Action from the game…..

A conversation took place on a train journey from Kentish Town to St Pancras not long before the cricket match. This began by talking about reluctantly having to go to the upcoming Kent v Sussex Pro40 cricket fixture at Canterbury, the talk being not so much about the match, the current form of both sides or who was likely to be victorious but more about the lack of shops in the ground and what to do when hopefully the game was interrupted by the weather – a shopping trip to Canterbury town centre seeming to be the preferred option.

The conversation than progressed to the Icklesham Cricket Club v Icklesham Casuals match in May 2010 – not mentioning the nail-biting two wicket victory for the Casuals, Dale Longley’s five wicket return, Alfie Weller’s vital 32 runs, Tim Hambridge’s knock of 31 or Bill Beaumont’s match-winning innings of 22 not out. Oh no, the dress sense of the footballer’s being the main topic of discussion – namely Nigel Sellman’s grass-stained trousers, George Potter’s ‘persil-like’ flannels and David Mayne’s ‘Simon Cowell’ high trouser look.

At this point it was noticed that a man sitting in the seat opposite with his young son was finding the conversation highly amusing. This person turned out to be none other than former England cricket captain and now Sky Sports commentator, Mike Atherton OBE.

It was disappointing that there was no mention of the impeccably turned out ICFC cricket team on either Sky Sports or in his column in the Times!

Also, Mike Atherton incorrectly predicted a Kent win!

PRESENTATION EVENING

Cinque Ports Arms – Friday, 10th June 2011

The end of season presentation evening which was held at the Cinque Ports Arms in Hastings proved to be an enjoyable and well attended event and demonstrated that, despite the poor results on the pitch, morale remained high.

GLOBAL CHALLENGE COMPETITION

The ‘Global ‘ Challenge’ Competition continued in the 2010-11 season with photographs of Icklesham Casuals memorabilia taken in various places throughout the world.

Global Challenge photographs from the 2010-11 season…..

GENERAL MATTERS

Off the field, there were again two golf events during the year, the summer tournament, the 3rd Club Golf Tournament, which took place at Littlestone Warren Golf Course and was won by George Potter and the Christmas team competition at Eastbourne Golfing Park where the trio of Wayne Bumstead, David Mayne and Keith Swallow triumphed. Both were once more excellently organised by Bob Baker.

The Club also took part in some local running events with Mike Beaumont again winning the award for the first local footballer to finish the Hastings Half Marathon. The Club could not quite emulate last year’s success in the Team Competition with Mike, Nigel Sellman, Keith Swallow and Martin Tytherleigh taking the runners-up spot. However, the Club triumphed in the inaugural 1066 Relay in May, which started at Pevensey Castle and finished in Rye with the team of Mike, Keith and Martin taking the award for the first unaffiliated team. Nigel also ran in the event but for another team, making some feeble excuse for this. Nigel’s team failed to win a trophy, a fact that may have been mentioned to him on a couple of occasions since.

The end of the 2010/11 season saw Keith Swallow step down as Club Secretary after holding the post for fifteen years. The Club would like to put on record it’s appreciation of all the hard work that Keith put in over that period, not only in the role of secretary but also the marking of the pitch, pitch inspections, linesman, Trust Committee representative and all the other roles he has carried out which are too numerous to mention. Without people like Keith, who do this work voluntarily, clubs like Icklesham Casuals would not exist and would not have been able to provide football to the 1500+ players who have represented the Club during the first seventy four years. Keith was deservedly awarded the Bert Glazier Cup at the presentation evening.

Whilst the last couple of seasons had been a struggle on the pitch, the spirit in the Club remained very high and hopefully the return of the good times was not too far away. With the 2011/12 season being a year to celebrate the Club’s 75th Anniversary, it was hoped that it would be a successful one both on and off the field.

The Annual General Meeting took place at the Cinque Ports Arms, Hastings on Friday, 10th June 2011 prior to the annual Club awards being presented.

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