Lewes FC
An exciting pre season
for Rooks fans with
developments both on
and off the pitch.
ViiSana have been
announced as the
club’s main shirt sponsors
for the 2016/17 season. For those of you
who don’t know, ViiSana are life insurance
advisors who are an exclusive distributor
of Vitality insurance products in the UK,
who sponsor Premiership Bournemouth’s
stadium.
Pre season stats show the Rooks played
7, Won 2, Drawn 1 and lost 4. Amongst the
new signings to look out for this season
are midfielder Tom Vickers, who was youth
team captain at Brighton & Hove Albion
and played for Hastings in the FA Cup
defeat against Middlesbrough in 2013.
Striker Lloyd Dawes joins from Worthing
United after helping them get promotion to
the Ryman Premier League with 28 goals in
37 appearances, while former Brighton and
Crawley youngster, Josh Jones is reunited
with manager Darren Freeman with whom
he helped to secure successive titles for
Whitehawk.
Other names to keep an eye out for over
the coming nine months are last season’s
Supporters’ Player of the Year, Steve
Brinkhurst, together with defender Alex
Malins who won the accolades of both last
season’s Manager’s Player of the Year and
Players’ Player of the Year!
Amongst the pre season friendlies, I had
the pleasure of attending the Lewes v
Crawley Town game on a warm Tuesday
evening in July (yes, there was one!) at
the Dripping Pan and experienced the
delights of watching the game from the
corporate Beach Huts. MWB sponsored
the game and both I and the various visiting
East Grinstead Hockey Club
In this edition, I think
it would only be fair to
recognise and highlight
those members of
EGHC who have
represented Great
Britain in the Olympic
Games in Rio.
The GB Women were nothing short of
phenomenal, and one can only imagine
the scenes of joy at the EGHC Clubhouse
as Team GB won the gold medal after a
dramatic penalty shoot out against the
Netherlands, following a 3-3 draw in the
final. The Group stages saw Team GB win
all five of their matches to finish top of
Group B and advance to the quarter finals,
dignitaries had a thoroughly enjoyable
evening. Apart from a 15 to 20 minute
spell of pressure from Lewes mid way
through the second half, when the Rooks
pulled one back through Dan Perry after
conceding two early goals from Crawley’s
Bobson Bawling, the League Two outfit
were the dominant team as you would
expect. In fact, it was surprising that the
Red Devils weren’t further ahead at the
interval after being thwarted by a series of
impressive saves from Lewes ‘keeper Chris
Winterton. The hosts could, and perhaps
though should, have even been level late
on at 2-2, when the referee appeared to
judge a handball in the visitor’s penalty area
as accidental. Shortly after this, Crawley
broke away to score after a misplaced
Lewes pass, and the game ended with the
Rooks finishing up on the wrong side of a
3-1 defeat.
Meanwhile a further three players were
brought in just before the start of the new
season; Midfielder Jack Dixon returned
from Dulwich (who was joint top scorer for
the Rooks in 2013-14 with 19 goals), having
been on trial during the summer,18 year old
Alieu Njie joins from Blackpool while Josh
Street comes in from Eastbourne Borough
where they triumphed 3-1 against Spain,
followed by a 3-0 semi final victory over
New Zealand.
Fantastic effort and congratulations to
everyone concerned!
East Grinstead Women were represented
in Brazil by Defender Laura Unsworth,
Forward Sophie Bray and reserve
Goalkeeper Kirsty Mackay, with whom
I had the pleasure of meeting back in
January (see picture). Bray scored 2 goals
for Team GB with her goals coming in the
Group stages, 3-2 against Argentina and
the 2-1 victory over the USA.
The GB Men’s team were served by three
players from EG- Goalkeeper Patrick
Smith, Midfielder David Condon and
When the season finally got underway,
Darren Freeman’s men were able to grind
out an opening day win at Chipstead,
coming from a goal down to triumph 2-1,
courtesy of goals from Dan Perry and
James Hammond. This was followed by
a sobering 2-0 defeat at home to Walton
Casuals and then a 6-1 thumping of Redhill
in the Preliminary round of the Emirates FA
Cup.
Off the pitch I would like to mention an
initiative that I’m sure more Clubs like
Lewes will adopt in the future. In essence,
if you have an interest in lower league
football and believe that fans should have
a greater say in how things are run, then
you should take a look at the Lewes FC
website AND get involved. Most football
clubs are privately owned, and in many
cases, are supported by wealthy backers.
Back in 2010 Lewes FC were less than 24
hours away from going in to receivership.
So a group of local fans joined forces
to transform the club into a Community
Benefit Society and this meant that the
fans could now own and run the club.
Currently Lewes FC has 1200 owners from
22 countries! What a great idea, now make
that 1201!
forward Chris Griffiths. After finishing
fourth in London 2012, disappointingly
and in complete contrast to the Women,
the Men failed to get through to the
quarter finals, winning one, drawing two
and losing two of their five Pool games.
Shortly before the Olympics began,
East Grinstead announced that they
had signed five new players for the
coming season, including GB and
England midfield player Nick Catlin who
is recognised as one of the most skilful
players in the league. The other new
signings to arrive are Robert Schenk and
Chris Porter from Oxted, Josep Farres
Palet has signed from Spanish outfit Club
Egara, while Kieron Mulholland has joined
from Bromley & Beckenham.
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