ROOKS v ROCKS

One of my previous senior clubs, before I headed north, was Lewes FC, The Rooks, then playing in the Athenian League and later the Isthmian League. This all happened in the early 1970s and Lewes played in a constructed "bowl" of a pitch, called the Dripping Pan. It is still known as that and the "Pan" was created by local Cluniac Priory monks (not recently!!) who dug the huge bowl to create a salt pan. The local coastal tide came in upstream along the Adur Valley, twice a day and one way and another, left behind its evaporated salt. The Dripping Pan, has some natural banking and some built by man and it would take a huge "'ave it" to get the ball out of the ground. The monks clearly had vision but I bet they never thought that football would be the ultimate land use of their creation. Here is the view from the bank behind the "far end" of the ground.

Note the beach huts! Not cheap to hire!! and Women's match.

The main changing rooms and bar are on the left in the "old" pavilion, there is a new stand behind the goal and to the right are beach huts for hire as hospitality...."oh I do like to be beside the seaside"...well tidal river estuary to be geographically correct. The club first played in 1896 in the East Sussex League and is now reknowned for its Lewes Ladies FC was established in 2002. The club is a "not-for-profit" club helping pioneer 100% fan and community ownership. The ladies' team started playing in the South East Counties football league and within a ten-year period climbed through the pyramid, winning promotion to the fourth-tier FA Woemn's Premier in 2012 following an unbeaten season. In 2017, Lewes became the first professional or semi-professional football club to pay its women's team the same salary as its men's team, as part of their Equality FC initiative. In 2018, the team was awarded a place in the FA Women's Championship.

Yesterday, The Rooks (men) hosted The Rocks, from Bognor Regis in an Isthmian Premier League game, a juicy "local south coastal derby". Lewes in red and black beat the green and whites 2-0 with goals after 45+1 min and 90. Lewes are presently 3rd in the division and Bognor 12th. 

Bognor Regis Town FC was founded in 1883, then known as Bognor FC and playing in the West Sussex league. Over the years the Rocks climbed through the local leagues and established a place in the Sussex County League and once the National Pyramid was formed they were strong contenders for a place in the Isthmian, a south-east county league that sretches from Kent to Hampshire and north to Berks/Bucks/Herts etc. Bognor earned its Regis in the 1930s, following King George V's visit to the resort in 1929. They play at Nyewood Lane, originally sporting "royal" blue and gold colours and now in green and white.

The club has had its moments in local leagues and cups, but especially in the FA Cup. 

Respectable first Round proper ties, include a 0-6 thumping by Colchester in 1972-3, in 1984-5 they reached the first round of the FA Cup again, beating Swansea City 3–1 in a replay, after a 1–1 draw at the Vetch Field. In the second round they lost 6–2 at Reading. 

They reached the FA Cup second round again in the following season, losing 6–1 at Gillingham. They went on to reach the first round again in 1986-7 (losing 1–0 in a replay to Slough Town) and 1987-8, losing 3–0 at home to Torquay Utd.. In 1988-9 they defeating Exeter City 2–1, before losing to Cambridge Utd. In 1995-6 they reached the second round of the FA Cup for a fourth time, before losing 4–0 at Peterborough Utd. I could wade into their FA Trophy history but it's too much for today!

The Rooks have also made reasonable progress in the Vase.