WALSHAM le WILLOWS FC v WHITSTABLE TOWN

Walsham le Willows is a village in the Mid Suffolk, located around 3 miles (4 km) south-east of Stanton. Walsham le Willows FC is the local football club, currently playing in the Eastern Counties League who play at Sumner Road. The club is affiliated to the Suffolk County FA.

Queen Elizabeth I granted Walsham le Willows parish, of around 1200 population, to Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, in 1559. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1213.

The Great Seal of the Realm is used to symbolise the sovereign's approval of state documents. To make it, sealing wax is melted into a metal mould,  impressed into a wax figure that is attached by cord to documents that the monarch wishes to seal officially. The formal, Keeper of the Seal, is the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain.

The village is documented fully in surviving records of the time and, so the Cambridge historian, John Hatcher, chose to use it as the setting for his semi-fictionalised account of the effects of the mid-14th Century plague in England, The Black Death: A Personal History (2008).

The Sacrifice Pole, dating from ancient time, is a wooden beam that has been stored in buildings around the village. Each year, at the start of February, around the time of Imbolc*, the wood is moved to a new building, on Saint Brigid's Day, a Gaelic traditional festival, which marks the beginning of Spring and for Christians, the feast day of Saint Brigid, Ireland's patroness saint. Its traditional date is 1st February, about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring Equinox. *The etymology of Imbolc is unclear. A common explanation is that it comes from the Old Irish, i mbolc (Modern Irish: i mbolg), meaning 'in the belly', and refers to the pregnancy of ewes at this time of year.

Walsham-le-Willows F.C. was founded around 1890, and played at the Summer Road sports ground where there was a pavilion with a thatched roof. During World War II,, the ground was ploughed up to grow food and was not returned to sports use until 1951.

The club was a founder member of the St. Edmundsbury Football League, in 1907 and won the Suffolk Junior Cup in 1988, 1989 and 1990. After winning several league titles, the club switched to the Suffolk and Ipswich F.L. in 1989. The club won the Senior Division in 2001–02 and again in 2002–03. In the following season, the club finished second, but earned promotion to Division One of the Eastern Counties League..

The club finished fourth in their first season in the division, narrowly missing out on promotion. They also reached the final of the Suffolk Senior Cup, losing 2–1 to Needham Market The following season, they reached the final again, this time beating Capel Plough 4–3 after extra time. In 2006–07 the club won Division One, and were promoted to the Premier Division.