Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 17:45

Southern Combination Premier Division

CROWBOROUGH ATHLETIC 2 (Forster 6 18)

HASSOCKS 1 (Funnell 4)

Att 413

Entry £7

Programme £2

I must admit I treated the Saturday evening game on the Sussex Hop with a certain amount of trepidation. It wasn’t that Crowborough might do badly, rather it was me considering the antonym of the maxim “Smaller clubs tend to make more of an effort.”

Please don’t see this as a dig at any one club, more a comment that the vast majority of clubs with a history at Southern, Isthmian or Northern Premier League level can cope with hosting a hop game’s crowd. The catch is by scaling up and no more the club does miss out on additional revenue and the hopper gets to swerve the burgers…. again!

We’d seen just this at VCD Athletic on the SCEFL hop 3 weeks earlier. I can’t over-criticise them, no red lines were crossed, but it was the evening, the food and at the other clubs that day had been burgers, so what was for sale? Yes, burgers….

There was a direct comparison to be made between VCD and Crowborough too. Both have had stints in the Isthmian League and have ambitions to return to that level in the near future. As such I knew to expect a crowd around the 400 mark and that would have implications on how the club might sell to that many people.

With that in mind you can imagine how my cynical little heart jumped when I saw individual cottage pies on sale. Then the pop up real ales and cider pub, “The Crow’s Arms” in the corner, even the children’s play area. Now some of this isn’t necessarily GroundhopUK advice, but its good practice and I really don’t care where it comes from, because it is all helping Crowborough Athletic to understand its customer base, expand on it, and help place the club where it needs to be, right in the centre of its community. Although I hasten to add, I don’t think they needed any help in that regard!

It was good to chat with the Hassocks committee at half time, and it would be wonderful to visit The Beacon in next year’s hop, with the proviso that they haven’t been promoted to the Isthmian League!

It was a wonderful evening to be at the Community Stadium. I do tend to bang on about “Good Ground, Good Hosting and Good Game” and this was one of those rare occasions where we got all three. Hassocks took an early lead, but the Crows hit back twice, all in the first 20 minutes of the game. After that both sides had no end of chances, but the hosts held on to inflict the first defeat on Hassocks this season.

I’m sure Crowborough’s happiness was complete, and so I’m sure were every single hopper’s too. It really was an exceptional evening.