Saturday 1st November 2025 ko 14:00

Southern Combination Division 2

SOUTHWATER 4 (Bicknell 24 Beg 38 88p Blayney 58)

FERRING 2 (Lanigan 4 Sutton 90+3)

Att 162

Entry £3

Programme £3

We headed to Horsham’s environs for our second game of the day, and by tradition it seems, one from the County League’s bottom division. Southwater is known locally for its country park but it is also home to Southwater Royals FC who play in the West Sussex league and Southwater FC who’ve played in the Southern Combination since 2021.

The Sports Club has been going for 130 years having been initially just for Cricket, with the Football section was founded in 1958. The club as a whole moved to this site in 2019, and you can tell that the place is still relatively new. That is mainly due to the generously proportioned clubhouse, but also in the sense that what has been set out for football is so far, modest.

There is a pay/ and snack hut at the entrance… and well save for a rope to demarcate the one viewable side that’s just about it! But I enjoyed Southwater’s company. That little hut dispenced tea and burgers as fast as could be expected, and the game certainly was memorable.

It featured retired GP John Miller helping an injured player, and that rariety, a goalkeeper scoring from open play- take a bow Lewis Blayney! Southwater won this one straightforwardly enough, but my abiding memory of this encounter was of a club completely at ease with itself. That is no small achievement given the crowd that was there,