Football in Eastbourne and Brighton – a few miles apart, but also worlds apart
They thought it was all over… it should be now. After promotions, relegations, play-offs, a bit of spying and cup finals, the football season is all but finished. But grab yourselves a fortnight’s respite, folks – before the World Cup kicks off.
Lovers of other sports, especially summer ones, may rightly get a bit peeved when the football juggernaut rumbles noisily on into the cricket season, right through the sacred mid-summer of Wimbledon (and of course our Devonshire Park tennis) and then starts all over again in early August.
On one hand, we shouldn’t get too precious. Yes, I confess, the Anderson household has Sky Sports, with an occasionally darkened sitting room – and your Herald reporter can feebly offer the excuse that he really needs to watch the French Open qualifiers, in preparation for coverage of our own wonderful LTA tournament in the last week of June.
But how do we keep a balance between the fun and participation on one hand, and the hype and commercialism on the other?
Last Sunday, Mrs A and I took a train ride to London for a happy family event. Our outward journey was briefly thrown into chaos, when hundreds of perfectly cheerful Arsenal supporters at East Croydon squeezed on to an already full train for the blessedly brief ride to Selhurst to watch their heroes crowned Premier League champions at Crystal Palace.
And on the return leg, an equally full Bank Holiday train was invaded at Lewes by a more subdued army of Albion fans – underwhelmed by the 0-3 to Manchester United but consoled by the prospect of next season’s European competition and Thursday nights all over the continent. And there we all were, just looking at Borough’s Isthmian opponents and thinking that Maldon and Tiptree FC was a bit of a trek.
My next point is absolutely not some sort of snipe at the Albion. My first Goldstone match was in 1968, a 3-1 defeat to Swindon Town! And this reporter will long remember the privilege of speaking the first words of commentary from the shining new Amex Stadium in 2013, when Albion hosted Borough in the Senior Cup Final. (Since you ask: “Seventy-five years at the Goldstone, two seasons of a gruelling trek to Gillingham, and 13 years in the drenching rain at Withdean – and finally, Brighton and Hove Albion have come home!”)
Albion are rightly Eastbourne’s big brothers, and in so many ways a model club with community engagement and high standards.
But seeing those Seagulls supporters, pretty deflated and with their bedraggled wet flags after a sharp May shower, one thought arose: throughout that long afternoon, they had probably not spoken to a single Man United supporter. The latter had been cordoned and policed from coach or train, and the only contact will have been tribal taunts and chants from a distance.
Worlds apart? Well, we love the same sport, and we mustn’t drive wedges. But at our three senior clubs in Eastbourne, albeit with more modest ambitions and facilities, no-one is alone. You bump into an old friend, an old neighbour, or your daughter’s old boyfriend, or the chap who services your car.
And on Saturday, July 25 – a little way ahead, but pop it in your diary now – Eastbourne Borough will welcome Eastbourne Town for a pre-season friendly, with all proceeds to our priceless St Wilfrid’s Hospice. Two football clubs who - together with United - are warp and weft with our town.
No police cordons, just a catch-up in the sunshine and a shared obsession with the game we all love. As a BBC2 quiz hostess, and EM Forster, would say: “Only Connect.”