Time stands still at the Saffrons – but Eastbourne Town might want to turn clocks forward to spring
Characteristics of coastal towns and communities? Number one, people arrive, and stay. We are at the end of the railway line, we can't get any further south, and we don't fancy moving sideways. Number two, we get a lot of weather and we learn to live with it.
Put those two factors together, and what do you get? A seriously stormy Saturday, howling wind and hammering rain. Sensible people stay indoors, but the really reckless - 3,000 of them – defied the gales to complete the Seven Sisters Marathon. And if it's Saturday, there must be a football match - two in fact.
Along the seafront to the east, Eastbourne United are hosting a County League game, a 4-3 thriller as it runs out, with Anthony Storey's men on the wrong end of it. And closer to the posh end of town, beneath the grand old Town Hall clock, Eastbourne Town are hosting Punjab United at the Saffrons. Except that non-league football doesn't really do posh.
My route at the ground is well-trodden, from the guys on the Colonel Stevens gate, and down the touchline to that cute and cosy conservatory which serves as a sponsors lounge, where James Hopkins is entertaining the visiting officials.
Then on, collar up against the battering rain, and into the Sid Myall and Taffy Jones Stand - where those names alone bring a lump to the throat. This club has roots, traditions, memories that - with no disrespect - match in their own way any swish and palatial Premier League stadium.
A wave from Dave Winterton - there's always at least one Winterton at the Saffs, including one in goal. A natter with Ray Tuppen, whose physio knowledge would fill a text book, and a hello from several other officials. with an assurance of a boardroom cuppa at half-time.
It is tradition, and continuity. But there's a football match to play, and Jude Macdonald's side will be gritting their teeth. The Isthmian South East division is strong and unforgiving, with a lot of playing budgets well above Town’s spending powers. For the players, loyalty and commitment only go so far, when an extra fifty quid is on offer.
Macdonald’s teams, whenever the I see them, work hard and play to intelligent, creative patterns. But injuries have hampered Town recently - and you sense, perhaps, that they want to play September football, when the weather is feeling like early winter.
North Kent visitors Punjab United are a really interesting club: formed originally from an ethnic community, but absolutely welcoming to all-comers. And once the game begins, they are clearly man for man experienced and physically robust.
For at least 45 minutes, this is a very even contest and the yellow-shirted home players have more of the ball, and slightly the better chances. On ten minutes, a neat triangular move produces a header, cleared off the Punjab line, and a couple more home attacks are thwarted only by big-boot clearances.
When the visitors do break, a superb Alfie Simmons block dispels the danger, and Town are back on the front foot. A speedy right-wing move produces a low skidding cross, but nobody is in the middle, except a waddling seagull.
Three minutes before half-time, the home side come dangerously close to conceding: Harry Ottaway's flick plays in Lee Dawson, but Chris Winterton saves superbly.
But that was to be as good as it got. Early second-half signs were promising, with Luke Eberson inches away from opening the score, but a freakish Punjab breakaway on 51 minutes put the visitors ahead - and they spent the rest of the match with only one man up front.
Time in a football match always creeps slowly when you're ahead, and it races when you're chasing the game. A glance up at the Town Hall clock did not help… it has been at a standstill for some weeks and months.
Three goals in the last quarter of the game flattered Punjab: a cracking direct free-kick, and then a header in-off the post for 3-0, and rounded off at 4-0 with an 88th minute strike.
One Saffrons regular summed it up ruefully but succinctly: "We are a step five club, playing at step four."
That may sound harsh, but it is starting to look as if Town are punching just a little above their weight. Rule nothing out: Macdonald has a team who will be better served by the dry, flat pitches of the spring. But until then, there is a long, tough winter to navigate.
Either way, this fine football club will play on, and so will United and the Borough. We are Eastbourne, and no Channel south-westerly will blow us off course.
And who knows, perhaps by the the end of the season, the Town Hall clock will be back in working order.