Sunday, 10 May 2020

Seaford Town


Seaford Town FC is a non-league football club from the town of the same name, which is located in Sussex on England’s south coast. The club was formed in 1888 as Seaford FC playing local football.


After World War One the club joined the Mid Sussex League, where they played until the outbreak of more hostilities, from their home ground at The Crouch Recreation Ground. In 1952 ‘The Badgers’ became founder members of the Sussex County League, playing in Division Two as Seaford Town FC.


Promotion was achieved to Division One in the 1963-64 campaign. Town remained at that level until they were relegated to the second tier of the competition at the completion of the 1970-71 season.

The club made the decision to leave the Sussex County League in 1978 before rejoining as founder members of Division Three for the 1983-84 season. Town went on to lift the Division Three title in 1985-86.


Further success followed as Seaford won the Division Two championship in 1988-89. After two seasons in Division One the team were relegated at the end of the 1990-91 campaign. Further demotions in 1992-93 and 1996-97 saw the club drop out of the Sussex County League once again.


The club joined the East Sussex League before dropping ‘Town’ from their title after merging with the youth sides of Seaford Seagulls. The club returned to the Sussex County League for the 1999-00 season.

A runners-up finish in 2000-01 saw the club promoted to Division Two, before the club opted to become Seaford Town once again in 2005. Sixth place finishes were achieved in 2004-05 and 2006-07.


A fifth place league ending came in 2010-11 as Town continued to ply their trade in the Sussex County League Division Two until the league was retitled to the Southern Combination, with the old Division Two becoming Division One in the summer of 2015.

Two lower mid table finishes came in 2015-16 and 2016-17 at The Crouch.


Seaford Town will play in the Southern Combination Division One in the 2017-18 season.


My visit

Monday 24th July 2017

My day down to East Sussex was underway as I took the train from Victoria down to Lewes. The journey took place with a constant irritating noise as a woman just up the carriage did an excellent Sybil Fawlty impression.

She was hammering the poor bloke opposite into submission as it was time to change trains for Seaford. I’m sure they mentioned they were sailing from Newhaven, so I wasn’t too upset to find peace and tranquility further up the connection.


Having Arrived in Seaford I found myself wandering through the maze of small streets in the pretty little town by the sea by using my Google Maps App. The only problem with that method was I didn’t realise some streets were little more than alleys.

Eventually I found myself on track and entering The Crouch; which was a public park with a football ground. The gates were open on all sides; an old couple were even walking across the pitch taking a short cut with their shopping.


It was a neat and tidy set up with the club buildings containing a small overhang by the entrance in the bottom corner. A neat stand with seats was over on the far side. The rest of the ground was open flat grass and concrete standing.

When I say flat; I mean without any big elevated slopes. However, there was a huge slope across the pitch from the stand side. I could imaging that could have been a bit of an advantage to the home side?


I completed a full lap of the ground to take photos. Three local youths were occupying the home bench smoking something a tad stronger than the average fags. Once done I departed out of the top gate and caught the number 10 bus on Sutton Road towards Newhaven.




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