Lordswood

Lordswood FC is a non-league football club from the Chatham suburb of the same name that was formed in 1968, initially playing at Cliffe Woods and competing in the Rochester and District League.

At the beginning of the 1970’s Lordswood Cricket Club joined forces with the football club to form the Lordswood Sports and Social Club after acquiring their present land for pitches. A clubhouse was built in 1977 as the rugby and pétanque sections were added.

The team won successive promotions as champions to reach the Premier Division of the Rochester and District League in 1981-82. A further promotion to the Senior Division was achieved in 1989-90.

After a period of consolidation and improvement, the Lords were elected to the Kent League for the 1996-97 season. The jump in status proved to be testing, as the club twice avoided demotion with an eighth place a highlight in 2005-06 after ground improvements had been carried out.

The club was placed in the newly formed Southern Counties East League for the 2013-14 campaign, with former Football League professional, Jason Lillis, leading the side as manager to the fourth round of the FA Vase as well as good runs in other competitions before departing to Whitstable Town with several players.

Simon Halsey took over team affairs looking to rebuild the side before Lillis returned before the end of the 2014-15 campaign, lasting less than a year. James Collins was manager in 2015-16 as the Lords finished fourth in the competition.

This performance saw Lordswood gain a place in the Premier Division after the league was enlarged. Collins’ success led to him moving to Cray Valley PM, with former player Richard Styles replacing him. Three steady seasons ensued before the appointment of Darren Anslow.

The 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons both ended early owing to the Coronavirus pandemic with Lordswood placed towards the bottom end of the table. Neil Hunter had been appointed as manager in May 2020. 

Hunter departed in December 2021 to be replaced by Richard Dimmock who oversaw an improvement in performances as Lordswood retained their status. Former Football League player Nicky Southall took over the managers role in December 2023 taking the team to a midtable position.

Lordswood FC will play in the Southern Counties East League Premier Division in the 2024-25 season.

My visit

Lordswood 0 Chatham Town 3 (Tuesday 1^st June 2021) Post Lockdown Medway Tournament (att: 344)

I’d been at the Kent Intermediate Cup Final at Whitstable, where Lordswood Reserves lifted the trophy a couple of weeks previously, when some jovial chaps told me about this five team competition. As soon as I got home, I did some research.

This local derby fixture billed as “el Chavico” was just the job. No work on Tuesday after finishing my night shift and the following day off. It also offered up a long overdue opportunity of a friends reunion.

I hadn’t seen my fellow Scarborough fan Simon Keane for getting on ten years. I got in touch and he managed to wangle the late afternoon and evening out. The sun was shining as I awoke and fed before heading to St Pancras.

What a valuable addition the javelin train to Kent had become. It cost a couple of quid more, but it was well worth it. I alighted at Rochester station, where my pal was awaiting and ready to give me a brief look at what was a welcome surprise of the town.

Rochester makes up the Medway conurbation with Chatham, Strood, Rainham and Gillingham and has always caught my interest when travelling through on the train. I was eager to learn more.

We sat outside Ye Arrow pub catching up with a beautiful view of the Castle and Cathedral across the way. The vibrant High Street was pretty and had a wide range of independent shops. I learned that Rochester was a favourite of Charles Dickens.

We’d missed the Sweeps Festival a few weeks previously which apparently fills the streets as Morris Dancers and the like put on displays. Not to worry, we were more interested in some sort of libation celebration.

It was a shock to see the Wetherspoon Golden Lion with a queue outside. It was disappointing that the Flippin’ Frog micropub was closed as we moved into Chatham. However, The Dead Pigeon was open further along.

In truth, it was a bit too cool for school for our tastes though the American IPA on cask was OK. Simon’s lager not his favourite ever, but you live and learn. We continued to The Thomas Waghorn.

This fine Wetherspoon’s building saw former use as a post office. It was roomy and the ales were fine without too much of a choice being on offer. It was perfectly located for our bus to the match from the station a couple of minutes away.

The 166 service took over half an hour as I got to saw lots more of the area. Simon regaled me with tales of when he formerly played at venues in the area and his current coaching role trying to teach his lad some discipline.

Our lady driver told us to stay on the bus when we were about to jump off as she’s drop us by the entrance. What a good sort, though she was less impressed that we were going to football. She played for the rugby side. There was no way I was going to argue with her!

Admission to the tidy Bill Bishop Memorial Stadium was £5 with a tournament programme produced by the host club a further couple of quid. I picked up an interesting free grassroots football paper. The snack bar was queue free, which was a result. My cheeseburger and tea hot the spot for £4.50.

We decided to take up a position further up the near side touchline, past the cover and seated stand. The rest of the ground was rather hemmed in, with no spectator access behind the far goal. We got the last of the sun, which was most pleasant with a cricket game going on over the fence.

The turf was rather long with the pitch bumpy in parts which didn’t enhance too much flowing football, but it was still a pleasure to be there. It was good to see the tournament continue to attract football starved fans.

I expected an away win. It went pretty much to form despite Chatham not fielding their full first team. Lordswood managed to frustrate them and stay in the contest until the opening goal ten minutes before the interval.

Reece Butler passed to Jon Pilbeam who crossed for Dan Bradshaw to score for the Chats. Chandler Kasai responded immediately for the Lords as his effort was cleared off the line. That would be as close as his team would get all night.

We both thought that the star man was Chatham winger Ryan Hayes. He made room and didn’t waste the ball. Even if he became slightly frustrated at his teammates reluctance to feed him at times.

He crossed for Pilbeam to double the lead in the additional time at the end of the first half. We didn’t bother to trek across to the clubhouse at the break. We took up a position on the opposite side of the pitch as I took in the impressive sports hub.

Lordswood brought on a very young full back to try and deal with Hayes, who skipped inside and curled a lovely effort into the corner to finish off the scoring on fifty-six minutes before swapping flanks.

Several substitutions were made by both benches as the game became even more scrappy. Chatham happy with the points and Lordswood doing their best. We decided to make a get away by taxi before full time. Oh, for the joys of modern phones and their Apps.

We returned to the Waghorn, where a helpful fella made sure we got excellent service as I thought the 22:10 train would get me back early, only to realise it was the slow train much to my embarrassment.

Time for one more then before I clambered aboard the fast one back to St Pancras, still leaving time for last orders back home. A grand few hours out!