Roffey - Chennells Brook

Roffey FC

Chennells Brook

Bartholomew Way

Roffey

Horsham 

West Sussex

RH12 5JL

07763 973101

Official Website

Twitter

Ground Number: 1174
Tuesday 18th April 2023
Roffey 2-3 Horsham YMCA
Southern Combination Premier

ROFFEY FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1901 and started out in the Horsham League. They won the title twice in the 1920s and then twice more in the 1950s. The team sealed the title with a 100% record in 1955. They joined the Crawley & District League in 1969, winning the title in 1982. They joined the Mid-Sussex League in 2005 and were a roaring success. They won Divisions 3, 2 & 1 in successive years between 2008 & 2010. They then made the step up to the Sussex League, now called the Southern Combination. Starting in the third tier at step 7. Despite finishing bottom in their first season, by 2016, they had finished as runners-up to AFC Varndeanians. This would normally mean promotion but without the facilities in place, they had to wait until 2019 and a third-place finish to go up. Their first two seasons at step 6 were interrupted due to the pandemic. Last season, they made up for the lost time by winning the title. Whatever happens this season, their debut at step 5 will produce a record finish and they've given themselves a fighting chance of staying up with a recent good run.

The club made their FA Cup debut this season but crashed 4-0 at Lancing. They've also lost both times they have played in the FA Vase. In terms of local cups, they won the Southern Combination Division 2 Cup in 2014, the Mid-Sussex Football League Senior Charity Cup in 2015, the Horsham Junior Charity Cup twice, the Horsham Senior Charity Cup twice and the Floodlit Cup twice. Roffey is northeast of the centre of Horsham and as a hamlet dates back to at least the 13th century, with taxation records of 1296 showing 18 liable people in the area. The current population of the area of Roffey is just over 13,000.

MY VISIT 

Roffey had long been a target for me, with it being my closest unvisited ground that had floodlights. This made it ideal for a quick jaunt with Colin in midweek. The problem was, it rarely came up as an option. With the Southern Combination Premier being a smaller 20-team league, this was understandable, but their games always seemed to clash with a Wycombe home game that I'd committed to with a season ticket. There had also been a couple of occasions when I'd been thwarted due to the weather. But finally, on this Tuesday, the opportunity came along. I'd originally been planning on going to Heyford Athletic in Northampton with Anwar but he pulled out the Monday after agreeing the previous night. I then had Woodcote pencilled in on my own, a basic venue, but one I wanted to visit to go towards completing the Hellenic League.

However, all my plans changed on Monday evening during an unexpected revisit to Stratford. I'd originally been intending on Hartpury University, another long-term target but this was called off due to someone cutting through an electricity cable. Instead, it was no new tick for me, but at least I saved myself a wasted journey. It was during that journey that I found out that Martin had pulled out of taking Colin to Rushden & Higham due to work. So he asked me to take him to Roffey, but not before having another go at trying to persuade Martin to change his decision. The day of the game was my usual rest day from work and my usual walk to town and back including some great Thai fishcakes for lunch. The afternoon was spent doing the research for this blog before I left at 5.

The journey on the M25 had delays, but nothing horrendous. We'd both fancied an Indian takeaway but the area was very limited for food options. In the end, we settled for Chinese for the second night in a row, with me having house-special chow mein and duck spring rolls. It was on the pricier side at £11.20 but we took it back to the ground to eat. Google Maps did us dirty, expecting us to stop on the bypass and walk through some trees. We eventually found the ground and although parking was very tight, we were guided and everyone at the club was super friendly. It was a very pleasant venue, similar to Lingfield in that it was tree-lined. Entry was £7 with a decent programme. After having my Chinese, the highlight the duck spring rolls. I also got some chips from the tea bar and these were excellent for £1.50. The lady had a lovely friendly dog which wandered around the ground. In our usual game of matching the kits to different teams, we decided we were watching Chelsea v Fulham.

This was to be a real local derby, with just three miles door to door. The hosts were sitting bottom of the table with just 4 wins and 18 points accrued so far. However, they still had the chance of avoiding relegation if they finished second-bottom and teams in other leagues did worse. The visitors were 12th and had accrued 40 points. Roffey had made their escape possible with some great results, winning four of their last six. Their last game had been a 2-2 draw at home to AFC Uckfield Town on Saturday. Horsham YMCA's form had been a little more patchy, with two wins in their last six. On Saturday, they'd lost 2-1 at Bexhill United. The visitors had the better of the game and they took the lead on 15 minutes, a square ball from the right being put home from a few yards out by Luke Roberts. Horsham YMCA had the ball in the net again six minutes later, but it was ruled out for offside. The visitors did double their lead on 26 minutes, a miskick by the Roffey keeper falling straight to the feet of Roberts who gobbled the chance up for his and his team's second. Roffey pulled a goal back on 30 minutes, an attack down the left, a ball in and a shot by Kelvin Lucas blasted into the left-hand side of the goal. Roffey had been first-class hosts but they'd been second-best on the pitch. It was another keeper error on 69 minutes that looked like the game was confirmed in favour of the visitors. An innocuous-looking shot went under the gloveman's foot as he tried to clear the ball. It turned out to be an own goal by Jamie Wanstall. The game was still not over though. On 82 minutes, slack defending allowed Jamie Maunder to nip in and reduce the arrears.

It had been a feisty local derby, well handled by the officials. The official attendance was given as 70 but it felt like way more than that. It was 9.45 by the time we got going, but I needed petrol. It was a bit of a detour but I headed to Applegreen in Crawley. Here, the unleaded was a very pocket friendly 133.8 a litre> This was 12p less a litre than I paid 10 days ago and the cheapest fuel I've bought since October 2021. We were in a good mood as we headed for home, listening to Three Counties Radio. It was nice news as Wycombe had triumphed 2-1 at Cambridge United. I've not seen my own team as much this season and aside from the Covid-hit season of 2020/21, this is the least amount of Chairboys games I've seen in one season since I started watching football in 1991. Although I've only missed two home league games, I've not been to an away game in over a year. Back to tonight, there was further happy news with Milton Keynes losing at home to Charlton, sadly this does not look like enough to send them down. Football gave way to our usual soundtrack of Greatest Hits Radio and I dropped Colin off at 11.,15. I was home 15 minutes later, typing my blog and watching YouTube before bed, me aiming to get to sleep at 1 am.

THE GROUND

CHENNELLS BROOK is a delightful venue, set in the middle of the woods. The standard arena-style stand is there, this holds 100 in tip-up blue seats. But from there, it gets far better and unique. The pitch is fully railed and there is further cover behind one goal. There's a tea bar with a good range at fair prices, including great chips. A bar with a range of drinks is available, but unusually, the clubhouse is outside. This was extremely pleasant on a mild evening and there were all kinds of wooden furniture to sit and eat or drink at. Some of this is carved out of tree trunks and it feels more like you are on holiday than at a football game. The people at the club are friendly and helpful and although the car park is fairly small, they make great use of the space.