Lancing Old Boys Football Club
Many thanks to Nick Evans for providing a right treasure trove of all things Lancing Old Boys and Arthurian League. This page is intended to highlight some of the people and events that have helped to shape this great club, and to be an inspiration to those following in their illustrious footsteps...#UTLOBs
1870s
LOB scores the first ever FA Cup goal!
Jarvis Kenrick makes history when he scores for Clapham Rovers in the First Round of the FA Cup against Upton Park on November 11th 1871, they won the match 3-0. He then moved to Wanderers where he won the FA Cup in 1876, 1877 and 1878 scoring in the '77 and '78 finals.
Meanwhile fellow LOB Charles Wollaston becomes the first player to win the FA Cup five times. Also playing for Wanderers he wins the 1872, 1873, 1876, 1877 and 1878 finals.
In a golden period for Lancing Reginald Birkett (one England cap) and Edgar Field (two caps) both played for Clapham Rovers in the 1879 and 1880 FA Cup Finals, winning the latter. Birkett also scored England's first international try!
1900s
Cuthbert Brisley (Heads 1899-1905) played in both the cricket and football 1st XIs for four years, captaining the football team for the last three. He played for Casuals FC and Corinthians as well as being selected for seven AFA internationals for England. He scored a hat-trick for Corinthians in the first ever AFA Senior Cup Final against the Old Carthusians, no one likes to see that. He also found time to play for Harlequins FC.
In 1928 the mighty LOBS
dispatched Catford Wanderers
9-1 in what the press described
as a "staggering win" in the
Second Round of the
AFA Cup!
1930s
In 1934 the Lancing Old Boys travel to Ipswich
to face the Tractor Boys in the Second Round
of the FA Cup. Their 5-1 loss was watched
by an estimated crowd of just over 5,000.
Note how the LOBs were ahead of their time
wearing squad numbers, none of this one to
eleven nonsense #trailblazers.
If you don't recognise anyone
in this line up the football
report from the 1956 school
magazine might help.
1960s
Obviously Nick Evans didn't
have enough on his plate, or
playing enough football
seeing as he took it upon
himself to help found the
Arthurian League's
representative side.
This jolly up the Thames in 1973 obviously seemed a good idea at the time. Hardly surprising at £2.50 a head for a river cruise that they 'shipped' some well earned club funds!
It seems the cost of living back then was somewhat different judging from Nick's match day accounts. Match fees of just 50p, the referee costing less than the pies, and £7.59 for a smorgasborg of pies and cake washed down with 24 beers!
In May 1985 the 1st XI win the Sussex U19 Cup beating Chichester High 2-1 at Horsham FC under lights.
With LOBs paying just 50p a match, these fines look quite punative.
But at least we were good at
something, top half of the league!
1990s
Yet another fine from the league
although at least this time it was
for poor administration as opposed
to poor technique, or worse.
And a reaction from the LOBs
committee in an attempt
to balance the books.
LOB tours were a thing of beauty, usually to exotic European locations such as Torremolinos, Magaluf, Cascais or Albufeira where we could be playing a team of ex-pros one day Porto's U16s or the local bar staff the next. Occasionally we'd stay closer to home, Brussells for example, which saw multiple arrests for sexual harrasment, or Le Touquet which saw the regional final of Miss Nude France, here's Nick Bell's summary of one of the trips to the Algarve in 1994.
Lancing 1st XI bring home the
Boodle & Dunthorne Cup.
The pre match underdogs come back from a one goal deficit at half-time to beat Bolton 2-1.
Seems a few Vets candidates may have slipped through the net from this squad.
1st XI win 1-0
A few legends here
Not to be, 1-0 OCs
After half a millennium in the game Nick finally gets the recognition that he deserves.
It should be pointed out that this letter was carefully placed at the top of the pile of documents and memorabilia he provided!
Kenneth Arthur Shearwood (honorary LOB)
It would be remiss, and a scandal to not make mention of Ken. Won the FA Amateur Cup twice with Pegasus in 1951 and 1953, both in front of 100,000 at Wembley.
Anyone who played football at Lancing from the fifties onwards couldn't fail to have been influenced by Ken, whether that be full 1st XI match analysis instead of whatever academic class he was supposed to be teaching, or a five minute critique of your own performance at the weekend in a quiet moment.
Won the Arthur Dunn Cup in 1952 with the Salopians
2020s
At the Arthurian Dinner in 2023 Nick Evans was made President of the League.
So who's going to write the next chapter?
