Gatwick FC was formed in September 2003 by a committed group of residents at No 1 City Place.  The idea was born out of a desire to play Sunday football regularly about twice a month in a league that would be suitable to our standard.  Unfortunately, the law would not permit us to play against under 10’s girls nor over 70’s men and so we found ourselves entering The Millennium 2000 Sunday Football League.  A few of the founder members found themselves in the finding founders “Founders club” trying to find other players to find other founder members:  We found them.

So a committed committee was born with a Mr Burns look-a-like, Bob Page, chairing the er, chair (excellent); a maths expert (with a real GCSE!) diverse in finance, James Griffiths; a secretary who does his fair share of sniping, James Seager; a Manager of the Bob Paisley school of movement, Gary Robinson; and a vice secretary, Matt Robinson, to be the secretary’s bitch.  They went about building the team but then someone pointed out that it would actually be better getting players to play, rather than attempting to build some mock army of mutated footballers constructed from body parts found in Northgate, Crawley.  This suggestion was put to a vote and narrowly succeeded; a football army of the undead would never really be able to stick together during a match.  True.  The core of the team would therefore come from another graveyard, British Telecom. 

After refused sponsorship from a leading telecommunications company based in Britain that may or may not have been mentioned beforehand, (legal tightrope completed); the team who were now 8 strong enlisted the help of all their friends.  Thus a squad was formed with 18 strong loyal leaders - devoted, committed, reliable, strong, responsible, dependable, truthful, steadfast and trustworthy.  After only 10 of them turned up for the first game it was decided to open the squad out a little further; and the squad now stands at healthy 23.  We formed chiefly to have some good old fun on a cold winter’s morning playing enthusiastically after a debauched drunken Saturday night out and embracing the lead ball as it flies through the cold winters air, through the mist, to hit us squarely on our stinging legs: What other way is there to have fun?   The committee founded the rules and the website and then battle was ready to commence.  Some where scared that the might of the league and the inexperience of our team would be too much for us lonely minnows and we’d be swallowed up by the huge task in front of us, but in the immortal words of Yoda:  “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship.”    

Gatwick FC feels the force.