Rusthall

Rusthall - A Brief History

The club were first registered with the Kent County Football Association on June 17th 1899 when the club joined the newly formed Tunbridge Wells League. The “Rustics” first success came in 1905 when the league was won in convincing style. The 1920’s saw the club up among the best locally with the Kent Junior Cup Group “A” being won in 1924. The club were champions of the Tunbridge Wells League in 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926 and again in 1930. The success continued through the 1930’s with more league titles and another Kent Junior Cup in 1935.

The Rustics were unable to continue these successes after the War and these were lean times for the club and in the 1970’s the club were close to folding but just managed to keep going largely thanks to the hard work of the then secretary Peter Smith with just one side in the Tonbridge League.

The 1980’s saw in influx of new young players and in 1982 the club won Division One of the Tonbridge League, at this point Derek Seal took on the roll of Chairman. One of his first tasks was to get the club into the Kent Amateur (now Kent County) League and the club lifted the Division Two Title at the first attempt in 1983-84. The success followed in the 1984-85 season when the Division One Title was secured on the last day of the season with a 1-0 win at Paddock Wood. After several embarrassing incidents at the Council owned Southwood Road recreation ground the club obtained the use of a field at Jockey Farm in the village. After a lot of hard work by the committee the ground met the League’s ground grading criteria for Intermediate football. By now the club were running three senior sides.

An amalgamation with Rusthall Boys FC was a big step in making the club what it is today, the Rustics currently run three men’s teams and close to 20 youth teams from Under 6 through to Under 18.

Work at Jockey Farm continues at pace as the club strive to improve facilities and a Directors lounge is now up and running and has been named the Derek Seal Suite in memory of our late Chairman who had the idea to build a ground at Jockey Farm. As soon as the 2016 - 17 season finished contractors moved in and levelled the pitch and installed new drainage and the whole area was re-seeded. A new 125 seater stand is now installed and has been named in memory of former President Bob Woodhams , a new fence and path installed on the far side of the ground along with new dugouts. And both dressing rooms have been refurbished. The ground will now be called The Jockey Farm Stadium.

All this has been achieved by a small group of dedicated volunteers as the club strive to achieve their motto……

“TO BE THE BEST FOOTBALL CLUB POSSIBLE”

In the 2016/17 Season Rusthall finished in second place in the SCEFL First Division. This meant promotion to the Premier where the following year we luckily held onto our place at this level despite finishing in 19th place. The following season there was no such luck though as another 19th position saw the club relegated to the First Division.

A quick return was only denied by the Coronovirus Pandemic - where the season was declared null and void with the Club in an excellent position for promotion.
With the same happening again in 2020/21 the FA chose to combine results from the two unfinished seasons to reward the best performers and this meant we were granted promotion and a place back in the Premier Division for the 2021/22 campaign.
Relegation was narrowly averted in our first year back at Step 5 but 2022/23 provided us with an excellent 6th placed finish.

We now go into 2023/24 excited by what is in store for our Club.