Peacehaven and Telscombe FC lift the Sussex cup that almost got forgotten

A backlog of fixtures meant numerous ties in the RUR Charity Cup got delayed – and when the final few stages of the cup still had to be played as the league season ended, organisers even asked clubs if they still wanted to play to a conclusion.

Peacehaven and Telscombe were one of those who did – and they ended up lifting the silverware after beating SCFL premier champions Broadbridge Heath in the final.

It was quite a year for The Tye in knockout competitions – as we reported in the spring, they also reached the quarter-finals of the FA Vase and were dreaming of following in Littlehampton’s footsteps from last year and reaching the Wembley final, only to be knocked out in the last eight.

Shutt takes up the story of how Peacehaven won a competition some teams had given up on. He said: “The organisation from Sussex FA in the running of this cup has been a nightmare. We played our last 32 game back in October and then heard nothing about next round despite contacting them numerous times.

"Then the week after I stood my players down they contacted every club still in it and asked “Would we like to continue or pull out with no charge?”

"We were due to play Lancing in last 16 but they pulled out. We then got a bye to play Hassocks 10 days after our season had finished.

"Player availability was limited with holidays and injuries but both teams played a decent quality game that looked destined for penalties when 17-year-old Billy Oliver smashed low past Hassocks goalkeeper in the 90th minute to see us through to the semi-final.

"We were away to Eastbourne Utd but despite us now being in May the game got called off when we were on our way – due to a waterlogged pitch. We went again on the Tuesday night and again with different personnel available we went into it with a big push to get to the final.

"The goal came from Emmanuel Osei-Asomah – the defender has played in every game but two this season and scored his first and the game’s only goal with a great solo run and strike which was fortunate enough to deflect and beat the Eastbourne goalkeeper.

"Now we had a final to play in nine days later – a whole 11 months after pre-season started. It is the third time in four years we had played in the RUR Cup final, having won it in 2019 and getting to the final 2020 before the season ended because of Covid.

"This year we wanted to end with silverware in what had been a very successful season in the cups – with a semi final in the Peter Bentley and of course a quarter-final in the FA vase. Now came our last push to cap it off.

"The game was never going to be easy playing Broadbridge Heath, the league winners, but we were confident having already beat them twice this season.

"The match didn’t go to plan, it was scrappy and there were mistakes by both teams but neither team really looked like scoring – then just like in the quarter-final against Hassocks with the game set to go to a penalty shootout, Max Hollobone popped up in the box in the 88th minute to score the only goal and win the cup for Peacehaven & Telscombe FC.”

The Tye finished their SCFL premier season in eighth spot – altough were only four points behind fourth-placed Eastbourne United.

Shutt added: “The league placing has a disappointing number next to our name as we fell away in March and April after the disappointment of exiting the FA Vase.

"But all in all we played 62 games, we won a cup, got 31 clean sheets along the way, and crowds are good. Everything is in a good place at Peacehaven.”