FOOTBALL: Specials Start Another Season
While most local football teams are coming towards the end of a long, wet winter season, the 1066 Specials club opened theirs last Saturday (7 March) at Bexhill College.
The club, which will mark its 24th anniversary later this year, offers both match participation and coaching to children (from age 5 upwards) and adults with special needs, mental health challenges, and physical disabilities.
Paul Anderson has stepped down after serving six years as Specials Chairman (with nine years of volunteer contributions before that). The new chair is Duncan Nolan, who has also served 15 years with the club, revitalising operations and ensuring robust membership. He comes to the principal role after a notably successful career in club management – both in mainstream and disability football.
The Specials have, in the past, had 90+ players (counting both children and adults) on their books, with 65 or more attending sessions every weekend. Many former youngsters, now in their 20s and 30s, have gone on to play and thrive in mainstream football.
The club used to run teams competing in (and sometimes winning) local disability leagues centred in Maidstone and in West Sussex, but funding to cover the travel and other costs of this was lost after the Covid-19 pandemic. Save for one-off events, which include a charity day out at Hollington, matches are now only played at the home pitch in Bexhill.
Here, Specials teams for ages 12 to 50+ play friendlies through the season against local walking football teams, including the Old Bexhillians (OBs), Monday Night Walkers, and the Walking Wednesdays. Robert Carey of the OBs, comments: “The Specials are, by their very name, special, and a series of matches have taken place where the emphasis has been fun and great spirit between the two sets of players. The results have been somewhat irrelevant – the sessions have been enjoyed by many OB men and women players.”
The Specials also run a team for 6-12 year-olds, while the OBs have a senior side of over
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