FOOTBALL: Turn around at the Pilot Field
HUGH SULLIVAN
As is known to all who have followed the fortunes of Hastings United FC in recent years, there have been two major attempts to move its ground from the Pilot Field in Elphinstone Road to pastures new. The first potential destination was the playing fields of Bulverhythe, where prospective construction of a new sports complex including cricket and hockey pitches was to be financed by house-building on the lower tier: the project was abandoned when the developer withdrew. Alternative plans to plant a new stadium at Tilekiln playing fields were initially encouraged by site owners Hastings Borough Council, but then blocked.
Freddie Legg scores for Hastings at Pilot Field earlier this month
Owners at that time, Daren Burney and Peter Sherlock, departed, and the incoming directors led by Dean and Ben White inherited a club that had no choice but to stay put. Its players–men’s, women’s, and disability and inclusive teams plus a host of juniors–seemed to be thriving, but with infrastructure and facilities in desperate need of uplift.
Two years on from their takeover, little has changed on the surface at the Pilot Field. The central grass pitch, suffering somewhat from summer drought but newly mown for the opening of the 2025/26 season, will accommodate men’s and women’s first team games again until next April, as well as a new under-23s team and Isthmian under-18s. The large concrete stand, on the right hand side as you enter the ground, will celebrate its hundredth anniversary this year, though that’s likely to be its last for accommodating seated spectators following adverse structural reports. An executive box at the far end of the stand provides a temporary administrative office more practical than the warren of back rooms beneath.
ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
Behind the scenes, more radical alterations are being planned, as the club look for alternative options.
The main stand is to be cleared at the end of this season – whether for complete demolition or for repurposing remains to be resolved.
But at eighth tier level (United’s current status in the South East Division of the Isthmian League), clubs are required to provide covered accommodation for a minimum of 300 spectators, with seats for 150 of them. At seventh tier (should United be promoted back to the Isthmian Premier), a minimum of 500 would need to be accommodated, 250 of them seated.
In order to fulfil these requirements, the club intends to transfer the current seating to the Steve Smith stand – the covered area beyond the bar to the left of the ground entrance – and in due course (over next summer if there’s enough cash available to do it) turn the pitch around by 90 degrees, so that this seating would again be side on rather than behind the goal. That repositioning would free up sufficient space at the far end of the current pitch for a second nine-a-side arena to be laid out for training and for junior teams to play on. Both new pitches would be provided with a 3G surface.
Where’s the money to come from? The past relocation plans were to have been financed largely by sale of the Pilot Field for house-building. With that prospect scotched by the borough council, the club is now looking primarily to the Football Foundation, a charity jointly sponsored by the FA, the Premier League and Government. According to the Foundation’s website (strapline: “25 years championing grassroots”), money will be invested “where the need is greatest and the greatest impact will be made”. Ben White has no doubt that Hastings as a town is at or near the top on both counts.
He points out that the club has three-star FA accreditation – as did only around 8% of other clubs in England when it was achieved in January 2024. This has been earned by the width of its provision encompassing around 500 participants across adult and junior teams of both sexes, an inclusive and disability team, and walking football for seniors. Last season its men’s team attracted some of the highest attendances for home games in the Isthmian Premier League despite poor results and ultimate relegation. The loyalty of its fan base is renowned across Kent and Sussex.
But in terms of facilities, United are feeding on scraps. There isn’t currently a single full-size 3G pitch in the borough of Hastings (nor 9v9 or 7v7, come to that), while the remaining council pitches on grass at Tilekiln and Sandhurst are desperately under-maintained with inadequate parking, dilapidated changing rooms and no spectator provision. Not only United teams but others in the community at all levels lack training facilities; all are compelled to travel out of the borough–to Rye Rugby Club, Bexhill Academy or Battle Sports Centre–to find pitches for training, and many for home matches.
“Our plans have been called ‘ambitious’”, says Ben White. “I don’t think so. I would call them ‘necessary and overdue’.”
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