Hassocks Football Club wins Southern Combination League title

By Scott McCarthy

Hassocks Football Club 2024-25, history makers. For the first time ever, the Robins have won the Southern Combination League title – meaning Isthmian League football will be played at the Hassocks Hotel Beacon Ground in 2025-26. Also for the first time.

The title was wrapped up via a 3-0 win against nearest pursuers Crowborough Athletic on March 29th. Hassocks then got their hands on the trophy on Easter Monday, lifted by captain Harvey Blake after another 3-0 victory against local rivals Haywards Heath Town.

Huge crowds of around 800 attended both those matches. And easily swatting aside a Crows team that f inished runners up and a Heath outfit with the biggest budget in the division who were pre-season favourites to win the title sums up the campaign.

The Robins have dominated the division, racking up the third-biggest points tally this century after Eastbourne Borough in 1999-00 and Horsham in 201516. Two giants of Sussex non-league football.

Hassocks have scored over 100 goals in all competitions and shipped an average of under one per game in the league.

All of which has been done with a team of local players not paid a penny. 11 of the 36 used by James Westlake this season came through the youth system at the Beacon Ground. A strike rate you will not find bettered at many clubs.

It has also helped forge a special connection between the squad and supporters. Something best seen when everyone decamped to the Hassocks Hotel for a Champions Party which turned into players and fans singing karaoke together.

Still to come is the small matter of the Peter Bentley League Cup final on Saturday 10th May. The Robins will take on Crowborough at Peacehaven & Telscombe in a 1pm kick off, aiming to complete a famous double.

After that, Westlake and the committee will start planning for life on and off the pitch in the Isthmian League South East Division, step four of the non-league pyramid.

Hassocks will face the likes of Hastings United, Bognor Regis Town, Margate and Sittingbourne. Maybe even a certain Burgess Hill Town, if the Hillians do not win promotion themselves to the Isthmian Premier.

It will be a whole new challenge as our small village club takes on huge towns who are watched by thousands of people at home games. But a challenge Westlake and this history-making squad has earned the right to take on.

A great fixture result for Hassocks FC this Boxing Day - 2022

Hassocks Football Club

By Scott Mccarthy

Boxing Day football is one of the great Christmas traditions in the United Kingdom. And yet it is one Hassocks has been starved of since 2018 thanks to the Southern Combination League fixtures computer giving the Robins a run of three December 26th away days in a row. Which is why there was such excitement when the 2022-23 schedule came out and the Beacon was given a Boxing Day game to host.

Crowds are always large and the 11am kick off time means that everyone attending can be back home by 1pm, having got some much needed fresh air (and hair of the dog from the Robins’ Bar if required) before round two of turkey, sprouts and the rest commences.

The other reason why non-league football on Boxing Day is so popular is because fixtures are reserved for local derbies. That added spice of friends playing each other on the pitch, colleagues supporting different teams from the sidelines and bragging rights up for grab will warm up even the coldest December morning.

Hassocks against Burgess Hill Town games on Boxing Day are the stuff of legend. When the Hillians won promotion to the Isthmian League, the Robins against St Francis Rangers became a staple of festive football with entertainment always guaranteed. In more recent times, Hassocks have taken on Haywards Heath Town over the holiday season. With no other Mid Sussex club in the Southern Combination Premier this season, it is Steyning Town who will provide the Boxing Day opposition. Geographically this may not be much of a local derby, but the two have frequently swapped players and managers in the past for there to be enough of an edge to the fixture. The similarities between the clubs provide another layer of intrigue. Both have struggled over recent years until this season, when both appointed new managers who have transformed their team’s fortunes to the point that both are eyeing up a top five finish. All the ingredients are there for a classic Boxing Day spent watching non-league football. It would be great to see you at the Beacon enjoying it.

Hassocks Football Club appoints new coach

Hassocks Football Club are delighted to announce the appointment of James Westlake as the Robins’ new first team head coach. A hugely popular figure at the Beacon, Westlake has made 228 appearances for Hassocks across three spells spread over 11 years. He is planning to combine his new role with continuing as a player. Westlake first joined the club in 2010, signed from St Francis Rangers by Mickey Jewell. He was a mainstay of Jewell’s Hassocks side who finished fourth in the Premier Division in 2011-12, the club’s highest ever league position, before he returned to St Francis in 2013. A brief spell with Haywards Heath Town followed before Westlake re-joined the Robins midway through the 2015-16 season to help Hassocks escape relegation in the second half of the campaign under Mark Dalgleish and Phil Wickwar.

Westlake scaled back his football commitments in 2018, to focus on his running career. Two years later, he was lured back to football when appointed assistant manager of Loxwood. When his former Hassocks teammate, Spencer Slaughter, left Plaistow Road in 2021, Westlake soon followed to sign for Hassocks for a third time. The Robins were deep in relegation trouble, but his return helped spark another turnaround to finish 16th, some nine points clear of the bottom two. When the 2022-23 Premier Division season gets underway on Saturday 30th July, Westlake will aim to build on that improved second half of the campaign under his predecessor, Brad Sweetman. He has named Phil Gault and Tom Hughes as his assistants. Hassocks stalwart Phil Wickwar will continue to offer matchday support.