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Hastingleigh Football 

March 19th 1943 Newspaper Clips from Kentish Express

From the Home Guard news :	From general advertisements:

Newspaper Report of Evington Football  transcribed from the Kentish Express Feb 26th 1963    The Young family keeps Evington going EVINGTON, the football club of hill-top Hastingleigh, the smallest village to have a team in the Ashford and district league, is struggling for survival.With only 13 playing members, the club is often unable to field a full side. In one match this season  against Pluckley- they had only eight men, and what was expected to be a close game ended in a 5-0 win for Pluckley. We want it to be a team of players from Hastingleigh, secretary Tim Young told the Tuesday Express, but every soccer player in the village belongs to the club, so it seems we will have to recruit players from outside. Without the Young family Evington certainly could not carry on. Secretary Tim, who is 27 and unmarried, captains the team and his three brothers Ken (19) Bobby (18) and Eddie (16) are also in the side. They all live at windswept New Barn Farm, on top of the North Downs, where Tim assists the owner, his father Mr T. H.Young. Eddie, an apprentice electrician with Lenfield Engineering Co.Ltd. Ashford, is the youngest player in the team. Another member of the Young family, Tim's cousin John, has played for Evington since the club was re-formed in 1948.     A Character Veterans of the side are utility player Frank Golding and inside left Sidney Newman, both in their early 30s. Evington have at least one distinction. They claim to have a player with the hardest head in the league. He is Ginger Golding, the character of the club. When he is struck on the head or face by a hard-driven ball, he just shakes his head, smiles and carries on where anyone else would be laid out. Evington's pitch is at New Barn Farm and the players change in one of the spacious barns. There has been a team in the village for over 50 years, but like several other clubs, no records have been kept of the early years.   Success In the season when the club re-started they won the Ashford Junior League Division III championship and in the following season they were runners up in Division II. The club reached the final of the Ashford Junior Cup in 1951 when they were beaten by Ruckinge. Five years ago, the club was 8 Pounds in the red, but now have a credit balance of 20 Pounds. Expenses are kept down by players travelling to away matches in cars owned by three team mates. Click on newspaper clip twice to enlarge to full size.