Title
Winning the Ashford and District League Junior Cup Final
Subject
Sid Gittens
Description
Sid Gittens recounts winning the Ashford and Distirct League Junior Cup Final at Essella Park, Ashford, in 1961, while playing for Ruckinge (beating Brabourne and Smeeth 2-1). Sid also describes Appledore's infamous loss, and what playing for the Ruckinge Men's team meant to him as a young man.
Creator
Michael Romyn
Source
Sid Gittens Oral History Recording
Publisher
Sid Gittens; Michael Romyn
Date
6 March, 2019
Contributor
Sid Gittens; Michael Romyn
Rights
Kent's Sporting Memories
Relation
Sid Gittens Oral History Recording
Format
MP3 file
Type
Sound recording and accompanying photograph
Identifier
Sid Gittens
Duration
4:15
Transcription
SG: And then ultimately, because we’d played together, in 1956 I believe it was, Ruckinge won the cup in the local Ashenden District League and a lot of the players packed up. And so they were reliant on us lads to take their place, and that’s why I myself, I played, I was probably thirteen when I played my first game for Ruckinge. I used to play for the school under-fourteens on the Saturday morning, come home, have a bit of lunch and then ride my bike over to Ruckinge and play for Ruckinge in the afternoon, the men’s team. And we, you’ll have to tell me if I rambling, but we had to – we played, the first season I remember playing, you’ve got a connection here, we lost I believe twelve-one to Appledore and then we beat Appledore by some ridiculous score, that was the only game we won, and that was the only game Appledore won that year. They even made the back page, or it might have even been the front page, of the News of the World on a Sunday – they were getting hammered twenty-five-nil and all that sort of thing. So that season I remember we won one game. But then three years later we’d obviously all matured a little bit and in sixty, sixty-one we won the same cup again, our new team. I was sixteen when I played. We beat a local team, Brabourne and Smeeth, two-one in the final up at the old Essella Park in Ashford, where Ashford Town used to play, and that to us felt like playing at Wembley. It was quite a nice feeling to say the least, yeah.
MR: So when you said you were thirteen playing your first game, that was for the men’s team?
SG: Yeah, for the men’s team, yeah.
MR: What was that like, playing as a thirteen-year-old?
SG: A bit scary bearing in mind I was like a vertical bootlace! Not too much meat on me. But I was only saying to my wife the other day, when I first played football, all these grown men were very supportive of us kids, and they helped us and I’m eternally grateful to them because – and that’s helping us to grow up and what turned me into a man really. Mixing with such nice people. And being treated so nicely and it was good. I can only look back on it as a wonderful time in my life really. Because I moved on from there when I was playing cricket I captained the team over at Warehorne, we didn’t have a team here at Hamstreet, and I was captaining the team at sixteen. Whether it was the influence of mixing with these blokes, not on a regular basis, I was vice-captain. But if, obviously, if the main captain wasn’t about I used to captain the team, and they used to take notice of me. And it was absolutely marvelous, and it’s such a nice way to grow up.
MR: So when you said you were thirteen playing your first game, that was for the men’s team?
SG: Yeah, for the men’s team, yeah.
MR: What was that like, playing as a thirteen-year-old?
SG: A bit scary bearing in mind I was like a vertical bootlace! Not too much meat on me. But I was only saying to my wife the other day, when I first played football, all these grown men were very supportive of us kids, and they helped us and I’m eternally grateful to them because – and that’s helping us to grow up and what turned me into a man really. Mixing with such nice people. And being treated so nicely and it was good. I can only look back on it as a wonderful time in my life really. Because I moved on from there when I was playing cricket I captained the team over at Warehorne, we didn’t have a team here at Hamstreet, and I was captaining the team at sixteen. Whether it was the influence of mixing with these blokes, not on a regular basis, I was vice-captain. But if, obviously, if the main captain wasn’t about I used to captain the team, and they used to take notice of me. And it was absolutely marvelous, and it’s such a nice way to grow up.