Everyone at the club can look back at the 1999-2000 season and feel proud of our achievements both on and off the field.

On the field, the 1's achieved yet another Arthur Dunn Cup success beating Old Foresters 3-0 as well as securing a mid-table position. The 2's reached the Junior League cup final for the second time in three years but unfortunately lost 2-1 in a very close encounter to an eager Charterhouse side and also finished in the top half of division two.

Off the field, the committee took the decision to move the 2's from their 'home pitch' at Edenbridge to join the 1's at Cobham which, although we knew would be expensive, would be vital for the future of the club. To have both sides at Cobham and to continue with our organised training at Battersea every Wednesday night has been made possible thanks to the contributions from a number of new members via our direct debit system. Without these monies and our existing contributors, it would be impossible to run the club. Our thanks must go to our president Jeremy Taylor for his efforts in helping with this much needed exercise.

In return, we will provide all members with a pre-season newsletter, updated league tables and Arthur Dunn and dinner dates as and when available. Unfortunately, as a number of members have requested in the past, a fixture card is impossible to produce. The Arthurian League themselves do not provide one and we are only ever aware of three fixtures in advance at any time.

Last year's dinner was again well attended with thanks again to Nick Rimmer for rallying up his many troops. This years dinner will again be held at the SAS Radison hotel, Portman Square, W1 on Friday 30 March 2001. Dinner invitations will be sent out in January by our organiser Simon Kelsey. A 'well known personality' has been shortlisted as our guest speaker.

Saturday 29 April 2000, what a day! The Arthur Dunn Cup final at Motspur Park with Old Foresters our opponents. A magnificent performance by the LOB's ensured a 3-0 victory, with a quite outstanding hatrick by lan Brown- Peterside. Thanks to all our supporters for attending and I'm sure you enjoyed it! It has to be said that home or away Lancing are without doubt the best supported side and obviously this rubs off on the team. Our third success in 8 years and, alongside Old Salopians and Old Foresters, we have dominated the competition for the past decade.

We currently have a very strong committee running the club. Special mention must go to club secretary Pieter Heyn for all the admin work he does to ensure the club runs smoothly. James Simpson has done an efficient job organising the fixtures and referees over the past few years. Ben Walls has taken over his position for next season.

It is last season's club captains, Adam Pierce and John Dovell that deserve special mention. It is not just captaining the sides but the management that goes with it and they both thoroughly deserved the success they achieved.

www.lobfc.co.uk. our own website has been a huge success. Phil White and Matt Gibson put in a great deal of their time to organise the site and have it regularly updated with our results, forthcoming fixtures and club events. The site is great fun and informative so do have a look.

Looking forward to the new season 2000-2001, the premier division is looking stronger than ever. Promoted Harrow and Eton have replaced the relegated Malvern and Forest, and both these sides are young and eager. I can not see any weak sides in the division so for Adam Pierce's side, it will be as close as last season. The 2nd XI have a new captain in Ben Copthome. With his enthusiasm and last season's success we can expect another good season.

Our biggest aim this year is to build on the number of players we currently have and to blood some good new talent. The 1st round Arthur Dunn cup draw has paired us against Old Witleians at home with the date pencilled in for Saturday 9 December (1.30PM K.O.). I look forward to seeing you there or at the dinner. Here's to a successful 2000-2001.

Alastair Mercer

Although knock-out cups are probably by their very nature more fun and exciting to win than league titles, there can be few footballing environments where the status of the main cup competition compares so favourably with the league's as in our own. And so by beating Forest 3-0 in the final of the Arthur Dunn Cup last Easter we turned our season into an extremely successful one. Our form in the cup was outstanding as the results suggest: other than an early hiccup against Mill Hill at home, in which we struggled to kill off a game we knew we wouldn't lose, we won all of our games convincingly, with particularly strong performances against Salopians and Forest.

However our league form, and that means most of the games that we played in throughout the year, was very little better than the previous season, and we again flirted strongly with relegation. Five wins and five losses sounds better than it really was, as two of those victories came against Malvem, who scored a single point all season.

The early signs were good, with a magnificent 3-2 victory over Forest away, won by two late goals by lan Brown-Peterside, who had returned in the close season from Hong Kong. In other games, our biggest problem was finishing teams off, and we were frustrated by a series of 1-1 draws, having outplayed opponents such as Cholms (home and away) and Repton (away). We were not helped by a knee injury to lan Brown-Peterside which kept him out until the New Year. Our next victory was not until December against the eventual champions Brentwood, and it is no coincidence that this game saw Will Rum make his first appearance of the season. He caused havoc with his brother Alex up front and scored in our 2-0 victory.

The results in the second half of the season reflected even more than in the first, the quality of side we were able to put out on any given day. We turned up at Charterhouse with 11 players, which soon became 10 after an injury to Al Mercer, and were thumped 7-0. A month later with relegation staring us in the face, we played Salopians at home with a team that very few teams in the league could have competed with. Nigel Bennett had again answered the club in its hour of need and his very presence in goal resulted in a greater intensity in the play of the whole team. Will Rum had by now become involved regularly, and we put out a team without any real weaknesses. Result - 7-0 to Lancing. That day was however entirely overshadowed by the broken leg suffered by Simon Lees. We all wish him a speedy and full recovery.

Although we won five games to lift the Dunn, as is so often the case in this cup, our competition boiled down to two big ties. We went into the quarter-final against Salopians in hope rather than expectation: our league form had been very poor since the New Year, and our opponents had beaten us convincingly in the previous year's final. With a committed performance we quite simply outfought a Salopians team that were probably expecting to win. After an easy victory over Bradfield in the semi-final, set up a final against Old Foresters. Our 3-0 victory was again the result of a superb performance, although a very different one from the quarter-final. We played our most fluent football of the season in this game, and were able to pass the ball and retain possession in a way that had previously eluded us. Although a great team performance, special mention must go to lan Brown-Peterside for his match winning hat-trick. There were, as always, plenty of chances in the game for both sides, and we won so convincingly because we had the best player on the pitch at putting them away.

I would like to thank all the players for their efforts, and I hope that the taste of success spurs us on to show the passion and skill of our best performances last year throughout the forthcoming season.

Adam Pierce

The 2nd XI started the 1999/2000 campaign with renewed vigour under the guidance of Johnny-Diesel-Dovell (his 2nd period in office), after retaining Div 2 status. Our opening fixture was Brentwood away but with the game coinciding with the opening of Bluewater, (traffic chaos), we kicked off with 8 players, 2-nil down in 10 mins proved too much for the LOB's - a spirited performance led by the experienced Simon Kelsey, but ending in an unfortunate 2-4 defeat.

2 draws followed - our first game at Cobham saw a very respectable 1-1 draw against the eventual champions Eton 2's. A goal for the debut man Dave Greenyer proved very valuable - unfortunately injury in a later game robbed us of more Greenyer appearances. A lousy 1-1 away at Charterhouse saw the LOB's very own TV personality Johnny Wills score an own goal to again rob us of our first win in the new campaign!

One of the best performances of the season followed - a 4-0 drubbing of the Chigs at home, saw the Skip net the first followed by Kels, Ali Lindsay and finally Bullet Bumett getting his first of the campaign. Consistency , however has never been an OL trait - a mixed bag of results followed after the skipper returned from a brief spell in Italy (not Serie A) - At Christmas we were just above the relation places. There was a problem at this time with club goalkeepers. By now the 2's had used almost every outfield player as a substitute keeper - Keysie proving most successful and Billy proving least!

A fantastic 6-0 win over the Toffs (Eton 3's) followed by a Junior Dunn 4-2 win away at Chigs set 2000 up nicely ! The introduction of Ed Davis as sweeper saw Kels push further forward, freeing up Phil 'Cat' White who went on to score a very impressive tally of 8. With the League still proving tough, the 2's looked for cup glory - great wins against Salopians 3-1 and Forest 2-1 saw us in the final of the Junior league cup for the second time in 3 seasons.

The final pitched us against our old foes Charterhouse - sadly a very poor opening 20 mins allowed ' the House' a 2-0 lead , which was always going to be tough to come back from - a brave 2nd half performance saw Bullet's introduction and, not surprisingly a goal, got the LOB's within a hare's breadth - but with Cat hitting the upright and Diesel saving 3 shots (from the same bloke!) off the line the LOB's fell to defeat and 10 pints in the Ship!

We finished the league programme midtable, with a notable double over the Old Cholmleians. Special thanks to Simon Kelsey and Vice Skip Phil "The Cat" White for all their efforts and to Keysie for playing between the sticks every other game! Good luck to Ben Copithorne who has taken over as captain and who I am sure will be a big success.

John 'Diesel' Dovell

I was very touched to receive the splendid claret jug at the Dinner last year. It is not always easy to respond to such a surprise presentation adequately but I very much treasure it - and have made sure that it is never empty, or not for long!

It seems wrong to receive recognition for something which I have so enjoyed over the years. Suffering on the touchline is not everyone's idea of fun but the involvement with the players is something which I look forward to each Saturday - even when I do phone - this was particularly so after our fantastic win the Dunn quarter final last year against the Salopians when I did not phone until very late, suspecting the worse and not wishing to ruin my evening - in Dubai, I think! I then spent a fortune phoning Ken and John Hastings to get the full run down on the game!

I thank Dick Edwards for his kind words at the Dinner itself and I thank Jeremy Taylor and all those who contributed to the jug, whoever they were - I never did get a list but many thanks!

Nick Evans

The first round of the Vets cup drew us up against Old Foresters at their place. With a weakened side we soaked up the pressure for most of the game. Although they had the better chances we defended well and thoroughly deserved a 1-1 draw thanks to a Martin Wyatt goal.

So a replay the next week suited us down to the ground as we could welcome back a number players. Unfortunately a game where we dominated, created numerous chances, gifted the opposition two goals, and finished up losing 3-2. Unbelievable......... it was just one of those days!

For the new season, we have arranged a friendly against Harrow on October 15 at the Bank of England. We are looking for new players over the age of 35 to come and play so please call Neil Grainger - 0207 567 5728 or 0802 202 212.

The first round of the Vets Cup has brought us a home draw against Wellingborough to be played on or before 26 November.

These were the vets who played last year for LOBFC, N Evans, S Theobald, J Theobald , P Sealey, P Bullock, N Bennett, N Bell, N Triggs, M Wyatt, 0 Benz, C Sutherland, R Stallibrass, P Heyn, A Hodgkinson, T Hopcroft.

Neil Grainger

PRELIMINARY ROUND

FIRST ROUND

DATES
Preliminary round on or before 4th November 2000
First round on or before 16th December 2000
Second Round on or before 3rd February 2001
Semi-Finals on or before 3rd March 2001
The Final will be played on a Satruday in April - date and venue to be decided