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CLUB HISTORY: In the beginning... There comes a time in a man's life when he feels the need to get up at obscene hours on freezing Sunday mornings to have lumps kicked out of him. It was this pressing need for pain and inconvenience that led to the formation of Real Beckenham Football Club in 1998 by Russell Batten and Baris Agun. The name "Real Beckenham" was chosen in deference to the great Spanish clubs, such as Madrid, Sociedad and Mallorca, whose style of football we aim to emulate -- which is why we all hope they start to play a more "hoof-and-hope-for-the-best" style of football pretty soon. The Beckenham part of the name was chosen because it’s the only place in South-East London that is miles from where any of the team actually live. It was decided that the team's colours would be gold and black - but before the end of the season the kit had changed to the famous blue-and-white that we now all know and love. Now either... Select a news/report archive... ... or read one of the season reviews
Season 98-99 In their inaugural season, Real played in Division 2 of the Crystal Palace and District League and were based at Bellingham playing fields. The early months were littered with heavy defeats and internal feuds as journeymen players and prima-donnas came and went - causing the team's performance to suffer. However, through these months, a hard-core of dedicated and committed players began to form and the team's spirit and performances gradually improved. The culmination of this was that Real took their first points of the season one week before Christmas with a stirring 3-1 drubbing of arch-rivals and general thugs, Hither Green. With this unexpected but well deserved Christmas gift under their belts, Real went into the winter break full of optimism for the New Year. For the first time since its formation, an air of confidence ran through the club and the new year promised to be much more successful. In the event, the second half of the season did yield more points than the first, but success was still thin on the ground. A further victory was gained against Loco Lewisham along with draws with South East Allstars and Real Calcio. However by the end of the season, this was not enough to prevent Real from finishing bottom of the league with a disappointing 8 points. Awards: Transfers: Season 99-00 The following season, Real Beckenham moved league to Division 4 of the Metropolitan League and moved home to Mottingham playing fields. It was hoped that this fresh start coupled with a fairly stable squad might enable the team to build on the few encouraging signs from the previous season. It soon became apparent that the new league was an entirely different proposition to the previous season's - a lesson quickly learnt by an 8-0 drubbing on the first day of the season by Otford. Thus the pattern was set, and by the end of the season Real Beckenham were forced to face up to the ignominy of having gone the whole year without gaining a single league point. Unsurprisingly, morale amongst the team was almost as low as in the dark early months of the previous season - to the extent where the existence of the team may have come under threat. The only thing likely to prevent a mass exodus of players from the team would be a successful end-of season tour to Great Yarmouth. Awards: Transfers: Summer Tour 2000 On the last weekend of April, a small squad of 12 players traveled up to Great Yarmouth to participate in a 9-team tournament. Expectations were not high following the disastrous season that had just finished, but a good bonding session was called for to keep the team together. After arriving in Yarmouth and having a good old-fashioned piss-up on the Friday evening, Real took to the road the next morning for the first of two games to be played that day. An encouraging but largely hung-over performance saw the first game lost 6-4. This was followed by the team's first win in over a year as Real won their next game 6-2. With this being the last game of the day, celebrations were soon underway to toast this most famous of victories. Undoubtedly, Saturday's excesses were to adversely affect Real's performance in the first game on Sunday morning, and they were duly dispatched 8-0. This was followed by a 0-0 result - not extraordinary in most team's books, but remarkably the first clean sheet ever kept by Real Beckenham in a competitive match! The 4 points gained during the group stages saw Beckenham finish 3rd in the group and progress through to a play-off match. As Jimmy Greaves likes to say, "Football is a funny old game", so it shouldn't be too surprising that hours after keeping their first ever clean sheet, the second one followed. The game finished 0-0 after normal time, and extra time still couldn't break the deadlock. The game was decided on a good-natured penalty shootout which saw Real clinch the game and 5th place in the tournament - a fantastic achievement given the circumstances. Bring on Season 2000-01! Season 2000-01 Real Beckenham began this season again playing in division 4 of the Metropolitan League and continued to don (the by now famous) blue and white stripes. On the field drastic changes were afoot (indeed drastic changes were afoot with the field itself, with Real having moved for the third year running, this time to Goddington Park). A whole host of new faces turned up for pre-season training and quite a few more came into the side over the course of the season. The new-look Beckenham, buzzing from a relatively successful tour and some good quality additions to the squad were unlucky to only get a draw from their first game of the season against Woodside Celtic. However, it was a mark of how attitudes had changed that Real felt they should've won the game. Indeed, the powers that be obviously agreed and Beckenham were later awarded all three points due to Celtic fielding an ineligable player - the first three points won by Beckenham for around 18 months! It looked as though Beckenham were on the up, but it unfortunately turned out to be a false dawn. A succession of losses followed, but the 8 or 9 goal drubbings were being replaced by more respectable losses. The season saw an unfeasable amount of games against Magpie Utd who always managed to win by the odd goal or two. Magpie rapidly gained status as Real's most hated team and took it to a level that even surpassed Hither Green. This rivalry was fuelled early on in the season by Dave Cox's unfortunate encounter with a Magpie attacker who had a Tyson-esque taste for ears. This, unsurprisingly, led to an 11-a-side scrap between the two sides and the rivalry was to last until Magpie sadly folded in the subsequent season (I'm sure everyone associated with Real Beckenham shed a tear or two when they heard that news!) The 2000-01 season was also the year when flood and tempest wraught havoc all over the country - and Goddington Park wasn't spared. After an enforced winter lay-off of around 2 months, Beckenham still hadn't added to their points from the first game of the season. The start of the new year saw a second batch of new faces to bolster a squad that was running scared from the awful winter weather, and the large number of double-bankers that we were forced to play. It was to be in one of these double bankers that Real finally added to their points tally. A closely fought 4-2 loss to Honor Oak left Beckenham eager for a second bite of the cherry. That duly came about 15 minutes later and Beckenham drew 1-1 courtesy of a wonder tap-in from keeper-cum-midfield dynamo Gary Patten. Two more draws were to follow towards the end of the season - assisted in no small part by a number of ringers who came and went in the blink of an eye but who helped Real Beckenham to the grand points total of 6. Still, it represented a marked improvement on the previous year - and the 3-horse race for the golden boot between Russ, Dave and Justin showed that goals were becoming less of a rarity. All in all, by the end of the season it was looking as though Real could learn to survive in the dizzy heights of Metropolitan Division 4 after all. Awards: Transfers: Click
here for full results list and league table from 2000/01. Summer Tour 2001 Given the japes of the previous year's tour to Hemsby, Real Beckenham did it again and this time we'll let the pictures tell the story.. [Click Here]
Awards: Transfers: In: Mark Springett, Steve Godfrey, Micky Shephard, Denis Budd, Ali Taylor, Simon Dawes Out: Rob Price, Neil Worton Click
here for full results list and league table from 2001/02 Awards: Transfers: In: Warren "Wozza" Benwell, Stuart Ritchie, Paul Gay, Rob Price (again), Dean , Graham Greene, Wade King Out: Rene McTaggart, Paul Webb, Neil Worton, Gary Miller, Keith Mace, Steve Parker Click
here for full results list and league table from 2002/03 Awards: Transfers: In: Ian Stewart, John Southern, Nick Kirby, Nick Hignall, Rob Hipsey, Chris Moore, Mark North Out: Ian Stewart, Mark North, Paul Gay, Danny Glover, Graham Green, Ali Taylor Click
here for full results list and league table from 2003/04 Awards: Transfers: In: Darren Butland, John Bird Out: Dan Hayne Click
here for full results list and league table from 2004/05 Awards: Transfers: In: Richard Goodchild, Perry Cutts, Dan Ousby, Chris Pierce, Mel Fancy, Eric Feriotto, Richard Eggleton Out: Russ Batten, Dean Hughes, Jamie Smithson, Dave Godfrey Click
here for full results list and league table from 2005/06 RBFC website rules and disclaimer.
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