Sussex Thunder

National Final in 1998.
1999 was not a good year but 2000 saw them back on form losing only to the eventual bowl winners, the London Os, in a close contest, and Britbowl runner-up Birmingham Bulls in the quarter-finals. The Thunder were then beset by problems. Their home ground at Withdean Stadium in Brighton, which is also home to Brighton and Hove Albion, took in so much water during the rain-soaked Autumn of 2000, and was so damaged by the soccer, that repair work had to be carried out throughout the summer. This meant that for the first time in 17 years the ground was not available for American Football. The flooding had been bad nationwide, but had hit Sussex particularly badly, and no other venue could be found. To add to the club’s woes, American Head Coach Lew Gittins who had been badly injured in a car accident late the previous year had to retire. As a result, the Thunder were forced to withdraw from competitive football for 2001 and concentrated instead on building strong senior, youth and junior sections for season 2002. But the problems kept on coming. Brighton & Hove Albion had been promoted to the First Division and Withdean stadium was no longer available to the Thunder. The search for a new venue was proving fruitless and many experienced players had left the club to play for other teams. The Return…
So the rebuilding effort carried on into 2002 and at last there was light at the end of the tunnel. The club received a £5,000 grant from Awards for All via Sport England to purchase 20 new sets of uniform and equipment for a kitted youth team. A new management committee was formed and new young players began to join the club training sessions at all age levels. South Coast Van Hire gave the club a five figure sponsorship to help rookie players kit up for the senior squad and the Thunder was back in business. Further sponsorships from City Cabs and Crash Training, complete with associate membership of Brighton Rugby Club laid the foundations for a return to league football in 2003. The next major milestone in the rebuilding effort was the appointment of Rich Worsell as Head Coach. The club by now had over 50 senior players and more than 30 youth and junior players listed, and with the venue and back room teams in place the ever-growing squad resulted in a highly successful first year back in competition. Competing in the BSL Division 2, in uniforms of blue jerseys and helmets and black pants that tipped their hat to both the B-52s and the Raiders. Thunder finished their first year back with an even 5-5 record missing out on the playoffs by a whisker. With Coach Worsell moving on to bigger and better things (he now coaches at Div 3 US College team, Milikin Big Blue in Decatur, IL), the modern Thunder era began with the appointment of former Assistant Head Coach and Quarterbacks Coach, Warren Smart, as the new Sussex Thunder Head Coach. The appointment of Smart gave the Thunder some much needed stability, and with his proven track record of coaching and playing, Sussex immediately set its sights on the 2004 Division 2 title. Along with the key addition of a number of assistant coaches, the continuing growth and experience of the squad resulted in another excellent year finishing 8-2 and progressing to the playoffs. A victory on the road against the previously unbeaten Redditch Arrows put the Thunder in the Southern Championship game against the Chiltern Cheetahs, the only team to have beaten the Thunder in the regular season. Unfortunately, it wasn’t third time lucky as once again the Cheetahs came out on top. The Move…
As part of the club’s long-term commitment to improvement, the first major development of 2005 saw the Thunder moving from Brighton to Crawley. After spending the previous two years at Brighton Rugby Club, the Southern Conference runner-up elected to move its program to the Bewbush Leisure Centre in Crawley. The move gave the Thunder much improved facilities, including its own dedicated game field & practice field for all year-round use, ample storage for all equipment and full use of all the other amenities at the centre which include a floodlit all-weather area, a large indoor sports hall, and a function room & bar for team meetings & social events. With Crawley centrally situated between the South Coast and London, the move also improved the catchment area for players and coaches. The Thunder now truly represented the whole of Sussex. The club also re-branded for the 2005 season, with a new style uniform of blue jerseys with red numbers and trim, and silver pants. The club was also able to place an order for practice equipment such a sled, chute, tackle-bags etc to the value of over £3,000. It is a measure of how far the Thunder have come in such a short space of time that the 2005 season was seen as a disappointment, despite returning a respectable 7-3 record. In 2006, following a fantastic influx of new players and coaches, the Thunder will once again launch an assault on the BAFL Division 2 title.
2006
After missing out on the play-offs despite a 7-3 record in 2005. The club was looking forward to a big year, but things didn’t start as planned with an opening day loss away to the Norwich Devils. This obviously had the right effect though, as the Thunder went unbeaten for the rest of the regular season, finishing with an 8-1-1 record. A 20-20 tie with the Essex Spartans being the only blemish. The Thunder offence was dominating all opponents, three times putting over 50 points on the scoreboard. Despite this record the Thunder finished the season as the #2 seed, this brought home advantage in the first round of the play-offs and a re-match with the Norwich Devils. There was to be no repeat of the team’s first meeting as the Thunder out-played the visitors to progress to the Semi-Finals with a 35-14 victory. With a place in the national final at stake, next on the agenda was a trip to the Oxford Saints. The Saints had pipped the Thunder for the #1 spot by just half a game with a 9-1 record, so a tight encounter was on the cards. On the day it was just the opposite, everything that could go wrong for the Thunder went wrong, despite gaining more yards and having more time of possession than their opponents, a mixture of crucial errors and bad luck led to the Saints taking the game 33-0. The Saints went on to lift the championship with a win over the West Coast Trojans from Scotland.

2007
The new season brought some good news, despite their loss in the semi-final the previous year, the team was promoted to Division 1 due to a re-alignment of the league. This would prove to be a stern test with games against teams of the caliber of the Farnham Knights, who had been national champions just 2 years previously and the Ipswich Cardinals, it also meant a re-match with the Saints and the renewal of our old rivalry with the Kent Exiles. The season did indeed turn into a bit of a struggle. Whilst showing they were capable of competing at the higher level, the club lacked that little bit extra needed to challenge for honors. They ended the season 2-1-7 with the only wins coming against Colchester and the Exiles.

2008
A new season saw changes, Len Scott had been brought in to replace Warren Smart as Head Coach. Eber Kington was the starting quarterback due to a serious shoulder injury to Paul Robinson in the last game of the previous season. Also the team’s strategy had changed, going from a “we can score more than you” attitude to a more conservative offence and tighter more disciplined defence. The season began with a 10-0 win at old enemies the Oxford Saints, the next game saw the Thunder go down 6-7 at home to Kent. Four straight wins then saw the Thunder travel to the Sundevils for a big top of the table clash, which went right to the wire with the home side kicking a last second field goal to take the game 9-6. Two more wins on the road against Norwich and the Exiles (Which put them out of the play-off race) set up a final day Conference decider against the Sundevils, both teams had already qualified for post-season action but the winners on the day would take both the Conference title and home-field advantage for the play-offs. The Thunder started the game determined to take the win and soon went two scores up. The visitors did pull one back, but that was to be it as the Thunder’s defence, nicknamed “Thor’s Hammer“ dominated the rest of the game. A further touchdown by the Thunder left the game ending with a 20-7 triumph. The semi-final brought a first ever visit to Sussex of the Yorkshire Rams. They had finished as runners-up in the northern conference to the Redditch Arrows. After a scoreless first quarter the Thunder took the lead when the Rams conceded a 2point safety in their own end-zone. The Thunder dominated the rest of the half and touchdowns from Pete Nameth and Eber Kington gave the Thunder a 16-3 half-time advantage. The second half swung one way then the other, with the Rams coming back, the Thunder restoring their two score lead, then the Rams coming back again. With the score 23-16 in favour of the Thunder, Chris Percival slotted home a 23 yard field goal to close out the scoring. The game ended 26-16 and the Thunder were on their way to their first final for a decade. In the final, at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, the Thunder met the Redditch Arrows. It was a match-up of the Divisions #1 Offence (Redditch) and the #1 Defence (Thunder), so something had to give. The Thunder made an impressive start, Dale Smart intercepted an Arrows pass on their first drive, from this the Thunder drove downfield and Phil Allman caught a touchdown from Eber Kington to open the scoring. With both defences then shutting down the opposition, the game remained at 6-0 to the Thunder until mid-way through the third quarter when Redditch leveled the scores. Neither team could break the deadlock and the game went to overtime. Both first and second periods of overtime were scoreless, then in the third, Kington found Adam Fishlock for the touchdown. If the Thunder could stop the Arrows on the next drive the title was their’s. They couldn’t, so the game went into a fourth overtime period and became the longest game in British American Football history. This time Kington found Chris Lampey open and the running back powered into the end-zone to put the Thunder ahead once more. Yet again the Arrows dug deep and came back with the touchdown. They still needed to succeed with the 2 point conversion to tie the game up yet again. But as the pass headed towards a Redditch receiver Thunder safety James West batted the ball away to give the Thunder their first National Championship trophy in their history. Quarterback Eber Kington also picked up the games MVP award. The team dedicated its win to veteran lineman Kes Longhurst who had broken his leg earlier in the season and missed out on the big day.

2009
With their Bowl victory at the end of the previous season, the Thunder were promoted to the BAFL Premier Division for the first time. As in 2007, when promoted to Division 1, this was a big step up, but with no relegation guaranteed the Thunder could approach the season without any fear of losing their place in Britball’s elite. The season opener was a visit to the Farnham Knights, with everyone forecasting a huge Knights victory, The Thunder put up a terrific performance before coming away on the wrong end of a 21-16 scoreline. Next up came a visit from the Champions elect London Blitz, yet again the Thunder performed well but could not produce a win, going down 34-0 in a game where the scoreline rather flattered the visitors. Unfortunately this was to be the tale of the season. The season ended with a 0-8 record but with several very close games the consensus around the league was the Thunder had performed above all expectations and were considered unlucky not to have picked up at least one win during the season. Jim Roberson had replaced Len Scott as Head Coach after game 1 of the season.

2012
After a strong regular season the Thunder went into the playoffs as a low seed but with a lot of traveling and winning the game that counted against the Mavericks the Thunder went to the Div 1 finals again. The division one final was a soggy affair to say the least, but in the mud the Thunder came out victorious against a strong West coast Trojans and were Div 1 Champions again.

2013
The Thunder are back in a restructured Premiership. With some familiar faces to play against not least another rematch against the Mavericks and a score to settle against the London O's. And with the games to be played at Brighton Rugby club again this has the makings of a great year!