Who's been playing the longest ?

A question from Dick Cable on Tuesday night has prompted me to start this thread.......Dick reckons he's been playing for nearly 50 years and would like to know the exact point at which he reaches that milestone.

I can confirm that I played in the same team as Dick (the White Hart, Horsham) for four seasons 1970 to 1974 whereupon the pub was pulled down and replaced with what is now the Smith and Western. The team was John Tugwell, Brian Stoner, John Slee, me, Dick, Ruby Taylor, Alan Taylor and Martin Turner. Don Fairs (Micky's dad) joined the team in 1973.

But this was my third season (I started in 1968/69 with Charlie Cordery's Sun Alliance team) and Slee joined the Hart a year before I did. Dick and co. were already playing in 1966/67 - the year the Three Bees started up (from the Hurst Arms). And the White Hart were a second division team in 1963/64 which is as far as my records go back.

So whilst Dick's question is one that maybe only he can answer, I would reckon that he is probably our League's longest-serving member.

We have a rival claimant !

Keith Potter of the Plough reckons he started in 1963/64 which means his career spans 52 years !
As a teenager he served behind the bar at the Horse and Groom and he also played at the Rising Sun in its original guise before it was rebuilt in the 1960s.