Football is for everyone – and the Kidbrooke-based South London Special League is marking 20 years of bringing sport and friendship to young people and adults from across the area. The Greenwich Wire’s special correspondent MERCURY MAN met the woman who kicked it off.
It was 20 years ago today, give or take a day or two, that Sharon Brokenshire taught the kids to play football in a remarkable project run by a remarkable woman for whom an MBE from Queen Elizabeth in 2012 was an open goal.
The South London Special League is special because it gave, and continues to give, disabled adults and children the chance to participate in competitive sport – not just football these days – and all that comes from it, meeting new people and adding new meaning to the beautiful game.
In Sharon’s own words, it provides “improved health and well-being, physical fitness, heightened self-esteem, raised aspirations and, indeed, overall happiness”.
The league was launched on April 4, 2004, after receiving a five-year funding award from the newly-formed Football Foundation. “Previously,” said Sharon, “I took voluntary redundancy from a teaching post in Greenwich, believing I would receive funding in no time.
“Jeff Davis, the sports development manager at Greenwich Leisure Services, attended our football festival paid for by £4,000 from the Millennium Fund in 2000, and it took off from there. I’d spent all my redundancy money after leaving Nine Acres special school to follow my passion to form a local league.”
Sir Trevor Brooking was a special guest when the league kicked off in 2004, and its 20th birthday celebrations will include a merger with another award-winning sporting project, the legendary Mick Northwood’s Long Lane Junior Football Club, at the club’s hallowed ground in Dursley Road, Kidbrooke, taking place today (Thursday) at 11am.
More than 5,000 disabled players have experienced the fun and friendship of sport through the South London Special League, including adult players from 2006 – A League of Their Own – very much a new jewel in the crown.
“In the early days I got great support from my mentor Alex Welsh, the chief executive of the London Playing Fields Foundation, and from my generous landlords at the London Marathon Playing Fields off Shooters Hill Road, where I had an office,” Sharon says.
“Our launch festival was an extraordinary day with over 200 young disabled players taking part. All the while my saving grace was Mick Northwood at Long Lane, where we were able to use the AstroTurf pitches, café and facilities. Our players were being accepted on an equal footing to mainstream players, with qualified referees.
Two decades on, the league keeps on evolving.
“Merging with Long Lane has been a great move with funding being increasingly difficult and sustainability paramount,” says Sharon. “The South London Special League is more important and necessary to its players than ever before, and at Long Lane we can make it all possible.”
The league’s patron, the former Charlton defender Paul Elliott – who is now a director of the Addicks – has helped spread the league’s fame far and wide. “We’ve received lots of recommendations from Uefa!”, says Sharon.
As well as changing the lives of so many of her players, Sharon says the league has changed her life. But she admits the past 20 years have been a “rollercoaster ride”.
“We’ve had our ups and downs, lots of awards for social inclusion, but there have been really hard times and we’re hoping that support from the community ensures another 20 years,” she says..
‘The South London Special League is still desperately needed, offering excellent opportunities for disabled people to play regular competitive football and other sports. We are hoping that with the support from the community, there will be another 20 years.”
South London Special League can be found at sl-sl.co.uk.
Mercury Man talks to SE Londoners with interesting tales to tell. Read his past stories.
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