I'm a season ticket holder for tier 9 team Redhill FC who play in the Combined Counties League Premier Division South at Step 5 of the non-league pyramid and play their home games at Kiln Brow.
Although I wasn't at the game this week away to the Jersey Bulls, I was their last week at the home game to bottom of the table but much improved Colliers Wood where Redhill won 1-0.
This game will always be remembered as it was the first game I turned up dressed as a Lobster! 🦞
Yes, I know what your are all now thinking... what possessed me to go to football dressed as a sea creature!
Some of you may not be aware that Redhill FC's nickname is "The Lobsters" a name that came into regular use in 1994 when a competition was held for people to think up a nickname for Redhill which would be more original than "The Reds". A local woman won the vote, after also naming a large toy lobster which was present at many home games called "Clawdius"
The week before the Colliers Wood game Redhill's match was postponed so we went to watch another local side Merstham FC play and I noticed they had a mascot.
After 4 beers I turned to my brother and said Redhill Football Club should also have a mascot! so I promptly went on Amazon and ordered a lobster suit!
The new Lobster Mascot was a huge success and was welcomed by the other fans at the game with one young supporter giving me his pocket money to donate to a local hospital charity called SASH, https://www.sashcharity.org/
Here's the video of me arriving!
Although the new nickname was believed to have started as I mentioned earlier in this post, it is believed that the nickname 'Lobsters' had been used long before the competition. In a 1928 Redhill FC handbook, "The Lobsters" was mentioned in the club's brief history and it is popular belief that the inspiration for the name came from the kit the club used in its very early days (which was still red & white stripes). When shirt manufacturing was not as it is today, the colours in the heavy cotton material would often bleed together after washing and the shirt would become a red-pinkish lobster colour!
Redhill FC play their home games at Kiln Brow in Redhill, Surrey,
Redhill were moved to the ground in 1984, following over 80 years at the Memorial Sports Ground.
Kiln Brow boasts a 162-seat stand, a clubhouse with licensed bar and function hall, modern changing room facilities, a canteen, museum and a club shop.
Kiln Brow was granted its E grading, making the club eligible for promotion to step 4, in March 2010.
The Lobsters are having a good season and find themselves just outside the playoffs with games in hand and last Saturday saw them get a very good 0-0 draw away to Jersey Bulls.
Redhill's next home game is on Saturday February 3rd against Knaphill FC, so if you want to see a Lobster in the stands get yourself down their!
A big thankyou to Tim Cooper 'The Redhill Lobster' for sharing this with us!