Formed in the summer of 1946 by Arthur Messer, and a bunch of Lancing based players we name ourselves “Abbey Rovers Football Club”.
The club entered the Worthing League and played in a green and white strip. We grew in strength to become a very powerful "Intermediate" standard club in the area and up to 1956 continued to play in the Sompting area. Most of the players lived in Lancing and we had the opportunity to move to a more reliable home at Monks Recreation Ground in Lancing.
After 5 years we were able to take over Lancing FC's old ground at Croshaw. This we did and made it our home for many years and it became a fortress. Although we had our ups and downs we were generally regarded as one of the strongest sides in the Worthing League. This reached a peak in the mid-1960's when we totally dominated all competitions, in particular the 1966-67 season we won the Worthing League Premier Division by Christmas with centre forward Peter Pickles hitting 66 goals (still the club record).
At this critical point we attempted to better ourselves by applying to join the Sussex County League. Financial support was provided by the Lancing + Sompting Royal British Legion Club and in 1967 we duly changed our name to "Lancing + Sompting Legion FC" with the kit changing to our now famous Legions gold and royal blue.
County League applications were turned down two years running and we finally chose to enter the West Sussex League where we have stayed for the majority of our existance. The legion funding dried up after a couple of seasons and there was little benefit in staying with them. In 1993 we finally took the plunge and renamed as "Lancing United" retaining our familiar gold and royal colours.
Today we are a large respected club with 4 teams - two in the West Sussex League and two in the Worthing League. The 1st XI have achieved 3 promotions in 4 seasons and now play in the top tier of the West Sussex league. |