LIGHTERMAN FOOTBALL CLUB 1999/2000
| Back Row ( Left to Right): | Jamie Brownlow, Jon French, Ray Waite, Mark Young, Lee Bacon, Paul Welch, Greg Meehan, Paul Letts |
| Front Row (Left to Right): | Matthew Vickers, Andrew Mouser, Michael Hughes, Micky Lock, Paul Bacon, Chris Moughton |
| Not Photographed | Ian Rawlings, Michael George, David Sargent, Jamie Cooper, Lee Turner |
Lighterman played their fourth and last season in the League in 2002/2003, having previously gone under the name of Curzon. The switch came mainly due to sponsorship from the public house of the same name in Barking.
Last season proved disappointing for the team, who started with high hopes and a very good squad. The team's best results have come against the better teams within the League, but a failure to capitilise against lesser teams and an astonishing decline in form saw the team relegated from the Premier Division to Division One for the 2000/2001 season. They returned to the Premier Division the following season and finished their football at that level.
The team's last guise as Curzon was not the original name of the team either. Originally playing their football in the South Essex Sunday Football League, Curzon were originally known as the White Horse, after a well-known watering hole also in Barking, Essex. Changing to JSA Curzon in 1983, they were one of the first teams at this level to obtain a sponsorship, wearing the motive of a shipping company on their shirts, quite a novelty at this time.
Curzon switched to the newly formed Essex Sunday Corinthian League in 1986 and were one of the 34 founder member clubs. Just three of these teams are still in existence today. The League was formed after a split in the South Essex Sunday League. Much of the older League's Premier and Senior Division formed the newborn League.
Under the original secretary Jeff Shoesmith, Curzon was a friendly but under-achieving team. Jeff retired in 1987 and was replaced by Mark Worton (left). Two years later Peter George (right) took the team into a spell of Saturday football with the Romford & District League. Saturday success was instant, with the team winning the League in their first season with seven games to go. After just two seasons, Saturday football was abandoned and Mark Worton continued the success on Sundays, as Curzon started to climb up the Sunday League.
They narrowly missed the Division Two championship but were promoted in 1992, then achieved the League and Cup double in Division One the following season under their most successful management duo of ex-players Alan Baldwin (right) and Jimmy Prophet. Success was now expected and the team didn't fail to deliver, climbing into the Senior Division by the next season as Premier Division runners-up. This was the first time a team in the Corinthian League had scaled all four Divisions (now five) in successive terms.
No honours came in the Senior Division, but the team were finalists in the Senior Division Printers Cup in 1995, losing the final 2-1 to Thames Water. Mark Worton retired in 1995 and Peter George resumed the helm that year, however the team were in decline. After two struggling seasons in the top flight, Curzon dropped to the Premier Division for the 98/99 season, finishing mid table. Things tend to rise and fall in circles and the team returned to the Premier Division the following season and renewed their campaign for 2001/2002.
Only Peter George remained from the original line-up. He held the post of Club Secretary. Lighterman's only real recent successes were making the last 32 in the national stages of the Carlsberg Pub Cup during 1998/99 season as Curzon, then appearing in the Oxted Ford Cup Final and Corinthian Cup Final, along with finishing third in the Premier Division in their final season 2002/2003.