Worthing football club remembers players lost in airshow crash

BBC News

07-05-2025

'Our players died on their way to a match'
11 minutes ago
Share
Save
Juliette Parkin
BBC News, South East
Share
Save
Juliette Parkin
Club chairman Mark Sanderson has been volunteering for Worthing United for more than 30 years
A West Sussex football club has said the memory of two players killed in the Shoreham air crash disaster is a "very good reason to keep going".
Non-league side Worthing United FC, nicknamed the Mavericks, play in the ninth tier of the football pyramid, the Southern Combination Football League.
The club relies heavily on volunteers, including chairman Mark Sanderson, who has been giving up his own time for more than 30 years and was at the helm on the day 23-year-old players Jacob Schilt and Matthew Grimstone died.
"It was a dreadful loss... I call them my boys because that's what it's like," he said.
"You don't expect someone to lose their life on their way to a football match."
Eleven men died when a Hawker Hunter plane crashed onto the A27 in West Sussex as it carried out a stunt at the Shoreham Airshow on 22 August, 2015.
This year marks 10 years since the disaster and Worthing United said it was vital their memory was kept alive.
The main stand at the Lyons Way ground was built in memory of Jacob and Matthew with their names across it, thanks to fundraising events at the club.
Juliette Parkin
A stand at the club has been named after former players Matthew Grimstone and Jacob Schilt
Mr Sanderson said: "If you look in our clubhouse, there are pictures on the wall. Their names are everywhere, they feature in the programmes.
"With the family still coming to watch us, it's a very, very good reason to keep going and try to be successful.
"They were good footballers, the boys were good players. In tribute to them we want to try to emulate what they did. "
The families of the two players, who were 23 when they died, still attend matches and have been made lifelong vice-presidents of the club.
Juliette Parkin
Caroline Schilt and Phil Grimstone said going to matches brings them comfort
Caroline Schilt, Jacob's mother, said: "They still welcome us every time we come to matches.
"We come to support, because it just gives us some comfort and they certainly give us a lot of comfort and help."
Matthew's father, Phil Grimstone, said: "This game doesn't stand still for very long - people move on, don't they - a lot of the people here now wouldn't know them at all. But their memory lives on, very much."
Mr Sanderson also manages the ground, is often on the gate on matchdays and does any other jobs that need doing with the help of his family.
He said other volunteers were a "godsend."
'Local lads'
Mr Sanderson's daughter, Ellie, is the club welfare officer.
She said: "There have been times where it's just been me and dad, and we thought, right, what are we going to do? And thankfully, people have come forward because we can't afford to pay.
"If there weren't volunteers, we wouldn't have anyone, and then we couldn't run, and we wouldn't be here."
First team manager and club treasurer Bill Clifford said most of the players were local and had come up through the club's thriving youth section:
He said: "Our team is made up of predominantly local lads - we don't have lads from other parts of Sussex, so it really is a local team, and then their families come - it's great fun."
Worthing United finished the season seventh in Division One of the Southern Combination Football League, on 64 points.