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South Park Football Club was formed in 1897 and immediately became founder members of the Redhill & District Football League along with other local clubs Godstone, Meadvale and Reigate Priory Reserves. 2001 saw Reigate Town Football Club move to South Park and the clubs merged to became known as South Park & Reigate Town Football Club. For the 2003/04 season the club reverted back to its original name of South Park Football Club. In 2006 the first team were promoted from the Crawley & District League to the Combined Counties Football League Division One. As their new changing facilities were being built, played their home matches at Cranleigh. In their first season in the Combined Counties League the team finished in seventh place in the league. Subsequent league placings were 12th, 14th, 6th and in 2010/11 the Sparks gained promotion to the Premier Division with a third-place finish.

They were in no mood to hang around at this level and after ending 8th in 2011/12 and 4th in 2012/13 they finished their 2013/14 season with a 1-0 home win over Windsor which ensured that they defeated every team in the division at least once and gaining 104 points, the highest total in the Combined Counties League Premier Division since Merstham in the 2007/08 season. This also won them promotion to the Isthmian League Division One South.

In their first two seasons in the Isthmian League they finished 14th and 11th and Herne Bay had the perfect record against the Sparks, winning all four of the encounters. Last campaign proved to be a different story, although Bay extended their unbeaten record to five games with a last-minute leveller from Stuart King in the 1-1 home draw in March. A month later and Herne Bay had begun a slippery slide down the table having lost three and drawn one of their last five fixtures. In the trip to Surrey, for the penultimate away game of the season, on the half hour Umaku Mansaray was pulled to the ground in the box and Mark Lovell levelled from the spot, his 24th goal of the season. The home side went on to win 3-1 to end the season in 8th.

This time out the Sparks started at a sprint, top after two games, third after seven, but have slipped down since. Three away trips to South Park have been postponed thus far, Saturday 11th November 2017 due to a waterlogged pitch, and again on Tuesday 12th December 2017, this time the pitch was covered in snow causing a second cancellation, and once more on 16/01/2018, a waterlogged pitch again the culprit.

South Park’s home game on Saturday against Sittingbourne was lost to the rain and on Tuesday they visited East Grinstead Town where a Chris Smith brace gave them a 2-0 victory. This leaves them in 11th place, five positions and four points ahead of Herne Bay who have played three games more.

509 have watched the three games between the teams so far at Winch’s Field, an average of 170 (high 186, low 156). Bay’s average home attendance this campaign is 223 compared to South Park’s 96. The return at King George’s Field is scheduled for Tuesday 27th February, weather permitting.

Results in the corresponding weekend games in previous Isthmian League seasons saw a waterlogged pitch cause the postponement of the home game with Peacehaven & Telscombe in 2013/14 and a snow covered pitch last campaign cancelling out the match at Chipstead. For 2012/13 there was a 4-0 home defeat to Walton Casuals, a 0-0 draw at Merstham in 2014/15 and another 0-0 stalemate in 2015/16, against Tooting & Mitcham United at Winch’s Field.