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The Bromley Curse Strikes Again: Crowd Called Upon for Help for the THIRD Time This Season

Sat mid-table in League Two with four wins from 12, Bromley’s 2025/26 campaign has been anything but special so far. However, one strangely recurring phenomenon has seen the fourth division outfit come under increasing attention.

The aforementioned phenomenon concerns the referees and officials put in charge of their games - yesterday, when referee Declan Bourne went down on the field in the 31st minute due to injury, the stadium announcer asked if there were any qualified officials in attendance at the game for the THIRD time this season, which surely is a new record for a campaign that is only in October.

Lightning Strikes Thrice

It didn’t take long for the “match official curse” to make itself known - just 26 minutes into their opening game of the campaign against Shrewsbury Town, assistant referee Scott Chalkley sustained an injury which would prevent him from continuing.

With no backup officials present at the game, the stadium announcer tried a new approach: asking if any of the crowd in attendance were qualified referees who could step in as fourth official.

Miraculously, after a 17-minute stoppage in the search for a qualified individual, Alan Cork, a level 5 qualified referee, stepped forward and carried out the injured official's responsibilities for the remainder of the match, as Bromley laboured to a goalless draw.

Lightning struck again the very next game, when a linesman pulled up injured with just over half an hour to play in Bromley’s home clash with Barnet. Once again, the stadium’s public address system was utilised in the search for a hasty replacement, and once again, the unusual approach succeeded, though this time, the good Samaritan wished to remain unnamed.

On this second occasion, the process was much more efficient, perhaps because after the remarkable circumstances of matchday one, the club and fanbase had ensured there was a plan B in place!

However, after over two months without incident, few could be blamed for thinking the curse was behind them, and the club could now focus on their football and the long season ahead of them.

But that belief was shattered today when, in the second half, yet ANOTHER official had to be removed from the field of play due to injury, this time being referee Bourne.

The stadium announcer, likely revelling in the opportunity to call on the crowd once again after a relatively dry couple of months, once again called for a qualified referee to leave the stands and fill in for the fallen soldier. Once again, the appeal was successful, with another unnamed individual carrying out the fourth official’s role for the remainder of the game.

It is a weird and, quite frankly, remarkable freak occurrence, which is rare enough to see once a season, let alone three times in two months, with the same team involved on every occasion.

The Bromley X (formerly Twitter) admin even directly tagged Guinness World Records in a post on the club's page, asking them if they had broken a hitherto unheard-of record. I have a gut-feeling they could well be right about this one …