THE Dover and District Sunday Football League have received a surprise windfall, worth over £4,000, thanks to the foresight of one of their former treasurers.

Chairman Brian Punton told the league's annual meeting that Colin Hall, who took over as treasurer from John Ullmann at the start of last season, had been going through some of the league’s old accounting books when he came across a share certificate issued to the league by the Abbey National Building Society in 1989.

Mr Punton said: "When the Abbey National went public in 1989 they issued everybody who had an account with them, including us, with 100 free shares, which were then worth £1.30.

"John Ullmann, our treasurer at the time, decided to take £650 out of the league’s current account to purchase another 500 shares, so we ended up with a total of 650 shares but they were then forgotten about.

"The shares are now worth over £6 each and we have also got the yearly dividends payments on top.

"I couldn’t believe it when Colin told me and we are just waiting for Banco Santander (who now own the Abbey) to officially transfer the shares from John’s name to Colin’s."

The good news about the shares, said Mr Punton, rounded off one of the most successful seasons in the league’s history.

"The standard of administration by the club secretaries was better than I can remember," he said. "But my thanks also go to league secretary Janet Nunn and the rest of my committee for their sterling efforts."

Mr Punton also thanked the Dover Mercury for again sponsoring the league and providing man of the match trophies for the end-of-season cup finals.

Three new teams were voted into the league: Boars Head, Cherry Tree and CMS Employment. The latter have switched from the Deal Sunday League, where they were called Real Swingate. All three will play in Division 2 next season.