A book on the history of Kent cup football competitions which has been decades in the making is now on sale.

Author Richard Ralph, from Gravesend, says his research started around 30 years ago.

The first volume of what it’s hoped will be a series of books focuses on the cups organised by the Kent FA, while two further volumes of A Pictorial History of Kent Football are in the pipeline.

He explained: “This book, I started 30 years ago.

“I started the research then. Then it’s just developed into this book over the years.

“The reason I started it was because I’m interested in the cups in Kent.

“I know there’s been several cups and thought it would be interesting to see who won them. I didn’t realise quite how many cups there were over the years.

“Basically, the book got bigger and bigger until it was Shakespearean proportions!

"I had to make it into three volumes and this was the first volume.”

Ralph, a former Sunday League player, was a long-serving committee member of the North Kent Sunday League.

Now 62, he said: “I have been a player, a secretary and an administrator. I have seen it all.

“The only thing I have never been is a referee. I’ve no interest in that.

"I couldn’t be neutral enough.”

Ralph recalls he first began thinking about putting all the information into a book in the mid-90s.

“I had all this stuff,” he said.

“The problem was that I kept getting more information - that’s why it took so long! There’s two or three results missing but you need to get to a time where you say ‘No, that’s it’.

“It’s from the 1880s right the way through.”

Ralph has spoken to several former footballers, including Gillingham legend Ernie Morgan and FA Vase-winning manager Tommy Sampson, and sourced pictures with their assistance.

He said: “Unfortunately a lot of them [those who have helped him] have passed on now.

“But players that have played at Wembley and managers that have managed at Wembley have helped me. Someone showed me an FA Cup winner’s medal.

“So I’ve seen that, as well as talking to secretaries at clubs who do everything and don’t get paid. They just do it for the love of it.

"It covers the whole spectrum of football.”

These journeys included the highlight of taking Ralph’s dad - in his late 80s - to meet one of his boyhood heroes, Leslie Fell, who played in the 1946 FA Cup Final for Charlton.

Ralph himself has met some of his boyhood idols from the 1970s in Kenny Burrett and Brian Woolfe, and worn an England Amateur international cap belonging to Kent-based inside forward Jimmy Fletcher.

And Ralph, who also found out Arsenal’s first silverware - when named Royal Arsenal - came in the Kent Junior Cup, believes the grassroots level of the game still has a vital role to play.

He said: “It’s not all about the Premier League.

“You need fans and you need enthusiasts to keep it going at the bottom because, if you don’t have that, I think it could all collapse.”

Ralph intends to make sure the second volume of his book focuses on cup competitions associated with what is now named the Southern Counties East Football League (formerly the Kent League) and volume three will look at Kent clubs’ success in other cup competitions, including the FA Vase and FA Trophy.

That means volume three is set to include Deal’s FA Vase triumph at Wembley and the FA Trophy run Dartford went on in 1974 which saw them reach the final before they were beaten 2-1 by Morecambe.

“Most of it’s there, it’s just a matter of bringing it together,” Ralph noted.

“I will be looking to do that this time next year. Then the year after that, hopefully, the next one.”

He concluded: “One of the mysteries I have discovered is that so few - if any - of these dedicated individuals who give so much time and effort to the game over many years, be it at grassroots level or further up the footballing tree, aren't recognised in the honours list.”

A Pictorial History of Kent Football is on eBay and can be purchased for £25, plus postage and packaging. Alternatively, email smartralph@blueyonder.co.uk to arrange collection.

To find the book on eBay, click here.