Windsor confirmed two new signings on Wednesday night ahead of their Uhlsport Hellenic League Premier Division campaign.
Luke Paris and Matt Surmon are the new men in at Stag Meadow and both come with decent if different experience. Centre back Surmon joins from Isthmian League South Central Division One Ashford Town (Middlesex) where made – according to FootballWebPages – 29 appearances between March 2019 and January 2020.
Paris’ backstory comes with an international flavour, another centre-back – he makes the step up to the Royalists from Hellenic League Division One East Langley – and is the latest in a line of Hellenic footballers with international experience having appeared five times for Anguilla.
Jayce Olivero was playing for Gibralter in Euro 2020 qualifer’s while turning out for Abingdon United and Gavin James played in World Cup Qualifiers in 2015 for St Vincent and the Grenadines while playing for Flackwell Heath.
In a piece with the website TheSetPieces.com worth reading here, Paris is described as ‘living a remarkable double life. Normally an IT worker for a logistics company in Maidenhead, yet occasionally an international footballer who plays in front of tens of thousands of people in Central America.’
He said: ““It’s amazing to get the opportunity to fly out there, represent the island and have family come to watch me at the national stadium.”
Paris played five times for Langley last season but amassed 27 appearances during the clubs successful 2018/19 Division Two East campaign that saw them promoted to Division One East.
The Royalists themselves have had a tough pre-season playing a number of higher-ranked sides including Vanarama National League South neighbours and old rivals Slough Town. Speaking to Football in Berkshire in mid-August, manager Mark Cooper said: “We won our first game 1-0 against Chalvey Sports with Ben Mulley scoring, then lost 2-1 Saturday against Ascot. Both games have seen us use all 20 in the squad which has given us the opportunity to look at lots of players and the signs are that the squad is shaping up well. The first half performance on Saturday was particularly pleasing and we competed really well against a good Ascot side. We have 6 friendlies left and we’re looking at bringing three more players in before we finalise numbers. The energy around the place is excellent but we have some tough friendlies coming up and we’ll certainly know by the end of the month if we have enough quality and depth for a chance of success by then.”
