The Crawley Raiders were a south coast UK-based American Football Club founded in 1984 by Albie Vickers. They were one of the founding clubs in UK American Football and continued to play competitive league football until they merged with the Brighton B52's in 1997. Their first home game was against the Walthamstow Warriors, with the Raiders losing narrowly in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd.
They managed to reach the UK American Football finals twice in their history, unfortunately losing both times, firstly to the Merseyside Nighthawks and then the Cambridge County Cats. Despite losing to the Merseyside Nighthawks, the Crawley Raiders wide receiver Tim Gregg won the individual MVP award.
Notable players and coaches in the history of the club included Fitzroy Miller (RB), Martin Turner (OL), Gus Romain (RB), Steve Henry (RB), ex-GB Sprinter Jason Livingston (RB), Malcolm Bamsey (WR), Andy Hall (WR and K), Paul Allison (QB), Barry Spencer (QB), John Lloyd (LB), Ron Robinson (DL), Phil Rickards (DE), Ian Ellis (S) and Jerry Mannagh (HC).
A number of ex-players and coaches have gone onto other roles within American Football, notably Marcel Bellefeuille, who is the current head football coach at the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League, Ian Ellis, who is the current head football coach at the Farnham Knights, and also Malcolm Bamsey and Gus Romain, who are currently on the coaching staff of the Sussex Thunder.
In the 1990s the Crawley Raiders were one of the only UK American Football Clubs to run two teams concurrently. The first-team Crawley Raiders I was coached by Dave Pummel, and the second-team Crawley Raiders II was coached by Ian Goddard. The idea was for that the second team would be a feeder team for the first team. The second team were reasonably successful but only lasted a couple of seasons before the organisation was streamlined into one senior club.
The Crawley Raiders also ran two very successful Junior teams during the 1990s. Firstly the Crawley Raiders Juniors played the non-kitted two touch variation of the game and were coached by Graham Lentz, secondly the Crawley Pirates, coached by Dean Smart who played pee-wee football, went on to be national UK champions.
The Raiders played at many different home grounds during their history, including two spells at Bewbush Leisure Centre, Crawley Leisure Centre and also Crawley Rugby Club.
In 1997 the Crawley Raiders merged with local rivals the Brighton B52's to form a new club, the Sussex Thunder. The first Thunder head coach was Jim Jasicki. The Thunder were instantly successful reaching the BritBowl Final in their first year where they narrowly lost to the London O's. Success was to be thin on the ground during the early part of this century, but in 2008, led by then Head Coach Len Scott, the Thunder won the Division 1 national championship in a thrilling overtime win against the Redditch Arrows.
Promotion to the BAFL Premier Division in 2009 saw the Thunder struggle to a losing season and the departure of two head coaches during that season (Len Scott and then Jim Roberson).
In November 2009, the Sussex Thunder appointed ex-San Francisco 49er trialist Tony Stitt as head coach.