Sank ’em

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Football, groundhopping, Hereford, Herefordshire League, HJ Handley Cup, Leisure Centre, Sinkum FC, Weobley

Thursday 22nd November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Herefordshire League HJ Handley Cup 2nd Round

WEOBLEY 1 (L Williams 40)

SINKUM FC 2 (Gallimore 57p Barefoot 65)

Played at Hereford Leisure Centre, Holmer Road

Att 25 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Tea (from the leisure centre) £1.30

A first for me this, as I don’t think I’ve watched a game INSIDE a horse racing track! The pitch is part of the leisure centre, but you do have to walk across the horse racing track to get it, set as it is, inside a running track. This ground was using for a short time by Pegasus Juniors, before they moved in to their new ground in Old School Lane. To the left the Bulmers Cider Factory is clearly visible.

I reached the ground at around 6.50, and strolled over to the pitch. I was told by a grumpy athletics coach that kick off was not at the advertised 7.30 but 8.00 “Because we’re here until 7.30.” I retreated to the leisure centre cafe and tried to buy a meal, to be told the kitchen was closed, I made do with a cake and a cup of coffee.

The warring factions settled on a compromise time of 7.45 and I found out precisely what I was to be watching! This was a game between 2 sides in the 1st division (2nd tier) of the Herefordshire league, a feeder to the lower divisions of either the Hellenic or West Midlands League. Neither side call the ground home, that honour lies with Holmer FC of Division 2 South. I would also comment that the floodlights were poor, with one not working at all! These pictures are literally the only usable ones!

It was Sinkum though that proved to be most intriguing. Formed a few years ago from a group of lads who met at a now closed pool club (hence the name) they decided to start a football team. I’d have thought pool and football wouldn’t exactly go to together, but last season they won the Herefordshire League Division 3 at a canter, so the league have placed them in this season’s division 1. It hasn’t exactly clipped their wings as prior to this game, they were played 6 won 6, including an 11-0 demolition of Dore Valley. They also told me they were on a 26 game unbeaten run!

The match was rather eccentrically referreed by Herefordshire FA Chief Executive Jim Lambert, but to be honest I was a little more concerned about the blustery wind and rain, and that bluntly the standard wasn’t great. Still, despite the best efforts of the esteemed official I watched a decent game, and perhaps predicably Sinkum were just too strong for Weobley in a scrappy game littered with errors. Barefoot’s headed goal from Gallimore’s cross was a fitting coda though.

: You can see the Bulmers Factory in the background

: Now that’s what I call First Aid!

Menagerie

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by laurencereade in H

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Football, goals, groundhopping, Harefield United, League, London Tigers, Spartan South Midlands

Tuesday 22nd November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Spartan South Midlands League Premier Cup 2nd Round

HAREFIELD UNITED 2 (Reader 42 Majeed 51)

LONDON TIGERS 0

Att 40

Entry & Programme £6

Tea £1

Back in May the move from Banbury to Oxford, involved a distance of a mere 31 miles, but it did alter massively my potential destinations for midweek gamea. This fixture is now only 40 miles from home!

Harefield is sometimes described as the nearest village to London, and it has an odd mix of village and suburbia about it. Its most famous for the hospital where Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub FRS, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon carried out the first live lobe lung transplant and went on to perform more transplants than any other surgeon in the world. By the end of the 1980s Harefield Hospital was the world’s leading transplant centre. A lesser known fact is that three Victoria Cross winners hail from the village.

Preston Park is on the right as you enter the village from Hillingdon, and is a good example of a lower division Isthmian ground. There’s a low seated stand, and opposite is a quirky covered enclosure; perhaps the reason why the club left the Isthmian on ground grading issues is because there’s no cover behind either goal.

It was a pleasant surprise to catch up with Pinner-based hopper Les Bull, and we both enjoyed the announcer trying to add razzmatazz to a cold damp game in front of 40 patrons. The visitors are a real “United Nations” team, having started out as a charity project to help disadvantaged children in Paddington. From there they entered the Middlesex League playing out of Kingsbury Town. When that club folded Tigers were allowed to take their place in the Spartan South Midlands League and became Kingsbury London Tigers. Now they’ve moved to the old Viking Greenford ground, and dropped the Kingsbury prefix although pitch problems have meant that as I write they’ve yet to play a home game!

While off the field the Tigers have problems, on this occasion they had a far simpler one, namely that in 90 minutes of play they failed to muster even one shot on target! Just one decent shot that hit the crossbar, during the second half, so it was left to the Hares’ striker Jack Reader to score one and set up Aban Majeed for the second, to settle a fairly forgetable game.