• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Daily Archives: March 5, 2012

Rest in Peace

05 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bredon, Broadway, Cheltenham, Football, groundhopping, League, Milestone Ground, Olympia, sir arthur evans

I’ve just heard the news at that Broadway United of the Cheltenham League have folded. Now while this isn’t exactly massive news in the world of football, it’s a real shame as the ground is a cracker, and I really enjoyed my visit there last season. So, here’s my report from that time, which I have updated slightly to the format I use now here. The original title was “Loz! Your thong is showing!”

Sunday May 22nd 2011 ko 4.00pm

Evesham Hospital & Charity Sunday Minor Cup Final

BREDON FC 3 (Drew 11 Carroll 45 Oughtred 90)

AC OLYMPIA 0

Att 97 (h/c)

Entry & Programme £2

Played at The Milestone Ground, Broadway (Broadway FC)

The Worcestershire town of Broadway is right in the centre of the Cotswolds and it would be hard to find a prettier location, nestled as you are in the hills. The most famous feature is the Broadway Tower. It was built on an ancient beacon site and has a colourful history. It was home to the renowned printing press of Sir Thomas Phillips, a country retreat for Pre-Raphaelite artists, notably the artist, designer, writer, craftsman and socialist William Morris, a location for the studies of the distinguished archeologist Sir Arthur Evans, and less interestingly as a farmhouse!  Today the Tower houses exhibitions connected with its past and the surrounding area. On a clear day you can see 13 counties from the top!

So, picture the scene. A warm Sunday evening, and I’m sat on a grass bank watching two Evesham and District Sunday League teams slug it out for a minor piece of silverwhere, when a WAG yells out “Loz! Your thong is showing!”

Not many people answer to “Loz,” so I checked the back of my trousers, no they were in place, and come to think of it that would not be my choice of underwear! but then I glanced away from the action, to my left. Loz, it transpired was Laura, the girlfriend of one of the Bishops Cleeve based Olympia players, and she’d stood up to throw the ball back in. And yes her red thong was showing, and yes she wore it well, to quote Rod Stewart. Well worth the £2 entry!

Other than Laura’s underwear there was plenty on display. Broadway is a pretty village just over the border into Worcesterhire from Gloucestershire and the ground reflects that. There’s a fair sized clubhouse but for the hopper, there’s a wooden stand made out of larchlap. Its raised too, on a grass bank, no seats just covered standing. I’ve not seen anything like it. Which rather belies the ground’s original use as a rubbish dump. Once upon a time the pitch was flat, like a bowling green, but then the rubbish rotted, and it has to be noted that there were obvious undulations. It didn’t help the players, who were of a low standard, and with a long season behind them.

The game pitted Bredon in Division 1 against Division 3 Olympia, and with all due respect to Laura and her mates, whose support was excellent, they didn’t look like winning from the moment goalkeeper Alcock dropped the ball right in front of forward Mark Drew.

Just one of those warm evenings when you can relax and watch a Broadway show when you don’t know the ending. Lovely.





Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,510 other subscribers

Look for stuff here folks!

Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • Swedish Football History & Statistics Mats Nyström’s curates this site, which does exactly what you’d expect 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

Your very own calendar!

March 2012
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Feb   Apr »

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Join 494 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...