• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Daily Archives: May 16, 2012

The Cutteslowe Wall

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by laurencereade in R

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Arron Andrew, Ben Green, Cutteslowe Park, Jake Howard, James Bartington, Jefferson Harriet, Liam O'Callaghan, Long Crendon, Otis Woodward, Oxon Senior League, Riverside, Steve Foot, Tim Siret

Wednesday 16th May 2012 ko 6.30pm

Oxon Senior League Division One

RIVERSIDE 11 (Green 14 Woodward 16 59 Howard 23 Haines 34 Andrew 56 77 O’Callaghan 40 50 Foot 54p Harriet 56)

LONG CRENDON 1 (Duke 71)

Att 5 (h/c)

Played at Cuttleslowe & Sunnymead Park, Oxford (North Oxford FC)

Entry FREE

Nothing for Sale

When aiming to watch a game in the OSL it does pay to be adaptable. The Football Traveller Guide has Riverside playing at Margaret Road, the home of the now defunct Quarry Nomads. That ground’s a short stroll from home, but I had quick dash back home to jump in the car when I found out that the game had been switched to Cutteslowe Park, home to North Oxford FC. From talking to the Riverside manager, it transpires that the club have now relocated to the pitches adjacent to the athletics stadium on the Horspath Road. That makes them virtually opposite to the Rover Cowley Ground, in Romanway. But, with the council having taken down the posts they were forced to switch the game.  I also discovered that goalkeeper Chris Harris, sent off for spitting at an opponent in the OSL Presidents Cup final, is now serving a 9 game ban. We agreed that was an appropriate penalty. https://laurencereade.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/muddy-waters/

As a small boy growing up in East Oxford, Cuttleslowe Park was a rare treat at the end of the number 2 bus route. There’s the paddling pool, the aviary, and the miniature railway, but the abiding memory was the feeling of space, the place is huge! I was completely unaware in those days of the presence of tennis, cricket, a measured mile, and at least 4 football pitches serviced by 2 pavilions. There is however a dark side to the area. When in the 1930’s council housing was built in Cutteslowe, the private estate to the west developed by Clive Saxton of the Urban Housing Company took great exception.

Saxton was afraid that his housing would not sell if so-called ‘slum’ dwellers were going to be neighbours, so in 1934, walls over two metres high and topped with spikes were built to separate them. In fact, the council tenants settled in well and soon raised a petition asking for the walls to be demolished. In 1938 the council pulled down the walls but had failed to take legal advice, and were sued by UBC, and the walls were soon rebuilt. Amazingly it took until 1959 for the walls to be finally demolished after the land on which the walls stood was bought by a compulsory purchase order.

At last I was able to attend a game without a coat, and enjoy the end-of-season sun. The game was played on Pitch 3, the furthest from the Lower Pavillion while a U16 game took place on Pitch 2. With Long Crendon as the visitors, rock bottom with only 4 points, and Riverside chasing the championship, a nil-nil draw was never likely. And yes the goals rained in as Riverside passed Crendon to death.

But here’s the thing, Crendon weren’t quite as bad as I’d expected. I’d watched them lose 4-10 on May 2nd https://laurencereade.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/t-e-a-m/ and they barely functioned as a team. Here, with players unavailable and no sign of their manager, they stuck to what most players know 4-4-2, and went down fighting. And frankly I’d rather watch that, than the shambles I saw 2 weeks ago. Perhaps surprisingly, my man of the match was Crendon keeper James Bartington who made several fine saves. There was a moment of humour when his opposite number Darren Kinch put in strong bid to take the penalty, but was quickly overruled!

The match was unobtrusively refereed by Tim Siret, the last ref to book me. I’ll always be grateful, as I’d have sent me off for the challenge in what proved to be my last game.

With a 10 goal lead, Riverside eased off and Crendon gained small consolation with Kieran Duke’s fine long-range effort. This roused the hosts to force home the eleventh and soon after I was able to stroll through the park, remembering childhood visits.




A Boult from the Blue

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by laurencereade in M

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jason Hallatt, Louis McGillycuddy, Mansfield Road, Marston, Oxon Senior League, Saints, Simon Dickie, Stuart Whigham, Tom Payne

Tuesday 15th May 2012 ko 6.30pm

Oxon Senior League Premier Division

MANSFIELD ROAD 1 (McGillycuddy 64)

MARSTON SAINTS 2 (Payne 5 Hallatt 12)

Att 46 (h/c)

Played at Boults Lane, Old Marston, Oxford (Marston Saints FC)

Entry FREE

Nothing for Sale

If you’ve visited Oxford City FC then you’ve been within a couple of hundred yards of this place. Just opposite the main entrance to Court Place Farm is a small grassed area that used to be the home of Headley Hawks cycle speedway team. It’s now used for children’s football but beyond the hedge at the back is the sports field that is home to this small club.

If you want to drive there, it’s a good mile away, through Old Marston, a suburb of Oxford that to all intents and purposes is still a village, seemingly untouched by urbanisation. The village played an important part in the English Civil War. While the Royalist forces were besieged in the city, used by King Charles I as his capital, the Parliamentary forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax had quarters in Marston, and used the church tower as a lookout post for viewing the enemy’s artillery positions in what is now the University Parks. Oliver Cromwell visited Fairfax at what is now known as “Cromwell House” at 17 Mill Lane, and the Treaty for the Surrender of Oxford was signed there in 1646.

Boults Lane is the kind of place you wouldn’t know existed unless you’d been there. The ground is tucked away at the back of the cul-de-sac, and shares the limited space with the HQ of the 43rd Oxford Scout Troop. My last visit was over 25 years ago for a First Aid badge! The huge John Radcliffe hospital provides a striking backdrop to the whole area.

Mansfield Road have their roots as the Oxford University College Servants club. Their ground has the most wonderful 4-storey clubhouse/hotel/gym/restaurant, with a glass roof. It’s adjacent to New Collage and Balliol’s grounds, so its worth checking if there’s an Oxford University Middle Common Room game on a Saturday morning, then strolling over for the afternoon game. It’s also a complete pain to park, use the Park & Ride to St Giles. Don’t try what I did, park at the Faculty of International Relations, and when someone whinged suggest that they negotiate with me! With the Mansfield Road ground now devoted to cricket, this tie was switched, and I noted that the OSL Mitoo page managed to misspell “Boults!”

The game had something riding on it too, with Saints needing a point to avoid relegation. They made a remarkably quick start too, with two decent finishes in 12 minutes. With Manny forced into using their one substitute early, then watching centre half Simon Dickie pull his hamstring, forcing him to swap places with keeper Stuart Whigham I wondered how many Marston would get! Its didn’t happen as Marston eased off, and allowed Manny back in, and when Louis McGillycuddy’s excellent snap-shot reduced the arrears, there were palpable and completely unnecessary nerves, but Manny’s renaissance was short-lived and so Marston can breathe more easily. Mind you, this is the OSL so anything can happen at the AGM!




The clubhouse at Mansfield Road, on my visit in January 2011

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

Join 6,206 other followers

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
  • 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!

May 2012
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Apr   Jun »

Meta

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

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Join 6,206 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...