Home and Away?

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Tags

bishops waltham, Craig Shrimpton, Danny Thompson, Fareham Town, Graham Lindsey, John Wilson, Liam Robinson, Mark Cotton, Paul Splodge Proctor, Rob Tambling, southampton airport, Sporting Bishops Waltham, Wayne Boud

Saturday 7th July 2012 ko 3.00pm

Pre-season Friendly

FAREHAM TOWN 10 (Cotton 17 Shrimpton 28 Boud 33 Tambling 35 Lindsey 44 Wilson 52 58 Roden 53 Robinson 68 Thompson 69)

SPORTING BISHOPS WALTHAM 0

Att 46 (h/c)

Played at University of Southampton Playing Fields, Wide Lane, Eastleigh

Entry FREE

Programme £1

With rain coming down in torrents flooding the A34 on the way down, I suspect all involved were glad of a 3G pitch. Mind you, Bishops Waltham postponed a reserve friendly that morning, as the opposition didn’t want to play in the rain! The complex, is just about in Eastleigh, and is opposite Southampton Airport Parkway railway station.

There was also the vexed question of who was the “home” team. This is neither side’s home ground, but Bishops Waltham is a lot closer, but the programme was produced by Fareham secretary Paul “Splodge” Proctor. He told me that Bishops had asked for the game, and the £80 cost of the pitch was being split between the two clubs. Splodge was hoping to recoup Fareham’s half of the money through programme sales. He sold 19, so I bought a couple more. The real winners here were the university who did well out of charging student prices for beer to thirsty hoppers.

With the rain still bucketing down, the vast majority of both spectators and substitutes sought refuge on the terrace bar’s balcony. It afforded a decent view, albeit with the tall fence partially obscuring the near side. If the rain had abated, more people would have taken advantage of the hard standing on the far side of the pitch. As it was, I quickly took my pictures, found Splodge for the substitutes’ names and sought refuge back at the balcony.

If Waltham had gone through with the reserve game is the morning, I hate to imagine the thrashing they’ve have received. As it was they went into this game, with only 4 substitutes, no recognised goalkeeper, and only 4 members of last season’s squad. Fareham treated the game as passing practice, and as a means of blowing away close-season cobwebs. Sporting barely touched the ball for the duration of the game, and even suffered the indignity of a non-goal that was, keeper James Webb diving over Graham Lindsey’s non-shot for the fifth goal.

Despite Fareham putting out virtually a new side for the second half, the goals continued to be scored with metronomic efficiency, and the fact that the Creeksiders played exhibition football as soon as the 10th goal had been scored saved the Hampshire League outfit further humiliation. In theory there’s only 2 divisions between the two sides, the reality looked like a good deal more.

The Barrow Boys are hawking

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by laurencereade in F

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Tags

AFC Croydon Athletic, Bacon's College, cricket, Docklands, Fisher, Fisher Athletic, Gherkin, Lee Jansen, Mazhar Majeed, Pakistan spot fixing, Shard, surrey docks

Friday 6th July 2012 ko 8.00pm

Pre-season Friendly

FISHER FC 4 (Wilson 19 Telesford 38 Mustafa 43 Haidana 87)

AFC CROYDON ATHLETIC 1 (Jansen 66)

Att 64 (h/c)

Entry & Programme £3

Coffee £1

At Bacon’s College, Rotherhithe, London

I love visting London, in fact when there’s time, I love driving across the capital. With Bacon’s College being set in the heart of Docklands, just below the Surrey bend of the Thames, I saw some of the sights on the way, Tower Bridge, Madame Tussaud’s and so on, it was seventh heaven street for me!

It was easy to park in the new-looking residential streets around the college, and being around an hour before kick off I caught the end of a graduation prom just leaving the college. They looked very cosmopolitan, and smart. The gaggle of groundhoppers waiting, looked a good deal less of both but one, Dermot, pointed out that Fisher’s old ground was just a short walk away. The Surrey Docks Stadium, was once meant to be a football league ground in waiting, but now lies derelict – a victim of a dispute between a now defunct club, and an intransigent landlord. The phoenix club would like to move back there, away from a groundshare at Dulwich Hamlet, but that looks a long shot. In the meantime, an annual visit to a 3G pitch 100 yards away provides some succour.

There’s some similarities for AFC Croydon. Caught up in the maelstrom of the Pakistani cricketers spot-fixing scandal they found themselves in a fix not of their own making. Owner Mazhar Majeed, agent to the three cricketers jailed, was given a 32 month sentence, and there’s still an investigation as to whether Majeed used the club for money laundering purposes. On 2nd October 2010 club chairman David Le Cluse was found dead with a bullet wound to the head, in a garage in Sutton. The club folded in December 2011, and was immediately resurrected by the fans. With the club’s home, the Keith Tuckey stadium unavailable, the new club will spend this season sharing Croydon FC’s Sports Arena, playing in the Combined Counties League. This was AFC Croydon Athletic’s first ever game.

Frankly, it showed. Whilst the facilities wre unsuitable for a step 6 club to use Bacon’s College as a permanent base, the 3G pitch was excellent, and Fisher soon made their class tell. It wasn’t that Croydon, still using the old club’s Ryman League branded kit, were substantially poorer, it was that Fisher were sharper. Perhaps that game I’d watched at Arkley a few days earlier had been of more use than I’d thought! With multiple rolling substitutions slowing the game down, the evening became more of a social occasion, and as the red sun sank, the skyline took on a life of its own. The Shard, Gherkin, and the Docklands Towers gave an unimportant game a spectacular backdrop. For the record, Lee Jansen had the honour of scoring AFC Croydon’s first ever goal, but it mattered little, for both sides this was about picking a side for a season a full month away.

I gave a hopper sporting a plastic boot a lift to the nearest station, and set off on a slow drive back across London, this time making no attempt to avoid the congestion charge. When you’ve got time, and the charge isn’t applied after 6pm, you can afford to linger, but not too long, the close-ups can get rough!