Saturday 11th August 2012 ko 3.00pm

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round

ARUNDEL 1 (Walker 36)

EPSOM & EWELL 2 (Ayling 30 75)

Att c100

Entry £5

Programme 50p

I’m writing about this one 5 days after the event which isn’t necessarily a bad thing  as I can try to place my trip to Mill Road in some sort of context. I’d seen photos of the ground with the castle in the background and had wanted to visit for years it seemed a straightforward plan to head via Eastleigh and still have plenty of time to wend my way along the A27 and visit the cornucopia of second-hand bookshops before the game. As ever, life didn’t work out that way, the A34 and M3 were choked by Olympic travellers, and so I missed out on my bookshops. A shame, but the hold-ups did have a benefit.

I’d got rather wrapped up in the Olympics, perhaps it’s the lot of the hosting nation that its inhabitants suddenly get expert in sports that they hadn’t heard of previously. That’s no bad thing, participation is to be encouraged but I found myself looking at things a little more deeply. Because, as I listened to the radio as I waited, I realised that these athletes’ names really mattered, they were doing something with passion, the fruit of years of hard work. As I write, the latest clutch of “Celebrities” have entered the “Big Brother” house. Who wins? You……well I couldn’t care less. The distinction couldn’t be clearer. The ex-girlfriend of Simon Cowell? A girl who “rinses” celebrities. I’ll stick to the realities of sport.

The Sussex town of Arundel is the seat of the Dukedom of Norfolk and is the birthplace of actress Judy Geeson. The River Arun runs behind the ground and in wet weather its worth phoning ahead, the ground does flood. It has its own car park too beyond the “Pay & Display” serving the castle. When we got there that was full, but the club opened the gates, took our money, and let me park behind the stand. It saved the cost of the public car park.

And what a ground it is. From the pitched roofed stand to the roomy clubhouse, there’s a lot to enjoy even without the outstanding backdrop. In fact the addition of a turnstile block would see the ground fit for the Isthmian League. It’s part of a very genteel sporting area. There’s bowls and a pitch and putt course, but it was a pleasure to soak up the sun and watch a team from the top flight of the Sussex County League take on one from the top flight of the Combined Counties. As if all this wasn’t enough, an airshow provided a steady stream of fly pasts.

Sadly, there wasn’t much chance of Arundel lasting any longer than 90 minutes in this season’s competition. Whilst Arundel found a quick answer to Nathan Aylings’s opener, a deft chip,  though David Walker’s glancing header, there wasn’t any great doubt that the Surrey side would find another way through. That they did, Ayling ghosting in at the back post to stroke home.

That earns Epsom & Ewell a home tie with another Sussex side, Three Bridges. Of course, home for the Salts isn’t home, as they’ve groundshared (currently at Chipstead) since the sale of their West Street home in 1993. I asked a club official how plans for a new ground back in the borough are progressing. ” Oh, that’s on the horizon,” he said, ” The trouble is that the horizon keeps getting further away!”