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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Daily Archives: April 21, 2013

Under Notts Wood

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by laurencereade in U

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groundhop, Notts Senior League, Rob Hornby, soccer, Underwood Villa, West Bridgford

Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 12.45

Notts Senior League Division One

UNDERWOOD VILLA 2 (Townsend 45 Tring 45)

WEST BRIDGFORD 2 (S Prince 5 Charlesworth 10)

Att 341

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge (last one!) £3

Thanks for the excellence of Selston’s traffic operation we were in the village of Underwood in plenty of time. Like our previous location this is a hilltop village with views over the Erewash valley, towards the southern outcrops of the Pennines. It’s a former colliery village, but seemingly has escaped from the deprivation often seen in former mining towns.

The mining heritage is reflected in the club badge with a mine headstock together with a football, bracken, St Michaels church & the crest of the Chaworth-Musters family. Bracken Park is on land owned by the Chaworth-Musters, and they have allowed the club to expand their operations to an area of 5 acres! The current project is a new pavilion which sadly wasn’t quite completed for our visit, but the kitchen part was, so the club made a good profit selling that Midlands footballing staple- Pie and Peas, except that on this occasion there was a choice of 3 types of pie!

Once again the team sheets were inaccurate, and I’m indebted to ace-blogger Peter Miles for giving me the correct line-ups. There wasn’t a moment to be wasted either as the visitors made a flying start. A poor clearance from a corner fell to Sam Prince who volleyed home in spectacular fashion.

Now there is one sure fire way of guaranteeing a goal in a groundhop game is to get Chris Berezai to either visit the toilet or go and buy some food. I’d wondered whether it only worked at events we’re organising, but many thanks Underwood, you proved that his talent is without restriction. Off he went to buy Pie and Peas, and that’s when Jurgen Charlesworth’s stunning, curling volley rocketed into the top right corner!

It set a pattern for the half, with the visitors dominating but all that changed in the final, mad minute of first half stoppage time. Firstly captain Ian Townsend blasted home from more or less the half-way line, then a few seconds later some appalling defending allowed him to round the on-rushing keeper Liam Johnson and slide the ball towards the goal. Did the ball cross the line before Sam Tring applied the final touch? Hard to tell, but if I was Townsend I wouldn’t be very impressed with his team-mate!

The second half couldn’t possibly have lived up to the standards of the first. The sides huffed and puffed but little of note happened. But then Chris didn’t need feeding or anything else. For that I take full responsibility.






 

The Naked Brewer

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by laurencereade in S

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Tags

groundhop, Notts Senior League, Rob Hornby, Selston, The Naked Brewer, Wollaton

Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 10.10

Notts Senior League Senior Division

SELSTON 2 (Barnes 4 Moore 90)

WOLLATON 2 (Ranson 47  Ranshaw 82)

Att 358

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

I’d stayed overnight in Long Eaton, so a 10.10am kick-off held no fears for me, particularly as my responsibilities added up to nothing more than turning up and watching the game!

The Ashfield-based village of Selston lies to the east of Nottinghamshire, and its leafy hilltop location was in contrast to our urban environs the previous evening. The local St Helen’s Church dates back to 1150 AD. An older Saxon church is thought to have occupied the site, the monolith in the church yard is evidence of this, and that may well have been of ceremonial importance for pre-Christian pagans in the area.

The football club play behind the Parish Hall, and I was impressed at the way the parking was organised as the street outside is narrow and the potential for a bottleneck both before and after the game was massive. Nevertheless the traffic management was excellent, and there were no delays even when leaving the ground.

The club clearly had decided on a tilt for organiser Rob Hornby’s hospitality award; a marquee had been erected and a local brewery had been invited to sell their wares. That proved to be interesting as the brewer Sarah Webster aka The Naked Brewer uses 13.5-tog duvets to warm her containers in her 5-barrel custom-insulated plant attached to her pub, the Corner Pin in Westwood.

Merchandise was sold and the bacon rolls were fantastic! Where the club fell down slightly was the vexed question of line-ups. Many hoppers, me included, like to jot down the line-ups before the game and the normal method of dealing with this is to get the club to use a flip-chart to record the information. For this hop the modus operandi was team sheets, but Selston printed theirs the night before, and they were inaccurate, negating the whole point of producing them. Still I found referee Andy Rolph enjoying a big cigar, and recorded the line-ups direct from the official paperwork and passed the information on to those interested.

It didn’t detract from a superb morning’s entertainment, with Wollaton hitting the bar after a mere 20 seconds! It didn’t take long for Selston to take command, and Richard Barnes slotted home from a good cross from the left. The trouble was that Selston failed to capitalise and the game got rather mired in ugly tackles and still uglier back-chat. In the final analysis Mr Rolph did well to keep 22 men on the field.

Of course if you don’t take your chances you end up paying, and Dave Ranson’s low finish after a good passing move was a real shock to Selston’s system. It got worse for them as Rich Ranshaw’s superb strike gave Wollaton a lead that looked barely credible 45 minutes earlier. And if Wollaton had carried on pressing, they surely would have won the game. Instead they tried to defend the last few minutes, and paid the price.

The Selston keeper Luke Wigley went up for a free kick from the right, and it was his scuffed header that Tim Moore managed to back-heel in to equalise. It was the last kick of the game. A choker for Wollaton, and a game that the hosts could have won, but fantastic entertainment for the bumper crowd.






 

The Mission

21 Sunday Apr 2013

Posted by laurencereade in M

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Tags

Bilborough Town, groundhop, Magdala Amateurs, Notts Senior League, Rob Hornby, Stuart Clarke

Friday 17th April 2013 ko 18.30

Notts Senior League Senior Division

MAGDALA AMATEURS 2 (Sutton 10 48)

BILBOROUGH TOWN 1 (Lucas 22og)

Att 245

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badges sold out

If there’s one thing I like more than a groundhop weekend, its a groundhop I’m not involved in organising! Rob Hornby, apart from being a good friend, is a wizard of organising events in and around his home in Mansfield. He organised the sadly finished Central Midlands League Groundhops, but has now switched to the parallel status Notts Senior League for his annual Bonanza. The format was one game on the Friday, followed by 4 on the Saturday, and with none of the clubs having floodlights it was set to be a busy weekend!

My mistake, in retrospect was not taking half a day off work; Friday night traffic meant I missed the first few minutes of the game, that apparently kicked off a touch early. Never mind, that’s my fault, especially as the Stuart Clarke influence in me likes to get to a ground early and soak the place up.

The club play behind the ROKO Health Club, in West Bridgford, in South Nottingham, and their unusual name takes a little explanation! They were formed in 1895 by the Rev. Gwynne as the side of the St Emmanuel Sunday School based on Magdala Road nearby. They took the name as Notts Magdala, but when a reserve side was added they promptly broke away and became the Magdala Amateurs of today! The first XI carried on, and eventually changed their name to Nottinghamshire FC and also play in the Notts Senior League, just north of the city.

For a club less than 2 miles from a major city’s centre, the ROKO centre’s pitch is quite arboreal in location! It made for an attractive meeting point, in the setting sun, although I did feel sorry for the owner of the car wash in the car park, who must have thought his Christmases had come at once as 10 times Magdala’s attendance arrived only to drive straight past him!

Rob had clearly got the club working along the correct lines, as everyone looked busy. The catering was contracted out to a local sandwich bar, and the merchandise stall did a roaring trade. I found Rob, and donated a bag of programmes towards his charity stall. Then I actually managed to relax and watch the game!

It didn’t take long to work out that Magdala were clearly the stronger team, and they took the lead through Lee Sutton. Only poor finishing and the woodwork stopped them adding to the score and the profligacy was punished when Bilborough equalised when a cross spun off Magdala defender Richard Lucas for a bizarre own goal.

Sutton doubled his tally just after the break and that was to be the end of the scoring, although both sides had chances, the majority falling to Magdala. I watched Rob as the final whistle blew. The first game is always the most nerve-wracking as organiser but his smile spoke volumes. I gave another hopper a lift into the centre of Nottingham, then disappeared into the night.

Rob Hornby




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