Tuesday 5th November 2013 ko 19.45

Midland Alliance League Cup 2nd Round

COLESHILL TOWN 3 (Lloyd 9 Brown 38 45)

BOLDMERE ST MICHAELS 4 (Osborne 11 49 81 Clarke 14)

Att 28

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

Now I have a funny feeling I know what a few of you are thinking now! It’ll be along the lines of “How can someone who spent 7 years living in Banbury have failed to visit here?” I know, just one of those quirks of fate I suppose.

In fact as I type I’m wondering whether I’m the only groundhopper to have visited the other Coleshill, of the North Berkshire League first? Any takers? http://wp.me/p1PehW-19z

This Coleshill is of course in Warwickshire, on the confluence of  the M6, M6 Toll and M42 motorways. Birmingham airport is nearby, with rather belies the gently affluent suburban feel of the town with the beautiful Church of St Peter and St Paul at the top of the Market Square.

Pack Meadow is on Packington Lane, on the outskirts of town, and as I turned into the lane, I saw the double parked cars and thought, “Crumbs, this is going to be a good crowd,” completely forgetting the date. The cars were for the local firework display, and the football club’s attendance suffered without a doubt.

The ground is one of those places you should try and get there early enough to explore. There’s the stand flanked by two oak trees, what could be more English than that, but the other stand is more intriguing. It looks prefabricated, but I’ve not seen its facsimile, and let’s be frank I’m 1516 grounds into this odyssey. Whatever its genesis, the sightlines are excellent, and the game was one you didn’t want to obscure.

I made my way to the clubhouse, beautifully maintained, and was struck on how friendly the club is. I found out that the club was merged with Dosthill Colts in 2011 in a classic case of a club with money but no ground, joining forces with one with a ground, but no money. The result is a cracking club in a ground that could stage Southern League football with a minimum of improvement.

Those who opted to watch the fireworks missed a cracking game, where both sides managed to show frankly amazing skill, Ross Clarke’s sublime free kick being a good example, then a minute later missing a pass, or blasting way over the bar. In fact a Boldmere official summed it up well.

“Well, most of these lads have a some time been at a Football league club, and you can see why. Mind you, you can also see why they’re not now!”

I sat there enjoying the two sides’ attitude which seemed to be a case of, “Go on, attack, we’ll attack you back.” In fact the only thing I didn’t want was extra time which for a fair chunk of the second half looked likely. I and a few others had forgotten to take account of the fact that Lee Osborne was on hat-trick. Another predatory strike saw him complete the feat, and take the tie for the Mikes.

Osborne was undoubtedly the difference between the two sides, but this neutral left pondering a tick I should have done years ago, but it was an extremely satisfying one nonetheless.