Monthly Archives: July 2014

The World Cup of Wye

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in R

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 29th July 2014 ko 18.30

West Dean Charity League Intermediate Section

REDBROOK ROVERS 4 (14 37 55 66)

HUNTLEY 4 (1 42 59 77)

Att 19

Entry FREE

Programme No

Each pre-season the clubs in the Forest of Dean in membership of the North Gloucestershire League have a cup competition instead of playing friendlies. Its separated into 3 sections, Senior, Intermediate, and Junior, on a divisional status. Its organised rather like the World Cup with a group stage followed by a knock-out phase, and I’m indebted to Gloucestershire non-league expert Tim Burgin fir supplying me with the details. Continue reading →

Rivetting

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in R

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Saturday 26th July 2014 ko 14.00

Pre-Season Friendly

RIVETS 7 (Lane 1 Ithier 9 Tomlinson 20 82 Carter 45 Webb 45p Chiarello 67)

WING 0

Att 7

Entry FREE

Programme- They’d sold out; what do you think?

Every so often I like to go completely back-to-basics, and watch a game on a park pitch, stripping the game back to the only essentials, 22 people, two goals and a ball. This game certainly did that and satisfied the OCD part of me that simply has to see a game at somewhere I’ve passed by regularly. Continue reading →

The Bigger Picture

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in A

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Thursday 24th July 2014 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

ABINGDON TOWN 1 (Lightwood 75)

OXFORD UNITED XI 10 (O’Dowda 16 Long 27 52 56 Roberts 32 45 Bevans 35 Culley 64 Hawtin 87)

Att c350

Entry & Programme £5

So Oxford United’s development squad ran up 10 goals against a North Berkshire League outfit, and genuinely that isn’t the story at all. In Oxfordshire few clubs have fallen as rapidly and as far as Town in recent years. I remember seeing Town playing in the Isthmian League Division One (then just 2 promotions from the Football League) but now find themselves, in theory, seven promotions from their guests’ status. But where did it all go wrong?

Continue reading →

What we did on our holidays

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in A

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday 23rd July 2014 ko

Pre-Season Friendly

AEK-BOCO 2 (Kitson 41 72)

CADBURY HEATH 2 (Tongue 10 Huxley 44)

Att 78

Entry FREE

No Programme

My appearance at this was purely based to London-based Mark Wilkins. We were watching Coventry United the previous day, and I asked Mark where he was going the next day. He replied, and once I’d established they were a team from Hanham in Bristol, and not a Nigerian Islamic terrorist group I decided to join him. Continue reading →

Just Wanna Play

27 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in C

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 22nd July 2014 ko 18.45

Pre-Season Friendly

COVENTRY UNITED 1 (Stokes 52) Nduna missed penalty 43

BRINKLOW 3 (Cawley 13 90 Nelson 67p)

Att 47 at Keresley RUFC, John E Radford Fields, Burrow Hill Lane, Corley

Entry FREE

No Programme

This was one of those grounds you can’t visit for football during the normal season, but with the pitch at Allard Way being reseeded, the club moved this fixture to Keresley, a village right on the northern edge of the Coventry conurbation. Its a rural location, even the undulating pitch showed signs of its former use as strip-farmed agriculture.  As it so often the case with a rugby union ground, the facilities are mostly in the clubhouse, there was no rope, rail, or stand, but to be fair to the egg-chasers, this was the furthest pitch from the clubhouse. And on a warm evening, what facilities did you need anyway? Continue reading →

Fly Past

20 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in G

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Saturday 19th July 2014 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

GUILDFORD CITY 1 (Baker 27) Spencer missed penalty 70

LINGFIELD 2 (O’Hara 41 Abraham 80)

Att c20 at the Mytchett Centre

Entry FREE

Programme – Don’t be daft

I’m not sure why City opted to play this away from the Spectrum Centre, perhaps athletics takes precedence in July. Either way it offered up the chance to watch a game at a location not normally used for Saturday football to my knowledge. Mytchett is near Farnborough, it’s where Rudolph Hess was imprisoned in Camp Z in 1941. The camp had been specially set up for his arrival with heavy security and bugging devices, and he stayed there for 13 months.

This would have been a completely run-of-the-mill pre-season friendly but for one detail, and that became obvious when nearing the ground I espied something in my rear-view mirror. Continue reading →

Four Laps, Clutch Start

20 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in C

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday 18th July 19.30

British Elite League

COVENTRY BEES 52 (Andersen 12+1 Jepson Jensen 11+1)

BELLE VUE ACES 39 (Zagar 10 Nielsen 9)

Entry £17

Programme £2.50

In another life I could have easily become a speedway hopper, the Oxford Cheetahs’ Sandy Lane track was a cycle ride away during my youth, and once one of us learned to drive there was the likes of the Reading Racers, the Milton Keynes Knights, the Cradley Heathens, Swindon Robins, Wolverhampton Wolves, and Poole Pirates all within a reasonably straightforward drive. But if you wanted a match at a big stadium with a sense of history you went to Brandon Stadium. My hey-day was the late eighties and nineties I suppose, but times change.

Continue reading →

Sunset

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in U

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday 15th July 2014 ko 19.30

Pre-season Friendly

UNITED SERVICES PORTSMOUTH 2 (Coker 9 Dark 26)

FAREHAM TOWN 5 (Neal 22 Houks 53og Robinson 55 A T Rialist 83 90)

Att 13 at 3G pitch HMS Temeraire, Portsmouth

Entry FREE

Programme- You are joking aren’t you?

I visited USP’s Victory Stadium around 4 years ago, and it too is in HMS Temeraire, near Portmouth Docks. There’s no great security here, just a contracted-out guard, who seemed to be about as interested in me as I was in him! When I found out about this fixture, two things immediately struck me, firstly that I now had the camera to do the backdrop justice, and secondly that I was banned!

Continue reading →

Self-Esteem

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in F

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday 10th July 2014 ko 14.00

Pre-season Friendly

FARNBOROUGH 1 (Lucas Enrique 77)

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Roberts 71 Ashby 76)

Att 278

Entry £10

Programme £1.50

Sometimes you re-visit a ground and find the place almost completely different from your previous visit. My first visit to Cherrywood Road, I’m sorry but I can’t get used to Paddy Power Park, was during Graham Westley’s time as owner/manager here. Continue reading →

Death of a 1000 passes

14 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in B

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Thursday 10th July 2014 ko 18.45

Europa League 1st Qualifying Round

BANGOR CITY 0

STJARNAN FC 4 (Rauschenberg 53 Bjorgvinsson 61 81 A Johannsson 85)

Agg 0-8

Att 805

Entry £14

Programme £3

Let’s be honest here, I’d waited far too long to visit the Welsh club’s new home on the banks of the Menai straits. But the decision to wait proved to be a good one, as a competitive game this time of year is not to be sniffed at, and I’d never watched a side from Iceland either!

Continue reading →