Wednesday 26th August 2015 ko 18.15

Thames Valley Premier League, Premier Division

COOKHAM DEAN 0

WOODLEY UNITED RESERVES 5 (Waller 10 Male 45p 68 Wilks 59 73)

Att 14

Entry FREE

No Programme

Most people have regrets, but John Profumo most have had more than many. If only he’d never met Christine Keeler, and Mandy Rice-Davies, or paid Cliveden House a visit… Actually the Taplow-based mansion could have been his salvation, if he’d only looked from a west-facing window and stared over the valley towards Cookham Dean.

Because then maybe he’d have seen the pitch at one edge of the Alfred Major Recreation Ground, seen the goals and instead of indulging in les laisions dangereuses he might have trotted over and watched a game.

There’s plenty to enjoy other than the view of the mansion. Trains rumble on the branch line to Cookham, and the occasional jogger suffers on the incline from the bottom end.

The clubhouse is the well-appointed centre of activity, they’re a friendly bunch here, and the bottle-conditioned ales are a bonus. In fact the only thing that seemed to go wrong for the hosts was matters on the pitch.

Woodley United are of course the rebadged Woodley Town now moved on from Charvil in favour of a ground-grading compliant groundshare at Reading Town. The issue with watching a reserve side is that there’s sometimes an issue with how strong a side they’ll be able to put out. Was their team stronger for the first XI’s friendly scheduled for this evening being postponed? It transpired not on this occasion, there were no first team players, and nine of the starting eleven, played in their last game.

Either way they put their hosts to the sword, and much as I’d like to provide some succour to Cookham Dean’s friendly people, the score was entirely realistic.

For the neutral, it was an evening to enjoy the backdrop, the game and a friendly club with the mansion in the background.