Wednesday 13th April 2016 ko 18.30

North Bucks & District League Division One

STEEPLE CLAYDON 4 (Wright 6 Davies 10 Gibbs 12 70)

WING VILLAGE 2 (D Farmer 14 84)

Att 19

There are no end of Claydons in this corner of Buckinghamshire. There’s Botolph, East, Middle and Steeple, and the great irony of watching a football match in Steeple Claydon is that you can’t actually see the steeple! But this part of the world has a more obscure claim to fame, that the London Underground used to run here.

Odd isn’t it? But the Metropolitan Line used to run via Aylesbury through Waddesdon to Quainton Road. From there a tramway ran roughly south-west to Brill, and a steam railway roughly north-west to Verney Junction, about 3 miles from Steeple Claydon. Sadly in these wet fields the metro didn’t pay, the line stops at Amersham today; the line to Verney Junction closed in 1936 and the service to Quainton Road in 1948. Quainton Road by the way is 45 miles from Baker Street station!

But there is more to Steeple Claydon than the railway. The famous nurse Florence Nightingale lived here and the clock situated in the Recreation Ground is dedicated to her by the Verney family who, yes, gave their name to Verney Junction, the now disused station being on their land. I note that the clock wouldn’t have been much use to Florence, it’s stopped!

But on a warm evening, this was an excuse to plonk yourself with a locally sourced bag of chips and watch a game in the third tier of the North Bucks & District League. Here Wing were caught completely cold, and only an eternal optimist could see the game being anything but over at 3-0 after 12 minutes.

And that’s how it ended up, despite Daniel Farmer’s best attempts, with the sun setting over this delightful corner of middle England.