Saturday 22nd October 2016 15.00

North Devon League Premier Division

NORTH MOLTON SPORTS CLUB 3 (Phillips 25 35 55p) Body sent off (offensive / abusive / insulting language and / or gestures) 88

BRADWORTHY UNITED 9 (M Carter 13 51 60p 87 G Carter 42 83 90 Clarke 24 73)

Att 14 

Entry FREE

No Programme

As Forrest Gump once commented,  “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” In groundhopping terms that is certainly the case belpw Step 6. Yes, you’ll see your fair share of fields, but you’ll also see the occasional surprising little gem. And half a dozen hoppers at Rocksfield certainly enjoyed their afternoon here.

The village of North Molton is barely in Devon, Somerset lies but a few miles north, but in medieval times was owned by the La Zouche, as in Ashby de la Zouch, family but eventually passed to the Bampfylde family who are venerated in the Perpandicular Gothic church of St Mary in the village.

The church is visible from the frankly impressive sports ground and let’s face it you don’t expect to see a railed off pitch with floodlights this far down the pecking order. In fact there’s two football pitches together with cricket and badminton together with a clubhouse-cum-community hub.

And I’d have had happy memories of North Molton even if the game had been dull, as if was we saw something of a classic. Sometimes the stats don’t do a game justice but here they do. Three hat-tricks and there could have easily have been four, a red card and more action than you could reasonably ask for. A don’t let that red card give you the wrong impression, the game was played in an excellent spirit.

If ever six hoppers were in the right place at the right time this was it. It had been a mighty long drive to take in two local level games, but by anyone’s standards it was a worthwhile exercise. In fact the only unimpressed face there had the longest face of all. That of course was the horse in the field, he was far more interested in the grass he could eat….

Dedicated to Andy Norbury who would have loved this, both for football and cricket. Rest in peace my friend.