Tuesday 22nd August 2017 ko 19.45

Cambridgeshire County League Division Senior A

SOMERSHAM TOWN 2 (Wiggins- Brown 37 Sterna 50)

OVER SPORTS 3 (Peacock 12 49 Sessions 75)

Att c100

Entry FREE

This last couple of weeks the running theme has been clubs with an Eastern Counties League past. There was the abandoned game at Long Sutton and of course Wisbech Town were until relatively recently in the ECL. But Somersham at first glance seemed be unusual in that they were playing a floodlit game in the second tier of a county league.

The town is typical of the flattened topgraphy of East Anglia with the slightly confusing geography of managing to be in both the district of Huntingdonshire and the county of Cambridgeshire. Perhaps inevitably the local railway station closed in the time of Dr Beeching. More unusually the station building is to be found in the McAlpine family’s private railway in Fawley, near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire! These days the town’s main claim is that the town lies on the Prime Meridian (Longitude zero degrees) and a marker is placed in the town centre marking the distinction, as well as on the club badge! Given that St Margaretsbury also lies on the Prime Meridian, there really ought to be a twinning link!

The surprise is just how well-appointed the West End Ground is for the level the club plays at. The club were founder members of the Eastern Counties League’s lower division in 1988, but struggled for most of the 16 seasons they had at Step 6, finally succumbing in 2004, in a season when fellow founder members Warboys failed to finish the season.

The legacy is the facilities, more than enough for the County League, but not enough for elevation back to either the Eastern or United Counties Leagues. But that would imply the desire to return, perhaps that’s not either the aim or the point.

For when you stopped worrying about the fripperies and the fabric and started thinking about what really matters, the people, this was a fantastic evening out. The crowd had so clearly got their priorities right. Two local sides slugging it out with plenty of endeavour and no little skill. This time Over won it, on another it could have gone Somersham’s way. That’s football, and that’s life too, and if only the A1 hadn’t been shut when we headed for home, my happiness would have been complete.