Saturday 7th October 2017 ko 13.30

Western League Division One

RADSTOCK TOWN 1 (Gregory 21og)

OLDLAND ABBOTONIANS 0

Att 213

Entry & Programme £6

The two mile trip uphill to Radstock saw us still very much in coal mining country, albeit like Welton, a place where the mines have long since given way to trees and a far more gentle pace of life. I’d visited Radstock Town’s Southfields Recreation Ground three years ago and got to know committeeman Simon “Wurz” Wilkinson, mainly due to a mutual liking for playing punk band “Stiff Little Fingers” on the PA on a cold night. Little did I know that this time round the theme would be more “Pepe Le Pew”  than “Nobody’s Heroes?”

The issue was the whitewashed wall in front of the stand, which unbeknownst to me had been repainted that morning to cover up some graffiti. Now cartoon aficionados will remember the “Loony Tunes” cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew. At the start of every single episode a black cat contrives to have a white strip painted along her back, allowing the visually challenged skunk to mistake her for a potential mate.

With me the stripe happened by me straddling my way over the wall to get towards the pitch to take a picture of the stand. Fortunately the paint was water-soluable, but Robyn didn’t find me any more attractive….

I like Radstock’s home, and now the floodlights have been upgraded their continued membership of the Western League is assured. Once again I enjoyed the club’s company as they enjoyed a bumper crowd. I suspect though the two people who didn’t enjoy the day were the ladies in the tea hut. Chris Berezai and I do advise against cooking to order and serving through a hatch, as it does create long queues. Fortunately you can see the pitch from the queue and when it arrived the food was excellent.

Sadly the game didn’t live up to the size of the crowd. You can’t get a wonderful game every time and this one rapidly turned into a turgid attritional affair, albeit one settled by an unusual own goal. The ball was pumped into the Oldland box and centre half Scott Gregory facing his own goal tried to bicycle kick the ball clear. He succeeded in smashing the ball upwards but as it came down, he tried the same manoevre, and this time smashed it into the roof of his own net. On another day it might not have mattered…

As dull as the game was I enjoyed seeing Wurz and Radstock again. As organiser you look to have one of three areas covered. That’s a good game, a good ground and good hosting. Obviously you can’t control the first, but due to Simon and all at Radstock Town we got the other two. And just like the win, Radstock I’m sure will be happy with that.

I left though with one question unanswered, why is Radstock’s programme called “Sounds of the Sea?” We weren’t at the coast!

Update

It turned out that the programme is called “Sounds of the sea” as by tradition the players used to sing songs about the seas to amuse themselves on away trips!