Wednesday 25th May 2022 ko 18:00

East Berkshire League Premier Division

HYPE TRAIN 1 (Mannion 90)

BRITWELL 4 (Taylor 4 Kelly 15 23 Hartridge 36)

Att 114 at Longfurlong Drive ( Britwell FC)

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On a purely personal level it was good to end my little run of cup finals, even if this one felt like another! The mathematics of it all were straightforward. Britwell needed to win this game to ensure they couldn’t be caught in the race for the title by Old Windsor and they had the advantage of the away tie being switched back to their home ground of Longfurlong Drive.

If you ever watched games at the likes of Burnham or Beaconsfield Town you’ll have been close to Britwell. You’re on the northern outreaches of Slough, even if the estate maintains a distinct identity from its larger neighbour. The planes departing Heathrow do add a certainly je ne sais croix to proceedings! You may recognise the parade of shops from the film “V for Vendetta” or V for Viennetta as my former father-in-law once mistakenly called it! Truth be known I saw no ice creams on sale….

In the film those shops were used to represent a dystopian alternative reality, what we saw was anything but that. This was the East Berkshire League’s version of North Berkshire outfit Berinsfield– both are clubs rooted in their local communities and so with all that the game stood for the locals turned out in their droves, the beer flowed, and they even found time to eject a couple of troublemakers!

The game lacked anything like a sense of tension. Put simply Britwell scored early and were rapidly out of sight. The goals kept coming so it was little surprise that Britwell rather declared in the second half. You could say that the Hype Train hit the buffers. 

The League officials had long since commandeered a spare dugout- like so many clubs at this level the benches prefer to face each other rather than be adjacent. At the final whistle they quickly presented the trophy, then made a sharp getaway. They didn’t want to interrupt what was the start of quite a party! 

Dedicated to the memory of Raymond “Fred” Flood, groundhopper, personality and Chelsea fan. Rest in peace.