Tuesday 20th September 2022 ko 19:45

Cambridgeshire County League Division 4A

FC KENNETT 4 (Earl 24 Haydon 52 65 Adams 60)

SAWSTON UNITED RESERVES 2 (Carter 69 D’Ambrosio 83)

Att 36

Free Entry

Just occasionally a younger groundhopper asks me for advice, and I always try imagine myself 20 years ago. What were my aims back then? And was I quite as aimless as I am now? These days my only real aim is to have a new tick on as many midweeks as I can! So the advice I normally give is to go weird, and do so as early on as you can.

Of course one person’s definition of weird will be different from another, I’ve heard TV commentators describe the likes of York City as grassroots after all. So for the avoidance of doubt when I mean weird I mean doing games that are well off-pyramid, particularly if that game involves a set of floodlights. Because while those on the outside looking in will opine that you’ll never run out of pitches, the number of grounds that have floodlights is very finite. That means in practical terms it is very easy to visit all grounds playing at Step 6 and above near to home, but after that you’ll rapidly run out of new grounds to visit midweek. 

So my advice is do those unusual grounds under lights when you can, and eke out your midweek ticks for as long as possible. And in the pantheon of unusual ticks, FC Kennett is up there with the best of them! I mean have you seen a game 13 promotions from the EFL under lights? 

I should explain the structure of the eleven division Cambridgeshire County League. The Premier Division sits at Step 7. Below that lies the Senior A Division and Senior B Division. Below those two leagues, the structure splits into two parallel ladders of four divisions each. 

This is FC Kennett’s second season in adult football, having moved from youth football to here, taking the place of the former Kennett FC who folded a few years ago. Nothing of that is particularly unusual, at local level clubs to tend to fold and reform what is odd is the club’s home at Kennett Recreation Ground. When you find a game that’s this far off pyramid, it tends to involve a community facility, or for those less charitably inclined- a caged 3G pitch. 

This really isn’t that, put simply it’s a floodlit pitch and nothing much else, to the point that it looks like someone decided to improve the ground, the lights have been installed, and there’s more to come. Kennett looked a little nervous playing their first game under those lights, but that was in case Sawston played a few first teamers as their teams weren’t playing simultaneously. 

Kennett needn’t have worried, they were just that little bit too nimble for their visitors although they ran out of steam in the final few minutes and were made to work for that win.

As for me, I ended up fighting both the A11, the M11 and the M25 before reaching home far later than I’d hoped. That for course, is a hazard of the hobby, and this was a mighty good midweek tick.