Tuesday 28th March 2023 ko 19:30

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

WARBOYS TOWN 2 (Brown 35 Thornton 50)

STAMFORD BELVEDERE 0

Att 62

Free Entry

It’s an odd one. If you are of a certain age, say around 45 plus, then the temptation is, on hearing the name of the village to immediately think of the Duran Duran song “Wild Boys!” Now the song evokes William Burroughs, which in turn predicts the fall of civilization, and that is mighty hard to imagine when you drive past the village green here. Clearly it’s a quasi-homonym only!

With my GroundhopUK hat on, you may ask why Warboys Town haven’t featured on a UCL/PDFL hop so far? The issue is cricket, that hop normally takes place in the last weekend of July when cricket still takes precedence, so Warboys so far haven’t been able to host. I did have a chat with club officials. and they are up for hosting so watch this space. We’ve held “Hop-up” events for clubs like Warboys, and there’s also the possibility of having a PDFL Sunday tacked on to another hop in the East, such as the Anglian Combination. What we do need is a year with more than 52 weeks in it!

Another question is what a ground so well appointed as Forge Way doing in the PDFL? The answer is like Long Sutton, and Somersham Town, they’re former Eastern Counties League members ( and in Warboys’ case United Counties too) and for one reason or another have dropped back to Step 7. The sadness is that all too often once departed, ground gradings tend to move on leaving the ground incapable of making the stop back up without considerable adaptation. Here the lack of seats would be the main barrier to promotion, but I suspect that’s me getting way ahead of myself!

Many will remember Stamford Belverdere from their well-presented hop game back in 2015, but what is less well known is that they were a replacement host club. The original plan was to visit the wonderfully named, and now defunct Rutland Dead Rabbits FC. They turned us down and their decision in the end was the best for all parties; so at least we couldn’t be accused of flogging a dead… well rabbit!

The game took a little time to warm up on a cold spring evening but once it did, Warboys took the game with a goal in each half. It wasn’t the best game you’ll ever see, but it was a pleasure to visit a notably friendly club. Hopefully in the fullness of time I can repay that kindness, by helping to bring 150 groundhoppers here.