Sunday 9th April 2023

11:00 Hellenic League Division Two East

WATLINGTON TOWN 0

NEWBURY 10 (Frank 24 35 Allen 45 84 90  Armstrong 55 82 90p Goddard 59 Pattern 87)

Att 271

Entry & Programme £4

14:00 Hellenic League Division One

ABINGDON UNITED 3 (Mills 27 Bartlett 30 Downie 82)

SHORTWOOD UNITED 1 (Barrett 77)

Att 358

Entry £5

Programme £2

15:45 Hellenic League Division One

CLANFIELD 85 3 (Dickinson 46 Seacole 49 Fullarton 76)

MALMESBURY VICTORIA 1 (Patey 55)

Att 279

Entry £6

Programme £2

You could say it was personal. Easter Sunday on the Hellenic Hop may have been revisits to grounds I’d visited many times, but I had a personal connection to every host club. I always want our host clubs to do well but never more than on this day.

You might find that an odd thing to say, I’ve put my name to 7 North Berkshire League and 3 Witney League Hops after all, and I promise I worried my way through each and every game. Here was different, this was a hop on my manor, but I wasn’t completely in control.

If there was one club in the UK I really wanted on a hop it was Watlington Town. I knew they were keen to host but had always seemed to be in the wrong league at the wrong time. They were in the Oxon Senior League during the North Berkshire Hops, then in the North Berks when we returned to hop the Hellenic League! So, once it was decided that the Easter Hop would be in the Hellenic there could be no question as to whether they’d be taking part.

Very quietly they asked for my advice in the weeks leading up to the event, and I helped where I thought I’d be of use. But please don’t get the impression I’m trying to take any credit for Watlington Town’s excellence, this was entirely their doing.

What makes it remarkable is that they didn’t have the ideal ground to host. The access isn’t straightforward, and the car park fills up quickly, so the coach and most cars were parked at a local school. It’s difficult to take a gate, so they set a pay booth on a direct line from the catering to the pitch. Ah yes, the catering, or rather the cakes. So good were they that a few weeks later I was helping out at a series of North Berks Cup finals and a steady flow of committeemen tapped me on the shoulder to ask, “Why do I keep hearing about Watlington Town and cake?” Yep, that good, and I probably don’t think I need to mention the beer tent, do I?

There was one interlude that I don’t think I could make up if it hadn’t have happened. A hopper spotted the Sint Truiden sticker on my clipboard, and I recounted the tale of how I’d watched a game at Stayen when the temperature was -14 Celsius! He grinned and let me know he was DJ of the disco in the concourse. I managed to show him his photo!

Back in the warmth of 2023 in East Oxfordshire, we watched champions Newbury FC complete a victory that was every inch as deserved as the score suggests. It was to be 100 % season in the league for them, but with the sting that they’ve moved off Lambourn Sports’ ground with so far nowhere to go, and unable to take the promotion they richly deserve.

But with all due respect to Newbury I don’t think many will remember the size of their victory, and yes that does include the hopper that left at 6-0 because he was worried about how long it would take to drive to Abingdon. I think we’ll remember just how good hosts Watlington were. They were certainly the best on the hop and would be in my top 10 that I’ve attended… yes that good!

I’ve been to Northcourt Road no end of times, in fact I’ve been PA man there on two or three occasions but have actually seen very little of Abingdon United there. That’s due to the North Berkshire League holding many of their cup finals here. Mind you I was there for Abingdon United’s first game under lights; that was in November 1994 against Oxford United. The hosts were expecting to be playing a youth team but Oxford had lost to Marlow in the first round of the FA Cup the previous weekend and one of the reprisals was that the first XI played the first half. 

That game saw Abingdon United’s largest crowd of 1,500, and yes, I was very aware we weren’t going to see anywhere near that number. But all credit to United, the marketed the game heavily locally which I sure produced a spike in the gate, and unlike many clubs they had the facilities to make the most of the extra people. I did, though, feel sorry for the lady trying to serve that delicious chilli con carne through a hatch, on her own. She got there in the end, but I did make a mental note to reinforce the paragraph in briefing notes about serving hatches!

The game was interesting, two former Southern League clubs playing at least two divisions below their former statuses. With the reformed Abingdon Town playing as Abingdon Abbots in the Oxfordshire Senior League it means that Abingdon as a town is punching far below a level that many would find acceptable. I remember Town playing in the Isthmian League Division One, then just two promotions from the Football League. United won well here, and you hope that what we saw it part of a renaissance for not just the club but for football in the town.

With Clanfield (the Oxfordshire version, not the Hampshire one!) it was always about two things for me. One is Radcot Road one of the prettiest country football grounds you could ever hope to see. The other is Pete Osbourne, who I’ve seen play for, manage and chair the club, and we both had the misfortune to sit on an Oxfordshire FA committee that seemed to serve absolutely no purpose; I’m not sure which one of us resigned quicker!

What anyone arrives at a host club you always look for a sense of unconscious competence. It can take many forms, here it was someone to park you up, then another to direct those with prebooked tickets to a separate gate. From there as organiser, I was blissfully redundant, the club ran their evening beautifully, even down to some top-notch catering, and yes, I did return home with a bottle of beer stowed in my bag!

We were pleasantly surprised to see my sister, Liz and her husband Russ. They’re both on committee at North Leigh and were there to see Nor Lye old boy George Seacole, playing up front for Clanfield. I must admit I did feel old pointing out that I’d seen his dad play- Jason Seacole was once Oxford United’s youngest ever player. 

We watched a good game too: I have a lot of time for Malmesbury Victoria, but Clanfield were clearly the better side and this win helped propel them to a playoff spot, where in the semi-final they were unfortunate to lose to Milton United.

I quietly headed for home, and equally quietly felt immensely proud of what the three clubs had achieved in a few hours. It had been quite a day!”