Saturday 8th July 2023 ko 15:00

Pre-Season Friendly

HOLMER GREEN 0

RISBOROUGH RANGERS 8 (5 22 24 27 32p 38 41p 57)

Att 35 at Kingsbrook School 3G, Bierton

Free Entry

It should have been so easy. From the morning’s game in Leatherhead, a quick blast round the M25 and up the A41 to the outskirts of Aylesbury. Of course I didn’t work out that way, the M25 was a slow dirge, and the humidity made it difficult to stay awake. I made it in one piece, but it was a horrible few miles.

What made it worse was that the school is brand new, it’s not even on Google Maps, so the postcode got me to a new estate in Bierton, down a street, and into a dead end. I could see the pitch, I just couldn’t get to it! Eventually I drove round to the far side of the estate and found the entrance. When I left Leatherhead I expected to arrive at 14:15, I parked up at 15:00 exactly.

At least the weather held… just about as there was no cover, and barely enough room for the spectators, at what seems to be tradition of Holmer Green playing Risborough at a third-party ground. Last season it was the other side of Aylesbury at Aylesbury Vale Academy, but the big change was just how one-sided it was.

Risborough have been close to promotion from the Spartan South Midlands Premier for the last couple of years, while Holmer Green finished a worrying 16th from 20 in SSML Division One. Risborough have switched laterally to the Combined Counties Premier North but none of that explains why they dished out such a hiding here. The man of the match was Holmer Green’s keeper, and Risborough substituted on younger players in the last half-an-hour which did dampen down the goalscoring.

I plodded back to the car, and headed for home, passing Bierton FC’s ground on the way. When I’d seen a game there, nowhere I’d spent the last two hours at existed.