Tuesday 18th July 2023 ko 19:45

Pre-season friendly

CORINTHIAN 5 (Glover 6 A Trialist 8 Billings 20 B Trialist 81 90)

GREENWAYS 1 (Lovell 75)

Att 50 at Pitch 2, Gay Dawn Farm, Longfield, Kent

Entry £5

Perhaps I’m not as observant as I thought. I’d seen Corinthian at Gay Dawn Farm 5 years ago, and completely failed to spot there was a second pitch there. My only excuse is that it was dark, and I didn’t see the schematic on the clubhouse wall. But then I spotted Peter Miles had found a game here, I just had to find another.

This fixture had been posted on the Corinthian website a week or two beforehand, but nothing more in the days leading up to the game. It is of course good practice to check the status of a fixture, and that goes double for pre-season friendlies. I’m grateful to Greenways’ secretary for confirming the fixture, and also the bonus of the back pitch. I’m happy enough to battle the M25 for virtually any game, but to turn up somewhere deserted for the sake of a phone call? That would be madness.

But this isn’t just any back pitch, its one with hard standing, a stand and floodlights. Or putting it another way if it was a standalone ground just about any groundhopper would make a beeline for it. Just the fact that it isn’t enclosed means it doesn’t quite fulfil Step 6 ground gradings. The irony that visitors Greenways share at K Sports because of those gradings wasn’t lost on me.

Nominally there was a one division gap between the two sides, Corinthian having just been relegated from the Isthmian League and Greenways in the Southern Counties East’s lower tier. Class told, and told quickly, and all credit to Greenways for never giving up, it was only a friendly after all.