Friday 6th October 2023 ko 19:45

Southern Counties East League- Premier Division

LORDSWOOD 1 (Jeffrey 81p)

CORINTHIAN 1 (Billings 22)

Att 324

Entry £8

Programme £2

After the feeling of stepping out of our comfort zones in the West Wales Premier League, GroundhopUK’s return to the Southern Counties East felt like a return to an old friend even if there had been one or two potential gremlins. The first was the ill health of one member of the SCEFL committee, all the best to them for a speedy recovery and it was good how the rest of the team at the league managed to cover their absence.

The second involved our normal hotel near Chatham Airport, Chris booked it for the normal Friday and Saturday night. But on the Monday before the event, Chris took a call from the hotel saying how much they were looking forward to seeing us on Wednesday…. It was their error, and to make things worse they could only fit us in on the Friday. Being resourceful we ended upon in Folkstone on Saturday night, and going forward Chris now has a choice of hotel for next year. Silver linings and all that!

Robyn and I met the coach party at Hemel Hempstead, with the coach traveling from Nottingham via Birmingham Airport. It was good to see Shirley the driver again, sometimes what you need is someone, positive and who speaks with absolutely no flim-flam. She proved her worth later on.

But these weekends are of course all about the clubs, and it was a pleasure to visit Chatham-based Lordswood again. I’d remembered Martyn Grove as the first ground I’d visited with a Petanque rink, but of course it’s the very epitome of a multi-sports venue but that does mean that the football club operates in a rather small footprint.

But boy did they make it work for them, and for us as guests. Robyn and I were able to spend time with the club officials and if you know us well enough you’ll know that meant we just knew we were going to jinx another friendly club, or were we?

I do have a lot of time for Corinthian, there aren’t many clubs that can call on two pitches, both with floodlights and a stand! With that in mind I did have mixed feelings on their relegation from the Isthmian League last season. I was sorry to that happen, but I would love the hop to visit Gay Dawn Farm at some stage.

We got a good game to start the hop too. It was oh so appropriate that a member of the Billings family opened the scoring for Corinthian, but Lordswood fought back well and in the end they deserved to equalise through Jeffery’s penalty.

As organisers sometimes its too easy to get caught up in the minutiae of what happens, Chris Berezai spend and I spend no end of time talking about such things. But at the end of the evening as I strolled back to Shirley and the coach, it was lovely to see friends catching up after watching a good game at a friendly club.

And after that’s said and done, isn’t that what these events are for?