Sunday 29th October 2023 ko 14:45

Southern Combination Division One

BILLINGSHURST 2 (Humphries 55 McAlpine 73)

EAST PRESTON 2 (O’Driscoll 27 Kusaka 80)

Marney penalty saved 90

Att 245

Entry £6

Programme £2

Robyn and I spent the entire journey from Wick to Billingshurst fully expecting a phone call to confirm that the game was off. While the rain had relented for the time being the deluge that had cause the abandonment at Wick, must have had the same impact at Billingshurst hadn’t it?

We arrived to the sight of a rainbow and groundstaff forking a clearly problematic pitch. Waterlogging aside I was immediately struck on how the ground has been improved since our visit 7 years ago. Back then there were no floodlights, stand or even an enclosing fence. What there was back then was, and still is, is a mighty impressive club house, that was made good use of while the pitch brought to a point where it was deemed playable.

That meant a completely understandable delay as the club held back from letting any spectators in until the referee was completely happy the game could take place. That pushed many, me included towards the delicious sausage and cheese pie on sale, so good in fact, that I’d put it in the top ten culinary efforts on hop games I’ve attended- and there’ve been a few!

Inevitably there were comparisons made with what happened at Wick. The pitch looked way worse here and I do hope no lasting damage was done here. For me, the big difference was that it wasn’t raining, so conditions weren’t getting worse. But let’s call a bog a bog here, the pitch wasn’t playable by the laws of the game so what we saw was another in a line off hop games that took place purely because of what was riding on the event and was played to a completion because the players were sensible, and the weather didn’t get worse.

But for all of that it was a mighty good game to watch. East Preston are under new management, who have decamped from Croydon Athletic since the Stormzy-led new board decided they could do better. That’s added up to new players, a false-looking league position, and a highly motivated club! The result was that a draw was a fair result, but I’m sure Jack Marney will regret failing to convert that last minute penalty.

We drove home through another deluge which seemed an accurate analogy for the weekend. Inevitably that brought on thoughts on what happened. On one hand the host clubs (that actually got to host) were all superb, with special mention to Bosham and Billingshurst who were exceptional. On the other we ended up with a 4 and three-quarter game hop with attendances clearly impacted by the weather.

Clearly noone can plan for Storm Babet, but it is fair to comment that at the end of October you are more likely to have poor weather than in August. Another less than ideal aspect was the close proximity of the SCEFL Hop both in terms in time and geography. It seemed to all of us that those two hops were attracting a very similar clientele.

The problem is of course a congested hopping calendar, this hop could have been our 6th event of the season. There’ll be the North West Counties, Scottish and South-West Peninsula Hops to come next March; quite frankly I wouldn’t want to be any other league scheduling against those! I suspect next season we’ll try and rejig a little, but any league that wants to work with us will have to understand that they’ll have to wait for a vacancy!

But the final word should go to the Southern Combination. Thanks to all involved over the weekend, we may have got wet, but everyone there showed their league, clubs and communities in the best possible night. But now its time for a break.