Saturday 10th February 2024 ko 14:00

North Berkshire League Cup- Quarter Final

MARCHAM 6 (D Murphy 18 47 80 Webb 30 Legge 82 Saulter 89)

UFFINGTON UNITED 1 (Terrana 11)

Att c25 at Moreland Road

Free Entry

I’m sure someone will read this and think, “Didn’t the 2014 North Berks Hop visit there?” and dear reader, you’d be right, to a point. A few weeks ago I found some of the e-shots we’d used to try to advertise that hop as I was under no little pressure that year- the Eastern Counties League tried to schedule against us. For Marcham the selling point was “Come now why you still can” as despite there being an Iron Age burial site underneath the pitch the ground was destined for housing.

The club moved temporarily to a pitch at Oxford RUFC, it’s the ground you can see on the A34 near the Botley Interchange. Houses and what’s now the car park were built on the old pitch, try comparing this photo from 2004 with the opening photo of this set. If there is any overlap between old and new pitches, it has to be minimal, maybe a yard or two here or there, and the new clubhouse is a massive improvement on the old.

On arrival I did slightly regret Marcham didn’t have these facilities for that hop game; mind you they did a superb job with what they had back then. East Hendred’s James Hicks’ is still the only player in groundhop history to have scored for his club’s reserves playing earlier that afternoon, then dashing over to play in the hop game and score there too! As of course did visitors Uffington who still hold the distinction of having the biggest win of any hop game, and in Jamie Glock the only time that the chef who made the chilli also scored in the game. I must admit, I do think I enjoy that last fact more than he does. Looking back I might have been under pressure, but Phil Annets then league Media Officer was a great help, and they were happy days for us all.

The sadness is since those days both sides have folded and reformed which in part explains why both sides play in the North Berks’ Third Division and play in the slightly awkwardly named North Berks League cup, a competition for the league’s lowest division, with the proviso that if a side has an “A” team too, the lower ranked side takes part in this cup. I can’t remember ever having seen two first XI’s play each other in this competition!

It’s also the competition at whose final in 2015 I was amazed to be guest of honour at. I normally spin that event as the competition as being sufficiently low-key for me to ever be considered for such an honour! It is, and probably will always be my proudest moment in football, even if I did spend most the time worrying about falling over!

For Uffington, this has been a dreadful season, propping up the division with just one draw all season. If you haven’t visited Fawler Road yet, it really is a lovely place to watch a game. Here they named just twelve players, eleven turned up and two were unable to complete the game through injury.

I’ll admit to being a little lost in my thoughts just before the game, but was soon pushed out of it by one of the league’s personalities. David Murphy scored a bucketload of goals for Berinsfield including a hat trick in their hop game in 2013 and has spent time playing for Oxford City and Didcot Town too. Since he moved to Marcham, he’s opted to play for the club a couple of hundred yards from his house to the consternation of some of his former teammates.

It was lovely to catch up with him before he spent 90 minutes pulling strings in midfield and almost apologetically notching up another hat trick, despite Uffington opening the scoring. In the end the better side won, but I’m also bound to point out when the two sides met in the league Marcham won 11-0! In the end, it was good to spend time with two clubs who did wonderful things in their hop games, and remain sides whose results I always look out for. A note to the good to finish with; Marcham’s win means they’ll play Berinsfield Reserves in the semi-final. That, all things considered, will be a game well worth seeing!