Saturday 6th July 2024 ko 12:00

Pre-season friendly

ASCOT UNITED 2 (15, 34)

FLEET TOWN 3 (9, 21, 84)

Att c30 at 3G pitch, Royal Holloway College Sports Centre, Egham

Free Entry

I must admit, pre-season friendlies for me are little more than an excuse to get back on the road after the close season. With that in mind I try to make a virtue of them, such as seeking out games where the club plays at home when normally groundsharing or in this case playing at a completely 3rd party ground!

Here the venue was the Royal Holloway College in Egham. Please don’t confuse this Holloway with the Holloway Road in North London. I went to university there at what started off being the Polytechnic of North London and slowly metamorphosed into the University of London, eventually becoming today’s London Metropolitan University.

The Holloway here is founder Thomas Holloway an entrepreneur who made his fortune in the latter half of the 19th century selling an ointment whose efficacy was, to put it mildly, somewhat dubious. Nevertheless he founded and funded the institution as a women-only college connected to London University. The college was opened in 1866 by Queen Victoria, whose statue still is visible through the arch on the French-Renaissance-style Founder’s Building designed by William Crossland.

It has to be said that the football didn’t come with such a wonderful backdrop, although the trains running from Waterloo to Reading, and planes heading to and from Heathrow were pleasing enough. What there was, was that delightful combination of no cover and heavy rain, and to add insult to injury my brolly decided to break too!

Still, both sides managed to entertain, even if the result really didn’t matter. I did, through feel sorry for the cricketers as we left. Rain really had stopped play.