Saturday 26th October 2024 ko 11:00

Southern Combination Division One

OAKWOOD 1 (Morris 59)

ALFOLD 2 (Heath 84 Agbontean 89)

Att 187 (ground record)

Entry £7

Programme £2

God knows it can’t be easy being Oakwood. Being the second club in any town is difficult but try being the third club in Crawley with Crawley Town and Three Bridges in front of you in the pecking order. For the Saturday of the Sussex Hop Craig and I acted as an advance party, getting to each ground before the coach and helping out where where needed.

Here that added up to helping the gentleman charged with running the gate. He didn’t know that Roffey had got 307 the previous evening, and I had visions of a similar number swamping him here. The truth was that Oakwood don’t get crowds, their biggest ever attendance prior to this was 80 so the 187 crowd represented mainly groundhoppers, and Oakwood got everyone in having paid. They did so with a little help from their friends!

I spent much of this weekend trying not to compare this event with the SCEFL Hop 3 weeks earlier, it didn’t seem fair on Sussex who had far less experience in these events. The trouble was the comparisons were obvious here, on the Saturday morning we’d visited another side, Meridian VP unused to seeing crowds, and they at least had the advantage of a social club to deal with the catering.

Here the small band of volunteers multi-tasked and while I’m afraid it was burgers for breakfast at least they did something. The sadness was that simply by adding bacon and eggs to the options, they’d have both made more money and provided something for the veggies. But Oakwood did make good hosts, and we all appreciated the club’s gentle charm. I also was relieved that everyone managed to get in and out of the lane to the ground. We did wonder!

As for the game Oakwood were a little unlucky, rather running out of steam at the end to lose the game to relegation-threatened Alfold. Of course we’ll look forward to visiting them next time round.