Tuesday 3rd December 2024 ko 19:45

Isthmian League Division One North

CAMBRIDGE CITY 0

WALTHAM ABBEY 1 (Hallett 80)

Att 442

Entry £10

Programme £3

“Say you don’t know me or recognize my face
Say you don’t care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night.

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don’t you remember?
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll“

Starship “We built this City”

_{Songwriters: Dennis Lambert / Peter F. Wolf / Martin George Page / Bernard Taupin}

My wife Robyn called it correctly, “Why do groundhoppers tend to dive straight for a new ground as soon as its open? Surely you should aim for the grounds that are facing demolition?” The case of Cambridge City was one that added up to both though!

Cambridge City were forced out of their home at the City Ground, better known as Milton Road back in 2013 in a classic case of the ground being sold from beneath them to a property developer, with the added pain of a director deliberately undervaluing the ground. I’d visited back in February 2006 for a 3-1 win vs Hayes– the club were originally told to vacate by 2007 but earned a temporary reprieve. The final game was in April 2013, City beating Redditch United 1-0, with the final goal at the ground being scored by the oh-so- appropriately named Adrian Cambridge.

What followed was little more than a tragedy, the club went from the Conference South to the Isthmian’s Division One as they were forced to share at Newmarket Town, Histon FC and St Ives Town FC for the next 11 years while legal action got found in the club’s favour.

Salvation was found in Sawston, about 9 miles south of Milton Road, on land that had been bought by club president Len Satchell, in 2012. After the the inevitable fight with the planning authorities, permission was granted for a 3,000 capacity stadium in 2019 with building work starting 2 years later. The result is a ground with cover on all four sides, and a community 3G pitch at one end. There’s enough spare land for more pitches when the finances allow.

That hints at the fact that the FWP-IP Community Stadium isn’t finished. The main stand hasn’t been fitted out as yet so the bar, toilets, changing rooms, boardroom and all catering is currently being housed in temporary accomodation. You can see the logic, better to be renting these at home, rather than an entire stadium at St Ives. Or you could choose my way of seeing it, it was high time the Lilywhites came home!

This was the second game at the new ground, and I did like the way the club have adopted the Starship song “We Built This City” as an epithet for the new stadium. The song, a classic chunk of 80’s AOR written by a squad of writers including Bernie Taupin makes no sense, but somehow, it’s given meaning by City and their great achievement. I do still have no idea what “Marconi plays the Mamba” means though.

And while the ground is a work in progress, it is a mighty fine place to watch a game, and the main stand does hint at its predecessor at Milton Road, while improving on it. Do watch out for the location, you are some distance south of Cambridge, and the speed humps on the approach are a little fierce! And the upside of the food areas not being ready it that you do get a choice of which food and drink vans you buy from!

I’m sure the ground will slowly be completed over time, and I’m equally sure that the clubs next priority is maintaining their Step 4 status. They looked a little shot-shy here, odd when the manager is goal-scoring legend Jamie Cureton! They lost to a late Waltham Abbey goal here, but have rallied since. That is important, and my hope is that that the new stadium will be the springboard for bigger and better things for the club.