Tuesday 10th December 2024 ko 19:45

Gloucestershire FA Challenge Trophy- 2nd Round

SHIREHAMPTON 0

HALLEN 2 (Thomas-Barker 27 79)

Att 120

Entry £6

Programme- online only

With Robyn my wife being from Bristol I was a little surprised I hadn’t paid Penpole Lane a visit sooner. Shirehampton’s elevation to the Western League for last season has produced the frankly amazing position where they, Avonmouth, Cribbs, Hallen and Bristol Manor Farm are all within 3 miles of Penpole Lane, and all play at Western League level or better! You’ll pass by the alleyway entrance of Avonmouth’s King George V Recreation Ground on the way to Shirehampton, the two grounds are less than a mile apart!

The catch is that Shirehampton’s stint in the Western has seen them groundsharing at Manor Farm, while the club tried to get floodlights erected at Penpole. That wasn’t easy, due to in no small past to the owner of the cottage between the clubhouse and the ground itself objecting. I do understand his objections, but the needs for the club to paint the floodlight poles green- what was that about?

But succeed they did, and the chance to be at the ground’s first ever game under flights was not one I was going to miss out on. All credit to the club for organising parking in the school opposite and keeping everyone up-to-date on social, there had been a significant amount of rain earlier!

There is a lot to like about Penpole Lane and much of it is because it clearly hasn’t been straightforward to convert the place to a Step 6 ground. The players do have to walk across the cricket pitch and as a result the ground is 3-sided for spectators. But do enjoy the sloping pitch surrounded by a rail that diverts to avoid trees. There’s even the golf ball slowly being swallowed up by an oak tree! The ground is still a work in progress, but I hope that doesn’t mean the quirks have to be ironed out!

It was good to see a club that thought clearly as to how to host a game, and square the circle of hosting well and trying not to annoy the neighbours. Sadly for Shirehampton that didn’t extend to winning the tie, Cory Thomas-Baker saw that. He scored twice, the first an exquisite lob was a classic case of watching the goalkeeper’s expression as the ball went over his head, from concern, to fright, to anger then grudging acceptance.

In time that result will be forgotten, but the day that Shirehampton played their first ever game under lights, I suspect, will be forever remembered.