Tuesday 29th April 2025 ko 18:30

Middlesex County League Premier Division

LARKSPUR ROVERS 3 (Durrant 24 O Lewis 65 Bransbury 90+3)

LONDON TIGERS 0

Att 26 at Lord Halsbury Playing Fields, Northolt

For those in the know, the Middlesex County League almost always provides a source of late season, non floodlit evening games. There is a quirk, the league is one of very few that still uses the Mitoo website fixtures but it is reliable, so Robyn and I used a Middlesex game to bookend what had been a fairly brutal April for football.

Larkspur Rovers play at one end of Priors Farm Lane, at the playing fields named after Tony Halsbury, the first chancellor of Brunel University in nearby Uxbridge. As a scientist he did valuable work in producing vinyl suitable for long playing records, and discovered vitamin A was two substances, subsequently named vitamin A1 and vitamin A2.

None which of course was relevant on a warm evening. It was simply a case of enjoying a game in a pleasant location with the occasional 1992 stock Central Line train either arriving at, or leaving Northolt Station. I must admit, I’d never spotted the ground despite having travelled on the line no end of times.

Larkspur won, and Dan Bransbury’s 25 yard blockbuster was worthy of a far bigger audience than those there. They finished mid-table but London Tigers a Spartan South Midlands League until 2023 outfit finished next-to-bottom and will rely on the AGM to escape a further relegation.

As we left we could see the floodlights at Uxbridge FC lit for a playoff game. We were tempted, but we’d had enough enjoyment, not just for the evening but for April as a whole.