Saturday 24th May 2025 ko 14:00

East Berkshire League-Division One

CAVERSHAM UNITED 5 (Doran 14 23 49 Mole 78 Abery 90)

van Luk sent off 39 (violent conduct)

OLD WINDSOR RESERVES 1 (Spires 26)

George sent off 39 (violent conduct)

Att 22

Free Entry

If you take the A4074 from Wallingford towards Reading, you’ll pass by some lovely villages as you pass through west Oxfordshire into east Berkshire. I’ve documented the likes of Checkendon and Goring on here but my connections to the area go back far further back- to childhood in fact.

I was fortunate to have had a happy childhood, and a large part of it was our family of 4 being loaded into the Mini every so often to drive to Mum’s sister and her family in Caversham. That trip along the A4074 hasn’t altered much since the 1970’s when you crossed from Oxfordshire into Berkshire, and immediately reached Mapledurham and suburban Reading. Even nearly 50 years later when I reach here, I still look our out for the post box we used to remember which street to turn left into- no Sat Navs back then!

Mapledurham and Caversham are close to contigious to the extent that our two families would occasionally walk to and around Mapledurham Playing Field, in no small part to walk of one of my Aunt’s Sunday lunches- she was a superlative cook! So when I spotted Caversham United were playing here of all places my reason for being there was more to me being there than simply ticking off another ground- there was nostalgia too.

Caversham United date back to 2015 and the nickname of the Goats was decided by a Twitter Poll! They are extremely media savvy and for a while seemed to be Britain’s most famous Sunday League team, and yes they do have a goat as a mascot! He’s called “Skid!” would you believe?

This last season saw the club make the move into Saturday football, and a measure of their success was that a win here would all but secure runners-up spot and with it promotion. That proved to be relatively straightforward, despite a punch-up and this forthcoming season Caversham will be celebrating their 10th anniversary at Step 7.

As for me I retraced my route- in more ways than one!