Saturday 5th July 2025 ko 14:00

Friendly

STOURBRIDGE 4 (Shaw 8 Campbell Freemantle 50 Bood 66)

DUDLEY TOWN 2 (Jae 20 Crook 30p)

Att 586

Entry £8

Programme £2

Any student of the non league game will tell you there’s something of a love/hate relationship between Stourbridge FC and their home at War Memorial Athletic Ground. On one hand, it is an icon of the West Midlands sporting scene, but since it is also a cricket ground the start and end of any football season is always an issue; I remember them playing early rounds of the FA Cup at Halesowen around 20 years ago.

Things got more complicated at the end of last season when subsidence was discovered in the grass banking behind one end of the ground. Some of the Stands and floodlight pylons were too close to the edge of the banking and so would have to be either removed or replaced, jeopardising the clubs 137 year tenure here.

These are worrying times, the ground is owned by Dudley Council, who after all have seen Cradley Heath Speedway team fold with their Dudley Wood Stadium sold for housing, and the visitors for this game Dudley Town know all about the difficulties of maintaining a base here- they’ve been homeless for 40 years with their old Sports Ground home now a retail park. And let’s face it an unhelpful council to football isn’t a phenomenon only found in Dudley. As it stands Stourbridge have a one-year dispensation to remain at the War Memorial Athletic Ground but what after that?

You can therefore see the idea of Stourbridge FC sharing at Stourbridge RUFC- even if Stourton Park, as the name suggests the stadium is just over the border in Stourton. You’d hope that remedial works can and will be carried out but could Stourton Park offer some sort of solution either in the short or lomg term? The club opted to play all of their pre-season friendlies here giving them a potential “Try before you buy!”

It was certainly interesting to find out, and judging by the high volume of groundhoppers present Robyn and I weren’t the only ones who thought along these lines. Certainly Stourton Park is an excellent facility but would need alterations to allow Southern League Premier football to be played here. There would need to be some sort of turnstile block installed, the grass banks made out-of-bounds, and the pitch markings made more clear- the pale blue lines were difficult to make out!

But a lot of that is fairly cosmetic, and hopefully completely unnecessary. You would hope that Stourbridge will be able to stay put at the War Memorial Athletic Ground, but Stourton Park does at least offer a potential fall-back.