Saturday 25th October 2025 ko 14:00

Somerset County League Division 3

BROAD PLAIN HOUSE 5 (A Hemmings 4 14 Tucker 5 15 50)

BURNHAM UNITED RESERVES 2 (Harding 33 Edenshaw 80)

Att 12 at the main pitch, Filwood Fields, Knowle West, Bristol

Free Entry

Just about anyone who knows my wife Robyn and I know that I’m from Oxford, and she’s from Bristol. In the case of Robyn the accent does rather give the game away! So for the last 10 years I’ve become used to regular drives to Knowle West to see “Muvver” and to nearby Whitchurch to see my sister-in-law Kelly and her family. The routine involves driving up Novers Hill and glancing to my right to catch a glimpse of the Clifton Suspension Bridge before parking up. In truth this part of South Bristol has become close to a second home, and for those in the know- if you think Robyn has a Bristol accent, try speaking to her when she’s back in Knowle West!

When we first met, Robyn was a little defensive about her home famously describing here as “Not as bad as Hartcliffe (!)” , and while the place is reassuringly working class it is also where Trip Hop artist Tricky hails from. His seventh album is entitled “Knowle West Boy” after all! Also when Famara Diedhiou was playing for Bristol City he lived in Knowle West! But Robyn was Robyn Marshall, and you don’t have to scratch too hard to find her family’s influence in the area.

Her Dad Ian was a councillor here and did much to try to improve conditions and facilties in Knowle West and when tragically he died in 1998 a close was named after him and there’s a blue plaque on the nearby community centre too. Take it as read, I’d have loved to have met my father-in-law…

Ian and mother-in-law Chris used to work at the Broad Plain House Social Club, on nearby Broadbury Road with a young Robyn became well used to collecting glasses and watching football matches on the TV’s there. Nearby to both close and club is Filwood Fields home to Mendip Broadwalk now of the Western League, but equally to Broad Plain House too!

Any visitor to Filwood Fields will soon spot that Broadwalk use what used to be the side pitch, although I’m bound to comment that side pitch proved a lot more straightforward to enclose than next door. But unquestionably BPH used and continue to use the main pitch here, which does point to a fact- Broad Plain House used to be the bigger team here- in fact Mendip Broadwalk were only formed in 2015, so me watching the two clubs playing each other two years later was very much a case of two ships passing in the night.

Broad Plain House started to struggle and with the social club also struggling to find management the football club disappeared in 2020 in no small part due to Covid. With all that family history I was pleased to see the club return to the Somerset League for this season after a stint in the Bristol & Suburban League. There was even a former players reunion that evening back at the social club, so hopefully both sides of BPH are back to full health.

On the pitch we were royally entertained as the hosts roared into a four- nil lead, and despite slowing down a little, and allowing Burnham to hit back, the right team collected all of the points. Hopefully Broad Plain House will continue to grow and reclaim past glories; my mother-in-law will not settle for less!!