Author Archives: laurencereade

Treading Caerphilly

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Tuesday 21st April 2015 ko 18.30

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

STILTON UNITED 0

SAWTRY 4 (B Smith 30p 44 61 Ablitt 55)

Att 24

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

A few years ago, I visited United Counties League side Yaxley at their Leading Drove Ground. The car park was full so I parked at a pitch opposite and a little further along the road. I marvelled at how little there was there, literally just a pitch, two dugouts and two goals surrounded by flat fields all the way to the East coast main line in the distance. The highest structure in the place is the two crossbars! I found out that Stilton FC played there, logged the place for future reference, and completely forgot about the place for 3 years! Continue reading →

Through The Round Window

26 Sunday Apr 2015

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Monday 20th April 2015 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League- Senior Division

HAMBLE CLUB 4 (Shrimpton 11 Thomson 32 Cox 53 Bull 76)

WINCHESTER CASTLE 0

Att 36

Entry FREE

No Programme

I have a feeling that many will look at my photos of the Shell Mex ground in Hamble-le-Rice and suggest that the new champions’ home isn’t up to much. Yes, the players change in Portakabins, and the tea bar is housed in another. There’s no cover, no hard standing, and the nets behind the goals are a feat of Heath Robinson-style engineering. All of this is true, but pay attention to these pictures carefully, because when you visit, the place will look nothing like this. Continue reading →

Cagefighter

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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Saturday 18th April 2015 ko 15.00

Midland League Division Two

COVENTRY UNITED 1 (Stokes 80p)

BARNT GREEN SPARTAK 1 (Semple 44)

Att 98 at “The Cage” Alan Higgs Centre, Allard Way

Entry FREE

Programme £1.50

Badge £2

As the patrons walked across the car park towards the caged grass pitch at the side of the Alan Higgs Leisure centre they walked past a minibus decorated in full Coventry City insignia. It served as a salutary reminder to all on how tenuous a club’s links to its roots can be with City only recently returned after a period in exile in Northampton.

Continue reading →

Show me the way

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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Wednesday 15th April 2015 ko 18.30

Gloucestershire County League

CHELTENHAM CIVIL SERVICE 0

FRAMPTON UNITED 0

Att 104

Entry FREE

Programme £1.50

In an odd way, the roots of the club aren’t in Cheltenham. The Civil Service suffix refers to GCHQ which used to be based near Swakeleys Junction, Hillingdon. The football club was formed there in 1948 and when the Government Communications HeadQuarters moved to Cheltenham in 1953 the club (and half the team) relocated with it. They moved to their current home at Tewkesbury Road, Uckington, at Cheltenham’s western edge in 1954, and the club renamed itself from GCHQ in 1957 as players from other parts of the Civil Service locally were representing the club. Continue reading →

Ambitions

19 Sunday Apr 2015

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Monday 13th April 2015 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League, Senior Division

AFC STONEHAM 1 (Forbes 48)

HAMBLE CLUB 3 (Thomson 5 90 Watts 35)

Att 71

Entry FREE

No Programme

When you visit a few grounds in a particular league, you start to get a feel for that league. And then a club comes along that completely changes that perception and that club for me was AFC Stoneham. Continue reading →

Stand By Me

17 Friday Apr 2015

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Saturday 11th April 2015 k0 19.00

North Berkshire League Cup Final

FARINGDON TOWN “A” 0

WALLINGFORD TOWN RESERVES 2 (Bone 32 Marks 59)

Att 180 at “The Heights” Potash Lane, Milton Heights (Milton United FC)

Entry and Programme £3

I don’t think I’ve ever been so surprised as when an email from NBFL media officer Phil Annets plopped into my in-tray inviting me to present the trophies at this final. I mean, why.. yes I know I’ve been behind 4 successful groundhops in the NBFL, one in rather trying circumstances, but it is only 4 and the previous day I watched Bill Gosling present the trophies on the back of 50 years service!

But if it was the reward for those hops, then credit should go to the other half of GroundhopUK Chris Berezai, and all those committeemen, and the legions of volunteers who’ve made the idea come to life. I found myself thinking of the likes of Josh Nathanielz, Jackie Cullen, Jon Radcliffe, Taff Blackshaw, Ian Stonham and Lindsay Mudie as I parked up.

Continue reading →

Shoot Out

16 Thursday Apr 2015

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Saturday 11th April 2015 ko 14.30

North Berkshire League Division One

KINTBURY RANGERS 4 (Allsop 8 11 30 Thorp 30)

BERINSFIELD 5 (Ingram 18p 65p Palmer 41 D Murphy 59 Rawlings 84)

Att 85

Entry FREE

No Programme

With my presence requested at the North Berkshire League Cup Final at Milton United later, my choice of afternoon games was rather limited. But serendipity can be wonderful thing, as I received word from Berinsfield assistant manager Nathan Frost that this game was going to be a shoot-out for the title. Yes I’d visited the ground as part of the Hellenic Hop in 2005 but this game had the potential to be a cracker. But great games on paper seldom turn to be classics do they? Continue reading →

Don’t Mention…

16 Thursday Apr 2015

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Friday 10th April 2015 ko 19.30

North Berkshire League- War Memorial Cup Final

EAST HENDRED 1 (Mason 35og)

BURGHCLERE 2 (Gannon 22 Smallridge 32)

Att 267 at Alfredian Park, Wantage (Wantage Town FC)

Entry & Programme £3

I’m tempted to start with this one with a similar line to the one I used when I attended the 2012 final here, in fact lets do just that, Continue reading →

This Sporting Life

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

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Wednesday 8th April 2015 ko 18.15

North Bucks & District League Premier Division

BRACKLEY SPORTS 0 Hirons missed penalty 27

SYRESHAM 3 (Markham 11 Watts 17 Allen 20)

Att 44

Entry FREE

Nothing for Sale

I do like visiting a town’s second club, you tend to either see a studied indifference to the bigger club or the frustration of a one-sided rivalry. In the case of Brackley Sports its the former, even though the floodlights of Brackley Town’s St James Park are clearly visible from Sports home at the Recreation Centre. Continue reading →

Success

13 Monday Apr 2015

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Tuesday 7th April 2015 ko 18.15

Cheltenham Association Football League- Division One

WHADDON UNITED (Winter 9 Hackett 13)

KINGS FC 0

Att 46

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

It has so be said that this has been a particularly bad season for football in Cheltenham. Cheltenham Town are rock bottom of the Football League and racing certainties to return to non-league, and other local sides Bishops Cleeve and Cheltenham Saracens are also in deep relegation trouble too. In fact you have to look to local football to find any great success, and the great irony is that the success is to be found right opposite Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road ground. Continue reading →