Author Archives: laurencereade

In search of the Quarrymen

20 Sunday Jan 2013

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Sunday 20th January 2013

Greetings from my neck of the woods. This is a small, half mile square part of Oxford set at the city’s eastern edge. Every tourist has seen the fruits of the labours of the Headington Quarry when they visit the “Dreaming Spires,” as it was from here at that the Oolitic limestone that built the colleges was mined, and the last of it built the school I attended, Quarry School. Have a look at the blue door, and look at the new stone at the right, at foot level. It’s new because my friend Matthew hated going there so much, he’d kick the stone in anger each time he passed through.

To this day many of the Quarrymen’s cottages are still in evidence Continue reading →

Closed Doors

20 Sunday Jan 2013

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Saturday 19th January 2013 ko 14.00

Friendly

POTTERS BAR TOWN 2 (Johnson 1 Hutchinson 49)

ENFIELD TOWN 2 (Hope 67p Johnson 82)

Att 0

Played at London Soccerdome, East Parkside, Greenwich Peninsula, London

For the itinerant football watcher, snow has only one advantage – games tend to get called off quickly. My original choice, Oxford United was postponed Friday lunchtime, as were the games involving the participants in my eventual game. If of course the weather is against you, then there’s only one true all-weather surface – an indoor one!

I’d checked the kick off with Potters Bar secretary Alan Evans, but en-route, Enfield Town had tweeted that the game was Continue reading →

Pop!

17 Thursday Jan 2013

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Tuesday 15th January 2013 ko 19.45

Hellenic League Division One West

BRIMSCOMBE & THRUPP 1 (A Snook 90)

CARTERTON FC 0

Att 55

Entry & Programme £4

Tea £1

If you have to finish a league’s grounds, then I think you should do it on a good one, and I think its fair to say that The Meadow in Brimscombe is exceptional. In groundhopping terminology the visit that completes a league, is referred to as a “Champagne Job,” and so far I’ve tried to avoid them. I like to have a range of footballing options open to me! In fact, the only other League I’ve ever completed is the Football League and Premier League’s 92 clubs.

Brimscombe and its conjoined twin village of Thrupp lie in the Frome valley, near Stroud. There’s a slightly unworldly feel to the place with its narrow twisting streets, and the single track railway line above the ground’s location on the main road to Cirencester. A steady succession of local trains, slid through the frosty night sky giving an almost ghostly feel to the proceedings.

Brimscombe’s roots lie Continue reading →

The Cold Wind Doth Blow

13 Sunday Jan 2013

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Saturday 12th January 2013 ko 13.30

Reading Senior Cup 2nd Round

WOODLEY TOWN 3 (Cripps 14 Edwards 53p Elmore 73og)

NEWBURY FC 1 (Shaw 35)

Att 15 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme NO

Coffee 50p

Now I’m back in Oxford, my local league, is I suppose the Hellenic, which covers clubs 5 and 6 promotions from the Football League, from West London to the Welsh border. There are several Woodleys in the UK, this one lies on the A4 on the outskirts of Reading. It’s the home town of TV star Chris Tarrant, and comedy actor Felix Bowness, and the site of the long closed Miles Aircraft Factory.

It had made copious use of the aerodrome that had sprung up in the late 1920’s and visitors such as Charles Lindberg, and Amy Johnson tested the latest planes here. On 14th December 1931 Douglas Bader lost both his legs at the aerodrome attempting some low-flying aerobatics. His log rather laconically reads, Continue reading →

The Specialist

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

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Tuesday 8th January 2013 ko 19.45

Football League Trophy Southern Area Semi-Final

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Marsh 15 Craddock 31 Rigg 89)

SOUTHEND UNITED 3 (Corr 6 59 Clohessy 55)

No Extra Time Southend won 5-3 on penalties

Att 2,882 (356 away)

Entry £10

Programme £2 (reduced size) including Oxford Mail

I wonder where in this competition the Wembley Care Point exists. Many clubs enter this competition saying “There’s a Wembley Final at the end of this,” but don’t really mean it, and a near-reserve team plays in front of a couple of thousand spectators paying reduced price tickets. Yesterday’s game proves the point, about half the normal attendance, even when offered cheap tickets. So Southend find themselves just a double-legged semi-final away from Wembley, but despite Oxford playing Continue reading →

On Giant-Kill Watch

06 Sunday Jan 2013

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Saturday 5th January 2013 ko 15.00

FA Cup 3rd Round

OXFORD UNITED 0

SHEFFIELD UNITED 3 (McMahon 17 Kitson 68 Blackman 87)

Att 7,079 (1,244 away)

Entry £20.50

Programme (inc Oxford Mail) £3

It’s always interesting watching a high-profile game at a lower level ground as the whole atmosphere of the place changes. The regulars are still there, discussing the tactics in detail, but they’re joined by the fans who only ever come when there’s a sprinkling of glamour. They’re easy to spot, Continue reading →

Go Carefully

03 Thursday Jan 2013

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Wednesday 2nd January 2013 ko 19.45

Wessex League Premier Division

BLACKFIELD & LANGLEY 3 (Baldacchino 7 61 Gibbens 39)

FAWLEY AFC 0

Att 160

Entry £5

Programme £1

The trips south along the A34 are beginning to run out, I’m running low on Wessex League grounds to visit, this one I’d missed out on when someone parked their boat across the carriageway, and I only had time enough to pay Hythe & Dibden a visit.

The villages of Blackfield and Langley, long since subsumed into each other, are in the parish of Fawley, Hampshire, and Blackfield refers to the dark marshy soil prevalent here. The dominant feature here is Continue reading →

Chelt-Numb

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

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Tuesday 1st January 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 1 (Leven 16p)

CHELTENHAM TOWN 0

Att 6,951 (637 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3

One of those fixtures that is a local derby only in the thoughts of the fixture computer. Cheltenham still regard Gloucester City as public enemy number 1, whilst for Oxford its swindon, followed by swindon’s reserves, and thirdly swindon’s youth team. Nevertheless New Year’s Day is a good time for the clubs to meet, its not too far for supporters to travel with bleary heads, and guarantees a Continue reading →

O, wad some Power the giftie gie us

31 Monday Dec 2012

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Sunday 30th December 2012

At St Michael’s & The South Church, Dumfries.

I woke after a night drinking in Dumfries at some of the warm taverns frequented by the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns, which in all honesty is more of a case of finding a pub which he didn’t visit regularly! It was an escape from the cold wind, and judging by the way the locals were shoveling the hot food down I wasn’t the only one thinking along the same lines. I was visiting my pal Iain, and he’s moved house since I last visited and when I woke, I poked my head between the curtains and spotted an interesting cemetery. Continue reading →

Schemes O’ Mice An’ Men

30 Sunday Dec 2012

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Saturday 29th December 2012 ko 13.45

Scottish Junior FA West Region Superleague Premier Division

IRVINE MEADOW 0 McGowan sent off 57 (2nd booking)

AUCHINLECK TALBOT 2 (McCann 44 Spence 86) White sent off 62 (2nd booking)

Att c400

Entry £5

Programme None

I wish I could see more of my mate Iain. The trouble is that he lives in Dumfries, a 5 hour drive from Oxford. We met longer ago than either of us would care to remember, when we were marooned on a bank course at a faceless hotel in Tewkesbury. When however there’s a game, a curry and a pint to be had, one of us jumps in a car….

The west coast of Scotland, south of Glasgow is Robert Burns country. From Iain’s house, a mere stone’s throw from the Burns Mausoleum (more on that in my next article) from our drive up the A76 past the Burns Memorial at Mauchline, and seeing signs for Ayr, his birthplace and setting for the poem “Tam O’ Shanter.”

Irvine doesn’t seem to fit the poetic theme, this is a New Town, based on shipping and shipbuilding, and was extensively bombed during World War 2. Burns did spend time here, working in a flax factory on the Glasgow Vennel. More recently Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was born here, and cycling champion and innovator Graeme Obree calls Irvine home.

If you’re not familiar with Scottish Non-League please don’t get Continue reading →