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Bearley Finished

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

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Tuesday 27th March 2012 ko 6.00pm (scheduled)

Stratford Alliance Division One

ALVESTON 4 (Layton 9p Fathers 31 Wilkes 67 Castle 70)

CUBBINGTON ALBION 1 (Andy Yates 65)

Att 33 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Many hoppers will know Alveston as a top flight Midland Combination outfit. Unfortunately at the end of last season they lost the use of their base at the Home Guard Club, in Tiddington, and have moved to the other side of Stratford-upon-Avon, to the small village of Bearley. The longest aqueduct in England, the Edstone Aqueduct, is just outside the village on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal. The move cost the club its place in the Midland Combination, and were forced to take a 3 division demotion to the Stratford Alliance.

The Mill Field serves as both Sports field and Village hall, to the extent that the noise of the fixture was at times interrupted by the sounds of a few ladies doing their aerobics class! The bar area is first class with many watching a televised football match but the changing area will be a stumbling block to the club’s ambitions to a return to the Midland Combination. It’s strange, but there is only one changing room, the club have tried to provide separation by placing an upturned table tennis court in the middle, but that’s not good enough for promotion, so a new ground is being sought. With the club being top of the top flight the need is pressing!

The club’s administration is still of Midland Combination quality, even everyone else’s wasn’t. Referee Paul Batty ambled in at 6.00pm with Alveston ready to kick off, and immediately declared that he was switching kick off to 6.15. By then Cubbington had enough players to start, but kick off was then delayed to 6.30, by which time they had 11. Despite a number of the hoppers pointing out that playing 2 x 45 minutes would mean it would be dark before the final whistle, Mr Batty played a full first half, then was embarrassed as, yes, the game was finished 6 minutes early as it was dark….Some people you just can’t tell!

On the pitch, if either side had turned up with their shooting boots then we’d had seen a hat full of goals. Layton’s early penalty was the only thing to show for the massive superiority that Alveston were enjoying. Time after time Alveston smashed shots high or wide when it looked a good deal easier to score. Cubbington’s cause wasn’t helped with the loss of David Broomfield to a badly twisted knee on 20 minutes. They played on with 10 men until the 40th minute when a substitute had arrived and changed. As the visitors tired, so Alveston took advantage, and neither side should take issue with the shortened game. It made absolutely no difference to the destination of the points.

With the clocks having gone forward, and what groundhoppers refer to as “Silly Season” in force (evening kick-offs at unlit venues) I left grateful that I’d got a game, but I do think its unfair to expect amateur players to make a 6.00pm kick off. When the light allows a 6.30 start, well that’s a different story.

Mae cyfle a gollwyd?

11 Sunday Mar 2012

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Saturday 10th March 2012 ko 1.30pm

Mid Wales League Division 2

ABERAERON 3 (R Jones 20 B Thomas 64og R Davies 85)

MACHYNLLETH 1 (Jarman 60)

Att 224

Entry FREE

Programme £2

Badge £3

It really was a very short drive south from Aberystwyth down the coast to Aberaeron. The pretty fishing town is that way for a reason. There are very strict guidelines on what get built and how it looks. Unusually for a Ceredigion/Cardigan settlement there is a regency feel to the place, due to the work of Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock. The council keeps a book of pastel colours approved for houses, and the houses have to have sash windows. In typical Regency style the village is built round a square, and in untypical Regency style, the town square is where the football team plays.

This fact is why we were there, as on August Bank Holiday the square is used for the town carnival, and the club are moving off at the end of the season, in favour of a move of a shared pitch with the local rugby club nearer the sea front. That facility was where the players and officials changed before walking through town to the pitch. The Town Square, without meaning to, caused a whole host of problems.

In order to get a visit in we had to schedule the hop a year earlier than we’d planned, and not so early in the year as to risk postponements. We also didn’t want to clash with next week’s Central Midlands League Bonanza, run by our good friend Rob Hornby. Putting our event on a week before was not ideal, but we couldn’t run later, as that would clash with the final arrangements for the Northern Counties East Hop, in a month’s time, over Easter.

On a more local level the ground has one other massive problem, namely that, despite the presence of a quite wonderful old turnstile, the club are not allowed to charge for admission. That inevitably means entry by programme, and under those circumstances a club has to work all the harder to get people to pay. I’m not sure how many two pounds were collected. Again, with no catering facilities, a burger van was parked behind one goal, and the bakery and pub on the square did a roaring trade. I managed to get the line-ups put up on a blackboard, and many locals delayed watching Wales play 6-Nations rugby in favour of more local entertainment. I’ve certainly never seen a ground like it, and suspect I never will again. It was certainly worth the effort getting there.

It was a bruising encounter with a couple of unsavoury off the ball challenges.  After one I commented to a fellow hopper that the perpetrator was lucky to stay on the pitch, I was told by a Machynlleth fan, that it was a “Contact sport!” Well I suppose kicking out at your opponent is contact-of a fashion! Aberaeron had just that little too much for their guests. Ryan Jones’ opener was equalised by Kurt Jarman courtesy of a defensive howler. Parity didn’t last long as a good cross was turned into his own net by Ben Thomas, and Rhydian Davies made things safe with 5 minutes left.

As we waited for Keith and the coach (he had to park some distance away at a local school) I watched as all trace of the big match was quickly dismantled and the locals disappeared into the pub to watch the rugby. I just left wondering how much impact the day made on the town and its football club.

Apart from the first one, and the last eight, all pictures by Craig Dabbs

German Beer is Chemical Free

06 Monday Feb 2012

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Saturday 4th February 2012

Bundesliga 2

TSV ALEMANNIA AACHEN 2 (Auer 13p Demai 15)

FC ST PAULI 1 (Boll 39)

Att 22,752

Entry €34

Programme FREE

Badge €4

Coffee €2

Glüwein €2.50 (mulled wine)

Frikadelle & Chips €4.50

With the temperature having warmed up to a positively balmy -11C, we did wonder whether this game would fall foul of the weather too. But there is undersoil heating at the Neuer (New) Tivoli, and this is Germany! So 20,000 plus people simply wrapped up warmly, and away we went.

The new Tivoli opened in August 2009, with its nearby predecessor being recently demolished. The adjacent ground is in fact for equestrian sports. There are nods to the old ground with the yellow roof, and the name, which the club has decided not to replace with a sponsor’s, choosing instead to levy a 1 euro supplement, the “Tivoli penny” making up in part, for the lost revenue.

The capacity is set at 32 960 seats, broken down as follows: 11,681 standing places, of which 10,584 are on the massive South Stand (Bitburger Wall), 19,345 seats, 1,348 business seats, 28 boxes, each containing twelve seats, 100 disabled spaces and 110 press seats. I did find the concourses slightly disappointing in that they’re not fully enclosed. On a warm day though, I might have taken a different view! One major pain was the Tivoli-Karte, via which is how all food and drink is purchased, no cash is allowed. You pay for the card, then charge it up with credit, and of course, you always have slightly too much or too little for what you want. That I suppose is the point!

Maybe it was the game, maybe it was the atmosphere, aided in no small part from the army of travelling St Pauli fans, from Hamburg, but I really enjoyed this game.  St Pauli of course are the famous “Cult” club. They’re known for  left-leaning politics, social activism and the event and party atmosphere of the club’s matches. Supporters adopted the skull and crossbones as their own unofficial emblem. St. Pauli became the first team in Germany to officially ban right-wing nationalist activities and displays in its stadium in an era when fascist-inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe. In fact at one point banners were displayed from the away end telling the home fans to wake up to the extremists within the home terraces. You can see the banners in one of the pictures.

With fans like this, it was a shame that their team failed to live up to their following. Aachen won the game in 2 mad minutes. Firstly Zambrano hacked down Radu in the box, Auer’s penalty sending St Pauli fanatic and keeper Pliquett the wrong way. Then, a neat passing move round Demai 20 yards, and his curling shot easily beat Pliquett. St Pauli had the lion’s share of possession, but were creating too little with it. Finally all the possession led to a goal ,when a poor clearance fell to Boll, who tucked away the chance.

The second half continued in a similar vein. Substitute Saglik thought he’d scored but referee Willenborg ruled him to be offside, even the home supporters thought that was probably a wrong decision. Aachen just about deserved their win, even if for most of the half I thought St Pauli would snatch a point.

In the final analysis I was just pleased to have got a game to watch, and a good one at that!

Name, Rank, and Number

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Monday 23rd January 2012 ko 7.30pm

British Army FA Woolwich Cup Semi-Final

ROYAL ENGINEERS 2 (Sapper Williams 36 Corporal Cottam 89)

ROYAL ARTILLERY 2 (Gunner Tidy 24 Gunner Molyneux 76)

AET Engineers won 4-2 on penalties

Played at Aldershot Military Stadium, Queens Avenue

Att 49 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

It’s a little known fact that the British Army FA is treated as a county like any other by the English FA. So when both Woolwich Cup semi-finals were scheduled to within 100 yards of each other on a Monday night, it attracted quite a few hoppers. Those with the big numbers watched the other semi-final on a caged 3G pitch, while 3 of us watched this encounter in the main stadium.

Being within the Garrison I’d wondered whether there’d be any issues with gaining entry, but there was none whatsoever. I parked in the adjacent Rugby Ground, and taking these pictures was unrestricted. Getting the lineups was straightforward too, although the teamsheets consisted of Name, Rank and Number, as well as shirt number. It did give a certain piquancy to reporting the scorers!! It’s just a shame there was no Private “Don’t tell him,” Pike!

But the ground, or rather that stand. The stadium is primarily an athletics one, but the pitched roofed stand built in 1955 and refurbished by Norwest Holst recently, is a real gem. It stretches all of the length of the track, the seats don’t go call the way back for no good reason, but the rake makes up for the 9 lanes of running track in between. I liked the notices at each block banning smoking, apart from the block containing the Directors’/Officers’ box!

I’d wondered what to expect from a regimental cup, in fact I’d braced myself for a truly dreadful game, but the standard was very good, we reckoned around Southern League lower division level. That said, a decent skill level doesn’t doesn’t necessarily make for good entertainment, but this was a cracking game. Artillery shot (I know!) themselves into the lead when a through ball found Bakary clean through, but Tidy was standing in an offside position when the ball was played. Active? Inactive? Well he was a few seconds later when Bakary squared to him to score.

It didn’t matter so much on 36 minutes when Mike Williams equalised for Engineers with a thumping shot, but by this time we were beginning to worry about extra time, as with Lee West and I, such things are rather too likely given past experience. Normally it happens when you are far from home, and if I can get extra time in Osaka, 7500 miles from home, I can certainly get it a mere 65 miles away!

And of course so it happened. Bakary went down in instalments for the penalty, and as the three of us were praying to every god we could think of, Andrew Cottam slotted home with 90 seconds remaining. Of course, the extra 30 minutes produced nothing so with the usual delays the shoot-out was organised with the Artillery missing their first two kicks to give a winning advantage to the Engineers.

By the looks of things, the final is often played at Warminster Town FC; that’s worth a thought just for the standard of play alone.

The Amiable Side of the Avon

19 Thursday Jan 2012

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Wednesday 18th January 2012 ko 7.45pm

Wessex League Division One

AMESBURY TOWN 2 (Brockway 74 Jones 83)

BROCKENHURST 2 (Morse 23 Barker 56)

Att 63

Entry & Programme £5

Tea 70p

The Wiltshire town is of course most famous for Stonehenge, the prehistoric landmark that lies within the parish around 2 miles from the town centre. I of course managed to drive in and out of Amesbury without seeing it!

There’s so much to like about the Bonneymead Ground. It’s set on common land close to the River Avon, which makes it rather prone to waterlogging. If quirks make a football then Bonnymead is up there with the best of them. There’s the clubhouse and verandah with the comfy chairs. Add to that, the signpost showing the right of way across the ground, and the temporary fence due to the dual use with cricket, and you get my drift.

The welcome was fulsome too, with the offer of the lineups much appreciated, as well as the offer of 3 old programmes. A polypin of Stonehenge bitter at the bar was popular too! Yes, folks I actually felt well-disposed to a team from Wiltshire!

That sentiment looked to be completely wasted for the first three-quarters of the game, as even the Amesbury committee admitted that Brockenhurst were well worthy of their 2 goal lead. Richard Morse found himself on the end of a curling free kick to open the scoring and a counterattack after the break put Mark Barker through to double the lead. It looked game over at that point, and to be honest, I don’t know quite how Amesbury hauled themselves back into contention. Was it Brockenhurst trying to sit on a lead or was it the inspired introduction of Toni Camilleri? We’ll never know, but within a minute of his introduction, he found Nathan Jones, whose cross from the left, positively invited Tyler Broadway to score. The 17-year-old made no mistake. On 82 minutes Amesbury completed an unlikely comeback when Gareth Horner’s free kick, found substitute Darren Crook. He dummied his header leaving the ball to run through to Jones who rammed the ball home to equalise. Amesbury nearly completed a remarkable victory when the suddenly omnipresent Jones fired in a free kick that Darren Crook got his head to, but Brockenhurst keeper Callum Maher was able to make a good save to maintain parity.

A point that Amesbury barely deserved on the balance of play, but it was hard to begrudge them a point when the whole evening was so enjoyable.

First Impressions

08 Thursday Dec 2011

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Tuesday 6th December 2011 ko 7.45pm

Wessex League Cup 3rd Round

ALTON TOWN 2 (Brown 34 Dyer 77)

MONEYFIELDS 4 (Slater 11 Hore 25 39 Asajelic 74)

Att 70 (h/c)

Entry £6

Programme NO (2 old copies FREE)

Tea 50p

Hot Dog £1.50

The Hampshire town of Alton, other than being a northern outpost of the Wessex League is probably most famous for being where the term “Sweet Fanny Adams” was coined. In  1867, an eight-year old girl, Fanny Adams, was murdered. Her assailant, Frederick Baker, was executed in Winchester and one of the original public notices advertising his forthcoming execution hangs in the Crown Public House in the town. The murder, so the story goes, coincided with the introduction of tinned meat in the Royal Navy, and the sailors who did not like the new food said the tins contained the remains of “Sweet Fanny Adams” or “Sweet F A”, hence the expression which for over a century has meant “Sweet nothing.” My first impressions of the local team were not far removed from that! Continue reading →

Stone Lions

16 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Tuesday 14th November 2011 ko 7.30pm

Andover Open Cup 1st Round

ANDOVER LIONS 6 (Augustus 25 Nassoori 41 Reynolds 69 Spencer 77 87 Chesters 82)

WYKEHAM GERRI’S 0

Att 43 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

With the demise of Southern League Andover FC in July, a phoenix club has sprung up a few hundred yards down the road from the old club’s Portway ground at the Charlton Leisure Centre. And yes, once again its an athletics stadium, with absolutely no cover, or even a cafe. A warm drink would have been handy on a cold night! A few hoppers turned up and around 5 turned tail, pub-bound when they realised the rumour of a programme didn’t materialise.

Andover now play their football in the Continue reading →

The Netting

02 Wednesday Nov 2011

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Tuesday 1st November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Wessex League Premier Division

ALRESFORD TOWN 3 (Saleh 11 32 Llewellyn 40)

FAREHAM TOWN 2 (Tattersall 32 Doswell 81)

Att 59 (h/c)

Entry £5

Programme £1

Tea £1

Cheese & Onion Roll £1.50

Now those of you know I need absolutely no excuse to go a watch a game, but for this one I had no lack of reasons. For one, it involved Fareham which means the presence of Mr Fareham himself, the one and only Splodge! Also present was Callum Smith who very quietly is building up a seriously impressive ground count. His love life is always worth a listen to also! Continue reading →

In Extremis

01 Saturday Oct 2011

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Saturday 1st October 2011

Midland Combination U21 League East/North

AUSTREY RANGERS 0

RUGBY TOWN JUNIORS 3 (Thomas 12 Linford 63 Gordon 76)

Att 16 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Coffee 80p

Finger of Fudge 20p (!)

Austrey lies at the northernmost point of Warwickshire, just off the A42. A look on Google Earth shows Austrey Field to little more than, well, a field, but when I arrived it was a hive of activity. If you want to tick off Austrey you have no option but to watch age based football, there is no adult team, although I suspect this vibrant club will soon make that move as the eldest players get too old for youth football. With a clubhouse, and part railed pitch the infrastructure is already in place the such a move.

Other than my game there were U12 and U18 games going on, which gave Dutch (Utrecht) referee Erick van Vlet a problem- Continue reading →

A game of one half

30 Friday Sep 2011

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Tuesday 27th September 2011 ko 7.15pm

Leicestershire Senior Cup First Round

AYLESTONE PARK 2 (G Seal 18 27p)

BIRSTALL UNITED 1 (Man-Klee 8 )

Att 54 (h/c)

Entry £2.50

No programme

Chips & Cheese £1.50

With the  Leicester based club having moved a full 400 yards to their new home, The Mary Linwood Recreation ground in Saffron Lane, this fixture attracted some of the big hitters of the groundhopping fraternity.

The ground reflects precisely the clubs needs and immediate ambitions. There are two pitches, so close that the dugouts are double sided, and the clubhouse is both large and impressive. However the sole spectator accommodation is still the same unseated Arena stand, salvaged from the old ground, and given a lick of paint. You question how far the club can progress with the ground as it is particularly when you consider that the club has the advantage of the demise of the Leicestershire Constabulary club which supplied both players and committee.

What we got was a cracking half of football. Birstall took an early lead, Aylestone stung by the threat to their 100% record responded, and with a penalty to take the lead we were set up for an exciting second half. I’d have even settled for extra time.

I turned up for the second half, I’m not sure the players did! What we got was a turgid half of ill-tempered hoofing, and a catalogue of unforced errors. By the end, extra time would have been a trial.