Category Archives: C

Battle of Chalgrove Field

26 Friday Apr 2013

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Wednesday 24th April 2013 ko 18.30

Oxon Senior League Division One

CHALGROVE 5 (Godfrey 38p K Coleman 40 Skiller 60 68 75)

YARNTON 2 (Johnson 57 Chalal 80) Johnson sent off 80 (dangerous play)

Att 32

80 minute game

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

The village of Chalgrove lies about 10 miles southeast of Oxford, and was the site of a small English Civil War skirmish, the Battle of Chalgrove Field on 18th June 1643. The result was a Royalist victory, and the Parliamentarian John Hampden was wounded in the battle, as a result of which he died six days later.

Hampden was one of the 5 members of Parliament whose attempted unconstitutional arrest by King Charles I in the House of Commons in 1642 sparked the Civil War. The towns of Hampden, Maryland, Hamden, Connecticut and Hampden, Maine, as well as the county of Hampden, Massachusetts are named in his honour. A statue of the great parliamentarian is to be found in the Market Square, Aylesbury, and a monument near to where he was shot is in Chalgrove Field.

The football play at the Back Rec’ and it certainly is well named. The only clue I found to its location was the full car park at the village hall. You walk across a smaller pitch, then beyond the tennis courts, then its over a footbridge to the pitch. It feels like you’re walking out of the village and into the countryside. Its bucolic at the end of April, but I can imagine it being bleak in summer. The 13th century parish church of Saint Mary the Virgin provides a quintessentially English backdrop.

This is Chalgrove’s first season in the OSL. They had applications for both this league, and the North Berkshire, Chalgrove lies comfortably in both League’s footprints. Both Leagues accepted them, in fact when I attended the NBFL’s AGM there was a constitution with Chalgrove’s name on it, crossed out! They plumped for the OSL as they felt they would have to travel less.

It’s worked out well for them, as they went in to this game needing a point to confirm promotion to the Premier Division. Perhaps understandably, it was a tight nervy opening few minutes with for me the visitors looking marginally the more promising. One decision, the penalty for an ill-advised tackle, altered the entire game. Yarnton were adamant is wasn’t a penalty but then Chalgrove were just as certain it was! I thought it looked harsh, but it didn’t worry Simon Godfrey who buried the spot kick. That lead was doubled on the stroke of half time by Keith Coleman who fired home following some poor defending.

The second half saw Yarnton come on strongly, and Jay Johnson’s long distance strike was justice at the very least. However, Chalgrove brought on Nick Skiller and in a mere 15 minutes he’d collected a hat trick and won his side promotion.

The final action saw Johnson be on the receiving end of a tough challenge on the right wing. Before the referee had a chance to blow for the foul, he got up, and scythed his opponent down, the ball an irrelevance. Johnson was dismissed, his season now over, but the was correctly awarded to Yarnton. That was floated in, and evaded everyone except for Jordan Chalal who tapped in at the back post for the final touch of the game.

An odd coda to an interesting game that attracted a decent crowd on a warm evening. I for one will watch Chalgrove’s progress in the higher division. They look a well-run club. Just allow yourself a little extra time to find the pitch!

Seeds

25 Monday Mar 2013

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Saturday 23rd March 2013 ko 14.30

North Berkshire League Division One

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 1 (Lee 80)

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 3 (Saunders 33 Bowler 51 Sheppard 58)

Att 23 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

With Mum still in Wallingford Hospital, I decided to stay local as I wanted to make sure I spent as much time with her as I could. That immediately placed me four-square in the territory of my favourite league, the North Berkshire. What I didn’t realise early in the morning that this game was going to be my only option, the snow meant that everything else in the league was postponed, and I got the chance to sound out a potential future groundhop host club. Continue reading →

Gwersyll Yr Urdd

13 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Saturday 9th March 2013 ko 10.30

Ceredigion League Division One

CRANNOG 6 (May 26 S Jones 35 Colvin 44 90 Forbes 59 Glover 85)

LLANYBYDDER 0

Att 134

Entry & Programme by Hop Ticket

Badge £3

Leaving Carmarthen the Groundhop coach headed north-east to Cardigan Bay. I felt as if I was heading out of English Wales into the heart Of Welsh Wales.  A clue can be found as to where you are on the road signs, in English Wales the English version is first, in Welsh Wales the Cymraeg version comes first.

The coach reached Llangrannog around 5 minutes before kick-off, rather later than we’d wanted due to the driver using his own directions. It’s a small fishing village of around 900 inhabitants in Ceredigion, 9 miles south of New Quay, and you are definitely in Welsh Wales, just try to access the English version of the town’s website!

http://www.llangrannog.org.uk/index.htm

Crannog play just outside of the village, at Gwersyll Yr Urdd or to roughly translate The Youth Camp. It doesn’t lack facilities, with trampolines, and an artificial ski slope, as well as the coastal walks that inspired the likes of Edward Elgar and Dylan Thomas. It’s there to promote Welsh identity and healthy living, and as such the young person visiting would expect to speak Welsh throughout their stay. I was fortunate that with my total lack of Cymraeg everyone I spoke to was happy to speak English, although when I was setting up to distribute the 5 game programme packs I asked two young children to move slightly and they didn’t understand what I was saying! You live and learn!

For all of that I’ll remember Llangrannog and its friendly little football club most for the wonderful view behind one goal, of Cardigan Bay. Yes, there are similarities with my recent trip to Clovelly AFC, but this had the added sense of a club introducing itself to a group of people who previously hadn’t heard of Llangrannog, let alone a football team formed in 1984 and accepted into the Ceredigion League a mere 8 hours later! The club worked hard at its day with the bacon baps selling well and a young lady walking round the pitch making sure those who wanted a pin badge could buy one! Initially I was a little disappointed with the attendance but then I asked one of the ladies serving food how many spectators they normally got.

“About 10 on a good day,” she said, before adding, ” But often its just the three of us,” pointing at the other two ladies serving.

It proved to be a good steer on attendances throughout the weekend. Few groundhoppers saw anything other than all five games, so the differences in crowd numbers were down to clubs’ success in getting their own people to come and watch.

All present saw a one-sided encounter with the final score accurately reflecting Crannog’s dominance, although the visitors could point to two goals originating from unlucky ricochets. Overall I sensed that those who were watching Ceredigion League football for the first time were relieved on two levels. Firstly that the standard was better than they’d expected, and that the expected rain hadn’t materialised. In fact, I walked back to the coach trying not to admit to myself that the sun was shining; as organiser you mustn’t tempt fate.

 

 

 

Borderlands

04 Monday Mar 2013

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Friday 1st March 2013

Chirk and Pontcysyltte Aqueducts

Dinas Bran Castell, near Llangollen

then at 19.45

Cymru Alliance

CEFN DRUIDS 4 (Owen 29 Blenkinsop 39 Jones 50 Hesp 75)

RHYDYMWYN 2 (Drazdauskas 67 Reynolds 87)

Att 177

Entry £5

Programme £2

Team Sheet FREE

Tea £1

I think I’ve mentioned in a previous article how I find borders fascinating, with the elements of both sides usually in evidence. This part of the world seems to be the exception that proves the rule.

Once you cross the River Dee past Oswestry, you are unquestionably in Wales, the only debate is whether you are in the Mid, or the Northern part! In fact it seems that the cross-border influence seems more evident on the English side with Oswestry having a Welsh identity (in Welsh it’s Croesoswallt) and other settlements such as Gobowen having Welsh names. Continue reading →

In Another World

18 Monday Feb 2013

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Saturday 16th February 2013

Clovelly

Entry, Parking and 2 Museums £6.50

Then at 14.30

North Devon League Intermediate Division 1A

CLOVELLY AFC 4 (Kearney 8 18 77 88)

TORRINGTON RESERVES 2 (Frost 7p Reddick 64)

At Clovelly Parish and War Memorial Hall, Higher Clovelly

Free Entry

Nothing for Sale

With a bed for the night in Dorset it seemed logical to look for something interesting to see in the South-West, as well as a football match afterwards. I ended up settling on Clovelly because I hadn’t been there since childhood, and I fancied a low-level game; sometimes you need to re-connect with the grass-roots and get muddy feet!

During the 100 mile 2 hour journey, I questioned my decision regularly. I stopped at the Cerne Abbas Giant, partially as part of yesterday’s “Prehistoric” tour, and as a final attempt to find something “Unworldly” in Hardy’s Wessex. Once again I was foiled, the thick fog making the chalk carving in the hill invisible.

I crossed in to Somerset, then into Devon, and gradually became aware of the Holiday Parks and Theme Parks, that have become the tourist industry’s way of coping a climate that whilst temperate, can’t compete with the Spanish Costas. In turn that scene changes once you turn right off the Barnstaple Road, and head downhill to Clovelly.

Roughly 1,600 people live in this pretty fishing village, famous for its cobbled streets, and steep gradient down to the sea. Due to this, and the narrowness of the streets, motor transport is banned by the Hon. John Rous, a descendant of the Hamlyn family who have owned Clovelly since 1738. That is where there’s some controversy, as its highly unusual to be charged simply to visit a viable village where people live and work normally.

Certainly the visitor centre is dreadful, simply a tourist catch-penny, I scuttled through quickly, but the village whilst beautiful, has more to it than meets the eye. With access restricted, if you live here you have to find a way of getting anything heavier than a bag of shopping down to your house. The solution is  two bread baskets tied together with wooden runners to form a sled. I spent some time trying to take pictures avoiding them, until I worked out what they were. Another surprise was the sheer number of cats! Yes, there is no lack of fish, and our feline friends would have no issue with the slope, but everywhere I looked there was a cat in need of a cuddle!

One of the two museums your entry fee gives access to (the other is a fisherman’s cottage) is the home where Charles Kingsley grew up. He was a social reformer, and a supporter of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. His book The Water Babies is influenced by Clovelly, and Westward Ho! by the North Devon peninsula.

For all of that I clambered back up the hill, pausing to watch a lady tending to a garden with a 1:3 gradient, still pondering what it would be like living in a village that’s part tourist attraction, part working environment.

With the inevitable boxes of fudge for my family stowed in the back of the car I drove the mile or so up the hill to Higher Clovelly. This is a far more typically Devonian village without the yoke of restrictions imposed on its sister down the hill. As is so often the case, the football club plays on a pitch by the village hall, but in this case there are two factors to consider. Firstly its quite a village hall, with billiard room, kitchen, bar and mini-theatre. In fact, the referee changes in the stage area, with the curtains drawn! However it’s view from the little stand that is the ground’s selling point.

You can see the Puffin sanctuary island of Lundy isolated in the Bristol Channel. These days it only has a population of 28, with plenty more visiting on day-trips to view the wildlife and to visit the Bronze Age Burial Mounds, and Mesolithic flint work. With a full hour before kick off, and the ground deserted, I stood and watched a boat sail across the channel between the island and the mainland, and took a deep breath. Here was my unworldly moment, in the place I’d expected it least!

It got better as the players and officials arrived. To a man and woman, all were friendly and both teams put on an entertaining game on a heavy, bobbling pitch that seemed to have been cut for rugby rather than football. The undoubted star of the show was Clovelly player-manager Robin Kearney whose clever late runs were incomprehensible to the Torrington defence. He scored all 4 of Clovelly’s goals, ably assisted by captain Ian Chan’s long throws. Torrington tried hard, and will feel that 2 goals is scant reward for good play, taking account of the level (10 promotions from the Football League) and the playing conditions.

I smiled as I watched the last five minutes as a couple of hours before I wondered whether paying £6.50 to visit Clovelly was good value for money. I’d realised that when you take Clovelly AFC into account too, it’s a real bargain.

The Burnt Stub

10 Sunday Feb 2013

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Thursday 7th February 2013 ko 19.45

Combined Counties League Premier Division

CHESSINGTON & HOOK UNITED 2 (Howton 88 Harding 90p) Tyler missed penalty 58

EPSOM & EWELL 3 (Burns 8 86 Jarman 67)

Att 87

Entry £7

No Programme

Tea £1

If ever a place is dominated by an attraction it’s the Surrey town of Chessington, even Alton, in Staffordshire manages to shelter itself from Alton Towers next door (just a turret pokes its head above the trees!). The World of Adventures sits on the site of The Burnt Stub stately home, a royalist stronghold during the English Civil War, and razed to the ground by the Parliamentarians on their victory. A Neo-Gothic mansion was built on the site by the Vere family, and the grounds were converted to a zoo in 1931 by Reginald Goddard. The site became part of the Tussaud’s Group in 1978 and the mansion incorporated as Hocus Pocus Hall. I used the entrance to turn round, and made a beeline for Chalky Lane, the ground hiding behind the trees from its big brash sibling.

There’s something of a ranch feel to the ground. Maybe its the gibbeted entry sign, or the players’ walkway from changing room to the pitch evoking the riders’ entrance at a rodeo, but all the essentials of life are here, but perhaps not in traditional form. There was no programme, as the game has been hastily re-arranged from Tuesday’s waterlogged postponement, and they hadn’t printed for that, as they’d seen the state of the pitch, and saved themselves the printing costs!

One glance at the table predicted an away win. Not many clubs can keep up with Guernsey’s rise, fuelled by the off-shore profits of online gambling, but the E’s are giving in a real go. They have no ground of their own, sharing at the moment at Chipstead, they’ve played Isthmian League football, and are keen to return. They’d won 9 on the bounce, and any team that can lay claim to having found future Scotland international Matt Elliott, needs to be taken seriously. The fly in the ointment was the last club to have beaten them… Chessington & Hook. Enid Blyton may have lived here, but this story was a good deal better thought out than one of her hackneyed yarns.

On a heavy but just about playable pitch, it was the visitors who made the early breakthrough, as Sam Currie’s cross hit the crossbar, and Robbie Burns reacted first to tap home. For the rest of the half it was more or less continuous Epsom pressure and only profligate finishing and good defending kept the score down.

The second half saw a change on formation for Chessington and it paid dividends, or rather it should! Nathan Ayling’s clumsy challenge on Dan Harding was an obvious penalty, but Tom Tyler’s spot kick failed to even draw a save from Epsom keeper Joe White. They were made to pay as a counter-attack found Mark Jarman clean through and he made the most of the opportunity, sliding the ball past Daniel Burnett.

Two soon became three as the move of the game saw Currie’s cross from the right, find Burns, whose pinpoint glancing header found the left hand corner of the net. That looked to be it but when Tony Howton’s 25 yard free kick squirmed its way past everyone for 3-1 Chessington saw and opportunity. Dan Harding made it 3-2 from the penalty spot after Luke Edwards was felled, and only the offside flag prevented Paul Gough from equalising! The win takes Epsom top of the table, although Guernsey have multiple games in hand, the legacy of a fine FA Vase run, that’s still ongoing.

Breathless stuff on a filthy night, and a game that 48 hours no-one had expected would take place. A bonus in every way possible, but there was to be no lashings of ginger beer to celebrate!

The Coal Post

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

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Tuesday 30th October 2012 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division

COLNEY HEATH 3 (Thompson 10 Clarke 69 Armstrong 82)

HADLEY 0

Att 61

Entry & Programme £6

Tea 70

Cheese & Onion Roll £1.40

Anyone who’s travelled around the northern curve of the M25 will have been within a mile of the Recreation Ground, and this pretty village would be fairly unremarkable but for one historical detail.

The first essay I was asked to write at university in London, was seemingly simple – define London’s boundaries. You could use famous square mile of the city, or perhaps the man-made moat of the M25. I think I plumped for the M25, an imperfect solution, but I couldn’t think of a better boundary, but the discussion made for an interesting lecture slot when our marked papers were returned!

There was in fact another boundary, still further out and these are the coal posts, used to mark where a tax on coal entering London would be levied. The series of around 280, all from 12 to 18 miles out, were of various types, but formed an irregular loop around the capital from medieval times to the tax’s abolition in 1890. The remarkable thing about Colney Heath is that there were 4 posts for the village alone, and all are still standing, the one I’ve photographed is on the small green opposite the “Cock” Pub. It must have been an important point on the route into the capital, from the north.

The Recreation Ground is a classic example of a ground being adapted to suite grading requirements. I would imagine that in the past cricket was played, but now the extra space is used as a training pitch. Floodlights have been added, and the clubhouse roof extended forward to keep the requisite 50 or so seats from getting wet. The clubhouse, large and warm was the best facility, and plenty there desisted from watching this game, but who can blame them when Reading 5 Arsenal 7 is being televised in the warm?

Out in the cold, this was a game that entertained without ever catching fire. The script suggested that Hadley would steal a point, despite Colney Heath having by far the greater possession and taking the lead early on through Matt Thompson. As ever the script wasn’t followed, but it took Aaron Clarke’s goal was late as the 69th minute to put the tie beyond doubt. Paul Armstrong’s tap in afterwards was mere icing on the cake.

As I left, my friend James commented that I couldn’t have many clubs in this league left to do. I really hadn’t thought about it, but when I checked this morning he was correct. Just 4 grounds without lights in the bottom division. Knowing me, I’ll end up completing those without realising, such is life!!

 

King Edward, A Great Blogg, And The Crabs

28 Sunday Oct 2012

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Saturday 27th October 2012 ko 14.30

Anglian Combination Premier Division

CROMER TOWN 6 (Wilton 12 33 90 Matthews 33 84 Eves 45)

NORTH WALSHAM TOWN 2 (Jolly 68 Skipper 83)

Att 52 (h/c)

Entry £2

Programme £1

Tea 50p

Pie £1

It’s a shame this part of North Norfolk takes such a long time to get to from Oxford, as there’s so much to enjoy here. Cromer is a good example of this, with its narrow streets and quaint shops and yes, there are still many opportunities to buy the locally caught crabs; £2 each looked a real bargain! I took a walk along the wind-swept pier, and there was a gang of workmen carrying out repairs, while a hardy soul fished from the pier end, but I wanted to see what was at the near end.

Captain Henry Blogg is reckoned by many to be the greatest lifeboatman that ever lived, winning the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s Gold medal 3 times, the Silver medal 4 times, together with the George Cross and the British Empire medal. One rescue involved the saving of 15 men over a 24 hour period from the wreck of the Swedish vessel “Fernebo,” Blogg and his crew rowing the Cromer Lifeboat by searchlight in quite appalling sea conditions. His memorial has a compass as its centrepiece and ribbons point to each of his rescues with details inscribed. Consider also that then, as is the case now, the lifeboatman are volunteers, amazing people.

Blogg’s heroics notwithstanding, my reason to be in Cromer was a visit to Cabbell Park to watch the local football team. Not that the back story is any less astounding than Blogg’s! The ground is named after Evelyn Bond-Cabbell who granted the club a lease on the ground in 1922. However, unknown to the club was a clause that the land would revert to the people of Cromer 21 years after the death of King Edward VII’s last grandchild. That was King Olav V of Norway, ironically a keen sportsman, who died in 1991, making the club’s position somewhat precarious. Negotiations are ongoing with Bond-Cabbell’s heir, Benjamin Cabbell-Manners who is keen to see the ground used for more general sporting use, but the latest news is that after spending £3000 on legal advice the club believe the last grandchild was George Lascelles, the 7th Earl of Harewood. The only sticking point here, is that he was “In Utero,” when the lease was signed!

On arrival what struck me was that there isn’t much room for anything other than a football pitch. The space is perfect for a floodlit non-league ground for a reasonably ambitious club but no more. There’s a gravel car park, a clubhouse, and a small covered area, and while there’s room for all of this to be expanded, it would be impossible to add additional sports.

The other thing I noticed was just how central to the community the club is. From the multiplicity of businesses advertising in the programme, to the wide cross-section of people who turned up to cheer their team on, this was very much an effort made by the entire town.

They had much to cheer as well, with The Crabs making short work of their near-neighbours struggling at the bottom of the division. Dale Wilton danced through the defence to open the scoring and was immediately booking for a rather unsporting celebration. It proved to be the only booking of the day, and once Cromer had scored twice in a minute, there was little prospect of a North Walsham revival.

Perhaps predictably Cromer eased off during the second half, and their visitors grabbed two late goals, but that served only to rouse the Crabs, who promptly nipped back with two more goals with Wilton collecting his hat trick with virtually the last kick of the game. This was a high quality encounter, utterly belying the clubs’s status 7 promotions from the supposed promised land of the Football League, but then when you’re this far from the rat race, you can work on your passion with little in the way of disturbance. Unless of course, your name is Henry Blogg!

Substitute

19 Friday Oct 2012

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Wednesday 17th October 2012 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League Division One South

CARLTON TOWN 1 (Naylor 84)

HUCKNALL TOWN 0

Att 138

Entry £8

Programme £1.50

Badge £3

Another of those grounds where I turn up, and another hopper says, “This is a re-visit for you isn’t it?” It wasn’t and I don’t quite know why I hear the comment so often. In this case my location just east of Nottingham was probably the reason, as I’d picked up fellow organiser Chris Berezai on the way there.

Carlton is probably best known as being the birthplace of “Porridge” actor Richard Beckinsale, but the Bill Stokeld Stadium actually lies in Gedling next door. The entire area was the heartland of the Nottinghamshire coalfield, notable for the miners not striking during the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike. Not many signs of coal mining exist here these days, just the garish glow of out-of-town shopping centres and fast food restaurants.

It’s these “Developments” that created the ground as we know it. The ground was moved in the first few years of the new millennium, a little way along Stoke Lane so as to accommodate a new relief road. The club is indebted to the efforts of chairman Bill Stokeld, whose work got the ground fit for first the Central Midlands League then the Northern Counties East, and today the Northern Premier League. Perhaps that’s why the ground lacks a real focal point, all the seats are behind one goal, in the form of prefabricated stands. It doesn’t help that the ground is next door to the local sewage works, although it didn’t stop me sampling the catering!

There were the obvious reasons to be there, the company, and a new tick but there was the opportunity to catch up with Sam Hodkin, an up-and-coming groundhopper. He’s studying at Nottingham Trent University and helps out stewarding at Carlton on a voluntary basis, although they do feed him at half time! I wish I’d done something similar when I was a student, it would have been more fun than picking books, and checking London bus tickets for a survey!

The company rather made up for the game. At a location marginal at best for getting home at a sensible hour for an early start the next day it didn’t help that there was no sign of the referee! The club blamed the local FA for not informing him of his appointment, but the situation was improved when the senior linesman took the whistle, but that left a vacancy on the line. Former Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Oxford United forward Nigel Jemson was asked, but ever the shrinking violet, he declined. Eventually a local, qualified referee volunteered and around 10 minutes late, the game kicked off.

As I said earlier, the company made up for the game as this was two struggling sides fighting for scraps at the bottom of the table. For the vast majority of the game Chris’ run of 120 games without a 0-0 looked in real danger. He does however, have a failsafe, and that’s phone call to his mate Richard. So, in the 84th minute out came the Blackberry, and as he went, ” Hello Richard,” Joe Naylor smashed in an unstoppable drive from just outside the box! Whatever it takes to get a goal I suppose……

Conspiracy Theories

18 Thursday Oct 2012

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Tuesday 16th October 2012 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

CRIBBS FRIENDS LIFE 1 (Bone 63)

HENGROVE ATHLETIC 2 (Fear 18 Bament 81p)

Att 94

Entry & Programme £5

It seems that this season I’m destined so spend my weeknights blasting through the byways of Gloucestershire before reaching the M5 and Bristol. From there it was a short drive further south to Cribbs Causeway and its huge shopping centre, then on to the Friends Life Sports Ground, in nearby Henbury.

The insurance company used to be called Axa, and the club bearing that company’s name gained promotion from the Gloucestershire County League for this season. That was a convenient time for a name change, reflecting the take-over of Axa by Friends Life. On a personal level, I have history with Axa’s Bristol operation, they turned me down for a job many years ago, for reasons I still cannot fathom!

Promotion meant floodlights were necessary which were not an issue for a profitable business at an out-of-town location, so I found myself at a first game under lights for the second time in a month! The hundred or so there, included many other hoppers showing,if nothing else, that floodlit grounds reachable on a midweek are at a premium!

The  ground, has one major quirk, and that’s its access. From Cribbs Causeway the ground is accessed by having to U-turn at 2 roundabouts to access a turn inaccessible travelling in the opposite direction! Once there, its typical fare for a sports ground, the clubhouse plush but the pitchside exposed and the only cover provided by a “Meccano” stand. That was commandeered by a crowd of young boys fooling around in the corner. I found it hard to imagine myself at their age following a works team. Still, they shouted loudly for their team which is a good thing, and I just moved away so as to regain my senses!

The game was a decent advert for the division without ever hitting the heights that at times the team’s promising league positions theatened to do. Mark Fear headed Hengrove into the lead, his job made easier by Ben’s Bament’s fine cross. The moment of controversy led to Cribbs’ equaliser. Luke Crewe’s heavy tackle saw him both booked and injured, and he left the field for treatment. As play continued, he called to come back on, but was refused permission by referee Mark Dadds. His manager commented, ” He won’t be allowed back on until they score……” just as Simon Bone curled in an exquisite shot from 35 yards! Sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for!

In the end it didn’t matter, Bament’s speedy run into the box was crudely curtailed by Elliott Saunders, and Bament took the penalty himself, finding the bottom left hand corner. Probably a fair result, and I forgot completely about that job interview!