Category Archives: K

Let’s Play Ball

05 Sunday May 2013

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Thursday 2nd May 2013 ko 18.30

Oxon Senior League Premier Division

KENNINGTON UNITED 0

ADDERBURY PARK 0

Att 18

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

The obvious mistake you could make about here is thinking this is a district of London! In fact you could make a bigger one thinking this is a district of Oxford. A mixture of stringent Green Belt laws and the jealous guarding of its village status makes Kennington very much a village even if the A34 rumbles past, and Oxford encroaches near the Said Business School annexe at its edge.

The history of the Church in Kennington is unusual, little is known of the mediaeval chapel which disappeared before 1790 but the Old Church was built in 1828. This small building is something of a curiosity, in shape it is classical with the materials vernacular – rubble stone with a Stonesfield slate roof but the architect attempted to imitate the Norman style with the windows and West door. He was so successful it is sometimes mistaken for Norman work.

The poet Matthew Arnold lived here too, in fact there used to be a pub named after one of his poems, The Scholar Gypsy. I learned an important lesson there many years ago. I quaffed a quite appalling pint, and commented that the pub didn’t deserve to survive with beer this bad. I was overly harsh, but the pub closed a few weeks later, and is now a block of flats. It pays to be careful what you wish for!

Kennington United play at the end of Playfield Road, at a sports field that seems more geared for cricket than football. The cricketers turned up just after kick-off and were rather perturbed to see a football match in full swing. They grumbled, then presumably headed off to the pub.

They missed quite a bit, despite the goalless scoreline. This wasn’t a bore-draw far from it. The only real issue was midges, millions of them, and there was no escape from them! Referee Steve Higa didn’t seem unduly concerned, he’s from Las Vegas and is used to extremes of environment. He’s been refereeing in this country for 21 years but has taken one piece of the U S of A with him, he starts each game with the cry, “Lets Play Ball!” The mystery to me is why he’s only refereeing at this level, he’s superb, and both benches admitted it too.

The game had just about everything but a goal! That wasn’t down to much more than good goalkeeping, both sides went for the win, but cancelled each other out completely, such is life. You move on, and I did having the feeling that on another night this could easily have been a 5-5 draw. Its just a shame that the Oxon Senior League, apart from not even having a website, doesn’t even put the names of officials on its Mitoo page. It would be worth going to a game on the strength of Steve Higa’s appointment alone.

Kim’s Miners’ Welfare

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

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Saturday 20th April 2013 ko 18.15

Notts Senior League Senior League Senior Division

KIMBERLEY MINERS WELFARE 7 (Chaplin 14 Fisher 22 26 50 Baker 54 Beecham 63 Wilmott 90)

KEYWORTH UNITED 0

Att 369

Entry £3

Programme £1

Badge £3

The Nottinghamshire town of Kimberley was known as Chinemarelie in Domesday Book. With the accession of William to the throne Kimberley came into the possession of William de Peveril, and over the centuries the estate changed hands with the turning of each political tide, eventually being sold piecemeal in the 19th century. The town became a centre for coal mining, brewing and hosiery manufacturing, but one by one these closed, the final one, the brewery closing in 2006, after being bought out by Greene King.

When organising these events it is always handy to have an ace up your sleeve, something that will attract the stragglers. Potentially this was Kimberley MW’s last first XI game at Digby Street, as they have taken on the Stag Ground, the home of the now defunct Kimberley Town. That ground needs work to get it fit for use, so the move may be delayed, but I reckon it may well have concentrated a few minds!

Near to here, in 1817, the last attempted English Revolution took place. The Pentrich Revolution started in the village of Pentrich, north of Derby, where they discussed an uprising and a proposed march on London.  It was badly supported and ill-fated, and an agent provocateur infiltrated their ranks, and this ultimately led to their capture and execution. The 9th June 1817 was to be the start of a national uprising that was to include men from Huddersfield, Wakefield, Leeds and Nottingham. Their forces were to meet at Nottingham and then march to London to overthrow the government. Despite the promise of a wider national uprising it was only the men of Pentrich who marched that night. They reached Kimberley, were met by government troops and fled. The ringleaders Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner and Issac Ludlam were all found guilty of High Treason and were hanged then beheaded on 7th November 1817.

The issue for footballers playing at Digby Street over the years was where to get changed! The players have at various times changed in a local kitchen and in the basement of the local bowling alley. There’s a lot to like here and congratulations to MW for putting a club history in the programme, I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes reading them. The ground lies next door to where the Digby Colliery once stood. The light industrial units, and the railway waggons on the nearby roundabout are the only clue of the coal mining that once took place here. The issue was dealt with once and for all in 1995 when the changing rooms were bought from Calverton Cricket Club!

The club had thought intelligently about how to host their game. Many clubs do barbeques, to the point that when I organise a groundhop I generally advise against them- there is burger overkill after a while! MW’s was an honourable exception to the rule, the queues spoke volumes for its success.

In the clubhouse a printer was set up, allowing up-to-date teamsheets to be produced, but it was the merchandise stall that intrigued me. Kim Hedwall from Stockholm, Sweden is a good mate of mine, we organise a groundhop in Sweden each year, and one of the MW’s shirts caught my eye. It transpires MW’s change kit is yellow and blue, Swedish national colours, and with the shirt having IKEA as the sponsor, well it was a match made in…..well Kimberley!

It set things up nicely for the final game of the hop which looked unlikely to be anything other than a home win. Keyworth needed a win to escape from the bottom two relegation spots, but their resistance lasted a mere 15 minutes. MW rolled in 7 and in all honesty could have made double figures had it not been for some poor finishing. The plaudits should go to Jake Fisher for his hat trick, but this was an excellent team performance from a friendly club, who did themselves and their town proud in the time quite literally in the sun.

The other person they did proud was organiser Rob Hornby. I’ve been there myself, you give clubs an opportunity and an idea, what they do with it is up to them. I’m sure when Rob finished his drop-offs, and the coach was back in the garage and him back home in Mansfield, he looked back on his hard work on the first NSL hop, and feel quietly satisfied. The rest of the hopping world will be grateful he still does it. Thanks mate!

XXX action

07 Sunday Apr 2013

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Sunday 31st March 2013 ko 13.00

Oxfordshire Football Association Sam Waters Sunday Cup Final

OXFORD SPORTS & SOCIAL 2 (McGlynn 45 McMahon 48)

KIDLINGTON ROYALS 3 (Curtin 8 66 Odhiambo 78)

Att c300

Entry & Programme £2

At Court Place Farm Stadium (Oxford City FC)

To be honest, I didn’t really fancy watching any football. I know regular readers of these articles will find that hard to believe, but 8 games in just over 2 days is hard going! In fact my reason for going was straightforward, Kidlington Royals asked me! In the days leading up to the game Royals came up with a novel way of advertising the game and its one I don’t think I’ll see again! They used Twitter to get British Continue reading →

The Rouncil House

24 Sunday Mar 2013

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Tuesday 13th March 2013 ko 19.45

Midland Combination Division Two

KENILWORTH TOWN KH 0

COVENTRY SPIRES 2 (Mwackukwo 3 74)

Att 13 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Can of Coke 70p

The Warwickshire town of Kenilworth is probably best known for its 12th century castle, once owned by Simon de Montford. Its genteel market town air seems light years from the urbanised sprawl of Coventry, a mere 6 miles away. Its very much a commuter town these days with the smart rows of semi-detached houses give an unsubtle view of the wealth here.

As is ever the case, a genteel town leads to a football team that struggles to make much of an impact. You turn left from Rouncil Road, into Gypsy Lane and the whole feel changes. The wide tarmacked avenue changes to a potholed track, with a group of allotments at its end, who take exception to football traffic parking there. The ground is just before, with parking at a premium even with the tiny attendance present, but the welcome was fulsome.

Its not often I wax lyrical about a ground that features two sets of prefabricated stands, but there’s so much more to the place than that. The jewel is undoubtedly the clubhouse which manages to bow both at the roof and bulge at the walls. It has the feel of a village hall, but with photos of successful Kenilworth Town sides of the past and a huge tin trophy in one window. The other window has been broken, but fixed in a way you’ll only find in non-league- with the tactics board! The committee were keen to tell me about the history of the club, and I look forward to reading the leaflet they’ll be posting to me. It’s clear that the club has fallen to a low ebb, but having regained league membership, they’re looking to progress again. Incidentally the KH stands for Kings Heath who the club swallowed up in 2005, and whose influence has been completely lost.

A new set of changing rooms have been built, and a new clubhouse next door to the current one. That clubhouse isn’t ready yet, but when time and finances allow, that will be fitted out, the memorabilia will move and a quirkly part of the club will be demolished. I do wonder when this can happen though. The club don’t charge for entry, and there’s little or nothing in the way of sponsorship. I saw how much it cost for the referee and two linesmen, and its clear that expenditure must exceed income, and I do wonder why linesmen are necessary at such a low level (level 8 of non-league).

The game was entertaining on a cold evening. There wasn’t much to seperate the two sides, both teams at the margins of Midland Combination membership. Ultimately two good strikes from Jhoe Mwakchukwo was enough to swing the tie in Spires’ favour but the home officials didn’t seem too concerned. Perhaps when you’ve been to hell and back small things like home defeats don’t matter too much.

Czech Point

04 Thursday Oct 2012

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Saturday 29th September 2012 ko 10.15am

Česká Fotbalová Liga

SK KLADNO 2 (Orolín 62 Tóth 76)

FK KOLÍN 1 (Novotný 60)

Att 275

£1 = 29 Czk

Entry & Programme 50 Csk

Badge 40 Csk

Teamsheet Free

It seems that if you own a SatNav, the world ends at Germany’s eastern edge! Lee had brought his SatNav for the weekend’s driving, but the Western Europe map installed, did not include the Czech Republic. We’d printed off maps from the internet, but when Lee upgraded the car so the 4 of us could give Stuttgart-based Andreas a lift, the built-in SatNav proved to be a godsend. It had ALL of Europe included, so long as you understood enough German to operate it!

From Regensburg it took around 90 minutes by autobahn to reach the Czech border. The first port of call was buy a vignette, allowing use of the Czech motorway system for a week. It’s advertised at €16, but here’s a groundhopping top tip, pay in cash, in Czech currency, as its cheaper. It seemed to us that paying in Euros acted as an ignorance tax. We stopped for fuel too, as that’s cheaper on the Czech side, and made our way via Plzen to the small city of Kladno, around 25km north of Prague. It had been 20 years since my last visit to the Czech Republic, and whilst the motorway was a massive improvement, the only other change I could see was the rash of Tesco stores in every town. I didn’t find out whether my clubcard was valid here!

Kladno is very much an industrial place, still with the factory in its centre, typical of the former Warsaw pact countries, with the big chimney distributing smoke to the suburbs. The Stadion Františka Kloze is part of a larger complex including ice hockey and tennis. It reflects the club’s past playing in the 1-Liga and 2-Liga for the majority of its existance, before being relegated to the amateur ČFL, or 3rd Division Bohemian League in recent years. There are 3 sides, all seated but the dominant feature is the main stand, towering above everything else, built as it is above the changing rooms and clubhouse.

František Kloz, incidentally is the club’s most famous player, spending most of his career at Kladno. He scored 179 goals in the top flight, and played for his country 10 times, before being killed fighting the Nazis in May 1945.

We strolled round to the far side to watch the first half, I mean you just have to take pictures with that stand as the backdrop don’t you? Sadly the 5 of us spent most of the time taking pictures of the ground as the game was dull. I managed to source teamsheets, and badges for those interested by using my few words of German, and the club were sufficiently impressed by my efforts to give me a club lanyard!

Fortunately the game did liven up for 15 minutes, enough time of the visitors to open the scoring with a superb 25 yard free kick from Jan Novotný, only for Kladno’s Slovak forward Pavol Orolín, on loan from 2-Liga Bohemians of Prague, to equalise with a low shot two minutes later. Kladno took a somewhat fortuitous win later on when Marek Tóth’s thumping shot proved to be unstoppable.

We were just pleased to have ticked off an excellent ground, and for 4 of us, collect another country-point. It was also the only time we had a leisurely drive between grounds. Of course if you know me, I like to be busy.

Curiosity

22 Sunday Jul 2012

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Saturday 21st July 2012 ko 3pm

Pre-Season Friendly

KETTERING NOMADS 3 (Ingham 20p Langley 64 Payne 82)

THRAPSTON TOWN 7 (Gilsenan 7 Thompson 51 74 89 Arnold 73 Petranyuk 80 84)

Att 16 (h/c)

Played at Victory Field, Catworth, Cambs

Entry FREE

Nothing for Sale

Another in a my series of grounds you can’t normally do on a Saturday, this pitch, is only used for Sunday football. The village is only just over the border from Northamptonshire, used to be in Huntingdonshire, and is now in Cambridgeshire. I noticed that this is roughly where the land begins to level out, as you head towards East Anglia.

There’s a well-appointed clubhouse, and a rather laconic game of mixed doubles was taking place on the tennis court. Underneath the mulberry trees the groundsman silently observed the afternoon’s entertainment.

The game pitted Northants Combination Division One Nomads against United Counties League Division One Thrapston, a gap of two promotions. Of course I’d seen Thrapston a week or so earlier so when manager Paul Lenaghan spotted me, clipboard in hand, he laughed, ” Couldn’t you find some decent football to watch?” That of course is selling his embryonic side short, as they’re a good watch, and on the evidence of this fixture the side’s shaping up nicely.

If last time they made a slow start, then found their feet later, then this was the exact opposite. Jamie Gilsenan’s goal was scant reward for 15 minutes of utter domination, and they were denied what even the Nomads bench admitted was a clear penalty. But as the half wore up the concentration began to wilt, and a silly penalty allowed Nomads back into the game. The rest of the half was relatively even, in fact what swung the tie back in Thrapston’s favour was the introduction of Jake Thompson at half time.

The bald facts state that Thompson notched a superbly taken hat-trick, but he brought better play from those around him, particularly Taras Petranyuk. 5 goals between them speaks volumes, and whilst some of that success can be attributed to a tiring opposition, that opposition did still manage to score twice during that time!

All in all a hugely enjoyable afternoon out, and (say it quietly) the sun shone!

4 Feet Down….In Concrete

08 Tuesday May 2012

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Tuesday 8th May ko 6.45pm

Midland Combination Division One

KNOWLE (Johnson-Bereday 86p)

WEST MIDLANDS POLICE 1 (Hitchmough 82) Nurse missed penalty 53

Att 21 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea 60p

The village of Knowle is pretty much adjacent to Solihull, on the fringes of the West Midlands conurbation. It really is a classic case of leafy suburbia with its smart houses, pretty church and library in a Tudor built house. The club is in Hampton Lane, and has the usual problem of clubs in these environs; they cannot get floodlights. The latest set of plans are there to be seen in the clubhouse, an Abacus 6 pole set is the plan, but the club are already hearing the lame excuses, ” Green Belt” “The neighbours” and so on. You wouldn’t think that this country had an obesity problem would you?

This division is the highest that clubs in the area can compete in without lights, and the club took voluntary relegation when the costs of a groundshare with Studley became too high. Not that a return to Hampton Road was too much of a bind, as there’s much to love here. All accommodation, save for the dugouts is on the far side, and this backs on to a cricket ground behind, There’s a homely clubhouse, where this evening a young lady was working on a photographic project on Olympic Sports. She got her equipment hit by a stray ball on arrival, but worse still was her choice of guinea pig for a test shot!

I was far more interested however in, of all things, the goalposts. I’m no connoisseur of such things but these were obvious non standard. I asked a club official, and it turns out they’re well over 40 years old, and better still are sunk 4 feet into the ground, and concreted in! As he put it, ” Try nicking them!”

It all rather made up for the game which was typical end of season fayre. On a difficult pitch neither side made much impression although the Police had marginally more possession. They forced a penalty, given on the insistence of the linesman when keeper Shaun Edwards brought down Richie Adams. However he did well to save Ste Nurse’s spot kick. Police did score, after I’d long since written off this one as a nil-nil, substitutes Danny Hitchmough and Rob Gray combining well for the former to fire home from 6 yards. As is so often the way Knowle raised their game and Jonathon Jackson-Bereday dusted himself off to level up the game from the penalty spot after being hauled down.

Honours correctly even for this one, and a club and ground I’d recommend to anyone wanting an antidote to bland identikit stadia. Just get their early and explore, including those goalposts!

 

 

A sense of Dacorum

29 Thursday Dec 2011

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Tuesday 27th December 2011 ko 12.00pm

Spartan South Midlands League Division One

KINGS LANGLEY 4 (Noonan 24 90 Warrell 26 Armstrong 90)

LONDON COLNEY 0

Att 130 (record gate receipts of £340)

Entry & Programme £4

Tea-in-a-mug 70p

The village lies on the Southern Edge of the Chiltern Hills, and its western portion lies in Dacorum. The borough includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, and Tring. It was once the location of Kings Langley Palace, a royal palace of the Plantagenet kings of England. The village is perhaps best known for being the location of the Ovaltine factory, now long since closed and converted to flats.

If the film “Field of Dreams,” espoused the comment “Build it and they will come,” then this fixture suggested a comment of “Set and stick to an unusual kick off time and they will come.” Continue reading →

Wingless Wonders

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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Saturday 16th July 2011 ko 7.00pm

J-League Division 1

VISSEL KOBE 4 (Matusuoka 2 Poppo 54 Park 57 Okubo 89p)

CEREZO OSAKA 1 (Bo-Kyung Kim 67)

Att 14,961

Entry & Programme 3,000 yen (prices hiked by 500 yen for the local derby)

Beer (thanks Erkki!) 500 yen

Nepalese Chicken Curry & Rice 800 yen

So the only revisit on my Japanese tour, and what a great way to do it, with some of the friends I met along the way, and Peter, without whom I simply wouldn’t have been there. Many thanks to you.

It was fun seeing the ground from a different perspective, from that of an away fan. Still totally safe, and Japanese queuing culture was very much in evidence as we waited to get in. I tried out the Nepalese Curry, which was delicious, and I tried to thank as many of new new friends as I could with my one word of Japanese- 感謝!

The only issue was the darned game! Put simply, Cerezo didn’t turn up! From start to finish, they looked like third place in a two horse race. So bad were they, you didn’t even notice calamity keeper Kim, and after the match Brazilian striker Rodrigo Pimpao was informed his services were no longer required.

But still the fans sang their hearts out, but after the final whistle something happened that is extremely unusual. The players came over to the away end to bow to the fans, and were roundly booed. They looked shocked, but the boos and catcalls continued until the players left the pitch. Then normal service resumed, the kit was neatly folded, litter tidied and everyone quietly went home.

I asked later what the fans were shouting. “Mostly play better next time,” was the gist of it. Polite to the last. I like that.

Empty Vissels

20 Tuesday Dec 2011

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Saturday 9th July 2011 ko 7.00pm

J-League Divsion One

VISSEL KOBE 0

NAGOYA GRAMPUS 1 (N Nakamura 84)

Att 17,568

Entry & Programme  2,500 yen

Towel Scarf 1,500 yen

Badge 760 yen

After a happy day’s sightseeing in Kobe, I took the subway out to the suburbs to the Home’s Stadium (and yes the apostrophe is in the correct place!). The ground used to be called the Wings stadium during its stint as a World Cup venue, as the extended stands behind each goal stuck out from the curved stands. Since then they’ve been truncated to allow a retractable roof and air conditioning to be installed.

It was slightly daunting getting a ticket as everyone seemed to be in queue for something! There seemed to be a wide disparity between the cheapest and most expensive seats, so I did the simple thing and bought a cheap ticket for behind the goal, in the home end. It was obvious even at this early stage that there was no possibility of any trouble. In fact both sets of fans were happily mingling, sat together eating something from the wide range of cuisine on offer.

I headed round to the home end, and discovered not only were the programmes free, you could take as many as you wanted! Since the seats were not reserved I found a reasonable seat and discovered a paper banner as the fans were to do a mass display when the teams came out. It had the words to most of the chants on the back. The lyrics were in Japanese,  but thoughtfully the tune to sing it to was printed in english! That revealed that one song would be to the tune, “River Kwai March!”

And this will be my abiding memory of football in Japan. Friendly, courteous clubs and fans, but once the game starts, the fans go bananas! Cheerleaders with megaphones whip the fans up into a frenzy. But for all of that, its always positive, and at the end of the match, they cheer the team, win or lose. After that tidy up the litter, fold up the flags and quietly go home.

And on this occasion the Vissel fans had plenty to complain about. They could and should have won this easily. However they conspired to miss chance after chance, and were made to pay when Naoshi Nakumura’s 25 yard dipping volley stunned the crowd. It was all a little too late for Vissel ( an amalgam of Vessel for Victory by the way) and it all ended rather tamely. The Nagoya fans (the Eight bit has been dropped, but it remains on the badge), went wide, for it was a great victory for them.