Encroachment

30 Monday Dec 2013

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Saturday 28th December 2013 ko 13.30

Scottish Junior FA West Region, West of Scotland Superleague, Premier Division

KIRKINTILLOCH ROB ROY 2 (McGeough 71 Sawyers 90)

CUMNOCK JUNIORS 1 (Maguire 26)

Att 219 (head count)

Entry £5

No Programme (the club normally issue, but editor away on holiday)

Bundle of old issues-complementary

Club bar scarf- complimentary

Continue reading →

The Silver Bullet

29 Sunday Dec 2013

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Thursday 26th December 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Hall 66 Nelson 88og)

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 3 (Lavery 46 Reid 81p 97)

Att 10,049 (699 away)

then

Saturday 29th December 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 0 Smalley missed pen 83

SCUNTHORPE UNITED 2 (Burton 11 Syers 71) Burton missed pen 39

Att 6,009 (527 away)

Entry S/T

Programmes £3 each

Normally I don’t lump games together, but since the games, and results were so similar if seems daft not to do so.

On Boxing Day, the club pulled out all the stops to get a bumper crowd. The styled “Big Match,” saw an opera singer, and pyrotechnics to help create an electric atmosphere, and the cute marketing created a 5-digit crowd primed to watch Oxford United push on towards promotion. Except the team let down everyone by producing a performance so lack-lustre than all Plymouth had to do was wait for the defensive errors and pick United off. Asa Hall’s 30-yard blast was a brief highlight in a poor display. Continue reading →

Wassail

27 Friday Dec 2013

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Thursday 26th December 2013

Six Bells, Headington Quarry, Oxford

Headington Quarry Morris Dancers, Handbell Ringers, Mummers Play, and Rapper Sword Dancing

“There was an old man and he had an old cow, and for how to keep her he didn’t know how, He built up a barn for to keep his cow warm, and a drop or two of cider will do us no harm.” Trad.

One of the great advantages of my return to Oxford, is I can immerse myself in Quarry life, and possibly the biggest tradition of them all is the Boxing Day Morris Men. For as long as I can remember we’ve all headed bleary eyed from our Christmas hangovers into the cold December air at one or more of the 4 Quarry pubs. The schedule hasn’t changed for years, its always

11.15 Crown & Thistle

12.15 Six Bells

13.00 Chequers

13.45 Mason’s Arms

It’s a sign of the times that the performance at the Crown was in front of a closed pub. The roots of the performance are pure folk, rooted in the traditions of old England. There’s the Mummers Play where King George and the Turkey Snight (Turkish Knight) fight for the hand of the King of Egypt’s daughter. It evokes the triumph of good over evil as the Turkey Snight slays King George, but is quickly revived by the good Doctor. The script is altered each year to keep it topical, this year Nigella’s troubles got a mention, I remember one year it was Jimmy Carter’s haemorrhoids! Continue reading →

Cojones!!!

25 Wednesday Dec 2013

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Sunday 22nd December 2013 ko 12.00

Liga Adelante (Segunda A)

R.C RECREATIVO HUELVA 2 (Joselu 24) Cifu sent off 13 (denying clear goalscoring opportunity)

U.D. LAS PALMAS 3 (Christantus 22 Valeron 40 Nauzet Aleman 51)

Att 7,368

Entry €35

Programme FREE

Teamsheet FREE

So an early start and check-out for Andy and I from our base in Seville’s Old Town. As we walked over to the bus-stop there were still young people partying from the night before, things start and finish later in Andalucía.

We soon arrived a Santa-Justa station and this time we were charged for our coffee (!) before catching a commuter train due west to the terminus at Huelva. The impression we got of Renfe the train operator, was that although the trains are modern, and the prices cheaper than in the UK, there aren’t that many trains running. Perhaps that was due to the economic downturn in Spain, it was clear time after time that the recession has hit this part of the world more heavily than in the UK. Continue reading →

Life At The Bottom

24 Tuesday Dec 2013

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Saturday 21st December 2013 ko 18.00

Campeonato Nacional de Liga de 1a División

REAL BETIS BALOMPIÉ 0

U.D. ALMERÍA 1 (Azzez 4)

Att 26,550

Entry €60

Programme FREE

Badge €2

Teamsheet FREE

One advantage of our previous game finishing two-and-half hours before this one, was that Andy and I had plenty of time to soak up all that the Estadio Benito Villamarín and its environs had to offer.

The first task was to buy a ticket which proved to be interesting! We were directed to a booth in the bowels of the North Fondo (Stand). There were only 3 hatches open, one for complementaries, but bizarrely two adjacent hatches for home and away fans! We managed to make our choice understood, and bought top priced tickets for the middle tier of the main stand which proved to be an excellent investment. Our €60 were snatched away, the tickets thrust our way and the hatch slammed shut. Did I say something wrong? Continue reading →

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

24 Tuesday Dec 2013

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Saturday 21st December 2013 ko 13.30

1a División Andaluza Cadete

REAL BETIS CADETE A 7 (Santos 5 Toni 26 44 69 Ángel 83 Edu 86p José 85p)

SAN ROQUE DE LEPE 0

Att c200

Entry FREE

Teamsheet “FREE”

With a day in Seville and a Sunday spent doing little more than travelling to and from Huelva there was little point retaining the hire car. I returned it to the rental company at Santa-Justa rail station and the young girl who took the keys asked how I’d found the Fiat 500 to drive,

“Absolutely fine,” I replied, “But the steering wheel is on the wrong side!”

She panicked for a moment, glancing over to the car before realising what I meant! We exchanged a joke or two about driving in each other’s countries before Andy and I strolled over to the station to plan the details of our next two days over a coffee that the station café managed to forget to charge us for, then refused point-blank to accept my payment when I tried to be honest! Continue reading →

Spanish Fly

23 Monday Dec 2013

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Friday 20th December 2013 ko 20.30

Segunda B Grupo 4

CÁDIZ CF 3 (Josete 19 Villar 47 Fall 63) Luque sent off 69 (denying clear goalscoring opportunity)

CP CACEREÑO 4 (Valverde 24 Carrizosa 48 Elias 69p Gaspar 80)

Att c2,500

Entry €18 (around £15.10)

Programme FREE

After our successful tour of Budapest a few weeks ago Andy and I decided to repeat the formula, albeit with a different destination! We flew to Seville, and booked into a hotel in the city’s historic Old Town, the idea being to watch Real Betis on the Saturday and Huelva on Sunday.

For the groundhopper a bugbear of football in Spain is that kick-off times are often not fixed until a few days before the game, so you have to be flexible. I discovered on Wednesday that Cádiz were now playing on Friday night and so checked times with Renfe the Spanish train operator. Despite the Estadio Ramón de Carranza having its own station, the last train departed for Seville 15 minutes after kick-off!

We hired a car, and I spent the 10 miles from the airport to the hotel learning how to drive a left-hand car on the right-hand side of the road. That wasn’t difficult in the Old Town with its one-way system, and narrow streets! Continue reading →

Kes

19 Thursday Dec 2013

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Tuesday 17th December 2013 ko 19.45

United Counties League Premier Division

SLEAFORD TOWN 2 (Siddons 15 Tunstall 86) B Greenwood sent off 80 (2nd booking)

WISBECH TOWN 4 (Jones 64p Reed 65 80 83)

Att 106

Entry £5

Programme £1

6 days earlier, Wavendon-based Chris Garner and I were thawing out after the game at Waltham Forest and we talked about where to head next. Between us we’ve visited around 1,900 grounds, and fortunately there’s very little duplication, but when he suggested Sleaford I reflected for a moment.

Chris didn’t know, but with my GroundhopUK hat on Chris Berezai and I had been talking to the United Counties League and one of their feeder Leagues the Peterborough & District League, about a potential groundhop starting in August next year. The UCL committee, I knew were meeting on Monday evening to make a final decision so me being at a UCL fixture the next day was either going to look like perfect timing or somewhat awkward. Fortunately, the groundhop proposal was passed, I’ll post the details at the end of this, and I was able to have a chat with both club and league officials during the game. Continue reading →

Ginger Spice

15 Sunday Dec 2013

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Saturday 14th December 2013 ko 15.00

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Constable 8 Kitson 90)

DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE 1 (Murphy 45)

Att 4,091 (194 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3 (inc Oxford Mail)

This game saw something unusual for OUFC manager Chris Wilder, he actually had to pick the team! With Michael Raynes, Sean Rigg restored to fitness and loanee Asa Hall eligible, the side looked far more like the side top of League 2, and in the FA Cup 3rd Round.

There was one massive surprise though, and that is that the visitors tried to play United at their own passing game. Ask any Oxford United fan how to beat the U’s at Grenoble and you’ll get the same answer. Stifle the midfield, and in particular Dave Kitson, then counter-attack where you can. It worked for Bristol Rovers and Portsmouth, and its got to the point where I settle into my seat expecting more of the same.

Continue reading →

Peter O’Toole

15 Sunday Dec 2013

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I’m sad to hear that Peter O’Toole has died.

I met him once a long time ago while I was in my second year at Uni, and was playing cricket for the University of North London team.

We had a regular Friday net at Lords’ indoor school and I was bowling my usual ugly leg-spin when I noticed someone famous in the net to our left. It was O’Toole, his son Lorcan, and the young man’s school friends. The actor had just been successful in a custody battle for the boy, and neither I or the rest of our team would have paid him much notice until he came into our net and very politely asked us to stop playing for a minute.

We acquiesced and he borrowed a bat and ball and got his party to stand back in his net. He whacked the ball against the net, making it bulge back into his net by a foot or two.

“There,” he said, “That’s why you don’t stand right against the net!”

And with that he returned to his party, and I returned to my forlorn attempts to perfect my “Wrong ‘un.”

He never did return to that net and we’d booked it for I think, 12 weeks. He was a perfect gentleman and I did allow myself a little knowing smile when I saw him in the film, “Venus,” a few years ago. He really was playing against type, judging by the chap I encountered in the early 90’s.

Rest In Peace Peter.