Pope’s Wood

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

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Monday 19th August 2013 ko 19.45

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round Replay

BINFIELD 3 (Rapley 15 Havermans 34 Davies 45)

FLACKWELL HEATH 2 (Dickens 9p 68) Brown sent off 90 (2nd booking)

Att 204

Entry £5

Programme £1

I think Binfield the village has an image problem. The trouble is that when you tell people where you’re heading you inevitably tell them its near to Bracknell, and Binfield is as far removed from the New Town modernity and roundabouts as is possible.

Painter John Constable spent his honeymoon at the Rectory in 1816 and sketched All Saints Church twice. The church said to have been a refuge for a number of Parliamentary soldiers during the Civil War. Poet Alexander Pope lived nearby and was a choirboy here.

From the late 19th century to the 1960s, brick-making was an important industry in the area, with the Binfield Brick and Tile works at Amen Corner being an important employer. Binfield bricks were partly used to create the Royal Albert Hall.

Hill Farm Lane is tucked away off the main road, the signs the club have provided are both welcome and necessary. You expect a small rustic ground, so what opens out in front of you is a real bonus. Continue reading →

A lift up

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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Saturday 17th August 2013 ko 15.00

Wessex League Division One

ANDOVER TOWN 3 (Yates 11 Foot 27 Dixon 37)

HYTHE & DIBDEN 0

Att 61

Entry £5

Programme £1

When I was growing up my Dad used to comment that Andover ought to be where the tax office is based ( ‘and over… ok I’ll get me coat!). The Hampshire town is most famous for its military connections,  RAF Andover was opened on Andover Airfield, to the south of the town, during the First World War and became the site of the RAF Staff College. Before then, in 1846, the town came to public attention after an enquiry exposed the conditions in its workhouse. The Andover workhouse scandal brought to light evidence of beatings, sexual abuse and general mistreatment of workhouse inmates by the overseers. Inmates were noted as being driven by hunger to eat the bones which they were supposed to crush to make fertilizer.

These days the town is a base for the likes of Twinings, and Stannah stairlifts. Being situated on the A303, the town has excellent links to the M3, M4 and M5.

To tell the truth, the footballing side to this story is rather convoluted to the uninitiated. The roots of it all lie Continue reading →

The Golden Ridge

18 Sunday Aug 2013

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Friday 16th August 2013

Golden Ridge, Faringdon

If you drive from Faringdon to Highworth via Coleshill on the B4019 you’ll trace the line of a limestone escarpment that runs more or less from Oxford to Swindon. Its unusual, in that its not white, the stone has a high coral content, giving it a honey-coloured effect. Traditionally many of the local buildings were built of this hardy, tough material, and that also has led to another benefit. Because the limestone is tougher than the surrounding clay, its remained while the surrounding material got eroded away by the waters of time, giving spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

And regular readers of this blog will know I am a sucker for a good view too! This one looks north and west from the town, towards the likes of Burford, Carterton and Brize Norton, and yes, the famous Folly, that you now know all about!

The Double Cube

15 Thursday Aug 2013

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Wednesday 14th August 2013 ko 18.30

Hampshire Premier League Senior Division

WINCHESTER CASTLE 2 (L Nancholas 64 Anscombe 78)

OVERTON UNITED 4 (Houseman 24 31 Rudge 51 58)

Att 15

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea FREE

Chocolate 50p

I do like these early season early kick-offs, a quick exit after work, and back home afterwards at a sensible hour. That of course is in complete contrast of course to what will follow until the clocks go forward next year!

It’s worth noting that Winchester Castle don’t play in Winchester, the Hampshire County Council Sports Ground is in fact in Chilcomb. Even that’s an approximation, the ground lies off the A31 and if you’ve visited Alresford chances are you’ve passed this place, although its easy enough to miss the entrance, I nearly did!

The view from the ground is spectacular Continue reading →

Thinking About The Lions

15 Thursday Aug 2013

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Tuesday 13th August 2013 ko 19.45

Spartan South Midlands League Division One

FC BROXBOURNE BOROUGH 1 (Hussey 6) Bashkal sent off 90 (2nd booking)

WELWYN GARDEN CITY 0

Att 76

Entry FREE

Programme £1

Whilst I enjoyed my Saturday in Cumbria, I’d found it slightly bruising. I like to see all of these events go off as flawlessly as possible, so after digesting the lessons learned, it was good to get back to simple, solo groundhopping, and a nice easy one at that.

The Borough of Broxbourne is probably best known as being where Tesco’s head office is based, in Cheshunt, but there’s News International’s Park Plaza, Waltham Cross to consider also. It’s the world’s largest printing plant, printing the English editions of The Sun and The Times amongst others. It can produce 86,000 newspapers per hour on each of its twelve printing presses. It cost £350 million and replaced the News International press in Wapping, the scene of a strike and civil disobedience when it closed in 1986.

The club play on the outskirts of Cheshunt, and that’s where the fun starts. Continue reading →

The Learning Curve

12 Monday Aug 2013

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Saturday 10th August 2013 ko 19.00

Northern League Division One

PENRITH AFC 2 (Rigg 35 71)

NEWTON AYCLIFFE 4 (Earl 19 21 Owens 59 86)

Att 380

Entry £5

Programme £1 (?)

Team Sheet 20p

The trip east from Whitehaven was memorable for the views of Bassenthwaite Lake, and given that I arrived at Penrith AFC a good hour before kick-off I wish I’d stopped for a few photos.

You are now in the Eden Valley, just north of the River Eamont, and since you’re less than 3 miles north of the boundary of the Lake District National Park, the view from the main stand at Frenchfield Park is spectacular! Even behind the goal, the cows took an agricultural, if slightly dismissive view of proceedings. Continue reading →

Rum

11 Sunday Aug 2013

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Saturday 10th August 2013 ko 15.00

Northern League Division 2

WHITEHAVEN AFC 2 (Donald 23 64)

CHESTER-LE-STREET TOWN 1 (Grant-Soulsby 77)

Att 208

Entry ?

Programme £1

Badge £2.50

It was very much a case of “Gentlemen start your engines,” as the match finished at Celtic Nation. The road out from the ground was narrow and congested, and I knew from experience that Carlisle city centre can be a nightmare to negotiate. Hop organiser Harvey Harris looked frustrated. sat in the courier seat of the coach as a stream of cars passed by, his coach blocked in by a single pesky, inconsiderate car. He finally got away about 10 cars behind me, but once out of Carlisle it was a straightforward enough drive west to Whitehaven.

The coastal town is possibly best known for being the most complete example of planned Continue reading →

What’s in a name?

11 Sunday Aug 2013

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Saturday 10th March 2013 ko 11.00am

Northern League Division One

CELTIC NATION 1 (Allan 86)

BISHOP AUCKLAND 1 (Moncur 24)

Att 409

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

The hobby of groundhopping owes the Northern League and General Secretary Mike Amos a debt of gratitude, as it was they in 1992 invented the organised groundhop, staggered kick-offs over a day or days to attract the groundhoppers. The idea has grown, and this season there are set to be at least 11 such events, including 3 more where it all started, in the Northern League who are celebrating their 125th anniversary. Or put another way, after 17 years, the Northern League Hop is back on the calendar!

The first game back was an intriguing one. Celtic Nation are based at the former Railway Club in southern Carlisle and used to be called Gillford Park. They played at the ground next door to the Rugby League club, Carlisle RLFC. When the rugby league club were merged into Barrow RLFC following the introduction of summer rugby and Super League, the football bought the ground and moved in. More machinations were to follow when Gillford Park gained sponsorship from Frank Lynch, an American millionaire with the idea of setting the club up as a team for the Irish and Scots community. The name was changed and Celtic FC’s strip of green and white hoops adopted.

Its obvious that significant investment has occurred. Many at the game were convinced that Celtic are now Continue reading →

McGlide

11 Sunday Aug 2013

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Wednesday 7th August 2013 ko 19.30

Pre-Season Friendly

DIDCOT TOWN 0

OXFORD UNITED 3 (Marsh 13 71 McGlade 27)

Att c150

Entry £6

No Programme

I like visits to Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow Stadium, as unlike at least one club local to me the welcome is always fulsome, and the they work at the little things that add up to great customer service.

This game proved the point well. The press area required the line-ups, so the club knocked up a team sheet at zero notice. It wasn’t pretty, but it did the job and was much appreciated.

It did seem odd recording this as a Continue reading →

De-Merit Town

06 Tuesday Aug 2013

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Sunday 28th July 2013

Adinkerke, Belgium

Tonight my game has been cancelled, and it’s too late to find an alternative. So I’ll write the article I’ve been promising Splodge for a day or two.

It’s about our trip to Belgium a couple of weeks ago, and the inevitable stop along the way. If you take either the Channel Tunnel, or the ferries to Calais or Dunkirk, then head north towards Belgium, the first town you’ll reach once you’ve crossed the border is Adinkerke.

Its part of a conurbation with the coastal town of De Panne, and during both World Wars the town saw significant action including many casualties during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. There’s a military cemetery on the outskirts of the town, and the pontoon-style bridge does hint at its military past as you enter the town from the road past the oddly named Plopsaland Continue reading →