The Aylesbury Ring

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

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Thursday 23rd August 2012 ko 6.30pm

Pre-season Friendly

LONG MARSTON 10 (13 15 23 27 32 33 47 57 64 80)

LONG MARSTON RESERVES 3 (39 41 46)

Att 5 (h/c)

The idea of this was to find a game so as to avoid getting to Lee and Gilly’s in Southam too early. I should explain; they very kindly offered to put me up in so as to give Lee and I a shorter journey the next day to Newtown for the weekend’s Welsh groundhop. The thing is that they only got married in June, and this weekend would be their first apart since the wedding. They’d said nothing, but for me the obvious thing to do was to give them as much time as possible, and since when do I need an excuse to find a game?

Salvation came in the form of the Milton Keynes Chuckle Brothers, James Rennie and Chris Garner. Long Marston vs Pitstone, Ivinghoe and Cheddington United. The latter is a team formed to make use of the ground built for Spartan South Midland League Pitstone and Ivinghoe but with a pitch that’s too small for the league’s requirements.

Long Marston represents a place I worked at around 20 years ago. Not much has changed, it’s still just about in Hertfordshire, and is found on the easternmost tip of the Aylesbury ring, a 31 mile walking tour that is never more than 5 miles from the Buckinghamshire town. The village was the scene of the last witch-lynching in the UK in 1751. Continue reading →

Football under water

28 Tuesday Aug 2012

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Wednesday 22nd August 2012 ko 6.30pm

Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Reg Davis Cup 2nd Round

BOURTON ROVERS 4 (Catling 18 Teague 24 60p Acock 39 )

RAMBLERS 5 (Parsons 6 12 63p Modic 70 Nicholls 83)

Att 27 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea 70p

For a small boy growing up in Oxford over 30 years ago, a school trip to the Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-water was an annual treat. Whether the trip was to Birdland, or to the model village, the sun always seemed to shine, and as I drove in via Stow I couldn’t understand why everything seemed so much taller. It took a few seconds to work it out, it’s because on every other occasion I’d visited, I’d been sat on a coach!

The ground is notoriously difficult to find Continue reading →

Wriggle

28 Tuesday Aug 2012

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Tuesday 21st August 2012 ko 19.45

League 2

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Craddock 54 87)

SOUTHEND UNITED 0 Timlin sent off 27 (2nd booking)

Att 6,001 (290 away)

Entry S/T

Programme £3

So many questions remain to be answered, but one statistic is beyond doubt, OUFC are top of League 2 and are yet to concede a goal. So no worries then? Hmmm not sure about that! Oxford’s cause was no doubt aided by Mike Timlin’s collection of the only 2 cards of the game, the last being an utterly daft trip on Jake Forster-Caskey.

Yet all the old frailties were there for all to see Continue reading →

My very own mug!

19 Sunday Aug 2012

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Saturday 18th August 2012 ko 3.00pm

Midlands Regional Alliance Premier Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 5 (Wilding 62 71 A Whitmore 64 86 Jeffery 78) Jeffery missed penalty 45

NEWHALL UNITED 1 (Balfour 29p)

Att 13 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea in a mug 70p

I have to say that this charming little club does have a rather particular name. Consider if you will the small Derbyshire village of Swanwick. It’s a former pit village near Alfreton, and is best known for the German flying ace Franz Xaver Graf von Werra, who escaped from the Swanwick Hayes POW camp in December 1940. He reached RAF Hucknall and was recaptured after trying to steal an aircraft in the guise of a Dutch airman. He finally did escape later in the war, and his exploits are immortalised in the flim “The one that got away.”

But let’s look at that name again, to the best of my knowledge there’s no other team in Swanwick so why have a name that’s so specific? Continue reading →

Competition in other places

17 Friday Aug 2012

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Wednesday 15th August 2012 ko 6.30pm

Gloucestershire County League

TAVERNERS 3 (Spring 50 58 Lees 70)

LONGLEVENS 1 (Dunn 51)

Att 20 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme £1

Tea-in-a-mug 70p

I knew this one was going to be tight, from a 5 o’clock start a few miles north of Banbury, a 6.30 kick off just south of Stroud was a big stretch. I used every short-cut I knew, it does help having worked in Cirencester, and lived in Banbury! I made it to Nympsfield Road was seconds to spare. Continue reading →

Pass for passes sake

17 Friday Aug 2012

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Tuesday 14th August 2012 ko 7.45pm

Football League Cup First Round

OXFORD UNITED 0

AFC BOURNEMOUTH 0

Att 3,788 (691 away)

Entry £15.50

Programme £3

I seems like an age since I last watched a game at Grenoble Road, a mere shade under 3 months, 52 games and 3 countries ago. A lot has changed at OUFC, a new chairman, and new players, with others still missing. Michael Duberry is out long-term, having just had a worrying neck operation, Andy Whing’s injured too, and no one seems to know what Peter Leven’s prognosis is. On a trivial note what were the club doing charging £3 for a drastically thinner programme? Continue reading →

Lycidas

17 Friday Aug 2012

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Monday 13th August 2012 ko 7.45pm

Hellenic League Divison One East

MILTON UNITED 3 (Parker 13 Fowler 20p 56)

PENN & TYLERS GREEN 1 (Hurst 77)

Att 68

Entry & Programme £3

After a weekend of football I’d made a mental note to have a day off. However there I was at work, when firstly Peter Grant asked how to get from Didcot Parkway station to Milton Heights, then Chris Powell from Flint phoned for suggestions for good pubs in Oxford. The answer to the first was easy, get a lift from me, and second, I suggested the Turf Tavern (where Bill Clinton didn’t inhale) and the Bear, with its cut-off tie collection. It was clear my evening had been organised for me. Amongst others we were joined by Les Bull, the former Wealdstone FC kitman, and Phil Annets, press officer for the North Berkshire League. It was a most convivial evening Continue reading →

Meat & Greet

16 Thursday Aug 2012

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Sunday 12th August 2012 ko 3.00pm

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round

COBHAM 1 (McLaren 28)

SOUTH PARK 1 (Burgess 12)

Att 133 (h/c)

Entry £5

Programme £1

This one was a complete bonus, although I’d have taken some convincing when becalmed on the M25. I never did find out how the “Leg O’ Mutton” field got its name, but its been on my to-do list for years. Why so long? Probably that doing it was too straightforward! I remember seeing them as the visitors at AFC Wallingford in 2003, they lost 5-1 but I did find out their most famous player was cricketer Bob Willis!

I reached the ground after a trip through millionaire’s row, realising why Chelsea FC have their training ground around here. Apart from the affluent, the area is the home to the site of the Brooklands motor racing circuit, and more locally the Cobham Mill, which dates from 1822, but is the site of milling from medieval times.

A warning for those visiting Cobham Continue reading →

The Death of Reality

16 Thursday Aug 2012

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Saturday 11th August 2012 ko 3.00pm

FA Cup Extra-Preliminary Round

ARUNDEL 1 (Walker 36)

EPSOM & EWELL 2 (Ayling 30 75)

Att c100

Entry £5

Programme 50p

I’m writing about this one 5 days after the event which isn’t necessarily a bad thing  as I can try to place my trip to Mill Road in some sort of context. I’d seen photos of the ground with the castle in the background and had wanted to visit for years it seemed a straightforward plan to head via Eastleigh and still have plenty of time to wend my way along the A27 and visit the cornucopia of second-hand bookshops before the game. As ever, life didn’t work out that way, the A34 and M3 were choked by Olympic travellers Continue reading →

Patchwork

12 Sunday Aug 2012

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Wednesday 8th August 2012 ko 6.30pm

Gloucestershire County League Les James League Cup First Round

PATCHWAY TOWN 2 (Davies 39 Purdy 65)

ELLWOOD 0

Att 37 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Programme 50p

Tea 50p

My trip to Scott Park, was at best a marginal one. With Lee’s car at the garage, he was going to have a night off but he met me at work and we both knew that we’d need a fair rub of the green to make kick off. So why put the effort in? Continue reading →