Tag Archives: Athletic

How Green Was My Valley?

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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Saturday 28th May 2011 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

TREHARRIS ATHLETIC WESTERN 2 (Harris 54 Glasey 65)

DINAS POWYS 1 (Jones 74)

Att 115

Entry & Programme £3

I remember my first glimpse of the Welsh Valleys, as the A470 crept north past Merthyr Tydfil, heading north away from Cardiff. Other than the signs in both Welsh and English, the scenery whilst beautiful, Castell Coch is here after all, the scene only really changes when you head into the valleys. You’re heading into coal mining territory here, and the streets narrow, the hills get steeper and the lines of terraced cottages stretch as far as the eye can see. The book and film, “How Green Was My Valley,” was based on here.

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Doing it Right

23 Monday Sep 2013

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Saturday 21st September 2013 ko 17.00

North Berkshire League Division One

LONG WITTENHAM ATHLETIC 4 (Murphy 27 Saunders 35 Bowler 55 Barton 64)

CROWMARSH GIFFORD 0

Att 193

Entry & Programme £4

Badge £3

Didcot Power Station Beer £3 a bottle

I like Bodkins Field, as its looks like the kind of place that ought to host village football. There’s a clubhouse, a pitch and a tarmacked road, and not much else. And you know what, what more do you need? Its beautiful, its historic, and the hoppers loved the place as much as I do. In fact its views of the Wittenham clumps and the peaceful village setting convinced me to ask local author Kate Shrewsday to write a piece for the programme. It was typically thought provoking, and here’s her site. Continue reading →

Progress

15 Monday Jul 2013

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Saturday 13th July 2013 ko 13.00 (approx’ !)

Pre-Season Friendly

SUTTON ATHLETIC 1 (Desanges 84)

V.C.D. ATHLETIC 3 (Duckworth 4 Ramsamy 35 Greaves 45p)

Att 47

Entry £3

Programme- None (old copy free)

Bacon & Egg baguette £3.50

I suppose the first question for me to answer is which Sutton?  Its Sutton-at-Hone, a village 2 miles (3 km) south of Dartford in Kent, and should not be confused with the London borough of Sutton of Sutton United fame far to the west. This is the Sutton of the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. The humanitarian order was set up in the Middle Ages to provide assistance for sick of injured pilgrims in the Holy Land. The base in Sutton was established in 1199 and the building is now a National Trust property.

Except, at no point was I actually in Sutton! With the introduction of the Kent Invicta League the club realised that their home at The Roaches Recreation Ground, was never going to fulfil ground grading requirements so the club moved 2 and a half miles across the M25 to Lower Road, Hextable, a village I managed to misspell twice as Huxtable! Clearly the Cosby Show was more of an influence than I thought!

Its tucked away near the end of the lane, so much so I could have easily turned round, thinking I’d missed the place. It’s a work in progress, but a lot’s happened just to get this far. Tonnes of earth and rubble were moved to level the pitch, and the clubhouse and changing-rooms provide the club with an income, and a sense of home too. Future plans include floodlights on 6 pylons, two prefabricated stands on the mound side, a perimeter fence and fully-tarmacked car park. Its ambitious, but at no point did I feel that any of these plans wont come to fruition. One little money spinner that is well worth a mention is their baguettes, mine was excellent, well worth not stopping elsewhere for.

The game was always going to be tough for Sutton, with the opposition playing 2 notches higher in the Isthmian League Division One North. That small fact created a smile when I confirmed this with one of Vickers Crayford Dartford’s (to use their full name once!) officials. Her response was

” Nah mate, we play in the Ryman League!” Ryman of course are the sponsors of the Isthmian League… Oh well!

In sweltering heat, it wasn’t easy to watch a game, let alone play in one! VCD controlled the game, and the wide men Enoch Adeji and Damian Ramsamy were at the start of most good things the visitors did. They rattled in three goals before half time, changed half the team for the second half, declaring in the process. With a few minutes I began to edge towards the car, as the time was against me to get to the next game. The final whistle went, I started the engine and drove away, glancing behind at the dust cloud as I went.

This Next Season

01 Sunday Jul 2012

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Saturday 30th June 2012 ko 2.00pm

Pre-season Friendly

LONDON LIONS 1 (Keterman 48)

FISHER FC 2 (Oyettunji 11 Wadmore 43)

Att 42 (h/c)

Entry & Programme £5

Played at Rowley Lane Sports Ground, Arkley, near Barnet.

I don’t remember pre-season friendlies ever starting up this early, well not for clubs not involved in European qualifying. It gave me a small dilemna, as I normally use the FIFA rule that places June in last season. However the match-day programme has got 2012/3 so I’ve reset the counter!

The appeal of this one was the ground, London Lions normally play their home games at Broxbourne as there’s no lights at Rowley Lane. That may well change with the new floodlit 3G pitch adjacent to the main pitch. Our game was another step down the hill, on the training pitch. One of two hoppers ummed and ahh’ed but then realised they could come back again for the main pitch! Incidentally, the main pitch is used on a Sunday by Arsenal Ladies reserves, affording the hopper to break every purist rule in the book, all at once!

I do have a slight connection with Arkley, as my grandfather was born there, and was brought up in adjacent Barnet. The sports ground these days is very much a base for the London Maccabi association. It’s a trust aimed at promoting sport for London’s Jewish community, and its principal football team the London Lions, play in the second tier of the Spartan South Midlands League.

I would question the fiver to get in, but the 8 page programme was welcome, and an hour of the game was hugely enjoyable, until two tiring sides felt the need to make vast numbers of subsitutions, destoying the rhythm of the game. With Fisher having no players under contract, this was a game for the multitude of triallists to impress, and its didn’t take long for one, Olye Oyettunji to impress, cutting inside the left back and placing a shot in the bottom left corner.

The visitors were clearly the stronger outfit, and got their second from the penalty spot, Adam Wadmore converting after Aron Barnes brought down Ope Aromona. The second half saw the Lions come into the game a little more and made the game interesting on 48 minutes, Tony Junior Keterman converting Sam Sloma’s left wing cross. Sloma played last season for London’s other Jewish club, Wingate and Finchley, so perhaps there’s communication between the two clubs!

The Antidote

20 Thursday Oct 2011

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Tuesday 18th October 2011 ko 7.45pm

West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Divsion

GORNAL ATHLETIC 4 (Martin 13 Nicholls 29 J Dale 36og Nisbett 48)

BUSTLEHOLME 2 (Seaman 33 J Dale 50p)

Att 64 (h/c)

Entry £4

Programme £1

Coffee 50p

Badge £3

Cheesy Chips £1.50

When I mentioned to a few hopper friends that I was visiting the Garden Walk Stadium, they assumed it was for a revisit! Its wasn’t, and the reason for their surprise was that Gornal’s ground, in the heart of the Black country, is reckoned to be close to groundhopping porn.

That’s mainly becuase the ground is cut into a slope, providing the means for a substantial terrace for a club plying their trade 6 promotions from the football league. There’s a small covered stand opposite too, with the Directors’ box cordoned off with the frame of an old bed! When you look at the floodlights, you spot that one is slightly shorter than the others, as it is in fact, a mobile phone mast. So yes, its everything that I’d been told, but I’ll remember this visit more for the game!

That’s partly because the Gornal manager Ian Rowe was also sat in the “new stand” on the terrace side. He’s serving a touchline ban, but was easily able to communicate, with his bench in front. And whilst Gornal were far too strong for their visitors, Rowe was not a happy man. Not just due to the obvious frustration at being away from his natural territory, but in the manner of the win. Gornal could, and should have won this by far more, and to nil. Bustleholme, having lost a forward to injury in the warm-up, looked devoid of ideas, and possessed a defence that was to be polite, porous.

So after 30 minutes and you’re 2-0 up, you do what Rowe said at the time “Crack on lads, ” and improve the goal difference, but Seaman was allowed to run through unopposed to reduce the arrears, and although Perks’ excellent cross was turned past his own keeper by James Dale to restore the two goal cushion, it was clear that on another day, against better opposition, Gornal would have been in trouble.

Opposite us, in the “bedstead” stand around 15 young lads shouted their support for the Peacocks. You don’t see this often enough, the game near the base of the pyramid can often be populated by the elderly, so it was good to see if not hear them! They were bright enough to reserve doing the Poznan for the immediate aftermath of a goal!

The tricky, skillful, yet indisciplined forward Nisbett finally got the goal his dash had suggested, but again Rowe was cursing more or less straight after as at Bustleholme’s first corner, noone bothered to mark centre-half James Dale, and he fired home, to even up his account for the evening.

And that rather summed up the evening. I expect Gornal to be there in the promotion shake up at the end of the season, but Mr Rowe will have his coaching skills tested to cut out the silly errors.