Wednesday 17th July 2013 ko 19.00

Pre-Season Friendly

BUCKINGHAM TOWN 3 (Schembre 11 Riley 66 Murrell 80)

GRENDON RANGERS 1 (Lewis 14)

Att 24

80 minute game

Played at Medbourne Pavilion, Pascal Road, Shenley, Milton Keynes

Entry FREE

Football Card £2

It’s fair to say I have a mixed relationship with Milton Keynes. I’m no fan of the New, or Expanded Town, and Milton Keynes is the epitome of the entire genre. The facilities in the town are first class, and there’s no denying that everything was planned logically. It’s that last point that rankles with me, I don’t like things to be too planned, sterile even. I approached MK this evening on the A421 and once again winced at the name of the first of the multiplicity of roundabouts. Its called the Bottledump Roundabout; could the authorities have dreamt up a less romantic name to introduce the visitor to their town?

The planners did make one gift though to the collector of football grounds, there are many well-appointed sports grounds, so many in fact that there are more grounds than there are adult football teams! Judging by the last couple of years I seem destined to visit one of them each pre-season! Medbourne gets used for the occasional Sunday morning fixture, but as far as anyone could tell the venue has never seen an adult Saturday side settle here.

Buckingham Town have led an itinerant existence since losing Ford Meadow in 2010. They’ve had a temporary base in Winslow which was less than ideal, http://wp.me/s1PehW-solace before taking on the former Bletchley Town ground, Manor Fields. It isn’t Buckingham nor is it close to it, but at least its a base, and one that can be improved too. Perhaps now they can improve on the 15th place (out of 18) in the United Counties League they achieved last season. For a club that’s won the lower division of the Southern League, UCL Premier football should be within their grasp. Whatever the club do manage in the future, they will have the UCL management to thank for helping the club massively in their time of need. In another league they could have folded.

Grendon from Grendon Underwood are approaching this season from the other perspective. They’ve moved from the North Bucks & District which is off-pyramid, into the second division of the Spartan South Midlands League. It’s a move to Step 7 football, nominally one notch lower than Buckingham, but at this level of the game there often isn’t much difference in quality.

And so it came to pass this evening. Given the heat wave, a decision was made to pay the fixture as two halves of 40 minutes each split in half with a short water break. That and regular rolling substitutions made, a little counter-intuitively for a better spectacle and fresh legs were always available. It was clear who the step 6 side was, Buckingham were just that little bit more crisp, and the 3-1 was a fair result in the end.