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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Castle

Pepperinge Eye

14 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by laurencereade in C

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Tags

Broadmayne, Castle, Corfe Castle, county, Dorset League, National Trust, Premier, railway, The Fortress, West Street

Saturday 12th November 2016 ko 13.30

Dorset Intermediate Cup 2nd Round

CORFE CASTLE 7 (Ricketts 4 10 18 Johnstone 22p 47 Smith 37 Hector 63)

BROADMAYNE 1 (Johnson 54)

Att 28

Entry FREE

Programme £2.50

You really can’t avoid Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck, the A351, and the steam railway to Swanage has to take a metaphorical deep breath to squeeze past! The 11th century castle built by William the Conqueror, one of the first in the UK to be built out of stone found itself on the losing side in the English Civil War in 1649 and was slighted afterwards.

Continue reading →

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Playing In The Wet Patch

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by laurencereade in L

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Carmarthernshire, Castle, Football, groundhop, groundhoppers, GroundhopUK, League, Llandovery, Porth Tywyn, Suburbs

Sunday 17th April 2016 ko 11.30

Carmarthenshire League Division 2

LLANDOVERY 4 (Archer 11 C Davies 42 R Davies 90 L Bailey 90)

PORTH TYWYN SUBURBS 0

Att 111

Programme £1

Badge £3

Sunday’s first game saw the hop head east once again and aim for the A40. The town of Llandovery is steeped in history, and the drive out from Carmarthen picturesque but as usual in the first hop of a league’s staging I wondered what we’d find. The first host clubs have no point of reference so as organiser you rely on them using their meetings and the host clubs’ guide to make the most of their opportunity. I knew we’d given them the best possible opportunity but you worry, and the day I don’t will be the day I give up. Robyn rested her head on my shoulder, I took in the view and thought positive thoughts. Continue reading →

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An Eye To The Future

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by laurencereade in A

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Alfie Potter, Ardley United, Castle, Dave Kitson, Deane Smalley, hellenic league, Kevin Brock, Max Crocombe, Norman Stacey, oxford united fc, Ryan Brooks

Saturday 6th July 2013 ko 15.00

Pre-Season Friendly

ARDLEY UNITED 1 (Brooks 74p)

OXFORD UNITED 2 (Potter 48 Smalley 90)

Att 670

Entry £5

Programme £1.50

There are several strands these days to my football watching, its long since stopped being just about the game alone, in fact I suspect that’s the case with many groundhoppers who’ve graduated from the easy-to-reach local grounds. Sometimes I want to travel, sometimes I’m looking for a location, others its the Vulture Job, visiting a ground before the bulldozers move in.

I am of course an Oxford United fan, and a fan also of the local football scene, and Ardley playing fields are just the one exit north of Oxford on the M40, lying virtually adjacent to Junction 10. With Oxford United sending the first-team squad to the Hellenic League Premier outfit for the both club’s first pre-season friendly, it gave me quite a few good reasons to attend. For one, my girlfriend and I were to visit Ash, my Uni pal in Twickenham in the evening so a long distance jaunt was out of the question. With the weather scorching I also knew Dad would fancy a trip out, so I threw a collapsible chair in the back of the car, my mind was made up.

Apart from being the other side of the motorway from Cherwell Valley Services the village of Ardley is now more or less fused with the village of Fewcott (they had a Oxon Senior League side until recently). The conjoined twins sit on a bed of Jurassic limestone, which apart from hosting a colony of Greater Crested Newts, also provided a good base on to build Ardley Castle. The edifice was a motte-and-bailey affair which is believed to have been built during during the civil war of the Anarchy between 1139 and 1154, fought between Empress Matilda and King Stephen.

Intriguingly these castles were Adulterine, or built without Royal consent, this one would have been built by Matilda, and perhaps its unsurprising that very little of it is now left, just some earth banking and ditches.

On arrival at the football club a few strands of my football watching were in evidence. Ardley’s normally attendances are the tens, not hundreds, and even getting everyone parked was going to be an issue. When I’m organising groundhops I dream of clubs like Ardley, who approached their day with a clear head, and so reaped the reward. It was in marked contrast to my first visit here, when I watched Ardley play Adderbury Park. The players changed in the cricket pavilion, and the only other “Facilties” were the pitchside rail and a set of dugouts. The club won Groundtastic’s “Most Improved Ground” award in 2005.

Cars were parked on the cricket field, at no charge so few opted to annoy the neighbours by parking on the road. The welcome at the pay booth was as warm as the ambient temperature, and I wondered if the club had used their experience in hosting a Hellenic League Groundhop game back in 2005. Mind you the crowd that day was 278; this was on another scale altogether. A temporary bar was set up to sell soft drinks, and somehow the burger bar kept pace with the huge demand.

Ardley chairman Norman Stacey managed to combine hospitality with stadium announcements and the needs of Radio Oxford broadcasting live commentary. That created a minor issue when it was discovered that the socket they were using for power was the one the club normally uses for the PA… It summed the afternoon up nicely that the plugs were rearranged, and everything worked perfectly.

For a pre-season friendly at a lower league to work well from a League club’s perspective two things need to happen. Ardley staged the game beautifully, but the team has play passing football without resorting to any rough play.

In the latter respect Ardley won the plaudits on the pitch on the pitch as much as they did off of it. They passed and moved well, and were good value for the goalless score line at half time. A complete change of team for the visitors saw Dave Kitson, a man who once commanded a £5.5 million transfer make his first Oxford United appearance. His impact was almost immediate, chasing a lost cause on the left flank and finding Alfie Potter for him to slot home for the first goal.

Ardley’s equaliser was rather fortuitous. Tom Newey’s contact with Jason Castello looked minimal and outside of the box, but former OUFC youth teamer Ryan Brooks put the penalty away well sending Max Crocombe the wrong way. But with seconds left Deane Smalley’s shot was brilliantly pushed away by Jack Harding. Danny Rose took the resulting corner and his curling effort found Smalley’s head perfectly to give the visitors the win.

Not of course anything much need be read into the result. This was about players getting to know each other, and the management to try new tactics and see who works best with who. For everyone else it was a hugely enjoyable afternoon out and one I trust will be repeated. If that does happen, I fully expect Oxford United to be re-visiting a Southern League club.

Norman Stacey on the PA, OUFC’s Chris Williams looks pensive

Nick Harris commentates for Radio Oxford
David Hunt jumops

Josh Shama carrying a slight knock

It’s not often that sun tan lotion is needed at a British football match!
The equaliser
The winner

Tithings

19 Sunday May 2013

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Berkeley, Castle, DRG Frenchay, Edward II, Edward Jenner, Fc, Gloucestershire County League, Rockleaze Rangers, soccer, Thornbury Town, Town

Saturday 18th May 2013 ko 15.00

Gloucestershire County League

BERKELEY TOWN 1 (Mackie 45)

THORNBURY TOWN 3 (D Thompson 23 Derosa 31 N Irwin 63)

Att 102

Entry by donation

Programme £1

Tea-in-a-mug 50p

On occasion I get asked how I pick my games. Normally its fairly random, with the major determinant being what time I want to get home. This one broke the mould somewhat as I actually bothered to see if anything was riding on the result first. More on that later.

For a county associated with Rugby Union, Gloucestershire really is a footballing hotbed, with two strong, well organised leagues, the Northern Senior League feeding into the County League.

The surprise for me was just how much there is to visit and enjoy about Berkeley, and I have fellow groundhopper and subscriber Bob Mewse to thank for pointing me in the right direction. For a start there’s the castle, sadly closed on my visit. Its a motte-and-bailey affair, built around 1067 by William FitzOsbern, and is most famous for being where Edward II was murdered on September 21, 1327.

He’d been desposed by his wife Isabella of France and her lover and ally Roger Mortimer, and imprisoned. The difficulty was that Edward had to die, so their easily manipulated son (Edward III) could be installed as king. Execution would require the King to be tried and convicted of treason. Most authorities agreed that Edward was a poor king, the loss of the Battle of Bannockburn against the Scots in 1314 was the country’s worst defeat since the Battle of Hastings, but several argued that, since appointed by God, the King could not be legally deposed or executed as God would punish the country in retribution.

The solution was grisly, if legend is to be believed. A clean body was necessary for public display, so Edward was reputedly murdered on September 21st 1327 with a red hot poker, and I’ll leave it to your imagination as to where it was applied. The cell where he is supposed to have been imprisoned and murdered can still be seen and apparently you can still hear the screams each September 21st…

There’s more treats than just the castle. Edward Jenner was born here, and his house is open to the public. He is the father of immunology after discovering that milk-maids seldom got smallpox. Jenner concluded that the pus in the blisters that milkmaids received from cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox, but much less virulent) protected them from smallpox. On 14th May 1796, Jenner tested his hypothesis by inoculating James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy who was the son of Jenner’s gardener. He scraped pus from cowpox blisters on the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom. The boy was then brought into contact with smallpox but didn’t catch the disease.

Next door to the Jenner House is the Church of St Mary, where Jenner is buried. Its an unusual place, the tower is separate from the main body of the church. It was used as a Royalist defence during the civil war, and the North Door still shows the scars, musket ball holes are evident. In the graveyard lies Dicky Pearce, famous as the last court jester. He was the Earl of Suffolk’s fool, born in 1665, but in 1728 during a performance he overbalanced from the minstrel gallery and fell to his death. The question has been raised; did he fall or was he pushed? He’d apparently made fun of one of Lord Berkeley’s guests who had taken offence, but the truth will never be known.

Berkeley’s football season has been one of struggle. It didn’t help when the roof blew off the stand during a storm, but the club’s principle problems have been on the pitch. With two to be relegated the club found themselves third from bottom, one point ahead of DRG Frenchay with Forest Green-based Taverners already relegated.

With this being the last fixture of the season, Berkeley needed to better Frenchay’s result, with the Bristolians at home to Rockleaze Rangers. I had the added bonus of Lee West being at Frenchay. I kept the home bench aware of the score, they opted not to tell the players, taking the view that if the game was won, results elsewhere were irrelevant.

Sadly for this notably friendly side that didn’t happen. Thornbury started the brighter and soon worked out there was a real weakness in their hosts- their defence had shipped 89 goals in 35 games, and there was a real gap between left back and left centre half. Thornbury took full advantage with Brad Andrews in midfield pulling the strings, and a scoreline of 0-2 after half an hour was a fair reflection on play.

But then the unexpected happened, Berkeley worked out that their only means of defence was to attack. Karl Nash missed a sitter, then hit the crossbar, a certain penalty was denied by referee Alan Overthrow, and on the stroke of halftime James Mackie fired home to give Berkeley hope.

With the half time whistle having already sounded at Frenchay, and the score 0-0 it meant that Berkeley needed just the one goal for survival. That didn’t look likely as Thornbury soon re-established their superiority. Nathan Irwin scored the third, as the Berkeley players’ heads dropped, but salvation was at hand to the south. Rockleaze scored twice to make the game I was at irrelevant, but it was obvious that the players has no idea.

As the final whistle went, the home players sank to their knees clearly thinking that they’d been relegated. The Berkeley chairman quietly found the league delegate present, confirmed the Frenchay result and told his players. Other than one pumped fist their was no obvious relief, or celebration the players gathered up the two dugouts and trudged back to the clubhouse, no doubt reflecting on their lucky escape.





Despair, but the officials know
Relief

But still the chores

The Pirton Hundred

16 Thursday May 2013

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

beechwood estates, Brunetto Latini, Castle, central open courtyard, chalk, Earl of Macclesfield, folly, Oakley United, Road, Shirburn, Thomas Hornsby, Watlington Town

Wednesday 15th May 2013 ko 18.30

Oxon Senior League Division One

WATLINGTON TOWN 1 (Pitts 74)

OAKLEY UNITED 6 (Woodfine 11 17 A Rogers 16 P Brown 73 78p Keeble 75)

80 minute game

Att 20

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

As a groundhopper I hanker after visiting grounds that I’ve driven past a lot. When I lived in Banbury trips to my former parents-in-law involved driving along the Shirburn Road. Its a just off Junction 5 of the M40, past the Model Farm (used for not-so-secret GM crop trials) and past the hamlet of Shirburn.

That’s where the interest starts, as the signpost is for a “Historical Church” not what lies at the end of the lane. In fact its the walls of Shirburn Castle, the seat of the Earls of Macclesfield, and its where in 1761 the astronomer Thomas Hornsby first observed the transit of Venus.

The present owner of the castle is the Beechwood Estates Company, the Macclesfield family estate management company. Following a long-running and acrimonious court battle, the 9th Earl of Macclesfield, Richard Timothy George Mansfield Parker, was evicted from the family seat at the end of 2004.

According to Sir James Dixon Mackenzie’s The Castles of England: their Story and Structure, “The castle is rectangular in plan, having a central open courtyard, and at each of the four exterior angles a massive round tower rising straight out of the wide and deep moat, which, supplied with running water from springs, encircles the whole fabric. Access to the castle is gained by crossing three drawbridges, and the summit of the walls is battlemented throughout; the main entrance is guarded by a portcullis.”

Its a real shame the castle doesn’t appear to be open to the public, as the history is fascinating. In in letter from Brunetto Latini, the tutor and friend of Dante, of Inferno fame dated 1802 he commented rather pointedly that,

“We passed through many woods, considered here as dangerous places, as they are infested with robbers, which, indeed, is the case with most of the roads in England. This is a circumstance connived at by the neighbouring barons, from the consideration of sharing in the booty, and these robbers serving their protectors on all occasions, personally, and with the .whole strength of their band. However, as our company was numerous, we had nothing to fear. Accordingly we arrived the first night at Shirburn Castle, in the neighbourhood of Wallington, under the chain of hills over which we passed at Stocquinchurque (Stokenchurch). This castle was built by the Earl of Tanqueville, one of the followers of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy … It is now in the possession of a descendant of the said earl.”

I reflected as a drove the half a mile or so to the Recreation Ground on how I could miss something like that for such a long time.

You don’t actually see Watlington if all you do is visit the Recreation Ground. That’s a real shame, as its a fine market town, and there’s an interesting folly to find too! The Watlington White Mark was designed by local squire Edward Horne, who felt that the parish church of St. Leonard, when viewed from his home, would be more impressive if it appeared to have a spire. He had the unusual folly cut into the chalk escarpment of Watlington Hill in 1764. It is 36 feet wide at its base and 270 feet long. When you drive along the M40 through the chalk canyon near Junction 5 just glance towards Watlington and the mock spire is the other side of the chalk cutting.

It all puts the football ground rather in the shade to be honest. The club played in the Hellenic League from 1964 to 1977 and had one game in the FA Vase in 1976 a 4-0 defeat at home to Barton Rovers. These days there’s a pavilion and a permanently roped off pitch and really not much else. The vista is pleasant enough, but the neither of the town’s quirks are on show, but the players put on a decent show even if the game was trifle one-sided.

Its fair to say that Oakley are the form team in this division. Normally games this late in the season consist of teams whose grounds have drainage problems, but this one is because Oakley have been rather too successful! Their league record shows one blemish, a draw, against 19 wins. On top of that the Buckinghamshire club has made the finals of the Berks & Bucks Junior Cup,  and the Oxon Presidents Cup, losing both.

With the league title won on Saturday they were clearly focused on making sure the unbeaten league record stayed that way though this and the other 2 games left. And at no point did that statistic look like being shattered. They ran in 6 goals in batches of three and played champagne football in between. At the end of it all I suspect Watlington were happy to have got the game played and not been completely humiliated while Oakley march on to the Premier Division.




 

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