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 →