• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Fc

The Donkey

15 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by laurencereade in M

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alfred Davis Memorial Ground, Ashford Town, Fc, Marlow, Middlesex, Middx, New Ground, Oak Tree Road, Southern League, Spurs, Tottenham Hotspur

Tuesday 10th January 2016 ko 19.45

Southern League Division One Central

MARLOW 1 (Poulton 2)

ASHFORD TOWN 0

Att 122

Entry £8

Programme £1

There are many reasons why you’d want to visit the Alfred Davis Memorial Ground, but may I suggest a detour first to the Compleat Angler? The pub-cum-hotel claims to be in Marlow but since it’s on the Berkshire side of the William Tierney Clarke-designed suspension bridge over the Thames, I reckon it’s in Bisham! Wherever it is, the view over to All Saints Church is spectacular, and its also a high-class place to grab a pre-match beer. Of course the Compleat Angler also happens to be where in 1870 Marlow FC were formed.  Continue reading →

51.579884 -0.774194

Steelmen

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by laurencereade in E

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Athletic, Clydach Wasps, Ebbw Vale, Eugene Cross Park, Fc, Gwent County League, Tredegar, Wales

Tuesday 23rd February 2016 ko 19.30

Gwent County League Division 2

FC TREDEGAR 1 (Monk 35)

CLYDACH WASPS 1 (Williams 45)

Att 35 at Eugene Cross Park, Ebbw Vale

Entry FREE

No Programme

In Ebbw Vale there are 2 kings, one is steel, fired by the South Wales coal industry, and the other is Rugby Union. Oddly, both are represented in the town’s stadium, Eugene Cross Park, but this ground’s connection with Association Rules is a little more tenuous. Continue reading →

51.784210 -3.207540

The Golden Lion

04 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by laurencereade in U

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AFC, Athletic, Carmarthen, Carmarthen Town, causeway, Chris Harte, Fc, Magor, Undy, Wales, welsh cup, welsh football, Welsh League, Welsh Premier

Sunday 30th November 2014 ko 13.30

Welsh Cup 3rd Round

UNDY AFC 2 (Cullimore 10 Hooper 45)

CARMARTHEN TOWN 4 (Harling 37 Belle 62p Hartland 76 White 90)

Att 331

Entry £5

Programme £2

When Carmarthen Town’s historian and press man Chris Harte emailed to alert me to the unusual day for this fixture I knew I had background in this part of the world. If you travel into Wales on the M4 using the second Severn Bridge the first village you see is Magor and its service station. Adjacent to Magor is Undy, and for years I travelled here to see Bethan, a friend of my ex-wife’s. Continue reading →

51.573542 -2.814526

Faith

24 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by laurencereade in S, V

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Air Malta, Fc, Malta, Sirens, St Pauls Bay, St Vermera Lightenings, Youth League, Zabbar St Patricks

Friday 18th January 2014 ko 20.15

Malta Youth League Section B

ST VEMERA LIGHTENINGS 0

SABBAR ST PATRICKS 8 (J C Cesare 2p 19 20 Fava 39 41 50 Diacono 43 Vello 60)

Att 13

At Sirens Stadium (Sirens FC), St Paul’s Bay

Entry €2.50

No Programme

So dear reader, if you’re the kind of person who absolutely has to have a programme with every game you attend, or hates artificial pitches, or won’t watch a game unless the home side is the ground’s owner or anchor tenant, then I have a feeling that much of the next 6 articles are going to make you wince. But this is Malta, and they do things very differently here, and for the most logical of reasons. Continue reading →

35.945345 14.414792

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

Merrie City

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Belle Vue, College Grove, Dimple Wells, Fc, holy trinity church, Northern Premier League, Richard Tracey, soccer, Tom Marsden, Trinity, Wakefield, west yorkshire city, Wildcats

Tuesday 19th February 2013 ko 19.45

Northern Premier League-Division One North

WAKEFIELD 1 (Marsden 75) Grant missed penalty 10

OSSETT ALBION 1 (Tracey 28)

Att 92

Entry £8

Programme £1

Joni Mitchell once sang “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone,” and I feel that way about the urban football ground. As a small boy visiting Oxford United’s Manor Ground, you felt the anticipation as you walked through the narrow back streets to the turnstiles, often at the end of a cul-de-sac. The rusting turnstile, with the brass plate from a manufacturer from a northern town, and the brickwork painted over time and time again so only a rough pattern remained. A floodlight at each corner, and a stand with a pitched roof completed the painting.

Time, tide and the Taylor Report have seen a general drift of the larger grounds to out-of-town locations, and many of the classic football grounds have disappeared. The same process is happening with Rugby League grounds, but so far Wakefield Trinity Wildcats’ Belle Vue ground is still there to be enjoyed. It’s all there, the town centre location, and the narrow side streets, even the oft-painted brickwork!

Wakefield Trinity were formed from men who worshipped at The Holy Trinity Church in the West Yorkshire city in 1873. When the schism between the northern professional (League) clubs and the amateur (Union) south happened in 1895 Wakefield as a city found itself with both an amateur Union club, and a professional club,Trinity. It meant that the club needed its own ground, and Belle Vue was purchased in that year. The club had in fact played there since 1879, and when I entered the stadium via the one open turnstile in the corner I stopped, stood, and sucked in the atmosphere.

This is the football club’s second stint at the ground. Emley FC moved here in 2000 and re-named themselves Wakefield & Emley. When a new club was started back in Emley the suffix was dropped, and around the same time the club moved to the former Wakefield Rugby Union ground, College Grove. The club was evicted in 2011, and spent a season sharing at Ossett Town, before returning to Belle Vue for this season.

Three sides of Belle Vue are the quintessential large football/rugby ground, with the fourth a staple of the rugby ground of both codes, the multi-storey hospitality block. With just 92 present, all sides were accessible, including the bar area in hospitality, assuming you were prepared to pay the high prices for food and drink demanded at professional sport, I was not.

I contented myself with getting a teamsheet, ” No problem mate, I’ll print you one off,” (contrast that with Maidstone!) and walking round and enjoying a generous slice of sporting history.  Enjoy it while you can, as Belle Vue doesn’t satisfy future Superleague ground criteria, so Trinity are looking to either move or redevelop.

Behind the goal on the huge terrace a small crowd of young boys shouted their support for Ossett in a game that didn’t quite live up its exhalted surroundings. Two struggling sides took just the one pass too many to create enough impact to force the win. Josh Grant missed an early penalty for Wakefield, and Albion took control of the game, scoring through former Sheffield United forward Richard Tracey. They’ll wonder how they failed to force the win as a defensive howler allowed Tom Marsden to nip in to slide home.

It was one of those draws that seemed to be of little use to either club. Thatr’s a real shame as both club’s have been notably friendly when I visted previously, Ossett Albion at Dimple Wells, and Wakefield at their former home of College Grove. I’ll look forward to seeing them again. Hopefully Belle Vue won’t be paved in favour of a parking lot in the meantime.




Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,512 other subscribers

Look for stuff here folks!

Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • Swedish Football History & Statistics Mats Nyström’s curates this site, which does exactly what you’d expect 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

Your very own calendar!

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Join 494 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...