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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Iffley Road

A Tale of Two Cities

16 Sunday Dec 2018

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Football, Iffley Road, Mickey Lewis, Non League, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford University, Roger Bannister, student, Varsity

Friday 16th November 2018 ko 19.00

Brookes Varsity 2018

OXFORD UNIVERSITY 4 (Thelen 21p Liew 40 Cantrill 70 Coveney 87)

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 0

Att 499 at Iffley Road Stadium, Oxford

Entry £6

Programme FREE

When Robyn moved to Oxford two years ago the slightly schizophrenic nature of the city was something of a surprise to her. I’d shown her around the sites many months previously, and the college buildings are a beautiful must-see for any visitor. But for those of us that both are from, and live in Oxford, we live almost entirely separate lives from the university and those who teach and study there. This evening out though was a chance to sample something from the “Gown” side of Oxford, and a chance to look at another part of Oxford where one side is set against the other.  Continue reading →

51.745582 -1.244593

Lucky 13

05 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Championship, English rugby union, Iffley Road, Oxford Rugby League, Oxford University, Paul Fergusson, RL, Rugby League, South Wales Scorpions

Sunday 31st August 2014 ko 15.00

Rugby League Championship 1

OXFORD RL 29

SOUTH WALES SCORPIONS 22

Att 240 at Oxford University RUFC, Iffley Road.

Entry £12

Programme £2.50

I’m indebted to Calne-based Paul Fergusson to alerting me to this one, especially to the location! My encounters with rugby started and finished with an ex-girlfriend who worked for Brakspear’s brewery in Henley-on-Thames and supplied a steady supply of complimentaries for me to be bored rigid watching Henley RUFC play in the second tier of English rugby union. Now there are many advantages of having a blonde girlfriend who gets staff discount at a brewery, but believe me rugby union wasn’t one! I should however point out though the end-of-season dinners were superb, I still don’t remember how I arrived back at my flat in Bell street with a Williams F1 brolly, and a meal for two at a rather swish Italian restaurant one year. Continue reading →

51.743298 -1.243175

3.59.4

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Adam Healy, Alex Biggs, BUCS League, Ed Grimer, Hakim Mirro, Iffley Road, Julian Austin, Mark Jamison, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford University, Peder Beck-Friis, soccer, streaker, Tom Dancer, Varsity

Friday 1st February 2012 ko 19.00

BUCS League Midlands Division 2A/ Varsity Challenge

OXFORD UNIVERSITY 5 (Grimer 3 Jamison 14 Beck-Friis 26 Austin 31 Healy 86)

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 2 (Mirro 45 Dancer 69p)

Att 600

At Iffley Road Stadium

Entry £5

No Programme

Last year I ended up viewing this game from a grass bank from grass bank at the far side, due to a all-ticket strict policy.

https://laurencereade.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/cat-mouse-and-roger/

From my rather distant vantage point, it looked like a cracking atmosphere, so this year I decided to try at watch the game through more conventional means, I do have a couple of contacts within the University after all! Oxford University captain Alex Biggs put a ticket on the gate for me, and so I was able to witness the worried Oxford United stewards at first hand.

The Iffley Road stadium is famous for being where, on 6th May 1954, Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile, watched amongst many others, by the world’s least sports-orientated person, my mother! Since then the stadium has become something of a victim of the Taylor report, the owners Oxford University opting to reduce the capacity of the stand to 499, to avoid the costs involved with a capacity of the greater figure.

Normally 499 is easily sufficient, but not for a fixture like this. Despite being only being its third year, this match has caught the imaginations of both the University and the former Polytechnic from up the hill in Headington. For this year sections in front of the stand were taped off, allowing an extra 200 to view the game, although students being students, a fair percentage turned up after kick-off!

The stewards encouraged the two sets of fans to occupy different ends of the stands, and the “Segregation” made for a cracking atmosphere, with some of the best banter I’ve encountered at a game. Both sides seemed happy to play on their stereotypes, the “Working Class” Brookes students singing,”Does your butler know you’re here?” and “You pay our benefits,” and the “Toff,” University students singing “You do your essays with a crayon!”

What was never in doubt was the result. When Ed Grimer beat a poorly sprung offside trap to open the scoring, it proved to be the catalyst to some poor Brookes defending as a corner was swung in from the right. The defence simply watched as Mark Jamison thumped the ball home from the back of the box unopposed. It soon got worse for the visitors as a mix-up between keeper Sam Cole and centre half Joe Sturia, allowed Peder Beck-Friis to tap home. When a though ball bisected a square Brookes defence to find Julian Austin who had the simplest of tasks to roll the ball home, a rout looked on the cards, but Hakin Mirro’s superb header from a free kick on the left, gave Brookes heart, just before half time.

In was inevitable that the game would tighten up after the break but at 4-1 the University looked comfortable, but that changed when Brookes were handed a rather soft penalty, for a shirt-pull. Captain Tom Dancer despatched the spot-kick and for 20 minutes, an unlikely comeback looked possible. That ended when Alex Biggs corner was headed home by substitute Adam Healy.

The final bit of “Entertainment” was the appearance of a Brookes streaker, apparently the same one as last year. He was easily able to evade the stewards before making his escape from the far side. The stewards weren’t beaten though, they simply confiscated his clothes, and handed them to the police, who arrested him outside the ground. I would imagine he wouldn’t have been difficult to indentify!

That makes it three wins out of three for the University, and seldom have I enjoyed a game as much as this, both in terms of the action, and the atmosphere created. I just wish it was a little easier to get a ticket!




Cat, Mouse and Roger

19 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Football, groundhopping, Iffley Road, Oxford Brookes University, oxford united., Oxford University, oxford university sports centre, Roger Bannister, Varsity

Friday 17th February 2012 ko 7.45pm

“Varsity” Friendly

OXFORD UNIVERSITY BLUES 2 (Austin 16 75)

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY 0

Att 400 (officially speaking)

@ Oxford University Sports Centre, Iffley Road, Oxford

Entry £5 (if ticket bought!)

No programme

Catering available

You may wonder, dear reader why on earth I’d be interested in a student game, and a friendly at that! Well, apart from referring to the title of this blog, I’d mention the the history of the stadium, and the history of the fixture.

To us locals, the stadium will always be known as the Iffley Road Running Track, and where in 1954 Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile, watched incidentally by the world’s least sporting person, my Mother!  I first visited as a child in the early 80’s for the taping of the BBC’s “Superstars,” won that day by Welsh long jumper Lynn Davies. Since then I’ve seen Oxford University play there, and Oxford United’s youth team too.

For what in essence is a warm-up for the Oxford vs Cambridge varsity game, this fixture has real bite. The game has been played behind closed doors before, in 2010, after the discovery of a Facebook group suggesting that large numbers of Brookes fans would inundate the ground. The Brookes students simply scaled a fence and watched from there.

And that, I suspect, was the start of my problems. For when I arrived I discovered that not only was the game all-ticket, and limited to 400 tickets, it was sold out. Moreover around 20 stewards had been hired from Oxford United to maintain security. Normally I’d have simply turned round and headed for home, but I was just a little irked. This was because the fixture had been widely advertised on the OUAFC website and others, and there’d been no mention of it being all-ticket. With no opportunity to buy a ticket, I reasoned, and this being the first ever floodlit game at the venue I decided to see if there was another vantage point.

Which of course there was, on the far side where the athletics footprint meets the historic rugby union ground. There was a convenient grass bank in the corner, so I quietly sat down to watch the action. And I would have got away with it completely if 4 students hadn’t had exactly the same idea, but sat in full view of the stewards. At half time we all got moved on, “No ticket, no watch.” The students gave up, I waited until they’d gone, and quietly retook my position!

The game was worth the effort, as in front of a rowdy crowd the Blues were good value for their win. Whilst Brookes huffed and puffed, their hosts never looked like losing control of the fixture. Julian Austin was in predatory form, smashing in twice from decent crosses from the right to win the game.

Perhaps inevitably, there was a streaker, unfortunately for me, male, but with all the stewards present, he was allowed to stay on the pitch for a couple of minutes, while play continued. Eventually he gave up and surrendered to the authorities. Mind you, he was a bit of a pathetic streaker, he kept his shoes on!

I wonder whether in subsequent years this fixture will be moved to a larger venue to accomodate the obvious demand. The groundhopper in me would love it to be the wonderful rugby ground next door, although I’d expect the more likely choice would be Oxford City’s Court Place Farm. Watch this space.




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