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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Leisure Centre

All About Wickhurst Lane

27 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Broadbridge Heath, Football, groundhopping, High Wood Hill Sports Ground, Leisure Centre, Non League, Peacehaven and Telscombe, Southern Combination, Sussex, Wickhurst Lane

Tuesday 8th November 2019 ko 19.45

Sussex Senior Cup 2nd Round

BROADBRIDGE HEATH 2 (Jones 27 Wanstall 61)

PEACEHAVEN & TELSCOMBE 3 (Wiltshire 38 Ford 50 Bant 90)

Att 64

Entry £6

Programme £1

After all that had gone before, it seemed strange to be returning to pyramid football. Not in any perjorative sense, although the inevitable battle with the M25 evening rush hour was as unwelcome. As hellish as the traffic was, it was familiar I’d passed Broadbridge Heath’s new ground on the way to Horsham a couple of months earlier. I found myself wishing my journeys were a little more straightforward, but then that is skill that Broadbridge Heath are rather good at! Continue reading →

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Uppaddus

14 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by laurencereade in Y

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

3G, 9 Mile Point, closure, Football, groundhopping, Leisure Centre, Pontllanfraith, Wales, Ynysddu Crusaders, Ynysddu Welfare, Youth team

Tuesday 30th April 2019 ko 20.00

Gwent County League Division One

YNYSDDU WELFARE 4 (Price 47 53 62 Watkins 72)

WATTSVILLE 2 (Roch 24 79)

Att 43 at Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre

Entry FREE

Programme £1

As a groundhopper you find yourself questioning your sanity on a fairly regular basis. You take a psychological step back from what you’re doing and in this case wonder why you’re travelling from Oxford to South Wales, through evening rush hour traffic to watch a game on a plastic pitch in a cage at a leisure centre the local council are trying to close. But if there was one club I simply had to write about this season it was Ynysddu Welfare. Continue reading →

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Second Impressions

27 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by laurencereade in H

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

England, Felixstowe and Walton, Football, groundhopping, Harleston Town, Leisure Centre, Non League, Recreation Ground

Saturday 24th November 2018 ko 13.30
Eastern Counties League- Division One North

HARLESTON TOWN 4 (Roberts 3 Stone 21 Imrie 69 Delaney 88)

FELIXSTOWE & WALTON UNITED RESERVES 2 (Lee 27 Hillyard 27)

Att c100

Entry & Programme £5

We turned right in to Harleston’s leisure centre car park from Wilderness Lane, and spotted two sets of players warming up on an unrailed pitch. Our collective hearts sank a little, I do like going back to basics every so often, try Headington Butchers for example, but I couldn’t even see a set of goals! Harleston are new to Step 6 for this season having won the Anglian Combination. With the Eastern Counties League expanding into 3 divisions for this year new clubs have been given 3 years to bring their grounds up to standard, but this looked extreme!

Continue reading →

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Outlaw

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by laurencereade in R

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Tags

Cornwater Ground, Flowserve, groundhopping, Leisure Centre, Newark, Newark Flowserve, Notts Senior League, Ravenshead, Rob Hornby, Robin Hood

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 ko 19.30

Notts Senior League Cup- Quarter Final

RAVENSHEAD 0

NEWARK FLOWSERVE 2 (Potts 46 51)

Att 119

Entry FREE

Programme £1

It goes without saying that Rob Hornby was the reason I was there. The Notts Senior League registrar spotted that a highly unusual game under lights would draw the groundhoppers, and even more so if there was a programme was produced. He took charge of magazine production, and without doubt added 100 on the gate. The only doubt in my mind was what exactly was I watching? Continue reading →

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Can’t touch Diss

08 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by laurencereade in D

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Tags

Brewers Green Lane, Debenham, Diss Town, Eastern Counties League, Football, groundhopping, Leisure Centre

Monday 2nd January 2017 ko 15.00

Eastern Counties League – Division One

DISS TOWN 2 (Blakely 34 Webb 74)

DEBENHAM LEISURE CENTRE 1 (Dixon 68)

Att 151

Entry £6

Programme £1

It was regular travel companion Chris Garner that suggested this one. I was scanning the fixtures without success when he pointed out that since the last Eastern Counties League club we’d visited was the Ghosts of Fakenham Town, the next really ought to be Diss Town. He was of course entirely correct, even if you do need to be aware of the music of the The Specials to understand his joke! Continue reading →

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A Hundred Good Points Of Husbandry

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by laurencereade in B

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Tags

Brantham Athletic, Eastern Counties League, groundhopping, Leisure Centre, Stanway Rovers, Suffolk

Friday 18th March 2016 ko0 19.45

Eastern Counties League-Premier Division

BRANTHAM ATHLETIC 1 (Travis 27)

STANWAY ROVERS 1 (Hunt 64)

Att 100

Entry £7

Programme £1.50

So, another entry in the Eastern Counties League’s regular Friday night fixtures, although on this occasion the impact of playing early was a little diluted by nearby Wivenhoe playing simultaneously. You are only just in Suffolk here, in fact so close to Essex are you, that the Manningtree transmitter is clearly visible from the near goal.  Continue reading →

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Diplomacy

04 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by laurencereade in K

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chris Berezai, expelled, glan conwy, kicked out of league, Kinmel Bay, Leisure Centre, Welsh Alliance, Welsh Groundhop, Y Morfa Leisure Centre

Monday 25th August 2014 ko 17.15

Welsh Alliance Division One

KINMEL BAY 2 (Luffman 32 Woods 48)

GLAN CONWY 2 (Orme 8 Fountain 18)

Att 221

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

So where you there? What did you see? What do you think? There’s a quite a story behind what happened, maybe you’ve heard some of it, maybe most of it even, but where this heads in the future is anyone’s guess. Continue reading →

Leisure Pursuits

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by laurencereade in D

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Tags

Bury St Edmunds, Debenham, Eastern Counties League, Garce, L C, Leisure Centre, Maitlands Football Ground, Team Bury, Thompson

Wednesday 26th March 2014 ko 19.45

Eastern Counties League Division One

DEBENHAM LEISURE CENTRE 0

TEAM BURY 1 (Thompson 72)

Att 63

Entry £5

Programme 50p

Raffle £1

Tea £1

Burger £1.50

I suppose the first point to make is that this Suffolk village near Bury St Edmunds has absolutely nothing to be with the department store of the same name! Apparently the pronunciation is different, the village sounds more like Dee- ben- am, but that could be local inflection! The village takes its name from the River Deben who runs through the village in what is claimed to be Britain’s third longest ford, eventually reaching its estuary at Felixstowe Ferry with two Martello Towers marking the mouth.

Continue reading →

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Run In Stillettos

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by laurencereade in B

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Broadbridge Heath, Dan Smith, Dean Loader, Football, george bernard shaw, groundhopping, Jamal Sultan, James Wrigley, Leisure Centre, mahatma gandhi, Richard Watton, Saltdean United, Sussex County League

Tuesday 24th April 2012 ko 7.45pm

Sussex County League Division Three

BROADBRIDGE HEATH 2 (Wrigley 37 Samson 90)

SALTDEAN UNITED 3 (Dan Smith 16 Loader 59 Watton 65)

Att 51

Entry & Programme £2

In so many ways my attendance at this one didn’t make any sense. Why travel 100 or so miles to watch an intermediate level game in the middle of an athletics stadium, near Horsham. Factor in also, that with the clocks long since gone forward there was no lack of non-floodlit alternatives closer to home. The answer is of course the clarion call of the bulldozer, as Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre is set to close leaving the club with an uncertain future. Of course with me being me, on arrival I discovered that far from this being the club’s last home game here, if they do move it’ll be in around a year’s time. Still, its been done……

Broadbridge Heath is the birthplace of the great romantic poet Percy Shelley, a great influence on more modern poets and authors such as WB Yeats, Thomas Hardy and George Bernard Shaw. Mahatma Gandhi’s policy of passive resistance was apparently influenced and inspired by Shelley’s non-violence in protest and political action in the poet’s lifetime, cut short by his drowning aged 29.

I’m no fan of football pitches in the middle of athletics tracks, although regular trips to Sweden where they are far more prevalent means I’ve almost got used to them. This is a particularly bad example, as there’s quite a distance from the stand (the one legally viewable side) to the long jump pit and then on to the track, then finally the pitch. There is at least a decent pitched roofed stand with some elevation, but the saving grace is the people who run the club, a friendlier bunch you will not meet.

 The programme was worth £2 on its own, and it being the Sussex County League the evening’s line-ups were posted on a whiteboard. I asked to stroll round the stadium before kick off and take some photos, to which the club readily acquieced. I did enjoy the notice that said that high heels should not be used on the track. Given that there was just the one elderly gent using the track before the game, I did wonder…..

The game went pretty much to the form book. When I was researching this game, I was surprised to see Saltdean in the County League’s bottom flight, and they look to be making a rapid exit up and out of it. This win puts them 2 points clear at the top with just one round of games to be played this Saturday. They started the stronger but once Dan Smith had given them the lead Heath came on strongly and their equaliser was fully deserved.

The interval came at completely the wrong time for the hosts as Saltdean notably upped the tempo after the break. Dean Loader pounced on a defensive error to restore the lead, and Richard Watton snaffled the winner following a free kick. Jamal Sultan’s goal for Heath was so late in stoppage time so as to create no impression of a comeback.

So, not the kind of ground that a hopper normally would make a beeline for but don’t let the threat of the bulldozer be the only reason to visit. It really is better than that.





Sank ’em

25 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Football, groundhopping, Hereford, Herefordshire League, HJ Handley Cup, Leisure Centre, Sinkum FC, Weobley

Thursday 22nd November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Herefordshire League HJ Handley Cup 2nd Round

WEOBLEY 1 (L Williams 40)

SINKUM FC 2 (Gallimore 57p Barefoot 65)

Played at Hereford Leisure Centre, Holmer Road

 

Att 25 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Tea (from the leisure centre) £1.30

A first for me this, as I don’t think I’ve watched a game INSIDE a horse racing track! The pitch is part of the leisure centre, but you do have to walk across the horse racing track to get it, set as it is, inside a running track. This ground was using for a short time by Pegasus Juniors, before they moved in to their new ground in Old School Lane. To the left the Bulmers Cider Factory is clearly visible.

I reached the ground at around 6.50, and strolled over to the pitch. I was told by a grumpy athletics coach that kick off was not at the advertised 7.30 but 8.00 “Because we’re here until 7.30.” I retreated to the leisure centre cafe and tried to buy a meal, to be told the kitchen was closed, I made do with a cake and a cup of coffee.

The warring factions settled on a compromise time of 7.45 and I found out precisely what I was to be watching! This was a game between 2 sides in the 1st division (2nd tier) of the Herefordshire league, a feeder to the lower divisions of either the Hellenic or West Midlands League. Neither side call the ground home, that honour lies with Holmer FC of Division 2 South. I would also comment that the floodlights were poor, with one not working at all! These pictures are literally the only usable ones!

It was Sinkum though that proved to be most intriguing. Formed a few years ago from a group of lads who met at a now closed pool club (hence the name) they decided to start a football team. I’d have thought pool and football wouldn’t exactly go to together, but last season they won the Herefordshire League Division 3 at a canter, so the league have placed them in this season’s division 1. It hasn’t exactly clipped their wings as prior to this game, they were played 6 won 6, including an 11-0 demolition of Dore Valley. They also told me they were on a 26 game unbeaten run!

The match was rather eccentrically referreed by Herefordshire FA Chief Executive Jim Lambert, but to be honest I was a little more concerned about the blustery wind and rain, and that bluntly the standard wasn’t great. Still, despite the best efforts of the esteemed official I watched a decent game, and perhaps predicably Sinkum were just too strong for Weobley in a scrappy game littered with errors. Barefoot’s headed goal from Gallimore’s cross was a fitting coda though.


You can see the Bulmers Factory in the background

Now that’s what I call First Aid!

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