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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Radstock Town

Sounds

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by laurencereade in R

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Football, groundhopping, Oldland Abbotonians, Pepe Le Pew, Radstock Town, Recreation Ground, Southfields, Western League

Saturday 7th October 2017 ko 13.30

Western League Division One

RADSTOCK TOWN 1 (Gregory 21og)

OLDLAND ABBOTONIANS 0

Att 213

Entry & Programme £6

The two mile trip uphill to Radstock saw us still very much in coal mining country, albeit like Welton, a place where the mines have long since given way to trees and a far more gentle pace of life. I’d visited Radstock Town’s Southfields Recreation Ground three years ago and got to know committeeman Simon “Wurz” Wilkinson, mainly due to a mutual liking for playing punk band “Stiff Little Fingers” on the PA on a cold night. Little did I know that this time round the theme would be more “Pepe Le Pew”  than “Nobody’s Heroes?” Continue reading →

51.290688 -2.439134

Erasmus

21 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Radstock Town, Robert Runcie, Warminster Town, Western League, Weymouth Street

Wednesday 19th November 2014 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

WARMINSTER TOWN 0

RADSTOCK TOWN 2 (Metcalf 45 Harvey 45)

Att 110

Entry £5

Programme £1

Sausage & Chips £1.50

When the rains come you drive to football with the risk that when you reach your destination the game will be off. You can mitigate the risk by phoning ahead, and Twitter is a godsend to the groundhopper, but you never quite know until you turn the corner and see the floodlights shining through the trees. Continue reading →

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Stiff Little Fingers

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by laurencereade in R

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Radstock Town, Southfields, Stiff Little Fingers, Town, Welton Rovers, Western League, William Waldegrave, Wincanton

Tuesday 4th November 2014 ko 19.30

Western League Division One

RADSTOCK TOWN 4 (Carter 6 Harvey 26 Hardiman 89 Metcalf 90)

WINCANTON TOWN 2 (Jordan 68 Chant 90)

Att 61

Entry £6

Programme £1

Perhaps its just my ignorance, but until I visited nearby Welton Rovers, you can see their lights as you travel south from Bath, I didn’t associate Somerset with coal mining. That was genuinely my error, the pits were started in the late 18th century and at one point were owned by the Waldegrave family, you may remember MP William Waldegrave, but the last pit finally closed in 1973. The clues are still there, be it the “Miners” nickname of the football club, or the rows of terraces miners’ cottagers as you climb the hill towards the Southfields Recreation Ground. Continue reading →

Estuary English

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by laurencereade in H

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

cribbs causeway, Football, Greg Andrews, ground, groundhopping, Hallen, Hallen Centre, hellenic league, henley on thames, Jaz Bright, Radstock Town, Ryan King, severn estuary, Western League

Wednesday 29th February 2012 ko 7.45pm

Western League Premier Division

HALLEN 3 (Andrews 11 Bright 69 King 86)

RADSTOCK TOWN 0

Att 62

Entry & Programme £6

Badge £3

Pie £1.50

Tea £1

So, how did you spend your “extra” day? I finally got round to visiting a team I’d seen about 10 years ago away at Bideford, and found their story interesting. They’d had a long stint in the Hellenic League and had fought tooth and nail to be transfered to the Western League, eventually taking their case to the FA to get their way.

Hallen is on the southernmost edge of Gloucestershire, close to the Severn estuary. You can see the red lights atop the Avonmouth and Second Severn Bridges from the ground. The village has a rural feel to it, with its pub and war memorial but is marooned, trapped between the M49, M5 and the M4 to the north. Despite the M5 being clearly visible from the village, it takes a good 10 minutes to drive from the Cribbs Causeway turn on the M5 to reach the ground.

Co-incidentally the Hallen Centre ground was built at least in part from monies secured from the sale of the land that allowed the huge Cribbs Causeway shopping complex to be built. The Asda Store in its former guise of Carrefour was once the largest supermarket in the UK.

The money has allowed the club to build an excellent ground, with the undoubted centrepiece being the Frank Fairman stand, which wouldn’t look out of place at a ground of a far higher status. That said the club haven’t rested on their laurels, as the new turnstile block was put to work for the first time. It’s a converted bus shelter, with the turnstiles themselves being procured for a cut-down price, second hand from a firm near Henley-on-Thames! As ever it was the people involved with the club that made the place, as I learned more about the club, and their hopes for the future.

On the pitch I felt the score was a little rough on Radstock who looked a competant side. It was they who made the better start with neat clipped passing catching the home defence cold, but other than a snap shot that shaved the outside of the post it all came to nothing. Hallen took the lead after ten minutes when Billy George crossed to the far side of the penalty area. Radstock keeper Austin Byfield blocked Tom Collett’s shot only for Greg Andrews to follow up to pass into the empty net.

Radstock always looked dangerous, but Hallen’s second goal on 69 minutes killed the game. Neat passing play between George, Collett and Jaz Bright resulted with the full-back overlapping, completely missed by the defence, and firing home.

I was having a chat with the one of the substitutes, Ryan King at this point. He thought as I did that Radstock were worth at least a goal but it wasn’t to be, as it was to be to be him who had the final say, coming on to side-foot home from the edge of the box.

So, two “H’s” in two days, and in both cases excellent visits. I’ll look on both with considerable fondness.





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