Tag Archives: South West Peninsula League

The Old, The New, & Hugh

01 Sunday Dec 2013

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Saturday 30th November 2013 ko 14.15

South West Peninsula League Division One East

AXMINSTER TOWN 0 Downs sent off 65 (violent conduct)

STOKE GABRIEL 4 (Stevens 45 Fisher 56 Critchlow 60 Worthington 80)

Att 42

Entry & Programme £3

It’s impossible not to think of carpets when you consider the Devon town of Axminster. Not that you’re in Devon by much, you’re in that part of England where you can be in Devon, Somerset or Dorset within a short drive. The town has been a centre for carpet production since 1755 when weaver Thomas Whitty saw a Turkish carpet in Cheapside, London, and to worked out how to produce a product of similar quality. Within a few years his carpets covered the floors in places such as the Brighton Pavilion, Chatsworth, Warwick Castle, and a little ironically Defterdar Palace, home of the Sultan of Turkey!

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A Question of Priorities

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

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Sunday 1st April 2012 ko 2.30pm

Morrison Bell Cup Quarter Final

SIDMOUTH TOWN 0

SEATON TOWN  7 (Highet 2 Norman 31 34 56 60 Cross 45 Love 71)

Att 88 (h/c)

 

Entry FREE

No programme (old copy free)

Tea-in-a-mug 50p

With the first game overrunning I was grateful to Martin Bamforth who’d left early and covered the early stages of the second game of the day for Mike and I.

The town with its wide esplanade, has a Regency feel to it, but a series of south-westerly storms in the early 1990s washed away much of the shingle beach protecting the esplanade’s masonry. A series of artificial rock islands was constructed to protect the sea front, and tons of pebbles were trucked in to replace the beach.

Sidmouth is home to the Norman Lockyer Observatory and Planetarium, located on Salcombe Hill. The facility, completed in 1912, fell into disuse but was saved from demolition by the appeals of enthusiasts to East Devon District Council. The observatory now operates as a science education project and is open to the public.

This fixture looked to be an intriguing encounter with local rivals pitched against each other. Sidmouth won last season’s Devon & Exeter League and now sit in the lower reaches of the South West Peninsula League. Seaton are in pole position to take over as champions but may not be able to gain promotion as their pitch is too narrow.

With the elevation in status, there’s work in progress at the ground. The pitch is now railed on two sides and a green hardstanding path laid by the far touchline. Soon this will be augmented by a bus shelter-type cover. It won’t make the place the greatest place in the world to watch football but it will help to remove the sense of Park Pitch that is the pervasive feeling now.

With me dashing in late, I had no opportunity to jot down the lineups and make a judgement on what I was watching. It was quickly obvious that this was no contest whatsoever, as Seaton made easy work of their hosts, rolling in goals with steady ease. Norman helped himself to four, the third a magnificent turn and lob, as the hosts had absolutely no answers to their visitors’ questions.

So, was it simply that the top flight of the Devon & Exeter League is stronger than the Division One East of the SWPL?  I got my answer after the game when I got the line-ups from the home secretary. He admitted that while Seaton where completely focused, Sidmouth in contrast had decided to cobble together a team from the reserves and Sunday sides, even putting a midfielder in goal!

It appears that Mike and I without ever meaning to, prioritised the correct game. I wonder if the participating clubs both thought the same? This brought to an end my visit to Mike, Christine and the beautiful Jurassic coast. I’d like to thank both of them for their company, local expertise, and their wonderful hospitality.

Dilemna at Junction 30

02 Monday Apr 2012

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Sunday 1st April 2012 ko 12.00pm

Golesworthy Cup Quarter Final

TOPSHAM TOWN 3RDS 3 (Gibbons 35 Rouse 38 Ward 45)

CLYST VALLEY 3RDS 3 (Hine 6 Hood 73 Cooper 90)

AET Clyst Valley won 4-3 on pens

Att 22 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

The pretty Devon town of Topsham is often described as a suburb of Exeter, but does retain its own distinct identity. Part of it is that there are many Dutch style houses in Topsham dating from the time when the town was an important cotton port. Many of Topsham’s houses are built using Dutch bricks, which were brought over as ballast from Holland – to where the wool and cotton from South-West England had been exported. There is an excellent antique centre on the Quayside, where once I picked up a rather impressive cheese grater!

The genteel feel does not extend to the Exeter Road based Coronation Field. Leaving town you pass by the University of Exeter ground, under the M5 and Topsham’s home is the next thing you see on your right. A huge sign for Junction 30 of the M5 is visible from the far goal. The club have played in the South-West Peninsula League, but following relegation, now ply their trade in the top flight of the Devon & Exeter League. The ground is well appointed, and would have no difficulties in gaining SWPL grading. In fact tucked away at the far side is a set of floodlights, bought as salvage from the sadly demolished Clyst Rovers ground.

Things are looking up for Topsham. They’re third in the table some distance behind leaders Seaton Town, but with doubts on Seaton’s rather narrow pitch, there’s all to play for. Except of course that Mike and I weren’t there to watch the 1st XI! With this game kicking off at midday and another at Sidmouth straight afterwards this wasn’t a day to worry about semantics! An unexpected bonus was that another hopper thought the same. I hadn’t seen Taunton-based Martin Bamforth for 2 years, which was a real pity. Martin has a long line of groundhopping mishaps which he’s not embarrassed to recount. A favourite was driving to Edinburgh to watch Hibernian in a European fixture only to discover on arrival that it was Hibernians of MALTA that were at home that evening!

The Golesworthy Cup is primarily for teams who play in the 6th, 7th and 8th divisions of the Devon and Exeter League, although some Perry Street and District League teams do enter. With criteria like that it’s inevitable that there’s very few first XI’s in the draw, and with these two sides 4th and 6th respectively in Division 6 the fixture did look competitive. I was told that Topsham’s 4th XI had won the trophy last season.

The trouble was it that the game found new ways to be a poor spectacle. Firstly Topsham conceded a daft goal, keeper John Parkes fumbling Danny Hine’s hopeful lob, before racing into a 3-1 lead, and looking completely dominant. Trouble is, after half time they stopped the neat passing that had given them the advantage. David Hood came on for Clyst and despite suffering the after-effects of a Saturday night curry, he finished well to get his team back in the game. With time tight for the Sidmouth we really didn’t want extra time, but of course that’s what we got, after a poor clearance was knocked in by Sam Cooper with seconds left.

Of course extra time produced nothing, as the both teams had ran themselves into the dust. That delayed the inevitable penalties by half an hour, and in this case Clyst knocked in all 4 they took to win. Except it wasn’t quite as straightforward as that. Barlow took the 4th for Clyst which was saved. Unfortunately for Topsham he hadn’t waited for the whistle and he scored with his retaken kick

At the end the Topsham players bemoaned that one incident, but if they’d kept doing what they’d started they’d have won this one easily.

Sweet Surrender on the Quayside

26 Monday Mar 2012

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Saturday 24th March 2012 ko 3.00pm

South West Peninsula League Division One West

VOSPERS OAK VILLA 10 (Edwards 4 Fort 6 16 69 Almond 10p Jasper 34 38 83 Honeywill 50 Scholes 90)

PERRANPORTH 0

Att 34

Entry & Programme £3

Tea 50p

Pasty £1.20

This was a bit of a crazy day for me. Perhaps it was because I’d spent Friday evening in Witney catching up with some old workmates over a chicken madras and a beer or 10, but in the morning I set out towards Dorset to visit another old mate, a full week early! By the time I realised, I was in Dorset, so I needed a Plan B, and quickly!

There really was only one bloke to call given where I was, Sammo, or to use his proper title, Mike Sampson, press officer for the South West Peninsula League. He confirmed that Vospers Oak Villa in Plymouth were kicking off at 3, and that another mate, League Football Secretary & Web Master Phil Hiscox would be there too. From a groundhopping perspective Phil’s the chap that organises the popular groundhop the League hosts. It was good to speak to a fellow organiser, and look forward to when the League will have sufficient new grounds to host another Easter extravaganza.

Plymouth holds mixed feelings for me. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to the dockyard town for both football and for tourism. I attended Mike Sampson’s 60th birthday bash at Plymouth Argyle around 18 months ago which was a great night out. Sadly it was the last public appearance I made with my wife, before we separated 2 months later. So, yes, mixed feelings.

Vospers Oak Villa started their existence as Oak Villa in 1912 in what was known as the United Churches League and the club operated from St Phillips Church in Bridwell Road, in Plymouth. To play you had to be a member of the church, and the club’s name was taken from an old cottage at Camel’s Head where the first meeting took place. The team moved to Weston Mill, so adopted the name Weston Mill Oak Villa and rose up through local leagues, through to the Devon County League, and became founder members of the SW Peninsula League league in 2007.  The club is now known as Vospers Oak Villa, thanks to the sponsorship of Peter Vospers, of Vospers Motorhouse.

The Weston Mill ground is on the western edge of Plymouth close to the Devonport Docks, and the Tamar bridge linking Devon to Cornwall. It’s the Tamar Bridge that gives the league its logo. It has to be said that the ground will win no awards for beauty, or facilities, but the welcome was as warm as the weather. There’s a railed off pitch but no cover, and the only hard standing is via a disused 5-a-side pitch, itself a victim of vandalism. The gateman was exactly that, a man by a gate, with a bag of a programmes.

I’d seen a league table and thought this looked a home banker. Perranporth had only 7 points to show for a disastrous season, but the home officials didn’t seem confident, citing the departure of the management team looming at the end of the season, and a poor run of form. They could not have been more wrong, as the visitors played the vast majority of the game with ten men. Worse still their regular goalkeeper was unavailable (their officials said he was watching Arsenal, but then he is the recently departed manger’s son!), and the backup goalkeeper Ryan Barnes was sporting a broken thumb, so he was pressed into service in midfield, and midfielder Jack Bradshaw was pressed into service between the sticks. It didn’t work to put it mildly!

3 goals in 10 minutes set the tone, and at that point I honestly thought I may have been heading towards my highest aggregate score of 20. That I only got halfway was down to Bradshaw’s efforts, despite obviously not being a goalkeeper he threw himself at everything, and the fact that Villa eased off for periods playing an ineffective brand of champagne football. Joe Jasper and Stuart Fort will no doubt argue over who gets the match ball (is there a procedure for that?) but for me the man of the match was the unfortunate Jack Bradshaw who like his team-mates was there when it mattered. It would have been so easy for Perranporth to have simply not turned up. For that they deserve credit.

I should also thank Sammo for putting me up for the night and feeding me a huge breakfast Sunday morning. Thanks mate, and see you in Sweden!