Tag Archives: Southern League

Testing

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 4th October 2016 ko 19.45

Southern League Cup 1st Round

AFC TOTTON 2 (Watts 64 Gosney 85)

WINCHESTER CITY 3 (Jenkinson 33 57 Wilson 89p)

Att 157

Entry £6

Programme £2

I think there’s a missing entry in the great groundhopping lexicon. There needs to be word or term for a ground you haven’t visited despite being it easy to get to, and you’ve visited plenty further away beforehand. For me, AFC Totton would be an extreme example, it’s easy enough to get to from Oxford, it’s been open since 2010 and to make things worse I actually managed to visit the adjacent Little Testwood Stadium, home to Totton & Eling four-and-half years ago!! Continue reading →

The Milton Derby

16 Sunday Oct 2016

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Tuesday 27th September 2016 ko 19.45

Wessex League Division One

NEW MILTON TOWN 0

BAFFINS MILTON ROVERS 4 (Dart 28 87 Pennery 49 Blandford 66og)

Att 28

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

You occasionally hear the term “Derby in name only” and it normally refers to a fixture where two clubs are nearby but no great rivalry exists, Oxford United and Oxford City being a good example. This though was a derby genuinely in name only, Baffins play in northern Portsmouth while Town play to the east of Bournemouth at the southern edge of the New Forest. Continue reading →

Templar

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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Saturday 23rd July 2016 ko 15.30

Pre-season Friendly

MARLOW FC 0

ASCOT UNITED 0

Att 23 at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre

Entry FREE

No Programme

When you look at it Bisham Abbey isn’t an obvious place to stage football. It was built in 1260 for two Knights Templar, before becoming a priory. It was used to imprison Robert the Bruce’s wife Queen Elizabeth of the Scots before being given to Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII as part of his divorce settlement in 1540. Continue reading →

Folk

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

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Tuesday 23rd December 2014 ko 19.45

Southern League Premier Division

BANBURY UNITED 0

BURNHAM 2 (N Webb 31 J Webb 61)

Att 188

Entry £10

Programme £1

I think Banbury gets a bad press it doesn’t really deserve. Yes I know Gary Glitter was born here, and Patricia Amos, the first person to be sent to prison for failing to send her children to school is a Banburian, and the odour of coffee from the factory does waft over the M40 as you drive past, but there’s more to the town that just those facts.

Perhaps the problem is that like many towns, you have to scratch a little. Remember the “Ride a cock horse” nursery rhyme? Well follow the A423 though the town, and there’s the cross (not the original, that used to be close to what’s now the shopping centre)  in the middle of a roundabout. Look out too for the fine lady (Godiva) statue by its side including the little frog at the horse’s hoof! Ever bought a loaf of “Fine Lady” bread? That’s from Banbury too.

Continue reading →

The Town of 138

21 Sunday Dec 2014

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Tuesday 16th December 2014 ko 19.45

Southern League Division One Central

GODALMING TOWN 3 (Mazzone 17 Wheeler 25 Connell 36)

BEDFORD TOWN 3 (Liversedge 40 52p 55)

Att 103

Entry £8

Programme £2

Badge £3.50

Most true it is, I dare to say,
E’er since the Days of Eve,
The weakest Woman sometimes may
The wisest Man deceive.

Pope/Pulteney

There’s no escaping the fact that the Surrey town is well-to-do. Whether its the 138 listed buildings in the town, or the world-famous Charterhouse School, the area oozes gentility. A famous son was Jack Phillips, the radio operator on the RMS Titanic who refused to desert his station even when the vessel was in the final throes of its sinking.

Altogether stranger was the curious case of maidservant Mary Toft who convinced the town that she had given birth to rabbits! In 1726 eminent physicians examined her and the story caused a national sensation. Eventually Toft was found out after a porter was caught smuggling a dead rabbit into her chamber, and she confessed to inserting at least 16 rabbits into herself to “enable” their birth! The resultant public mockery, not least by satirist William Hogarth created panic within the medical profession and ruined the careers of several prominent surgeons, but Toft escaped without charges being pressed. Continue reading →

A Pair of Blue Eyes

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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Tuesday 2nd December 2014 ko 19.45

Dorset Senior Cup Quarter-Final

WIMBORNE TOWN 4 (Gamble 16 60 Davison 65 Webb 72)

SHERBORNE TOWN 1 (Burton 1)

Att 91

Entry £6 (normally £9)

Programme £1.50

With the blog now roughly 600 articles old, I do get followers on social media that do so to follow the updates. It’s all very gratifying, especially when the follower is a club I haven’t visited! The downside is the guilt when I pick somewhere that isn’t a follower, so I decided to go for the safe approach and watch Wimborne! Continue reading →

Common Decency

24 Friday Oct 2014

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Monday 20th October 2014 ko 19.45

Southern League Premier Division

HITCHIN TOWN 2 (Webb 50 Burns 68)

BANBURY UNITED 0 Jervis sent off 41 (dangerous play)

At 288

Entry £10

Programme £2

As a groundhopper I don’t revisit many grounds, but Hitchin’s Top Field is definitely one to provide an exception to that rule. Perhaps its the wooden terracing, or the low slung stand, full of nooks and crannies, or the clubshop that you never quite know what delights will be on sale there. Last time I visited I bought a book on FC Start that toured with me in Sweden! Increasingly architecture on all buildings, not just football grounds is becoming more bland, so the potential loss of the Top Field is particularly hard to stomach.

Continue reading →

How Green Was My Valley?

05 Thursday Jun 2014

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Saturday 28th May 2011 ko 14.30

Welsh League Division Two

TREHARRIS ATHLETIC WESTERN 2 (Harris 54 Glasey 65)

DINAS POWYS 1 (Jones 74)

Att 115

Entry & Programme £3

I remember my first glimpse of the Welsh Valleys, as the A470 crept north past Merthyr Tydfil, heading north away from Cardiff. Other than the signs in both Welsh and English, the scenery whilst beautiful, Castell Coch is here after all, the scene only really changes when you head into the valleys. You’re heading into coal mining territory here, and the streets narrow, the hills get steeper and the lines of terraced cottages stretch as far as the eye can see. The book and film, “How Green Was My Valley,” was based on here.

Continue reading →

Crux Roesia

13 Friday Dec 2013

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Tuesday 10th December 2013 ko 19.45

Southern League Division One Central

ROYSTON TOWN 0

KETTERING TOWN 0

Att 234

Entry £8

Programme £2

Badge £2.50

Sometimes its obvious you’re driving to somewhere ancient. The A505 north from the A1 is more or less dead straight, as it follows the Roman road, Icknield Way. When the road intersects with Ermine Street, now the A10, you’re in Royston. The crossing of the two old roads was marked by Roisia’s cross, which eventually was corrupted into Roisia’s Town, then Royston. Sadly all that remains of the cross is the footstone. Continue reading →

Behind The Bike Sheds

18 Friday Oct 2013

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Wednesday 16th October 2013 ko 19.45

Southern League Cup First Round

POOLE TOWN 1 (Byeley 63)

WIMBORNE TOWN 1 (Davidson 14)

No extra time, Poole won 5-4 on penalties

Att 206

Entry £10

Programme £2

Tea £1

The Dorset town of Poole is famous for many reasons; there’s the large harbour, and Poole Pottery now sadly closed. There’s Brownsea Island, the birthplace of the Scouting Movement, and during the English Civil War the town was a Puritan stronghold, a bastion against ship tax being levied at the time. With the Royalists on the brink of defeat in 1646, the Parliamentary garrison from Poole laid siege to and captured the nearby Royalist stronghold at Corfe Castle, the ruins of which are still a major tourist near Swanage. During the Second World War the town was a major embarkation point for Operation Overlord, as 81 landing craft containing American troops from the 29th Infantry Division and the US Army Rangers departed Poole Harbour for Omaha Beach for D-Day, in June 1944.

I arrived on a good day for the sporting folk of Poole, as on the previous evening Continue reading →