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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Splodge

Sunset

16 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by laurencereade in U

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Edward VIII, Fareham Town, HMS Temeraire, Paul Proctor, pillar boxes, Portsmouth, post box, Spinnaker Tower, Splodge, United Services Portsmouth, US Portsmouth., USP, wessex league

Tuesday 15th July 2014 ko 19.30

Pre-season Friendly

UNITED SERVICES PORTSMOUTH 2 (Coker 9 Dark 26)

FAREHAM TOWN 5 (Neal 22 Houks 53og Robinson 55 A T Rialist 83 90)

Att 13 at 3G pitch HMS Temeraire, Portsmouth

Entry FREE

Programme- You are joking aren’t you?

I visited USP’s Victory Stadium around 4 years ago, and it too is in HMS Temeraire, near Portmouth Docks. There’s no great security here, just a contracted-out guard, who seemed to be about as interested in me as I was in him! When I found out about this fixture, two things immediately struck me, firstly that I now had the camera to do the backdrop justice, and secondly that I was banned!

Continue reading →

50.795529 -1.098611

Who pays the Ferryman?

06 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Burnley, Cup, Fareham Town, Lymington Town, Matt Vokes, Russell Cotes, Sam James, Sam Vokes, soccer, Splodge, Wales, wessex league

Tuesday 5th February 2013 ko 19.45

Russell Cotes Cup Quarter-Final

LYMINGTON TOWN 2 (Vokes 75 James 87)

FAREHAM TOWN 0

Att 23

Entry £3

Programme £1

Situated on the edge of the New Forest, the pretty town of Lymington is primarily a port. It’s the only place I’ve ever encountered where the docks (for the Isle of Wight ferry) can be accessed if you turn either right or left! That said, the town is more famous for smaller boats, yachts, and the boutiques and coffee shops suggest more Howard’s Way than, Brittany Ferry.

The name Lymington is derived from the Old English word tun means a farm or hamlet whilst limen is derived from the Ancient British word lemanos meaning elm-tree. It’s a a fair allegory to its arboreal location. From the early nineteenth century it had a thriving shipbuilding industry, particularly associated with Thomas Inman the builder of the schooner Alarm. Much of the town centre is Victorian and Georgian, with narrow cobbled streets, giving an air of quaintness. The wealth of the town at the time is represented in its architecture.

For a watcher of the non-league game, a well-to-do town is often a sign of a club who finds it difficult to get the necessary ground grading to progress, and the Lymington Sports Ground is a case in point. Shared with both tennis and cricket, the latter makes it difficult to fully enclose the ground, and it looks like a public footpath runs around the pitch. In most cases this and the fact that the changing rooms are a little too small to pass muster, are overlooked but the ground-graders have called a meeting, and the club are nervous…

The ground is dominated by the main stand, a benched affair with park seats at its centre. Its spick, span and obviously does the job, but then agaisn ground-graders don’t like benches, preferring the easily counted plastic flip-up seats commonplace in the fully professional game. I liked the pavilion-style clubhouse with tea served in a mug, no ecologically unfriendly paper cups here. The only downside was the R & B music blasting out from the television in the corner, even the young girl who presumably the barman was trying to impress had retreated to her ipod!

The Russell Cotes Cup was described by one official is “Just be in Hampshire and pay £30 and you’re in.” It’s for senior clubs in the county but holds no senior status, existing as a fund-raising competition for the Hampshire FA’s benevolent coffers. Clubs don’t always take it too seriously, although tonight’s side did, and for those interested in such fripperies, programme production is not mandatory.

And for all the world it looked like a nil-nil, and extra-time game. No lack of action, or goal-mouth incident, but poor finishing and a howling wind put paid to chance after chance. Peter Hurford’s header over the bar from a corner could well be miss of the season, it looked a good deal easier to simply bury the header. Eventually the deadlock was broken by Matt Vokes for Lymington. His elder brother by the way is Sam Vokes, currently playing for Burnley, and representing Wales.

The coup de grace was applied by Sam James, whose neat turn wrong-footed the Fareham defence completely, although I was more than happy to avoid extra-time on a cold evening!





That Petrol Emotion

06 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in F

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blaxall, Day, Emotion, Esso, Fareham, Fawley, Football, Glo, Goal, Hayling, Mockeridge, Petrol, Splodge, That, Wessex

Wednesday 5th October 2011 ko 7.45pm

Wessex League Premier Division

FAWLEY AFC 3 (Blaxall 11 52 Mockeridge 52)

HAYLING UNITED 1 (Burney 74p)

Att 47 (h/c)

Entry £5

Programme FREE (“Because its not very good tonight”)

Coffee £1

The Waterside Sports and Social Club is easy enough to find, but it isn’t easy to actually get to the football ground (you have to go via the reception), the ground is barely up to Step 5 regulations, with much of it being a mish mash of scaffolding poles and portacabins, the programme frankly was poor, and there was no hot food on sale on a rainy blustery night. Yes, you’ve worked it out, I loved the place.

Because its not the just the physical architecture that makes a ground, the people are just as important. And its here that Fawley wins out by a mile.

A friendly club with nothing much beats a miserable lot with facilties every time, and whilst Waterside will win no design awards, the stand kept us dry and gave us a decent view of a decent game.

Fawley started life as the works team for Esso, and the fuel refinery still provides quite a backdrop, somewhat reminiscent of Port Talbot. These days the club has nothing to do with the oil company, but has still worked its way up to the highest level of its existance, and for this game the attendance was augmented by 3 other hoppers, including Andy Norbury from Crewe and Shaun Ellis from Reading.

Also present was Splodge, keeping a low profile, as the away team are playing Fareham on Saturday.

But what will I remember Hayling for? That kit! Day-glo yellow! I don’t think it needs much more comment than that, other than it made photography difficult!

The potential advantage of being able to see your team mates from the next county didn’t seem to help them, particularly after Blaxall’s cross-cum-shot whistled past Patilla in the Hayling goal after 11 minutes. It wasn’t so much that Hayling had no answers, John Page the Fawley keeper had a fine game, it was just that Fawley had more and better ideas. A goalkeeping howler allowed Mockeridge to loft the ball into an empty net, and Blaxall collected his second moments later. Lenny Burney’s penalty really was scant consolation for a game long since lost.

Still a good game, with good company and at a really friendly club. Do pay them a visit.




Splodge!

17 Saturday Sep 2011

Posted by laurencereade in F

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Alders, Alresford, Bentley, Cams, Fareham, foot, Football, Paul Proctor, Rob, Splodge, Tambling, wessex league

Saturday 17th September 2011 ko 3.00pm

Wessex League Premier Division

FAREHAM TOWN 2 (Tambling 5 30)

ALRESFORD TOWN 1 (Bentley 77p)

Att 117

Entry £6

Programme £1.50

Tea £1

Chips (with sweet chilli sauce!) £1

Cheeseburger £2.20

There was one reason for me to visit Cam’s Alders today…Splodge, or to use the name on his passport, Paul Proctor. Splodge does a fine job doing Fareham’s programme and website, and although he’ll hate me for saying it, he’s one of those footballing heroes, you never hear about.

Not that the ground isn’t worthy of note, its spick and span, and the club are rather proud of their brand new floodlights. For the hopper its the stand that attracts, the elevation counteracting the remnants of a long removed running track. Its also boasts not a bar, but a nightclub, Club V, resplendent in mid-70’s Italian bad taste decor! Mind you, the faciltities are excellent.

Splodge also pointed out the man to watch, striker Robbie Tambling. He should be playing at a higher level, but he has an annoying habit, blacking out during the game.

No such dramas this afternoon, and Tambling scored two goals in 30 minutes, the second due to a horrendous goalkeeping error. I settled down to enjoy an easy home win, but Fareham stopped asking the correct questions.

I began to question my loyalties, the hopper in me hoped that Alresford would take advantage of Fareham’s defensive frailties, the mate of Splodge’s hoped otherwise. We both got our wish, of a fashion. Alresford converted a slightly dubious penalty, but that was the extent of the threat, and in the end the victory was easier than the scoreline suggests.

And this will be the shape of things to come for this season. I’d like to visit more of the clubs frequented by my mates. Any suggestion of where I should go next?



Mr S P Lodge



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