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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Station Road

Church Going

08 Friday May 2020

Posted by laurencereade in E

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Cardiff, Cardiff Met, Ely Rangers, Station Road, UWIC, Wales, Welsh League, Wenvoe

With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Friday 24th April 2009 ko 19.30

Welsh League Division Two

ELY RANGERS 1 (Penikett 53)

U.W.I.C. 0

Att 88

Entry £3

Programme 50p

The more senior hoppers may look at this game and wonder with my GroundhopUK connections why I wasn’t at the visit here that proceeded the “Welsh Hop-Up” a year earlier? The answer was straightforward- I was in Newport Gwent Hospital’s maternity unit! I’d even travelled down for the game with the ex-wife, but half way down we’d got word that Bethan, our friend from Magor had given birth. Continue reading →

51.448717 -3.264066

The K Took My Stand Away

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by laurencereade in K

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

APM Contrast, Cobdown Sports Club, Ditton, Elmstead, K Sports, Kent County League, Kent Invicta League, Southern Counties East League, Station Road

Friday 4th November 2016 ko 19.45

Southern Counties East League-Division One

K SPORTS 4 (Smith 4 40 Russell 7 Norman 73)

ELMSTEAD FC 1 (Babalola 45)

Entry £5

Programme £2.50

More or less 2 years ago I paid a visit to Kent County League outfit APM Contrast, mainly to gaze upon their wonderfiul pitched roofed stand, a relic from the club’s former guise, Aylesford Paper Mills’ stint in the Kent League, now the Premier Division of the Southern Counties East League. What I and many others who made the journey found was club struggling with the loss of the club’s main source of support, the paper mill and the ground grading realities of regaining their lost status. Continue reading →

51.300117 0.459067

The Gap

02 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by laurencereade in L

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chris Berezai, Coates Athletic, Football, GroundhopUK, Long Buckby, PDFL, Peterborough & District League, Station Road, UCL, United Counties League, Whittlesey Athletic

Friday 29th July 2016 ko 19.45

United Counties League Division One

LONG BUCKBY 4 (Salumu 40 Kostiuk 53 67 Hinton 72)

WHITTLESEY ATHLETIC 1 (Butterworth 78)

Att 201

Entry £6

Programme £1

The third United Counties/ Peterborough & District Leagues hop felt different from its predecessors. The first was very much a trial run, the second based on a theme, the county of Rutland, but this felt like the continuation of a well-established event. That said, the issues running a dual league hop at the start of the season produces issues, and those issues haven’t changed. Continue reading →

52.298190 -1.084871

Blueprint

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by laurencereade in O

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Baston, Chris Berezai, GroundhopUK, Oundle Town, Rutland Weekend Groundhopping, Station Road

Sunday 2nd August 2015 ko 14.00

Peterborough & District League Division One

OUNDLE TOWN 3 (Hipwell 3p C Murphy 45 Kaye 77)

BASTON 4 (C Murphy 31og Pick 49 Waters 58 90p)

Att 321

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

For me the grounds I visit that give me the most satisfaction are the ones that surprise me. There is a tendency amongst the less experienced groundhoppers to treat everything below Step 6 as “Fields” with little other than the game to excite. The truth is that without research you genuinely don’t know what you’ll find. It could be no more than a pitch, or it could be a gem, the trick is to put your prejudices in your back pocket and find out. Continue reading →

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What’s in a name?

10 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by laurencereade in C

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Coates Athletic, Manor Field, Oakham United, Peterborough & District League, Peterborough Northern Star, Station Road, United Counties League, Wayne Oldaker, Whittlesey, Whittlesey Athletic, Whittlesey Blue Star, Whittlesey United

Sunday 3rd August 2014 ko 14.00

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

COATES ATHLETIC 2 (Drane 16 Pell 53) Drane missed penalty 89

OAKHAM UNITED 5 (Forbes 15 18 Nelson 45 82 Caldicot 47)

Att 401 

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £3

Let me tell you a secret; on every groundhop that’s ever been organised, whether by GroundhopUK or our friends, there has always been a “Problem child,” club. They’re the club who don’t take advice, don’t communicate with the organisers, or in the case of one, fold altogether 2 weeks before the event! Its the task of whoever’s organising the hop to work with that club to get that club, at worst, up to an acceptable level.

Continue reading →

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Illuminate

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by laurencereade in C

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Adam Clayton, Brian King, Chinnor, Fllodlights, Floodlights, Gareth Tucker, Hellenic hop, hellenic league, John McMahon, Oxford City, Paul Alder, Quarry Nomads, Station Road, Stuart Cattell, U2, Wantage Town

Tuesday 25th September 2012 ko 7.45pm
Hellenic League Floodlit Cup 2nd Round

CHINNOR 1 (Cattell 12og)

WANTAGE TOWN 2 (McMahon 23 Alder 28)

Att 93

Entry & Programme £2

The Oxfordshire village of Chinnor really does mark both a geographical and topographical boundary. The limestone escarpment slopes up from the village towards the Bledlow Ridge, and its that escarpment that marks the boundary with Buckinghamshire. Former weatherman Bill Giles lives here, and almost unbelievably, U2 bassist Adam Clayton was born in Chinnor before moving to the Irish Republic aged 5.

It’s been a long time since my last visit to Station Road, I think it was for a Hellenic Hop game against Oxford City’s Reserves, but that was on what’s now Chinnor’s second pitch, and that was just roped off. Ironically given the opposition, soon after they inherited the rail from Quarry Nomads’ Margaret Road home- Oxford City took over the Nomads to get their place in the Hellenic, and soon, the team was wearing City Blue and White, and there was no football at Margaret Road. With there now being no Hellenic hop, it was a straightforward decision to get the new pitch ticked. Judging by the sheer number of hoppers there I wasn’t the only one thinking along these lines!

The Nomads’ rail is still is situ but Chinnor have moved about 50 yards, and a right angle from the clubhouse, itself due to be demolished in favour of something more suitable. It all looks new, clean, and built with precious little thought. The pitch only just fits its footprint, I certainly wouldn’t want to see a goalkeeper at the clubhouse end fall backwards into the goal, he’d hit his head! Whoever decided it was a bright idea to put the two prefabricated stands behind the dugouts obviously hadn’t considered what the view would be like from them. I assume that in time some attempt will be made to enclose the ground, as my £2 entry was taken by me finding a small pile of programmes behind the bar and buying one.

Still, the club is justifiably proud of the progress its made, and Brian King, General Secretary of the League was beaming at being present at the club’s first ever home game under lights. It wasn’t long ago that the club was doing very little in the Oxfordshire Senior League on very little more than a park pitch. But that’s the rub for the club, floodlights aren’t cheap, and the Hellenic League Division One East has only 14 teams in it. It will be interesting to see how many times, save for the mandatory Saturday 3pm kick offs, that the lights actually get used!

It was an odd evening, with a ladies’ circuits class taking place in one corner, and a referee’s assessors’ course separating into gaggles of 5, spread around the pitch. It was one only a few occasions I’ve not looked out-of-place with my clip board.

As perhaps you’d expect, Wantage of the Hellenic Premier were too proficient for their lower-ranked opponents. They had a shock though, when Stuart Cattell attempted an interception, but watched horrified as it looped over Gareth Tucker to give Chinnor an unlikely lead. Wantage soon put that right, and two quick-fire finishes from John McMahon, and Paul Alder gave a more realistic view of the play.

What should have been a simple second half was made more difficult by Wantage easing off and failing to capitalise on they did create and were nearly forced into extra time when Wantage’s Brad Davies header produced a diving save from Tucker, his own keeper with 2 minutes left. That of course exhausted an obvious source of a floodlit game for Chinnor. I wonder when the next will be?




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