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Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Sunday

The Revenge of the Sixth

05 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by laurencereade in G

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bridgend and district league, Bridgend and District Sunday League, Football, Garth Vader, groundhopping, GroundhopUK, Llangeinor, Llangeinor Park, Non League, Sunday, The Seagull, Wales

Sunday 6th May 2018 ko 14.00

Bridgend & District Sunday League- Division One Cup Final

GARTH VADER 3 (Roberts 55 66 Evans 58p)

THE SEAGULL 1 (Jones 9)

Att c70 at Llangeinor FC

Free Entry

To some people’s logic, driving from Long Eaton via Bristol to the valleys north of Bridgend to watch a Sunday League game doesn’t make a lot of sense. In fact to some groundhoppers it made no sense either, and we’re a breed that’s used to travelling long distances for the most obscure of games. But when you boiled this one down it meant complete sense for the purest of reasons- you may not drive for 4 hours for football, but you would to support your friends.

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51.576799 -3.567456

The Pace of Life

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by laurencereade in P

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Ben Tennant, england parish church, Football, groundhopping, Jamie Delahunty, Keiran Doherty, League, Leamington and District, Midland Combination, northamptonshire border, Priors Marston, Robbie Stephans, Southam United, Sunday

Thursday 4th July 2013 ko 19.40

Pre-Season Friendly

PRIORS MARSTON 0

SOUTHAM UNITED 7 (Delahunty 30 Tennant 40 65p 74 Doherty 53 Stephans 78 79)

Att 42

80 minute game

Entry FREE

Programme- No ( you are joking!)

Priors Marston is one of those pretty-as-a-picture villages tucked away so you just have to stumble across them! The village is just about in Warwickshire, around 7 miles from Daventry, and is close to the Northamptonshire border.

The Church of England parish church is dedicated to Saint Leonard and was first built in the 13th century. The tower dates from the 17th and 18th centuries, but the building you see today was largely rebuilt in 1863.

The village school, The Priors School was originally a state school opened in 1847. In August 1996 it was forced to close due to a decline in numbers but after a month of intensive fundraising and planning the school re-opened. It still offered free education to village residents, and also accepted fee paying pupils from further afield. The school raised over £1.2m during 15 years of self regulation until September 2011, when it became one of the first of 22 new free schools to open in the UK. This returned the school to state funding but independently managed.

The Priors Sports Field lies on the edge of the village, on the Byfield Road. There’s a tennis club, but the place is by and large a cricket field that stages football in the winter. In the last few years that’s been even more the case as the Saturday football team withdrew from the Banbury and Lord Jersey League and now only play Sunday football, in the depths of Division 5 of the Leamington and District Sunday League.

With a team so obscure, the fixture attracted a gaggle of hoppers, who 10 minutes before the scheduled 7.00 kick-off looked nervous, especially the one who’d travelled all the way from Leatherhead for this game. Eventually the home players arrived in dribs and drabs, with the lack of urgency that the warm weather seemed to inspire. It didn’t seem to worry the referee, he just had a chat to the Southam players and warmed up lackadaisically.

I took time to explore the pavilion, taking care to avoid the ladies preparing a barbeque for the players. They’d been banned from serving food before half-time, but when was half-time going to be? I discovered that there are plans to demolish the pavilion and replace it with an altogether grander affair. The issue is a common enough one, funding. I have a feeling the old pavilion will be around for a while longer.

The game kicked-off a staggering 40 minutes late, and unsurprising both sides made a slow start, a mixture of legs getting used to playing, and the visitors playing what appeared to their under-18 side. In a truncated game it took a full 30 minutes for the first goal, Jamie Delahunty firing home, and after that the Midland Combination side passed their hosts to death, and the goals came steadily throughout the rest of the game. Ben Tennant scored a hat-trick from the unlikely position of left back, and quite a hat-trick it was! The first was a blast from long distance, the second a penalty, and the third a delicious curling free kick that did just enough to evade the keeper’s despairing outstretched fingers. Goals from Keiran Doherty and a late brace from Robbie Stephans sealed the straightforward victory.

In the final analysis, of course it really doesn’t matter, but the players got a little fitter, the managements learned a little more and the spectators enjoyed a pleasant evening out in the sunshine.





Brave New World

09 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in W

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Arms, Barton, Cuff, Football, Goal, goals, groundhop, groundhopping, Kings, League, Sackey, Sunday, Thames, Upper, Valley, Wheatley

Sunday 9th October 2011 ko 10.30am (approx!)

Upper Thames Valley League Premier Division

KINGS ARMS WHEATLEY 3 (L. Cuff 27 Sackey 30 85)

BARTON UNITED 0

Att 18 (h/c)

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

This was another Peter Hack inspired choice and another of those Sunday League grounds that you can’t do on a Saturday. And this time he decided to come along!

The side plays on the main pitch at Wheatley RUFC just opposite the Wheatley Park Sports Centre, the other pitch was being used by King & Queen Wheatley giving me an excuse to return. The elevated position made it blustery but the view on a clear day would be spectacular.

I have connections with the Barton estate, having grown up on the Risinghurst estate, the other side of the A40 from it, and went to Bayswater School, on the Barton estate itself. I wondered while I was there why the local Saturday side, Headington Amateurs was never mentioned, but the Sunday side was. Nowadays its clear, the Sunday side had the locals, and represented the estate, and bluntly had a fairly fearsome reputation. Barton played Kings Arms in the final game of last season, a shoot out for the championship. The game was switched to Sutton Courtenay for security reasons, and a strong team of referees took the game. Barton lost, amongst much acrimony and alcohol, and so this game we approached with some interest, but trepidation.

We needn’t have worried as that Barton United it transpired have folded, this version is in fact Masons Arms from Headington Quarry, rebranded and moved to Barton Rec’. They’re a friendly enough much, no Stella or Strongbow to be found, but the edge has gone. No players remain from “Old” Barton, and frankly they looked flat.

Kings Arms never looked like be troubled and Referee Neil Evans had little or nothing to do. Three goals went in, each beautifully crafted, and Barton showed little or nothing, other than frustration.

I did find out that many of the “Old Barton” players went to Kidlington Royals. Perhaps I should check them out sometime.

Luke Cuff scores the first
And Barton keeper Billy Geddes looks suitably unimpressed

A well earned half time fag
“Ref! The flag’s come off the stick!”


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