Friday 2nd December 2011 ko 7.45pm

Western League Division One

GILLINGHAM TOWN 11 (Thomson 15 Murray 19 80 Gale 28 41 59 Ben Salem 34 49 Compton 68 Ruston 84 Bentall 87og)

SHREWTON UNITED 1 (Judd 37)

Att 93

Entry £4

Programme £1

Badge £2.50

For those not in the know this wasn’t a trip to the Medway town, rather a trip to a small market town 3 miles over the border from Wiltshire into Dorset. The misnomers don’t stop there either, the town is pronounced with a hard “G”- as in what fish breathe with!  The name implies a “homestead of the family or followers of a man called Gylla”, a model consistent with the occupation of Dorset by the Saxons from the 7th century.

In October 1348, fifty percent of the 2,000 people living in the town died of the Black Death in the space of  four months.

I’d pondered hard about whether to go. I’d had an asthma attack the day before, and from work in Banbury it did represent quite a drive, I wasn’t convinced I’d made kick off! Me being me I arrived at 6.30! Soon after the hoppers arrived…Firstly Lee and Gilly, and Jersey based John Treleven, then Calne based Paul Fergusson. It made for a convivial atmosphere, especially with real ale on tap!

Hardings Lane started life as an Continue reading →