The Netting

02 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by laurencereade in A

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Alresford, Fareham, Football, goals, groundhopping, Llewellyn, Town, Wessex

Tuesday 1st November 2011 ko 7.45pm

Wessex League Premier Division

ALRESFORD TOWN 3 (Saleh 11 32 Llewellyn 40)

FAREHAM TOWN 2 (Tattersall 32 Doswell 81)

Att 59 (h/c)

Entry £5

Programme £1

Tea £1

Cheese & Onion Roll £1.50

Now those of you know I need absolutely no excuse to go a watch a game, but for this one I had no lack of reasons. For one, it involved Fareham which means the presence of Mr Fareham himself, the one and only Splodge! Also present was Callum Smith who very quietly is building up a seriously impressive ground count. His love life is always worth a listen to also! Continue reading →

Unpicked

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in L

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Cup, Football, goals, groundhopping, Locks Heath, Money, Moneyfields, Portsmouth, Wessex

Wednesday 26th October 2011 ko. 7.15pm

Portsmouth Senior Cup 2nd Round

LOCKS HEATH 0

MONEYFIELDS 5 (Brown 12 Gregory 40 64 66 Buttwell 83)

Att 42 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No programme

Tea 50p

A trip to Fareham to see a former Wessex League club who now play in the Hampshire Premier League, where lights are not needed. So, a slightly unnecessary cup game and and an early kick off to beat a curfew and, easy tickings!

So what’s there? Well there’s a clubhouse, and a seperate changing room block, but that belongs to the Sports and Social Club. That said, one window does give a pretty good view of the action when it rains. Which it did, and other than that window there is no cover. In fact what the football ground is, is simply a railed off pitch at one end of a cricket pitch in a pretty nondescript suburb. However there is one thing of note, and that’s the floodlights because they’re portable! Because of the cricket, the club can and do remove the lights out of season. I’ve not seen that before, although I do know of a club looking to install something similar.

The game was pretty much as the scoreline suggests and no, Wessex Premier Moneyfields didn’t put anything like a full first eleven out. They didn’t need to, as at no stage did Locks Heath look capable of mounting a serious challenge. And that dear reader is why the evening’s entertainment fell a little flat. There was nothing to inspire, although Lee West and former Wealdstone kitman Les Bull provided excellent company.

In the end we all got wet, the 3 of us collected a tick apiece but left feeling that we’d achieved nothing much more.

: Someone’s reserved his seat by THAT window!

: Those floodlights

Salem’s Crucible

22 Saturday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in C

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Tags

Cowes, Football, Gillingham, goals, groundhopping, Sports, Town, Wessex, Western, Westwood

Saturday 22nd October 2011 ko 3.00pm

FA Vase 1st Round

COWES SPORTS 3 (Insley 52 57 Williams 87)

GILLINGHAM TOWN 0 Ben Salem sent off 24 (2nd booking-both dissent)

Att c120

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3

Tea-in-a-mug 65p

Coffee-in-a-mug 70p

The idea for this one was Chris Berezai’s. He discovered that Red Funnel do a group off-peak discount on the Sea Cat from Southampton to Cowes. The “group” bit is as little as two, so a return ticket was just a shade over £15.00 for the both of us! What a bargain!

From the harbour it was a 10 minute walk up the hill to Reynolds Close, and Westwood Park. And what a ground it is, with the modern clubhouse, and best of all that stand. Built in the twenties in a weekend, by shipyard workers, yes it does have a number of pillars, but is an icon for a really friendly club. You really do forget you’re watching a club 6 promotions from the football league, they are so well organised and appointed. From Mick the mic on the PA through to the ladies working the tea bar, this was friendly club, who seemed genuinely pleased to host neutrals from Long Eaton and Oxford. Mind you Mick did initially pronounce the visitors’ name with a soft “G.” Its an easy mistake to make, but this is the Gillingham from Dorset, not Kent (Oxford United were playing there by the way), and he was quickly put right. Cowes, like their visitors are in 7th position in a step 6 league, so the match had the potential to test the relative strengths of the Wessex and Western leagues. Continue reading →

That Petrol Emotion

06 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by laurencereade in F

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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.