Thursday, September 13, 2018
K sera sera
Hassocks 0 K Sports 2
First up, I now run a little Youtube channel and you can have a walk around this ground and watch a few clips from the game here https://youtu.be/z6rCUGABAo4
Following the railway timetable fiasco, our half hourly service into London is now only every hour. Despite the fact that you now get 8 carriages instead of 4, I still did not manage to get a seat. On arriving at Kings Cross, there was clearly some kind of event going on as there were people everywhere and lots of security types with high viz jackets. It seemed to be something to do with Harry Potter but I'm not sure what. Platform 9 3/4 is an amazing money spinner, it doesn't matter when you go, there are always crowds at least 25 deep waiting to have their photo taken.
I had a 45 minute wait at St Pancras, most of which i spent people watching down on the platform. People are strange at times, let's just leave it at that.
I had a young Asian girl next to me who spent the majority of the journey to Hassocks on her phone, talking to a friend about a property she was going to view. After about 45 minutes, she announced that she thought she was going to take it. The tension leading up to this had been almost unbearable from a one side of the conversation perspective, yet how she could suddenly make this decision without laying eyes on the premises, baffled me somewhat.
I took a slight wrong turning out of the station and ended up in the high street. Not overly long with a handful of shops including a Sainsbury's. I actually bought a wrap from Marks & Spencer and had that as my lunch on the train, definitely a sign of being middle aged.
The ground is only a 10-15 minute walk. AS so often this summer, it was a beautiful day and the perfect surroundings to be at. The ground has a bank at one end giving you a nice raised view, there are a few wooden benches littered around the ground, there was a smallish clubhouse with a tea hut, a stand with about a 100 seats. Lovely views across the Downs (Why are they not called Ups?) where you can see two windmills that sit hand in hand next to each other, charmingly known as locally as Jack and Jill.
The game itself was a fairly even affair, although Hassocks had not cutting edge. K Sports won it with a low drive on 41 minutes and a lob on 87 minutes.
The perfect location for a warm, summer day.
First up, I now run a little Youtube channel and you can have a walk around this ground and watch a few clips from the game here https://youtu.be/z6rCUGABAo4
Following the railway timetable fiasco, our half hourly service into London is now only every hour. Despite the fact that you now get 8 carriages instead of 4, I still did not manage to get a seat. On arriving at Kings Cross, there was clearly some kind of event going on as there were people everywhere and lots of security types with high viz jackets. It seemed to be something to do with Harry Potter but I'm not sure what. Platform 9 3/4 is an amazing money spinner, it doesn't matter when you go, there are always crowds at least 25 deep waiting to have their photo taken.
I had a 45 minute wait at St Pancras, most of which i spent people watching down on the platform. People are strange at times, let's just leave it at that.
I had a young Asian girl next to me who spent the majority of the journey to Hassocks on her phone, talking to a friend about a property she was going to view. After about 45 minutes, she announced that she thought she was going to take it. The tension leading up to this had been almost unbearable from a one side of the conversation perspective, yet how she could suddenly make this decision without laying eyes on the premises, baffled me somewhat.
I took a slight wrong turning out of the station and ended up in the high street. Not overly long with a handful of shops including a Sainsbury's. I actually bought a wrap from Marks & Spencer and had that as my lunch on the train, definitely a sign of being middle aged.
The ground is only a 10-15 minute walk. AS so often this summer, it was a beautiful day and the perfect surroundings to be at. The ground has a bank at one end giving you a nice raised view, there are a few wooden benches littered around the ground, there was a smallish clubhouse with a tea hut, a stand with about a 100 seats. Lovely views across the Downs (Why are they not called Ups?) where you can see two windmills that sit hand in hand next to each other, charmingly known as locally as Jack and Jill.
The game itself was a fairly even affair, although Hassocks had not cutting edge. K Sports won it with a low drive on 41 minutes and a lob on 87 minutes.
The perfect location for a warm, summer day.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
It's a 'sham
Melksham 2 Tring Athletic 1
Oh, if I could just get into London reliably, this groundhopping lark would be so much easier. Some issue on my first journey meant that trains were running at least 25 minutes late. I actually ended up getting the train before the one I headed for which then didn't stop at two of the usual stations. Very harsh on people who had to get off and wait another 30 minutes for the next one. Shambles!
Then the tube line wasn't running, so I had to re-direct taking two different tube lines and finally made it to Paddington with little time to spare.
I had to take the train to Chippenham and then change for a short journey to Melksham. The female train guard on this service seemed to know everyone and pulled one young lady up for not buying a ticket two weeks earlier. She seemed to have a complete handle on who everyone was, what they were doing and where they were going. It was great to see her in action.
Melksham was a slightly odd place, walking from the station to the town, I came across a subway with a weirdly big spiral footpath. Would work for people with pushchairs etc, but a simple flight of steps for other people would have saved a lot of time and effort.
I was happy to unexpectedly bump into a Wetherspoon's and was intrigued to discover that they had started selling pizza on their menu. My pizza came quickly and although it would not win any awards, it was not half bad.
I was slightly unsure of my direction, so went up an alley that pointed towards the tourist information. I must have walked 5 minutes and never did find it, or the post office that was supposedly down the same track. Where are they??????????
I eventually figured out my route which was a longer walk than I had anticipated.
It was about 20-25 minutes from town, it was set just off a new looking housing estate and is actually in an excellent location.
Once I reached the turning to the ground, it still took 5 minutes walking up the path until I actually reached a good sized car park and the entrance.
The ground was a modern looking construction, an interesting looking high stand, but it didn't seem to have mush cover from the elements. A small, more traditional stand was on the other side. The whole place was neat and tidy with plenty of room for expansion.
I liked the touch of having ball girls during the game and their rotation of sitting spots every 5-10 minutes was a bright idea to keep themselves warm.
Melksham scored twice in the first quarter of an hour and despite Tring getting one back on 40 mins, they held on to win reasonably comfortably.
A bugger to get back from on public transport. I actually booked a cab to take me to Chippenham and picked up my train from there.
Oh, if I could just get into London reliably, this groundhopping lark would be so much easier. Some issue on my first journey meant that trains were running at least 25 minutes late. I actually ended up getting the train before the one I headed for which then didn't stop at two of the usual stations. Very harsh on people who had to get off and wait another 30 minutes for the next one. Shambles!
Then the tube line wasn't running, so I had to re-direct taking two different tube lines and finally made it to Paddington with little time to spare.
I had to take the train to Chippenham and then change for a short journey to Melksham. The female train guard on this service seemed to know everyone and pulled one young lady up for not buying a ticket two weeks earlier. She seemed to have a complete handle on who everyone was, what they were doing and where they were going. It was great to see her in action.
Melksham was a slightly odd place, walking from the station to the town, I came across a subway with a weirdly big spiral footpath. Would work for people with pushchairs etc, but a simple flight of steps for other people would have saved a lot of time and effort.
I was happy to unexpectedly bump into a Wetherspoon's and was intrigued to discover that they had started selling pizza on their menu. My pizza came quickly and although it would not win any awards, it was not half bad.
I was slightly unsure of my direction, so went up an alley that pointed towards the tourist information. I must have walked 5 minutes and never did find it, or the post office that was supposedly down the same track. Where are they??????????
I eventually figured out my route which was a longer walk than I had anticipated.
It was about 20-25 minutes from town, it was set just off a new looking housing estate and is actually in an excellent location.
Once I reached the turning to the ground, it still took 5 minutes walking up the path until I actually reached a good sized car park and the entrance.
The ground was a modern looking construction, an interesting looking high stand, but it didn't seem to have mush cover from the elements. A small, more traditional stand was on the other side. The whole place was neat and tidy with plenty of room for expansion.
I liked the touch of having ball girls during the game and their rotation of sitting spots every 5-10 minutes was a bright idea to keep themselves warm.
Melksham scored twice in the first quarter of an hour and despite Tring getting one back on 40 mins, they held on to win reasonably comfortably.
A bugger to get back from on public transport. I actually booked a cab to take me to Chippenham and picked up my train from there.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Desborough's day turns Stour
Desborough Town 2 Stourport Swifts 4 aet
Hold the front page! My first train actually arrived 3 minutes early. I think in 20 years it had once turned up 1 minute early, 3 minutes is simply unheard of. A simple start to the journey, no tube involved, just a stroll across the road to St Pancras. I had a bit of time on my hands, so decided to search around for lunch inspiration. I really wasn't feeling it. No sandwich either caught my imagination, or if it did, it seemed to be ridiculously overpriced. I ended up buying a very reasonably priced packet of chocolate digestives from M&S for 86p. Took me all day, but I'm embarrassed to say that I ate the whole lot of them.
The train journey from London to Kettering went without incident. I don't know Kettering so well having only been there once before and that was when I had to divert on my way home. So the issue I had was to find the bus stop. I headed towards the town centre signs, headed for the shops and more by luck than judgement, bumped into a whole row of bus stops. Took me a while to find the right one and when I did, there was under 5 minutes to wait. Good job as it was bloody freezing and felt like it was in a wind tunnel.
The bus journey to Desborough was supposed to take 35 minutes but I was there in only 15-20. A small town but with good facilities and a fair number of shops.
In search of a proper lunch, I walked into a pub next to the bus stop and promptly walked straight out again. Sometimes you just get a bad feeling about places.
So I ended up with a bag of chips from the chippy in town, unremarkable but very nice and warming.
I then popped into Coral's to pass a bit of time, through an each way bet on a 12/1 shot at Wincanton that led all the way from the start until about 50 yards from the finish when it got beaten into second. Still left with a proffit though.
The walk to the ground was about 10 minutes from the town, all along a straight road and extremely easy to find.
It is a striking ground, visit if you can. The floodlights are old school affairs, towering into the sky at each corner and looking like they were pulled straight out of my 1970's Subuteo set, I loved them! There is also a water tower in one corner that again, gives the place a unique look. There is a clubhouse just before the ground entrance that was absolutely packed when I popped in at half time. However, they had sensibly seperated the hot food and hot drinks counter which enabled the queues to keep moving. Lots of cover, standing cover along the majority of the near end, more covered standing on the near side along with a seating area that had wooden benches.
I was sitting in this area before kick-off reading the programme and was joined by an ex UCL referee. He was good company and i actually stayed in the stand for the whole game, something that I rarely do.
The game itself was great, Stourport took an early lead, but Desborough always looked dangerous in attack and equalised before half time. Stouport went ahead again right at the start of the second half but Desborough once again equalised midway through the period and took the tie to extra time.
Stourport eventually won it with 2 goals in the final extra time period.
One of those grounds that I was so pleased to have made the effort to visit, take a look around if you want on my Youtube channel through the link below, even better, visit if you can, you will not be disappointed.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoaZyU-Cu-mX5PVYzUFqgzw?view_as=subscriber
Hold the front page! My first train actually arrived 3 minutes early. I think in 20 years it had once turned up 1 minute early, 3 minutes is simply unheard of. A simple start to the journey, no tube involved, just a stroll across the road to St Pancras. I had a bit of time on my hands, so decided to search around for lunch inspiration. I really wasn't feeling it. No sandwich either caught my imagination, or if it did, it seemed to be ridiculously overpriced. I ended up buying a very reasonably priced packet of chocolate digestives from M&S for 86p. Took me all day, but I'm embarrassed to say that I ate the whole lot of them.
The train journey from London to Kettering went without incident. I don't know Kettering so well having only been there once before and that was when I had to divert on my way home. So the issue I had was to find the bus stop. I headed towards the town centre signs, headed for the shops and more by luck than judgement, bumped into a whole row of bus stops. Took me a while to find the right one and when I did, there was under 5 minutes to wait. Good job as it was bloody freezing and felt like it was in a wind tunnel.
The bus journey to Desborough was supposed to take 35 minutes but I was there in only 15-20. A small town but with good facilities and a fair number of shops.
In search of a proper lunch, I walked into a pub next to the bus stop and promptly walked straight out again. Sometimes you just get a bad feeling about places.
So I ended up with a bag of chips from the chippy in town, unremarkable but very nice and warming.
I then popped into Coral's to pass a bit of time, through an each way bet on a 12/1 shot at Wincanton that led all the way from the start until about 50 yards from the finish when it got beaten into second. Still left with a proffit though.
The walk to the ground was about 10 minutes from the town, all along a straight road and extremely easy to find.
It is a striking ground, visit if you can. The floodlights are old school affairs, towering into the sky at each corner and looking like they were pulled straight out of my 1970's Subuteo set, I loved them! There is also a water tower in one corner that again, gives the place a unique look. There is a clubhouse just before the ground entrance that was absolutely packed when I popped in at half time. However, they had sensibly seperated the hot food and hot drinks counter which enabled the queues to keep moving. Lots of cover, standing cover along the majority of the near end, more covered standing on the near side along with a seating area that had wooden benches.
I was sitting in this area before kick-off reading the programme and was joined by an ex UCL referee. He was good company and i actually stayed in the stand for the whole game, something that I rarely do.
The game itself was great, Stourport took an early lead, but Desborough always looked dangerous in attack and equalised before half time. Stouport went ahead again right at the start of the second half but Desborough once again equalised midway through the period and took the tie to extra time.
Stourport eventually won it with 2 goals in the final extra time period.
One of those grounds that I was so pleased to have made the effort to visit, take a look around if you want on my Youtube channel through the link below, even better, visit if you can, you will not be disappointed.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoaZyU-Cu-mX5PVYzUFqgzw?view_as=subscriber
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Bracknell Lord it
Lordswood 0 Bracknell Town 1
Rail delays, ah rail delays. The bane of my life. But for once, they worked in my favour. I forget what lame excuse it was this time, but I actually caught the train before the one I was aiming for as it was 25 minutes late. Needless to say, we were packed in like sardines and people were unable to actually get on the train. Never mind, they’re putting the fares up in January and that will fix everything.
My connection was from St Pancras and I looked longingly to the adjacent platform, where folk were excitedly boarding the Eurostar for a trip to Paris. I would happily go anywhere right no so long as it was warm!
Chatham was a lot bigger than I had realised and the traffic through the town centre, seemed to be at a standstill. On route to the bus station, I had to walk along some weird raised boarding that took me round some construction work and then I very reluctantly had to walk past a Wetherspoon’s without going in.
Not to long a wait for the bus and I boarded for the 30 minute journey to Lordswood. All was going well, lots of people getting off but the traffic was moving and I was in good time. Then out of nowhere, as the bus pulled away from a stop, the driver managed to smack the wing mirror into the bus stop, there was a horrible, wrenching noise and the whole wing mirror and arm crashed to the ground with an almighty thud, a good job nobody was standing there!
Need;ess to say, the bus couldn’t carry on and we all had to wait for the next bus which arrived after about 10 minutes. This of course ended up being packed solid although it had thinned out by the time we reached Lordswood.
I had to walk along a raised stretch of pavement for about 10 minutes to reach my destination. This was a proper sports complex with a facility for cricket, rugby, pertank and many other sports. A bit in the middle of nowhere but an excellent facility none the less.
The ground was fairly basic with one small stand and a clubhouse a few minutes walk from the pitch that served decent food. I however, stayed in the ground and ordered a burger from the tea hutch. Not at all bad andwas served up straight from a hot grill.
The game was not at all bad, Bracknell were always the better team and probably deserved to win by more than one goal. The only goal came on 10 minutes from one of Bracknell’s excellent two tricky wingers.
Not the easiest place to reach and adventures along the way, good to get this ticked off.
Rail delays, ah rail delays. The bane of my life. But for once, they worked in my favour. I forget what lame excuse it was this time, but I actually caught the train before the one I was aiming for as it was 25 minutes late. Needless to say, we were packed in like sardines and people were unable to actually get on the train. Never mind, they’re putting the fares up in January and that will fix everything.
My connection was from St Pancras and I looked longingly to the adjacent platform, where folk were excitedly boarding the Eurostar for a trip to Paris. I would happily go anywhere right no so long as it was warm!
Chatham was a lot bigger than I had realised and the traffic through the town centre, seemed to be at a standstill. On route to the bus station, I had to walk along some weird raised boarding that took me round some construction work and then I very reluctantly had to walk past a Wetherspoon’s without going in.
Not to long a wait for the bus and I boarded for the 30 minute journey to Lordswood. All was going well, lots of people getting off but the traffic was moving and I was in good time. Then out of nowhere, as the bus pulled away from a stop, the driver managed to smack the wing mirror into the bus stop, there was a horrible, wrenching noise and the whole wing mirror and arm crashed to the ground with an almighty thud, a good job nobody was standing there!
Need;ess to say, the bus couldn’t carry on and we all had to wait for the next bus which arrived after about 10 minutes. This of course ended up being packed solid although it had thinned out by the time we reached Lordswood.
I had to walk along a raised stretch of pavement for about 10 minutes to reach my destination. This was a proper sports complex with a facility for cricket, rugby, pertank and many other sports. A bit in the middle of nowhere but an excellent facility none the less.
The ground was fairly basic with one small stand and a clubhouse a few minutes walk from the pitch that served decent food. I however, stayed in the ground and ordered a burger from the tea hutch. Not at all bad andwas served up straight from a hot grill.
The game was not at all bad, Bracknell were always the better team and probably deserved to win by more than one goal. The only goal came on 10 minutes from one of Bracknell’s excellent two tricky wingers.
Not the easiest place to reach and adventures along the way, good to get this ticked off.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Go West
Westfield 1 Canterbury City 0
Take a walk around Westfield FC with me here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt14-FWR0mk
I've now visited 569 grounds. Not a patch on some peoples totals, but I'm more than happy with my effort. But I'd never been to Woking!
I try to visit as many different leagues as I can each season and that means I still have clubs to see at Conference level. And for some reason, I've never done Woking FC.
So coming to Westfield, was a bit of a novelty for me as it's situated only a stone throw from Woking FC's ground.
Needless to say, my intended train to London was cancelled, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks and I'd checked the online departure board so was able to leave a shade early and catch the train before. Plenty of trains from Waterloo, although the one I caught seemed to crawl all the way.
It had been a fairly grotty morning and was still raining when I arrived in Woking. But I was eyeing up a Wetherspoon's and took the short divert to The Herbert Wells.
I'm not a curry lover, but for some reason I was drawn the the chef's special Chicken Balti. What a choice! Absolutely delicious and came with jasmine rice, 2 popadoms and a Naan bread, all washed down with a pint of Jouster.
Still raining when I left the pub and with time to kill, I diverted to Ladbrokes to idle away 30 mins. I bet each way on a horse at Wincanton which in a 2m4F race, was in the first three for the entire race until about the last 20 yards when it fell back to 4th.
The rain had finally subsided and it was surprisingly warm for November. I guss it's about a 20 minute walk from the station to the ground although I feel I probably didn't take the most direct route. My way did take me past Woking FC, so I can now at least say that I've seen it from a distance.
I actually somehow missed the entrance to Woking Park and ended up wandering along endless side streets.
When I did find Woking Park, it is quite an impressive facility. I saw a roller park, a boxing club and a scout centre.
The ground itself is a little odd, the bar is up a flight of stairs and there's a balcony where folk stand to watch the game. There's a section of seating under this and also a small isolated little stand behind the far goal. Friendly people though who seemed to take a real pride in keeping their club ticking over.
The scout centre was next to where I was standing and as the game started, a hoard of young children arrived for a birthday party. I was then treated to the thump, thump of disco music and children's entertainers desperately trying to get these kids to yell at the top of their voice. This kind of distracted me a little from the game for a while as it's difficulty to become engaged with the battle of a cup tie with agadoo assaulting your ear drums.
With a minutes silence being observed for Remembrance day, I was less than impressed to see the referee not even bringing the players on to the pitch until 15:03. We eventually kicked off 7 minutes late. Why????!!!????
The game itself was okay and Westfield deserved their win, the only goal coming in the 23rd minute.
as so often happens, the game was spoilt by the continual arguing, dissent and bickering of the players and benches. Something has to be done and quickly, if grown men want to spend the afternoon arguing, join a debating society!
Anyway, I enjoyed Woking and hope to be back before too long to tick off the town's senior club.
Take a walk around Westfield FC with me here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt14-FWR0mk
I've now visited 569 grounds. Not a patch on some peoples totals, but I'm more than happy with my effort. But I'd never been to Woking!
I try to visit as many different leagues as I can each season and that means I still have clubs to see at Conference level. And for some reason, I've never done Woking FC.
So coming to Westfield, was a bit of a novelty for me as it's situated only a stone throw from Woking FC's ground.
Needless to say, my intended train to London was cancelled, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks and I'd checked the online departure board so was able to leave a shade early and catch the train before. Plenty of trains from Waterloo, although the one I caught seemed to crawl all the way.
It had been a fairly grotty morning and was still raining when I arrived in Woking. But I was eyeing up a Wetherspoon's and took the short divert to The Herbert Wells.
I'm not a curry lover, but for some reason I was drawn the the chef's special Chicken Balti. What a choice! Absolutely delicious and came with jasmine rice, 2 popadoms and a Naan bread, all washed down with a pint of Jouster.
Still raining when I left the pub and with time to kill, I diverted to Ladbrokes to idle away 30 mins. I bet each way on a horse at Wincanton which in a 2m4F race, was in the first three for the entire race until about the last 20 yards when it fell back to 4th.
The rain had finally subsided and it was surprisingly warm for November. I guss it's about a 20 minute walk from the station to the ground although I feel I probably didn't take the most direct route. My way did take me past Woking FC, so I can now at least say that I've seen it from a distance.
I actually somehow missed the entrance to Woking Park and ended up wandering along endless side streets.
When I did find Woking Park, it is quite an impressive facility. I saw a roller park, a boxing club and a scout centre.
The ground itself is a little odd, the bar is up a flight of stairs and there's a balcony where folk stand to watch the game. There's a section of seating under this and also a small isolated little stand behind the far goal. Friendly people though who seemed to take a real pride in keeping their club ticking over.
The scout centre was next to where I was standing and as the game started, a hoard of young children arrived for a birthday party. I was then treated to the thump, thump of disco music and children's entertainers desperately trying to get these kids to yell at the top of their voice. This kind of distracted me a little from the game for a while as it's difficulty to become engaged with the battle of a cup tie with agadoo assaulting your ear drums.
With a minutes silence being observed for Remembrance day, I was less than impressed to see the referee not even bringing the players on to the pitch until 15:03. We eventually kicked off 7 minutes late. Why????!!!????
The game itself was okay and Westfield deserved their win, the only goal coming in the 23rd minute.
as so often happens, the game was spoilt by the continual arguing, dissent and bickering of the players and benches. Something has to be done and quickly, if grown men want to spend the afternoon arguing, join a debating society!
Anyway, I enjoyed Woking and hope to be back before too long to tick off the town's senior club.
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