Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Dunston check in at Stansted
Stansted 0 Dunston UTS 2
A bit of a no brainer in choosing the game for this round. I’m not a great lover of the Essex league and therefore tend not to visit grounds as often as I should. But this North v South encounter at a ground in a league that I hadn’t visited this season ticked all the right boxes.
I always seem to moan about the rail service in this blog but yet again it was weekend carnage. This time, Finsbury Park was shut. All the trains into London were calling at all stops & because of the closure, I had to go into London and back out again. Fortunately, I was not affected by the replacement bus service further up the line from me but there were an awful lot of extremely disgruntled rugby fans having a tiresome journey travelling to Twikenham. One last train question. Why, wherever I sit, do I end up with someone sitting behind me bellowing into a mobile phone?
I examined the Good pub guide but there is no entry in Stansted Mountfitchet. But just one step up the line was ‘The Crown’ at Elsenham. This was only a 2 mile walk from Stansted so I headed off to get there early and would walk off my lunch afterwards. A nice little pub, not overcrowded but with a friendly atmosphere. There is a little restaurant area that is the life-blood of so many pubs these days. I was tempted by the blackboard offering homemade pizza. I asked how long that would take to arrive and was put off by the 30 minute wait until I heard that the dough for the base was all made by hand. 30 minutes it was, but my pepperoni pizza when it arrived was absolutely stunning & was washed down by a pint of London pride.
The walk to Stansted was a pleasure on a no over-busy B road on the most gorgeous of afternoons, a real touch of spring in the air. A mate of mine used to live in Stansted when I was a teenager & I enjoyed walking trough the high street, remembering haunts we used to frequent – Happy days!
The ground was very easy to find. A souvenir programme was produced in good numbers & all the volunteers had made a real effort to organise their big day, a credit to the club!
There is a covered, seating area on the near side & a huge mobile phone mast behind the near goal. The pitch encroaches onto the towns, summer cricket pitch but was fully railed off for this match. One small pet hate of mine is when you cannot walk round the whole pitch and this was the case here with the far corner impassable. All the hard standing was quite narrow and it got a bit congested, especially near the tea hut. There was a bar just outside the ground entrance which I didn’t visit as I didn’t spot it until I was inside.
The pitch was very bumpy and it seemed to affect the passing and shooting of all the players with balls constantly scuffed and otherwise mis-directed.
Stansted started the game quite brightly and brought a few useful early saves from the Dunston keeper.But there is a big, dark cloud with the same Vase itinerary as me & it spread over the ground midway through the half. The gloom seemed to descend on to the Stansted players as their energy and confidence sagged. As the half wore on, Dunston were the side on top although their opening goal came out of nothing. A ball was played into the area, the keeper and defender tripped over each other and the ball spat out to the right touchline. An early cross in caught the keeper in no mans land, I’m not sure if he thought it was going over or just couldn’t reach it, but he stood and watched it drop into an empty net. Dunston were the better second half team by a mile, playing with tenacity and enthusiasm. The second goal on 58 mins was also unusual. A ball through saw a defender just ahead of the attacker. He swung wildly at the ball and missed it completely, letting the striker in. This allowed the striker through and the defender pulled him back. This would have been a certain red card if the referee had not played a good advantage. The striker toed a shot at goal, the keeper made a fine save but it trickled over he line. Dunston saw the game out to win a surprisingly one-sided affair.
I enjoyed chatting with a couple of hoppers from Sussex & Worcestershire. One of them even knew of & reads this blog. This made me a happy man and certainly put the gloss on an enjoyable afternoon.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Bloxwich hopes Torn apart
Bloxwich United 2 Torpoint Athletic 3
Just occasionally, thinks come together. My wife and are are fans of the rock band Genesis & there is an extremely good tribute band called G2 who play about a dozen gigs a year. It's not far off listening to the real thing! Anyway, they were playing this Saturday in Bilston. Shall we go & stay over?" my wife asked. I wasn't sure what to do as it was FA Vase last 32 day. Too much to hope that there would be a game nearby. So I examined the draw & couldn't believe my luck as I spotted this game at Bloxwich, only a few miles from our evening venue. So off we all happily went. This was my first trip up the M1 for quite some time. It really does seem to have fallen behind many other motorways. It seemed narrow, busy and in a very poor state of repair. Thankfully, the traffic moved fairly freely all be it at about 50 mph. We had chosen a pub on route from the Good pub guide and ended up at The Pheasant in Withybrook. This place is clearly there for the food market & I've never been presented with so many choices in my life. I full menu on the tables, a specials board with about 20 options and a lunchtime menu with another dozen or so choices. I had no idea what to pick but eventually went for a pork chop with apple sauce & roast potatoes. The food was okay but a bit 'Beefeater' when it arrived & I never did get any apple sauce. Still a quiet little spot that I wouldn't have otherwise bumped into. We found the ground easily despite the seemingly never ending number of traffic lights around Walsall. I arrived at 2:20, paid my entrance and requested a programme only to be fed the line that they had sold out. I've no idea how many they printed but never saw anyone in the ground with a copy. There is cover behind the near goal, the clubhouse was bustling and well staffed with several TV screens. The rest of the ground was in a state of slight dis-repair, every now and then you came across piles of rubbish lying around. It is a proper enclosed football ground with a busy road on one side and a quiet side street on the other. This was a real pudding of a pitch with quite long grass, I'm sure the recent weather has made the groundsman's job almost impossible.
Bloxwich started the better and scored after 12 mins. They looked the more dangerous side although Torpoint were always easy on the eye with their style of play. It looked all over when Bloxwich scored again on 64 mins. But always felt Torpoint would score and that happened on 77 mins when Bloxwich cheaply gave he ball away. Suddenly it was all Torpoint and they won an uncontested penalty for handball on 85 mins and then sent the healthy Cornish contingent home happy by completing a remarkable comeback on 89 mins.
Not my favourite ground by any means but memorable for the fabulous finish this game produced.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Beggars can't be chosers
Stotfold 0 Long Buckby 3
04/12/10
I examined the draw for this round of the Vase & for once made an instant decision. I’d go to Cadbury Heath in Bristol. Yeah right! The cold weather arrived, followed by frost, followed by ice, followed by snow, followed by more snow and with ridiculously low temperatures, I didn’t stand a chance. The one saving grace was that the game was called off on the Friday. To be honest, I’d given up finding anywhere that was on & I wasn’t far wrong. Matches fell on the Friday & Saturday morning left, right & centre. The Saturday itself was a lot warmer than it had been with a balmy 4 degrees rumoured and a gentle thaw was in place. And then a miracle occurred. At about 10:30, a Vase match passed a pitch inspection and the ground in question was Stotfold, a mere 18 miles from home. This turned out to be the only game that beat the freeze. My wife had suggested we go to see Harry Potter & I got the “Oh, for God’s sake” look when I asked who he played for. But to be fair, she kindly offered to drive me if there was a pub lunch in it for her. I looked out the Good pub guide before she had finished her sentence & found the nearest pub we had yet to visit. This turned out to be the Three horseshoes in the village of Hinxworth about 5 miles from the ground. This was a charming place with thatched roof, roaring open fire and a nice selection of food & beer. The welcome could not have been bettered and I started to worry that I’d be late for the game as the barman was so chatty. I had a superb ultimate BLT club sandwich which also had cooked chicken & mayonnaise on the freshest bread I think I’ve ever tasted and all held together with a kebab skewer. It seemed apt to choose a pint of ‘Fireside’ which slipped down very nicely. I highly recommend this pub if you ever get a chance to visit.
Thr ground was easy to find with the lights visible from over a mile away. There is a medium sized stand and another covered standing area. A good clubhouse which was very warming at half time with hot drinks available from the tea hut. It was nice to see a photographer friend of mine who had been re-directed from Vicarage Road to cover this match, clearly the game of the day then!
Gentle drizzle gave way to heavy rain and murk on a desperate afternoon for football. Puddles in the centre circle took me back to the 1970’s., difficult to play in but it’s always amusing when the ball sticks in the water.A reasonably even start and it stayed that way until Long Buckby scored. The first came on 19 mins. A ball over the top through the right channel saw a striker get there just in front of the defender and lob the ball over the keeper. The second came on the half hour and was a nice goal. A nifty one-two on the edge of the area freed the initial passer to niftily loft a finish over the diving keeper. The last goal came on 38 mins as a shot from the right of the area caught a deflection, popped up and was headed into an empty net. The pitch deteriorated in the second half, both sides did well to keep coming although the quality was understandably all over the place and only a couple of handy saves by the two keepers kept the score as it was.
No classic and a ground I’ve visited before but with the conditions we were experiencing, I was grateful for anything.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Old Boys Bustled out.
Bustleholme 2 Barton Town Old Boys 0
I took a leaf out of my wife’s book when choosing the game for this round. I often give her a list of FA cup fixtures at the beginning of the season & ask her to select a game. She always picks a name that she likes. That’s kind of why I selected Bustleholme. An unusual name in a league that I rarely seem to visit. So off I set and encountered a different variety of train woes on the way. Firstly the ticket barriers at Kings Cross were about 25 deep. Honestly, the rail network for a major city in the World is plain embarrassing at weekends. Then on boarding my Virgin train at Euston, we were informed that the computer had stuck and seat reservations had not downloaded. Absolute chaos as people were obviously sitting anywhere & those that had booked seats were not happy to find others in their seats. It didn’t come to blows but there were a couple of near misses. My attempts to read on the journey to Wolverhampton were thwarted by the constant chatter from the couple behind me. I can’t really complain as they were only talking but their conversation was dull beyond belief. The only amusing moment came when we pulled into Coventry & the man stated that he’d been there before. “Oh yes” said the lady. “Yes” said the man, “Melissa sent me to Coventry, Angela sent me to Coventry & Rosie sent me to Coventry”. There was a pause and the lady said, “Why do you always bring Angela into the conversation?” Finally we had an awkward silence for about 5 minutes.
I reached Coseley station and from there it is a straightforward 25 minute walk to the ground initially along some pleasant, quiet roads. On reaching the high street I soon bumped into ‘Frydays chippy & diner’ and had an excellent pie and chips sitting inside and on a proper plate – An excellent lunch. Amusingly there is a newsagents opposite called ‘Fags and mags’, I love bumping into places like this on my travels.
Bustleholme share grounds with Tipton and play at the local leisure complex. It has a running track around the pitch which I hate as it is so difficult to find a good viewing spot. But the facility is fabulous with an excellent building housing a bar and function rooms, several synthetic football pitches and tennis courts and seemingly plenty more besides. This club does everything the right way. They are family/community based and were set up by a group of people who wanted a local team. Their roots are still firmly in the community and a new team has started up every year with the Bustleholme name since its inception. The kids team that warmed up on a separate part of the pitch to the main team before the game had a great time playing on the huge mound behind the far goal during the game & another group of youngsters made excellent ballboys. The PA announcer interviewed both chairman on the pitch before the game with a roaming mic. I think I’ve only seen this sort of thing at Conference level before.
We were treated to a lovely, sunny day although the temperature plummeted when the sun went down. The ground has a reasonable sized stand and an imposing mound towers over the whole far side of the pitch. There was a small portakabin where tea drinks were sold and the ladies did an excellent job. The promised burger van didn’t arrive as it crashed on route & the PA announcer wittily announced that there was plenty of hot food on the M6 if required. To be fair to Bustleholme, they quickly arranged burgers etc to be available in the leisure club on order. Nothing seems to face the officials here!
The game itself was okay without being outstanding. Bustleholme scored on 15 mins when a player was tripped running to meet a low cross but he fell on the ball and it trickled over the line. Barton got more into it and had a lot of possession without looking particularly dangerous. They threw the kitchen sink at Butleholme in the last 15 minutes but fell to the sucker punch counter attack as Bustleholme doubled their lead with literally the last kick of the game.
I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to a club that seems to do everything the right way.
Sunday, October 03, 2010
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