Anglian Combination League

Premier Division

Saturday 10th November 2018

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Long Stratton 0 Scole United 0,  attendance 43

@ Long Stratton Playing Field

Manor Road

Long Stratton

NR15 2XR

No Admission

Programme, free, 28 pages.

I headed east today, as there was no rain forecast, which was spot on. This match was 2nd versus 6th in the league table, but it was a really dour match that was mainly played in the middle third of the pitch. It was a couple of minutes into the second half before there was a genuine attempt on goal. The home ‘keeper was sin binned for the last 10 minutes of the first half, but the stand in wasn’t even tested during that time. Scole had two good chances in the second half, but two equally good saves, meant this one finished goalless.

There will be a new changing room building here, replacing the now demolished wooden pavilion, with a few portacabins doing the job temporarily. The club do make a bit of an effort though, as they serve refreshments from a table at pitch side, which is also where the programme is available, although I am pretty sure I was the only one at the match who bothered to get one, despite it being free. The locals obviously knew it was rubbish, as it was a really poor effort and not worth bothering with and yet another reminder why programmes are dying out. The fixture page for the Reserves was for last season and showed the next home match as being on 21st April ! There were also final league tables for last season, which is a total waste of time.

Belgium

West Vlaanderen Provincial 4A

Friday 9th November 2018

Kick Off 20.00 Actual 20.01

Jeugd Voetbal Lo-Reninge 3 White Star Bulskamp 0,  attendance 38

6’ 1-0 (pen)

12’ 2-0

49’ 3-0

@ Lostraat 10A

8647 Lo-Reninge

€5 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

This match was brought forward to Friday evening to avoid clashing with Armistice Day commemorative events in the town on Sunday.

The match was 5th versus 11th in the league table and was pretty much one way traffic once the hosts converted an early penalty. Bulskamp did improve late in the second half, but as they were already 3-0 down by then, there was no way back for them.

For once, The Tunnel was running to schedule, at least on the outbound leg. We were booked on the 14.50 going out, but the earliest we could get back after the match was the 00.26 on Saturday morning. It left six minutes late, then lost another six minutes on the published crossing time, but by the recent standards of Eurotunnel, that is as good as it gets. Once again the M20 was closed between Junction 9 and 7 for our return drive home.

Below photo : The opening goal, scored from the penalty spot.

British Universities & Colleges Sport

South Eastern 1A

Wednesday 7th November 2018

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.03

Surrey University 0 Reading University 1,  attendance 12

38’ 0-1

@ Surrey Sports Park

Richard Meyjes Road

Guildford

GU2 7AD

No Admission or Programme.

I had visited Surrey University before, on 5th November 2008, when they lost 2-3 versus Sussex University in a South Eastern Conference 2A match. The match was played on a pitch immediately on the left when entering Richard Meyjes Road from Egerton Road, when the venue was known as The Varsity Centre. That pitch is now used for rugby and the football have now moved to what is known as Pitch A1, which is adjacent to the main hub of the Surrey Sports Park, a good 3-400 yards away from my last visit.

The match was really poor. It was bottom of the league table, versus top, but lacked any real quality. The only goal of the game was a side footed effort from 12 yards following a cut back from the right. There was a ridiculous colour clash, so Surrey played in yellow bibs, but at least the shirt numbers were still visible. For some reason, teams in the B.U.C.S. competition never have an alternate shirt colour with them, despite the website clearly showing the team colours on the fixture page.

South West Peninsula League

Premier Division

Tuesday 6th November 2018

Kick Off 19.30 Actual 19.31

Sticker 1 Helston Athletic 3,  attendance 63

20’ 0-1

48’ 0-2

53’ 1-2

80’ 1-3

@ Burngullow Park

Burngullow Lane

off St. Stephens Road

Sticker

PL26 7EN

£5 Admission

Programme, free, 10 page shell with 4 page insert.

Thankfully, Sticker have an excellent pitch that drains well. If I had believed the BBC Weather forecast, there is no way I would have risked travelling to Cornwall tonight, as they had shown rain all day, but the Met Office were only showing 3 hours of heavy rain, but that it would be gone before kick off, then remaining pretty much dry for the rest of the evening. Apart from three or four heavy showers during the match, it did remain dry for the large part and the pitch was in superb condition.

Sticker are really struggling this season and are rooted to the foot of the league table, failing to win any of their 19 league games so far, although they have managed 4 draws. Helston came into this in fourteenth place, so I thought this might be a match that Sticker had a chance of getting something from. Despite conceding the first goal, Sticker could have been in front before halftime, as they hit the crossbar twice with the ‘keeper well beaten both times and with a bit of luck it could have turned the game round. When the visitors made it 0-2 early in the second half I thought that was it, but Sticker reduced the arrears within five minutes and were well in the game until Helston finally made it 1-3 with ten minutes left. The run of games without a win for Sticker now extends to 20, although having won games in the cups this season, surely it is only a matter of time before they break their duck in the league.

This now completes the top division for me and was also the last of the floodlit grounds I had left to visit in the league. It leaves just Bere Alston United, Ludgvan and Waldon Athletic to do now and as none of them have floodlights, then it may be a while before I get to any of them.

The journey home was very wet and windy. It rained constantly from Bodmin to the M25 and despite the A30 being closed near Tedburn St. Mary, I was still home for 01.30.

Belgium

Division 2 Amateurs V.F.V. A

Sunday 4th November 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.02

K.F.C. Mandel United Izegem-Ingelmunster 1 K. Olympia Sportkring Club Wijgmaal 0,  attendance 259

90’ + 4, 1-0

@ Gemeentelijk Sportstadion

Bollewerpstraat 92B

8770 Ingelmunster

€12 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

Today, I was offered the chance to be dropped off in Ingelmunster, as the driver was heading off to watch Division 3 Amateur club K.F.C. Merelbeke, who are playing this season at the ground of Oost Vlaanderen Provincial club J.V. De Pinte. I had already visited that ground, but as my choice of match was en route, then it made perfect sense to be dropped here, especially as the ground here is supposed to be being vacated in the near future. With the match in Merelbeke kicking off half an hour earlier than ours, it meant the three of us being left here had plenty of time to stroll around the town (not that there is much to see !) then on to the stadium. Arriving here early meant we were in the clubhouse before the admission was being taken on the gate, and unusually for games in Belgium, they didn’t come round to collect any money from anyone already in the ground.

K.F.C. Mandel United Izegem-Ingelmunster is the result of a merger in 2017, between K.F.C. Izegem and Olympic Molen Sport Ingelmunster, with the first team playing matches here in Ingelmunster. Luckily, I had managed a visit to the ground of K.F.C. Izegem, when I saw them lose 1-2 to K. Racing Club Gent Zeehaven, in a Belgian League Division 3A match on 11th September 2013.

In Belgium, they have a system of qualifying for the end of season promotion play offs, by splitting the season into ‘periods’, where whoever finishes top of each set of 10 league matches advances to the play offs, along with the actual league champions. The system is not perfect, but it does mean clubs can be rewarded for going on a bit of a winning streak at various stages of the season.

It was all to play for in this match, with four teams still being in with a chance of finishing the day on top of the league table. K. Sint-Eloois-Winkel Sport were leading the way with 19 points, ahead of today’s visitors K. Olympia S.C. Wijgmaal, who were on the same points. K.F.C. Sparta Petegem were third, on 18 points, one above today’s hosts.

This was a pretty cagey match, with very few clear cut chances being created in the first half. For some reason, Ingelmunster came out for the second half having had a change of kit. The red shirts and black shorts were replaced by white shirt and shorts. The second half had more energy and the hosts began to build more pressure. They certainly stepped it up during the last quarter of an hour and were helped when Wijgmaal were reduced to ten men on 83 minutes, with a straight red card for a foul. Deep into stoppage time, a cut back on the right was diverted past his own ‘keeper by a defender attempting to block the cross. Judging by their desperation to get the goal, Ingelmunster must have known that St-Eloois-Winkel had lost 1-3 at home and Sparta Petegem had drawn 0-0 away. If they had kept a clean sheet, it would have been Wijgmaal that topped the table, but as it was, it was Ingelmunster who booked their ticket for the end of season play offs.

The driver was already waiting for us after the match and we were checked in at The Tunnel by 18.27, which was ample time for our booked 19.20 return. Unfortunately, Eurotunnel were once again providing their regular joke service, and for the second time in four days, it was their customers who would suffer their incompetence. They claimed that a train was broken down in the tunnel and their answer was just to suspend all trains, rather than moving the obstacle hastily……it is not like they haven’t faced the problem before, as it happens most days !

Again, we had continual lies of possible departures shown on the screens, with them adding half hour at a time to the expected delays. We eventually departed at 22.34…….3 hours 14 minutes late !!!!!!!

The delays in Calais also meant we would have the possible closure of the M20 to deal with as well. And yes, sure enough we did. It was closed from Junction 9 to Junction 7, which is pretty much the longest section you get on here. I finally got home at 23.50, which is unbelievable for a match that is only 158 miles away.

East Sussex League

Premier Division

Saturday 3rd November 2018

Kick Off 14.00. On Time !

Rye Town 1 Sidley United 4,  attendance 44

6’ 0-1

24’ 1-1

38’ 1-2

60’ 1-3 (pen)

63’ 1-4 (pen)

@ Rye Rugby Union Football Club

New Road

Rye

TN31 7LS

No Admission or Programme.

Having visited Rye United back on 7th October 2008, I never expected to return to the town to see another match. The game that day was played at The Salts, in Fishmarket Road, which is also home to the local Cricket Club, where they beat Bexhill United 2-1 in a Sussex County League, Division 2 match. The club withdrew from the league on 20th March 2014 with immediate effect.

Football returned to the town for the 2016/17 season, when the newly formed Rye Town joined the East Sussex League, also playing at The Salts. However, this season they have moved half a mile out of town, playing on a pitch at Rye Rugby Club, which according to people connected with the home club is for the entire season, although they would like to make it a permanent move.

Today’s match was 6th versus 4th in the league table and it seemed to be a real grudge match. Sidley opened the scoring early on, but Rye headed in an equaliser from a corner. Sidley regained the lead before the break, then scored twice from the penalty spot around the hour mark to sew the game up. Rye had a player sin binned after 70 minutes, but he was only off the pitch for seven minutes, rather than the stipulated ten.

Below photo : The Salts, now minus the floodlights from the Sussex County League days.

Belgium

West Vlaanderen Provincial Cup

1/8 Final

Thursday 1st November 2018

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

S.K. Staden 1 S.K. Nieuwkerke 1 (2-4 pens),  attendance 116

50’ 0-1

75’ 1-1

@ Sportcentrum De Wankaarde

Bruggestraat 41

8840 Staden

€5 Admission (€6 for league matches)

Team Sheet, free.

1st November is celebrated in Belgium as All Saints’ Day and taken as a Bank Holiday. Quite a few of the provinces play a round of their Provincial Cup matches on this day and even better for us is that most are played in the afternoon, so perfect for a day trip.

We were on the 09.20 Tunnel from Folkestone, although this was retimed to 09.24, then still left a minute late, but we were in Calais just after eleven, then it was only a 1 hour 20 minute drive to Staden.  On arrival at the ground we were greeted by two very friendly locals who were taking the admission money and later in the day we were all given a club scarf as a souvenir of our visit here today, which was a nice gesture.

The clubs women’s team were playing a cup match on the main pitch when we arrived, having kicked off at noon (they won 5-2), but that finished just over ten minutes before our game was due to start, so it wasn’t a problem, especially as the players had done their warm ups on a back pitch. We had already eaten in the town before the match, but unusually for a game in Belgium, hot food was available inside the ground, with hot dogs and burgers on offer, so we wouldn’t have gone hungry !

Staden are in sixth place in the league table of Provincial 3A (they were relegated from Provincial 2 at the end of last season), with Nieuwkerke being eighth in Provincial 2B. The first half had very few clear cut chances, but the visitors broke the deadlock with a bit of a scuffed effort early in the second half, before Staden levelled it up with a header fifteen minutes from the end. They nearly won it, when the move of the match culminated in a left footed volley being tipped over the crossbar by the visiting ‘keeper.

With no extra time, we went straight to penalties to decide a winner. Nieuwkerke went first and scored their first three kicks, before missing their fourth. Staden had missed their opener, as well as their fourth, so the visitors scored their next one to win it 2-4, although there was little celebration from them, which seemed strange.

We were back at The Tunnel and through check-in by 17.15 (I had received a text message from Eurotunnel warning of problems at check- in which was obviously not true ?) and through Passport Control less than ten minutes later. Then the fun began……

The schedule was totally messed up. We were booked on the 18.50, which was due out an hour and a half late, caused by delays at Border Control, according to Eurotunnel, which again was not true. As time went on, we were pushed back to a 21.20 departure, which we were actually loaded on, but we then sat there due to a ‘technical’ fault, eventually leaving at 21.54, some 3 hours 4 minutes late !!!!!

Yet again, Eurotunnel showed a total disregard towards their customers. I will once again be sending an e-mail voicing our dissatisfaction with their now ‘normal’ incompetence, once again failing to run to any sort of timetable. The best we can hope for, is a refund on this leg of our journey, which will be £30 in this case. I hate to think what it will be like after Brexit…….