28 | October | 2023 | Hopping across The Pond

Oxfordshire Senior League

Premier Division

Saturday 28th October 2023

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Brill United 5 Yarnton 2, attendance 33

10’ 1-0

13’ 2-0

45’ 2-1

47’ 3-1

48’ 4-1

60’ 5-1

84’ 5-2 (pen)

@ Brill Sports & Social Club

Church Street

Brill

HP18 9RT

No Admission or Programme.

Ashton Folly had played here in Brill last season and over the summer changed their name to Brill United. As with last season, it was the only ground I hadn’t visited in this division, so it was about time that was put right. The journey from St. Albans took about an hour and having passed through one particularly heavy downpour en route, about fifteen minutes away, I was relieved to see nets and corner flags up on arrival and the players heading out to warm up. At least it remained dry throughout, bar a brief few spots of rain that lasted a couple of minutes, if that.

The ground is shared with the local cricket club. The cricket pitch is in front of the pavilion, with the football pitch beyond, running widthways, on the other side of a tarmac path separating the two and roped along the left hand half of this side only. The two ‘benches’ set up opposite, although no problem accessing all four sides. The view over the countryside beyond the far touchline goes as far as the eye can see and if bird spotting is your thing, well, red kites to be specific, then you can’t get much better than this.

The game was 7th versus 11th in the league table. Brill were 2-0 up after just thirteen minutes, the second goal being a cracker into the top corner, cutting in from the left and finishing right footed leaving the ‘keeper rooted to his spot. Brill then lost their ‘keeper after half an hour, going off injured, with an outfield player taking over. Right on halftime Yarnton finished a ball over the top with an angled shot into the bottom corner, setting it up perfectly for the second half. However, any hope of a comeback soon disappeared, as Brill scored twice in the opening three minutes of the restart. A stooping header, after a corner wasn’t cleared, quickly followed by a shot into the far corner. Goal number five arrived on the hour, finishing one on one, after being played through on goal. With six minutes left Yarnton pulled it back to 5-2, when they scored with a penalty. The stand in ‘keeper was booked for giving away the kick, then sent off when getting a second yellow card, for dissent, after conceding it. So Brill played out the remainder of the game a man short and with their third ‘keeper of the day playing in goal!

Arthurian League

Division 2

Saturday 28th October 2023

Kick Off 10.00 Actual 10.02

Old Albanians 8 Old Chigwellians II 1, attendance 4

9’ 1-0, 15’ 2-0, 31’ 3-0, 45’ 4-0

62’ 4-1, 71’ 5-1, 74’ 6-1, 75’ 7-1, 78’ 8-1

@ The Woollam Playing Fields

Harpenden Road

St. Albans

AL3 6BZ

No Admission or Programme.

Having completed a visit to all the regular home venues for teams in this league last Saturday, it was nice to see this ‘one off’ match moved from their normal 3G pitch at Beaumont School, to the sports ground of St. Albans School, here at The Woollam Playing Fields. I had seen St. Albans Centurions R.L.F.C. play on the main rugby ground at the Old Albanian Sports Club back in 2006, a 6-10 defeat to Bramley in National League 3, but although they share the same entrance, the two complexes are actually separate. The school playing fields are to the north of the two, having its own car park and changing rooms. Typically, numerous pitches, hosting football, cricket and rugby and artificial tennis courts and hockey pitch as well, with today’s game played on ‘Football Pitch 1’, which was absolutely immaculate.

As far as league positions go, this was bottom versus second bottom, although Old Albanians only occupy bottom spot due to a points deduction, although they’d only be third bottom without incurring the penalty! The match wasn’t as one sided as the scoreline suggests, although Chigwellians did collapse late on. It was 4-0 at halftime, despite Albanians having had a player sin binned when it was 2-0. Just after the hour Chigwellians pulled a goal back to make it 4-1, but Albanians soon added another to go 5-1 up. A sin bin for Chigwellians followed immediately and Albanians ran in three goals in the next seven minutes to round off a resounding win.