North Berks League
Division 3
Saturday 16th September 2017
Kick Off 10.45 Actual 10.52
Drayton 7 Uffington United 1, attendance 92
8′ 1-0
16′ 2-0
29′ 3-0
51′ 4-0
55′ 5-0 (pen)
57′ 6-0
67′ 6-1
69′ 7-1
@ Diamond Light Source
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
Chilton
OX11 0DE
£4 Admission, including programme *
* As I will not buy programmes on ground hops organised by Groundhop UK, I jokingly asked the girl on the gate if it was any cheaper to get in if I didn’t want the programme. “Go on then, £2” was the reply. Still £2 more than any other game in this league, but much better than the extortionate £4 that Groundhop UK force the clubs to charge for this level of football.
This was the first of three matches today on the ‘North Berks League Hop’. This match was to be a ‘one off’ at this ground, as it has never been used previously by a Saturday club. Drayton have featured on a previous NBL Hop, when the game was staged on their proper ground in the village, a few miles north of here.
On arrival, it became apparent that both teams were in yellow and black. Both having black shorts and socks, but the Drayton shirts had black stripes. However, due to the colour clash, Drayton played with their shirts inside out, which looked more of a clash than when they were the correct way……plus it meant they had no numbers visible !
This must have been embarrassing for the North Berks League officials in attendance, especially when they went round trying to sell copies of the league handbook, which clearly neither of today’s clubs had bothered to reference following the cock up with the kits !
Even the programme (I was shown a copy by someone) could have done with proof reading, as the front cover stated the ground address as being in ChiltERN, rather than the correct spelling of the village ChiltON !!!!
Two very poor teams, with Uffington being absolutely awful. The only decent player on view was the lad up front for Drayton who bagged four goals. No idea what his number was…… and once again the attendance figure was inflated, with the official attendance according to Groundhop UK being 112.
I had already seen a match at the middle game on the schedule, so was planning to go elsewhere, before returning to take in the third game. After watching this farce, I decided to cut my treble down to a double instead and not bother with the evening match at Westminster.
