Mid Sussex League
Division 2 North
Saturday 14th December 2024
Kick Off 14.00 On Time!
Ifield Albion 1 Old Oxted Town 1, attendance 15
68’ 1-0
78’ 1-1
@ Cherry Lane Playing Fields, Pitch 2
Cherry Lane
Langley Green
Crawley
RH11 7NX
No Admission or Programme.
I only decided on doing this game about 40 minutes prior to it kicking off. I’d originally intended doing the Premier Division basement battle between Godstone and Ridgewood, at the unusual venue of Oakwood Sports Centre, rather than their normal home ground. No problem confirming both venue change and kick off, via a text message to the home club and I arrived at the ground about 13.10. I was very disappointed to find that it was being played on a brand new 3G caged pitch (no mention of it being 3G on the league website on either their F.A. Full Time or Football Mitoo pages and too new to show on either Google or Apple Maps). It seemed a waste to do a synthetic pitch on such a nice day and a quick check of the fixtures showed that the Ifield Albion game was still on (or at least not yet postponed) at Cherry Lane. The only problem was, I’d already done a pitch here (Phoenix United, on Pitch 6, back in 2013), but according to the website the game today was on Pitch 2 and as it was only 12 minutes drive, I had time to head there and still make it back here if there was a problem.
Entering the car park off Cherry Lane, there is a brick built changing room block next to the car park, with the playing fields split into three distinct sections. There are four pitches, two full size and two that looked smaller (plus 2 cricket squares) in the nearest one, with todays game indeed taking place on Pitch 2, with London Gatwick Airport as a backdrop beyond the far touchline, with a constant stream of planes taking off throughout the game. Pitches 5, 6 and 7 are a bit of a hike from here and there was a game on one of those today, as you could just about make out figures in kits in the distance. Nothing here but a pitch (something you have accept occasionally, especially if you want to complete leagues) and a bit of a soggy walk underfoot to reach it, despite it not having rained that much this week. Cherry Lane is normally one of the first to be called off by Crawley Council when it is wet, so perhaps I’d got lucky today.
The match was 9th versus 5th (out of 11), between the only two teams in the division who were yet to draw a match this season, although today’s result put an end to that. Old Oxted hit the post in the opening minutes, but that was it as far as goal opportunities went for the remainder of the half. Ifield made the breakthrough midway through the second half, when a ball pulled back from the right was finished into the bottom corner. Old Oxted equalised with twelve minutes left, when a corner on the left was headed in from six yards. Not too much goalmouth action, but a decent game nonetheless. It doesn’t look like I missed too much at Godstone either, as that finished 0-0!
Below photo shows the layout of the 4 regular pitches in use here (the ones done are in red) for 1st team matches.
