Spartan South Midlands League

Division 2

Saturday 8th December 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 14.59

Berkhamsted Raiders C.F.C. 2 The 61 F.C. (Luton) 1,  attendance 17

4’ 1-0

16’ 2-0 (pen)

85’ 2-1 (pen)

@ BerkoAstro

Ashlyns School

Chesham Road

Berkhamsted

HP4 3AH

No Admission or Programme.

With this being a 3G Pitch it was a ground I didn’t want to waste a Saturday on. However, despite having floodlights, Raiders have never played a midweek match here, probably due to the small amount of teams in the league, and the fixture scheduling meant they had played all their home games last season quite early on. The same has happened this time round. After today, they only have 2 more home matches to play, with one of them being before Christmas, so the opportunity to tick off this ground is nearly over for another season. With the 12.30 kick off at Old Wykehamists, this was the perfect time to bite the bullet and get this one out of the way.

The journey from Acton was trouble free and I was parked up here by 14.52. To be fair, despite my trepidation, the ground wasn’t as bad as I had feared. Okay, it is in a cage, with spectator access limited to a small section of one side, but it does have a good sized seated stand and with such a small crowd the view from here was fine. There were two temporary dugouts on the far side, but these were soon dismantled, as they were being battered by the wind and becoming a safety issue.

Raiders started the day in third place in the league table, whilst the visitors were eleventh. A blistering start from the hosts saw them score two early goals, but the game seemed to go off the boil from then on. The 61 F.C. came into it more during the second half and had they scored their goal a little bit earlier, then they might have got a draw. With seven minutes of added time at the end of the second half, this didn’t finish until 16.54.

This now leaves Division 1 and 2 of this league complete. Just Crawley Green to do in the top division, which although it is another 3G, at least it is a proper ground, where there was originally a grass pitch, when it was home to Isthmian League club, Vauxhall Motors, who vacated the ground back in 1991.

Arthurian League

Premier Division

Saturday 8th December 2018

Kick Off 12.30. On Time !

Old Wykehamists 2 Old Bradfieldians 0,  attendance 7

50’ 1-0 (pen)

77’ 2-0

@ Club Des Sports, 3G Pitch

The Park Club

East Acton Lane

Acton

London

W3 7HB

No Admission or Programme.

It is nice to see that not all venues that have 3G Pitches installed have to have them inside soulless cages, with little or no spectator access. In fact, if it wasn’t for the spare sets of goal posts dotted around the inside of the rail, you could watch this match without really noticing that it wasn’t being played on grass. The only downside here, is the fact that you have to pay to park your car inside the barriered car park, at a cost of £1.50 per hour, with payment only possible by bank card. As I only arrived at 12.20, at least I was only charged for 2 hours parking.

The game, which was 7th versus 2nd in the league table, didn’t go the way the league positions might have suggested. Old Bradfieldians offered very little, but Old Wykehamists (they are from Winchester College) didn’t look capable of actually winning the game themselves, as they were limited to a few long range efforts that never looked like ever going in. When they went ahead, with a penalty, it gave them something to hold on to, but they were never really put under any pressure and they wrapped it up with an angled shot into the far corner of the net with thirteen minutes left on the clock.

As this finished at 14.07, it meant I was able to head off to my first choice match for my afternoon entertainment. I had the back up of Lampton Park, who play at the Middlesex F.A. Ground, in Northolt, but as my preferred game was well within reach due to the prompt finish here, then it would be a hopefully traffic free journey out of London on the A40, before heading clockwise round the M25……