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.
