Surrey Elite Intermediate League

Saturday 28th October 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.03

N.P.L. 1 A.F.C. Spelthorne Sports 2,  attendance 22

28’ 0-1

40’ 0-2

79’ 1-2

@ N.P.L. Sports Club

Queens Road

Teddington

TW11 0LZ

No Admission or Programme.

N.P.L. stands for National Physical Laboratory. I arrived here to find a game in progress,(another one followed it at 3pm) on a pitch to the right of the entrance, The main pitch here is to the left, being nearest the cricket pavilion, clubhouse and football changing rooms. There are also tennis courts beyond the far touchline.

This was a mid table battle, being 7th v 8th. Spelthorne just about edged it, although they did survive a 90th minute penalty miss, that was well saved by the ‘keeper and a ridiculous eleven minutes of stoppage time, to take the points.

Arthurian League

Arthur Dunn Cup 1st Round

Saturday 28th October 2017

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.05

Old Sennockians 2 Old Cholmeleians 1,  attendance 3

3’ 0-1

57’ 1-1

66’ 2-1

@ Barn Elms Sports Centre, Pitch 5

Queen Elizabeth Walk

Barnes

London

SW13 9SA

No Admission or Programme.

This was probably my last Saturday double until March, unless I take in a floodlit match as part 2, but I prefer to save those grounds for midweek. The league website had the venue as Barn Elms Playing Fields, but that is the first set of pitches along the driveway on the right. The game was actually at the Barn Elms Sports Centre, which is a mixture of rugby and football pitches and is 100 yards further along the road. There was another noon kick off on the adjacent pitch, as well as four more games due to kick off at 2pm. There were also 6 rugby games, one of them being Barnes first XV, where there is a small seated stand. Clearly visible, on the other side of the Thames, is Craven Cottage, home to Fulham F.C. Despite it not getting dark until around 6 o’clock, the floodlights were on at 1.30pm, as they were hosting Bolton Wanderers at 3pm.

The main event, as far as I was concerned, was 5th in Division 3 v 5th in Division 1, the hosts only having the bare eleven players, whilst the visitors at least managed a substitute, although apparently he was injured, although he did come on for the last twenty minutes. Two very poor sides, lacking in many of the basics. The game was won when a defender hacked a clearance from near the halfway line and it sailed over the ‘keeper who appeared to totally misjudge where he was and had he taken a step backwards, could have easily tipped it over. We were spared extra time when the visitors smashed an effort off the crossbar with the last kick of the match.

Hellenic League

Premier Division

Wednesday 25th September 2017

Kick Off 19.45 Actual 19.48

Royal Wootton Bassett Town 0 Oxford City Nomads 5,  attendance 72

8’ 0-1

44’ 0-2

50’ 0-3

79’ 0-4

86’ 0-5

@ Gerard Buxton Sports Ground

Brinkworth Road

Royal Wootton Bassett

SN4 8DS

£6 Admission

£1.50 Programme, 60 pages.

I had visited Wootton Bassett previously, before the ‘Royal’ was added, to take in a match at their old ground. They took a hammering that night as well, losing 0-4 versus Abingdon United, again in Hellenic League, Premier Division, on 24th September 2002. Oddly, it was just three days after I made my first visit to the ground I had been to this afternoon.

Despite being a relatively new ground, it is poorly laid out. Neither the clubhouse(which is really in the cricket club) or the toilets are within the fence surrounding the ground and the floodlights were really poor and must be some of the dimmest anywhere at Step 5. The photos don’t really show how bad the lights were to the naked eye.

I very rarely look at my match programme until I get home, but it is a pretty good effort, with plenty of reading amongst the mammoth 60 pages. Only one criticism really, it needed being more up to date, as the results page was 11 days behind. It would be far better to do a programme half the size and bang up to date and therefore more relevant to the match.

The result was rather unexpected, as it was 8th v 15th at start of play. Bassett had only lost one of their last twelve matches, but were flattered by the 0-5 score. It could easily have been double figures and a red card for the hosts, on 65 minutes, just rounded off a bad night for them.

Tonights visit completes the Hellenic League, Premier Division once more.

British Universities & Colleges Sport

South Eastern 1A

Wednesday 25th October 2017

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.01

Imperial College London 2 University East London 3,  attendance 4

18’ 0-1

26’ 0-2

27’ 1-2

51’ 2-2

86’ 2-3 (pen)

@ Harlington Sports Ground, 3G Pitch

Sipson Lane

UB3 5AQ

No Admission or Programme.

I had been here for a game previously, when the ground was shared with Chelsea, who had their training ground here at the time (Chelsea U19 0 Norwich City U19 1, 21st September 2002), but that game was played on a grass pitch, in the far left hand corner of the complex if looking from the entrance to the car park. Nowadays, it is Queens Park Rangers who share the facility and they have a fully railed pitch, with advert board infills, immediately to the left of the entrance of the car park. Today’s game was being played on the 3G Pitch, which is to the right of the entrance, sandwiched between the road and the artificial hockey pitch.

East London were far the better team, but somehow managed to nearly throw it away, having been in total control and coasting to victory.

A nice early finish meant ample time to head off for an evening match, west along the M4.

Portsmouth Senior Cup

2nd Round

Tuesday 24th October 2017

Kick Off 19.45  On Time

Baffins Milton Rovers 1 Fareham Town 2,  attendance 133

10’ 0-1

12’ 1-1

90’ + 2, 1-2

@ Kendall Stadium

Kendalls Wharf

Eastern Road

Portsmouth

PO3 5LY

£5 Admission

No Programme.

Baffins Milton Rovers were formed in 2011 following the amalgamation of two Sunday League teams, Baffins Milton and Milton Rovers. They started out using the pitch at the southern end of Langstone Harbour Sports Ground (visited 8th April 2009, East Lodge 3 Fair Oak 0, Hampshire League 2004) but in 2015 they obtained a 50 year lease to develop a ground at the northern end of the complex. They moved at the start of 2015/16 season and the ground is still a work in progress. The new clubhouse structure is finished, but still needs kitting out, whilst there are currently half a dozen portacabins behind the goal at the entrance end of the ground  being used for changing rooms/toilets/clubhouse/tea bar.

Both these two are in the Wessex League, Premier Division (9th v 14th) so it was a pretty even match up. Late in the second half, Fareham hit the post and then missed a far post header that looked impossible to miss. Just as it looked like we were heading for penalties (sensibly, there is no extra time in this competition) the visitors snatched victory in stoppage time, when a right wing cross was headed into the top corner, going in off the underside of the bar.

This now completes visits to all the grounds in this division.

Canada

Ontario Collegiate Athletic Association

Wednesday 18th October 2017

Kick Off 16.30 Actual 16.44

Humber College Hawks 1 Sheridan College Bruins 0,  attendance 91

54’ 1-0

@ Ontario Soccer Centre 

7601 Martin Grove Road

Vaughan

ON L4L 9E4

No Admission

Programme, free, 4 pages.

Humber Hawks are the Number 1 ranked College team in Canada, which is no great surprise considering they won the O.C.A.A. Championship five times between 1995 and 2001 and have won it seven times in the last eight years, including this year. They were also the overall Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association champions in 1995, 2001, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 and head to this years play offs as favourites. Apparently, it is 1,090 days since they lost a game in a O.C.A.A. match, having gone 41 games unbeaten (40 wins, 1 draw) before today and they have won all 16 games they have played this season.

Despite this being 1st v 3rd, it was dreadful, and looked like a definite 0-0, but Humber finally put another win on the board with a shot that went in off the inside of the post. With both teams guaranteed their play off places, it was a chance for them to rest any players that would miss the first round of games if they picked up another yellow card today. There certainly won’t be any problem of them all going straight back into the team if this performance is anything to go by !

Ontario Soccer Centre is in Vaughan, which is about 30km North West of Downtown Toronto. It is the ground that has been used by Toronto F.C. II from 2015-2017 in the U.S.L., but they will play elsewhere from next season, as there are not enough seats to meet the minimum requirement to play at Level 3 Soccer in U.S.A. under the new regulations. The journey there and back was possible on public transport, which meant a subway train and two busses going, with a single bus and the subway back. It was a very cheap CAD $3 each way, but ridiculously slow, taking 2 hours 8 minutes there (rush hour and road works) and 1 hour 29 minutes back, not counting the 12-13 minute walk from the bus stop. Public transport is far from convenient and is certainly not a patch on driving right to the venue, plus you have to travel with the numerous low life that you can thankfully avoid when using your own car.

Belgium

Liege Provincial 1

Sunday 15th October 2017

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Union Flemalloise 1 F.C. 1912 Raeren-Eynatten 2,  attendance 106

30’ 0-1

83’ 1-1

86’ 1-2

@ Stade Robert Lecomte

Avenue Théodule Gonda 5

4400 Ivoz-Ramet

€6.50 Admission

Team Sheet, free.

I had visited the old ground of Flemalle, at Rue Du Beau Site (Trixhes) in Flemalle- Haute, on 26th May 2015 (2-1 versus C.S. Sart-Tilman in a friendly Match) when they were in Provincial 2. They have since moved south, across the river, now playing at the ground that was home to R.S.F.C. Ivoz, who dropped out of Liège Provincial football a few years back.

The visitors for today’s game are from the German speaking region of Belgium, based at the home of Raeren since the merger with Eynatten two years ago. At least I had already visited each club, so wasn’t going to miss out on whichever ground was discarded for first team use. Before losing last week, the visitors had been top of the league table, so this win puts them back on track. They had a man sent off on 59 minutes, but despite being pegged back, were still good enough to snatch the win with 10 men.

The near three hour journey back to The Tunnel went smoothly and we were offered the 20.36 train home, rather than the 20.50 we were booked on. The U.K. Border Control seemed to have sorted out the dreadful queues they have been causing recently, meaning we were able to make the earlier crossing on offer, which would not have been possible at the speed of the passport checks on our last few returns !

Bedfordshire County League

Premier Division

Saturday 14th October 2017

Kick Off 14.00. On Time

A.F.C. Kempston Town & Bedford College 2 Caldecote 2,  attendance 96

9’ 1-0

22’ 1-1

33’ 2-1

36’ 2-2 (pen)

@ Kings Field Sports & Community Club

1, Great Spur

Biddenham

MK40 4WG

No Admission

£2 Programme, 20 pages.

This was the first game ever played at the complex and in fact, it was only actually passed off for use on Thursday. It will also be home to Bedford Tigers R.L.F.C. although it was not clear whether they will actually play on the same pitch. There are at least 5 pitches here, but the club would never be able to progress up the pyramid as the pitch is too far from the changing rooms. It does seem odd that a brand new facility has been built without having the main pitch next to the only building on site.

It was another match featuring two of the early pace setters, being 4th v 2nd. A decent first half, but the second half tailed off somewhat.

I only did the first two matches of the Groundhop, as I had already visited the third ground of the day at Cranfield United, as they have had floodlights for as long as I can remember, going back to their days in the Spartan South Midlands League. I saw them lose 0-4, versus Olney Town (of the United Counties League) in a Buckinghamshire Charity Cup 1st Round match on 2nd October 2002.

Bedfordshire County League

Division 1

Saturday 14th October 2017

Kick Off 11.00  Actual 11.02

Wixams 4 Sandy 1,  attendance 104

6’ 1-0

20’ 2-0

36’ 3-0

63’ 4-0

69’ 4-1

@ Green Lane

Wixams

MK42 6DA

No Admission

£2 Programme, 12 pages.

This was game 1 of the annual ‘Bedfordshire Hop’, which is a one day event, which takes in three matches. The nice thing about this Hop is that it is not run by Groundhop UK, so it is a much more relaxed day, where the focus is more about the clubs themselves, rather than the ‘look how great we are’ antics we have otherwise. Admission prices are also far more sensible for the level of football on offer, as it is not possible to take money at the majority of the grounds, so the ‘gate’ is taken by way of the match programme sales.

Originally, the day was to have started elsewhere, but the intended host club pulled out. Wixams duly stepped in to take their place. They normally play on the 3G pitch at the complex, but due to the short notice, the pitch was already booked, so today’s game was taking place on the grass pitch instead, which to be honest, was a far better ‘ground’, although the dugouts left a lot to be desired.

The match itself was 5th v 1st in the league table and if anybody had watched the game without knowing which team was which, then they would have never believed it was the table toppers that took a thrashing and they actually got off lightly by only losing by three goals.

Independent Schools F.A. Cup 2nd Round

Thursday 12th October 2017

Kick Off 13.00 Actual 13.04

Bede’s School 6 Bolton School 1,  attendance 50

33’ 1-0

41’ 2-0

52’ 3-0

60’ 3-1

71’ 4-1

75’ 5-1

78’ 6-1

@ Bede’s Senior School

Michelham Priory Road

Upper Dicker

East Sussex

BN27 3QH

No Admission or Programme.

Despite the large winning margin, Bede’s made hard work of this. If they had managed to work out how to avoid being caught offside so often, it would have been over as a contest well before the three late goals that made it look far more one sided than it actually was.