South Wales Alliance League

Division 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 17.59

Cardiff Hibernian 2 A.F.C. Bargoed 2,  attendance 197

14’ 0-1

28’ 0-2

32’ 1-2

89’ 2-2

@ Trelai Park (Ely Racecourse)

Vincent Road

off Cowbridge Road West

Ely

Cardiff

CF5 5AQ

No Admission

£3 Programme * (didn’t purchase as never saw any on sale)

This match was part of the South Wales Groundhop, which is organised by Groundhop U.K.  It is the second time I have visited Cardiff Hibernian when they have hosted a ‘Hop Match’ , as they were on the 2016 Groundhop, when they lost 2-4 versus Cardiff Airport, in a match played at their former home, Archer Road. This season has seen them move here for their home matches. Sadly, the Secretary of Cardiff Hibernian, Stephen Price, died a week before the match, so it was decided that this would become a memorial match, with any profits going to his family.

* Apparently, very few programmes were produced, and there was certainly no effort made to sell any. As the ground is little more than a railed off pitch, in a huge expanse of grass (last used as Ely Racecourse in 1937) then it is not possible to charge for admission, so the majority of the close on 200 crowd would have paid nothing. There was not even a collection made, which was very odd, considering this was supposed to be geared to raising money. With the pitch being so far away from the nearest building, it also meant no refreshments being sold, although it was later mentioned that there were sandwiches and filled rolls available from a table near the dugouts.

As for the match, which was third bottom versus bottom in the league table, it was never going to be a classic, especially on a dreadful pitch that had some pretty deep holes on it, but at least they weren’t full of water, unlike the ones that had to be walked across to reach this one.

The Groundhop continues tomorrow, with a match in the Bridgend Sunday League (which is of no interest whatsoever) before a visit to A.F.C. Butetown, of the South Wales Alliance League, which although I haven’t visited, will be left for another day, as it is certainly not worth the cost of an overnight stop.

Today was another milestone of sorts, this being the 350th ground I have seen a match on in Wales.

Gwent County League

Division 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.04

Newport Corinthians 1 New Inn 3, attendance 8

10’ 0-1

30’ 0-2 (pen)

32’ 0-3

38’ 1-3

@ Coronation Park

Stephenson Street

Newport

NP19 0RB

No Admission

Programme, free, 12 pages (from original match that was postponed on 24th March).

The Gwent County League is certainly not one of the best leagues for finding out information on fixtures. The league website is rubbish and is very rarely updated and around a quarter of the clubs don’t list any phone numbers to contact them !

Corries twitter didn’t even mention they had a match, but at least New Inn had tweeted that they were indeed scheduled to visit Corries today, although there was no news as to whether the match would actually be on. As it was just seven minutes drive from my early match it was a case of head here first and hope everything was okay.

I arrived to see the home players putting up the nets and erecting the dugouts. I ventured into the clubhouse and enquired about whether there was a programme for today’s match, as although it is a (ridiculous) league rule that all clubs have to issue a programme, not all do. I was told, if there was one, it would be pinned on the noticeboard. Sure enough, there were 4 copies there, but all for different matches. Luckily, one was versus New Inn, which had been produced for the match on 24th March that had been postponed.

The Referee arrived around 14.15 and carried out his pre-match checks, confirming that despite it being a little soft, the pitch was perfectly playable. The only concern now ,was whether the away team would be coming, as there was only one player there so far. At 14.35 another couple arrived and at 14.42 the last stragglers drifted in.

The relatively late arrival certainly didn’t affect the visitors. A blistering first half hour had them well in control. Quite how there were no second half goals is anyone’s guess as both teams went for all out attack. A red card for Corries, late in the game, rounded off a bad day for them.

English Football League Youth Alliance

Merit League 2

Saturday 14th April 2018

Kick Off 12.00 Actual 12.04

Newport County U18 1 Northampton Town U18 4,  attendance 42

10’ 0-1

47’ 0-2

50’ 0-3

71’ 1-3

90’ + 2, 1-4

@ Dragon Park, Pitch 2

Velodrome Way

Newport

NP19 4RB

No Admission or Programme.

Taking in this noon kick off meant I would be able to visit three new grounds today, with a number of 3pm choices, before finishing up at Cardiff Hibernian, in the South Wales Alliance League at 6pm.

Dragon Park is owned by the F.A. Wales. The main stadium is floodlit and has a seated stand. Pitch 2 is actually about half a mile away and even has a different postcode ! (running parallel, beyond today’s pitch, is the 3G ground of Gwent County League club Lliswerry) It is a grass pitch, but is surrounded by the awful green mesh fencing that is used for 3G pitch cages. To make matters worse, there is no spectator access and they padlock the gate just to let everyone know where they stand regarding viewing options. I assumed the person on top of the gantry, that is between the dugouts, was filming the match, but perhaps he was using it as a watchtower to spot any intruders !

Northampton dominated throughout and looked a bigger and stronger team. The first half wasn’t great, but it was a much improved second half. Perhaps the fact that the padlock wasn’t put back on the gate after halftime helped, as I was able to gain an unrestricted view of the action, albeit from the corner of the pitch. Newport blew any chance of getting anything from the match when they had a penalty saved a few minutes after they had cut the deficit to 1-3.

Hellenic League

Division 2 East

Thursday 12th April 2018

Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.31

Long Crendon 5 Penn & Tylers Green Reserves 0,  attendance 19

26’ 1-0

28’ 2-0

40’ 3-0

57’ 4-0

87’ 5-0

@ Long Crendon Recreation Ground

Chearsley Road

Long Crendon

HP18 9AW

No Admission or Programme.

Once again the weather was causing problems. This match passed a pitch inspection at 15.30, which was good, in that I had a match to watch, but bad in the fact that I would have to battle the M25 much later than I would have wanted, which meant it took 2 hours to travel the 68 miles to Buckinghamshire !

The match was 3rd versus 6th in the league table, with both teams likely to remain in these positions at the end of the season. Once the hosts went 2-0 ahead it was pretty much game over. Despite only kicking off a minute late, then having barely five minutes for halftime, it soon became clear that this would be another struggle with the light, as it was very grey and overcast from the start and it started to drizzle towards the end. For the last ten minutes, members of both teams and their coaches were asking the Referee to blow his whistle for full time, but he insisted he would get the full 90 minutes in. He finally called a halt at 20.05, which was about a minute early, by which time it was very hard to tell which team was which and impossible to pick out any of the shirt numbers.

This visit now completes the Hellenic League grounds for this season.

East Sussex League

Hastings F.A. Junior Cup Semi Final

Wednesday 11th April 2018

Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.27

Northiam ‘75 3 Peche Hill Select 3 (8-7 pens),  attendance 28

3’ 0-1

14’ 0-2

28’ 1-2

65’ 2-2

79’ 2-3

85’ 3-3

@ Northiam Recreation Ground

Main Street

Northiam

TN31 6LP

No Admission or Programme.

With my first three choices of match tonight all falling to waterlogged pitches, I was relieved to be told there was no problem with the pitch here.

Northiam had won Division 1 of the East Sussex League at the weekend and will now be promoted into the Premier Division. Peche Hill are currently in sixth place in Division 2, so I wasn’t expecting such an even match, despite it being a semi-final.

Despite kicking off three minutes early, this was lost by halftime as three minutes stoppage time was played. A quick seven minute halftime got us back on track, although surely it would be pretty dark if the match went to penalties. A minute extra was played at the end of the second half, which meant a 20.08 finish.

It was hard to pick the players out near the end, but we were now on to penalties. Peche Hill went first, with both teams having their fourth kicks saved. At 7-7, the home keeper again made a save before Northiam converted their own kick to advance to the final. It was now 20.20 and probably the darkest finish I have ever had at a non floodlit match. 18.30 kick offs, with the possibility of penalties to follow, are too late so early in April, especially this far East.

Suffolk & Ipswich League

Senior Division

Tuesday 10th April 2018

Kick Off 18.15 Actual 18.17

Ransomes Sports 1 Coplestonians 9,  attendance 59

8’ 0-1

11’ 0-2

22’ 0-3

24’ 0-4

27’ 0-5

51’ 1-5

53’ 1-6

55’ 1-7

84’ 1-8

85’ 1-9

@ Ransomes Sports Pavilion

Sidegate Avenue

Ipswich

IP4 4JJ

No Admission or Programme.

This could have been a decent match, but bottom of the league table Ransomes only had ten players when the game kicked off. By the time their eleventh player arrived, they were already 0-4 down, then conceded a fifth goal within a minute of him coming on !

With time running out, two goals in a minute saw fourth in the league table Coplestonians add goals number eight and nine and the Referee blew for full time with five minutes left to play, perhaps saving Ransomes from the embarrassment of a double figure defeat.

The result means Ransomes cannot now finish higher than bottom of the league, whilst Coplestonians are up to third, still having a game in hand over second placed Crane Sports, who they trail by three points, but they now have a better goal difference than them after tonight.

For the record, Ransomes did eventually also have two substitutes who came on in the second half.

Stroud & District League

Division 2

Sunday 8th April 2018

Kick Off 14.30  On Time !

Didmarton 2 Tibberton United 0,  attendance 11

26’ 1-0

30’ 2-0

@ Didmarton Playing Fields

The Street

Didmarton

GL9 1DS

No Admission or Programme.

There was no problem with the pitch here, despite light rain falling for the majority of the match. It was 9th versus 8th in the league table, with the clubs swapping positions with this result. Both clubs had plenty of chances to score a hatful of goals, but sadly lacked the skill to convert most of them. The two goals that were scored, came courtesy of a lob over the ‘keeper for the opener, then a dipping shot from just outside the 18 yard box to round things off.

Hellenic League

Division 1 East

Saturday 7th April 2018

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Penn & Tylers Green 0 Chalfont Wasps 4,  attendance 83

49’ 0-1

69’ 0-2

82’ 0-3

90’ + 2, 0-4

@ French School Meadows

Elm Road

Penn

HP10 8LF

£3 Admission

£1 Programme, 16 pages.

I had visited French School Meadows for a Penn & Tylers Green home match back on 15th November 2003, when I saw them draw 0-0 with Englefield Green Rovers, which was also in Division 1 East of the Hellenic League. In those days, the main pitch was at the furthest point from the clubhouse, remaining pretty much as it was back then, as the two photos below show.

Since then, a new ground has been constructed nearer the clubhouse. In order for them to progress, or even remain at their current Step 6 status, the ground will require floodlights. Despite the tennis courts behind the clubhouse having lights, the Council continually refuse planning permission for the Football Club to also become floodlit. Although the club will once again appeal the decision, they look set for a ground share arrangement in order to remain in this division next season, so the visit here became a priority, as after today, there is only one more home game to play.

P & TG are the current Division 1 East champions and are in a three way battle for the title this season as well, along with Bicester Town and Virginia Water, the latter being favourites due to having a couple of games in hand. Chalfont arrived here just one place off the bottom of the league table, but certainly didn’t look that bad. The first half was a non event, but it did improve in the second half, helped by an early goal for the visitors. The next three goals were real quality finishes and gave a final score that no one was expecting beforehand.

The visit today now leaves the number of grounds required to complete Step 6 at three…….Bristol Telephones, Helston Athletic and Sticker.

Bristol Premier Combination

Division Premier 1

Wednesday 4th April 2018

Kick Off 18.00 Actual 18.02

Hambrook 2 Bitton Reserves 2,  attendance 24

31’ 0-1

70’ 1-1

87’ 2-1

90’ 2-2

@ The Pavilion

Moorend Road

Whiteshill Common

Hambrook

BS16 1SJ

No Admission or Programme.

Another day where we had to wait for confirmation that the match would take place. Thankfully, we found out that the pitch had passed a 14.30 inspection, although we were not convinced the match would still be on when we arrived due to the amount of rain we passed through as we headed west along the M4. No need to worry though, as we arrived at the ground around twenty five minutes before the scheduled start time to see the home team warming up and a handful of away players emerging from the changing rooms. Blue sky and sunshine, along with a good drying wind, meant the pitch was in perfect condition, although the area on the side of the cricket square was rather wet.

The match was 4th versus 6th in the league table, with the two teams very evenly matched. Having worked very hard to level the match up with twenty minutes left, Hambrook will feel they should have won it having gone in front with just three minutes left, but Bitton got a deserved equaliser with a close range header in the dying seconds.

No problem getting in the full 90 minutes tonight and with a near prompt start and quick turnaround at halftime, this was finished by 19.40.

Cambridgeshire County League

Foster Challenge Cup 1st Round

Tuesday 3rd April 2018

Kick Off 18.15 Actual 18.14

Duxford United 2 Bassingbourn 4,  attendance 25

29’ 0-1

33’ 0-2

38’ 1-2

66’ 1-3

72’ 2-3

78’ 2-4 (pen)

@ Duxford Recreation Ground

Hunts Road

Duxford

CB22 4RE

No Admission or Programme.

I had spoken to the home club Secretary at 14.30 to confirm that despite heavy rain during the morning, the game would be going ahead. Despite the match getting underway a minute earlier than scheduled, the Referee had already said he would be doing 2 x 40 minute halves. If scores were level at the end of ninety minutes, we would be going straight to penalties to decide the winners.

Duxford are second from bottom of the league table in Division 1A, whilst Bassingbourn are third in Division 2A. The visitors always looked the more likely winners and once they edged in front, they were never likely to let it slip. The goal of the game was the second for Bassingbourn, lobbing the ‘keeper from inside the centre circle, although his lack of mobility was certainly a contributor to him conceding from such a distance.

With the cloud breaking up and blue sky appearing, there was no problem with the light tonight, especially as this was all over by 19.40.