Witney & District League
Division 2
Saturday 14th September 2019
Kick Off 16.15 or 16.30 Actual 16.30
Ducklington 2 Wootton Sports 3, attendance 178
33’ 1-0
51’ 1-1 (pen)
73’ 1-2
87’ 1-3
90’+ 2, 2-3
@ The Glebelands Playing Fields
Aston Road
Ducklington
OX29 7US
£4 Admission, including Programme*
*(Once again you got a programme whether you wanted it or not. Again I applied the rule of putting it in the nearest bin, as I don’t even want a ‘free’ copy on any event run by Groundhop U.K.)
Third game of the day and again confusion on what time the kick off was. This was an even shorter distance to travel, being just 5 miles from Minster Lovell, so it didn’t really matter, but it meant arriving at the ground an hour and five minutes before kick off, so Ducklington were certainly not going to have to rush to try and make the most of their big pay day.
This was two levels lower than the first two ‘hop matches today, but it was still a case of paying top dollar to watch it. Although they tried, the standard of play here was about as low as you could get, with plenty of effort, but with two teams of limited ability, to say the least, it wasnt great to watch. The dreadful state of the pitch won’t have helped. It looked like it hadn’t seen any water in months. Ducklington led 1-0 at the break, but should have added a fair few more, but having failed to do so, were easily beaten in the end. Three second half goals from Wootton saw the game made safe, before a goal for the hosts, two minutes into stoppage time, made it look closer than it was.
It had been a real endurance test watching three games of such poor standard today, although the hot weather may have contributed to that. It wasn’t helped by the Referee at this match adding nearly seven minutes of stoppage time in the first half, then a ridiculous sixteen minutes to the second half, of a game that was turgid at best.
With the obsession of having these ground hops at intervals of what certainly feels like every other week, it means dropping lower and lower in order to find clubs and/or leagues that want to be involved, but as long as there are sufficient numbers turning up, then they will be here to stay, no matter how low the level drops. It will take some doing to find a league with a lower standard of football than this, although the scenery around some of the villages in this part of the Cotswolds does make up for it somewhat.
We could have gone on the organised trip, which this time involved just two mini buses, but we would have first had to drive to Oxford to meet up, then pay to park the car, before paying £19 each for the privilege of being driven the 49 mile round trip to the three games and back . We decided to drive ourselves instead, and as there were three of us, it only cost us £5 each and none of us live anywhere near Oxford!
