Gloucestershire County League

Tuesday 28th December 2021

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 13.59

Ruardean Hill Rangers 0 Broadwell Amateurs 2, attendance 299

12’ 0-1

63’ 0-2

@ Ruardean Hill Sports Club

Highview Road

Ruardean Road

GL17 9AR

£2 Admission, including Programme, 24 pages.

Today’s match saw a trip to Ruardean Hill, which at 920 feet above sea level, is the highest point in the Forest of Dean, according to the excellent match day programme. This was the only game scheduled in the Gloucestershire County League over the festive period and they were well rewarded with a bumper crowd of 299, against their local rivals who are just ten minutes drive to the south west of here.

It was 11th versus 4th in the league table and was a fully committed derby. The visitors went ahead after twelve minutes, but struggled to get the all important second goal to kill the game off. Just after the hour mark Kieran James scored his second goal of the game, cutting in from the right, beating two players in the process, before superbly chipping the ball over the ‘keeper to make it 0-2.

Today’s visit leaves me with just Rockleaze Rangers to complete the league. As it is a 3G pitch, then I certainly won’t be rushing there. It also brought down the curtain on my football ground visits for the calendar year. After last year (with the enforced shutdown due to COVID-19, where there were five complete months with no football for me) where I managed just 90 new ground visits, it was good to round off this year with 173, despite there being no games until April. I can’t see the 396 new grounds done in 2014 being troubled any time soon.