Plain Ham

Larkhall Athletic  2  Thatcham Town  0

Southern Football League – First Division South

In my own tiny little mind, I was trying to work out just how Larkhall Athletic named their ground, and it went something like this.

“What we’ll do, is we’ll have three types of rolls on sale at our first game, Cheese & Ham, Cheese & Onion or Plain Ham, and whichever proves to be the best seller, is what we’ll call the ground.”

Thankfully, despite my own personal preference of Cheese & Onion, it happened to be Plain Ham, and so that was how it worked, a football ground named after a sandwich, and probably given the choices available, the right choice as well.

Clearly that isn’t how it happened, in fact I’ve got no idea how the ground got it’s name, but it’s merely a sideshow to what turned out to be a very good day out on the outskirts of Bath.

Storm Ciara was hitting the headlines, but to be fair as the week went on, it seemed that Saturday wasn’t going to suffer too much of an impact. In fact as I rose from my pit on the morning, checking to see if the game was on was not even on the agenda, it was a glorious day, a glorious day for a run down the M5.

Larkhall Athletic fell onto my weirdly concocted radar at the start of the season as they were one of the ten nearest Step 1-4 grounds I’d not visited. Most of those grounds involved a trip to the South East, so it was nice to be heading in a different direction. I left Belper at 10am and by 12.30pm I was pulling up outside a pub in the village.

Larkhall sits right on the North East edge of Bath, in fact you don’t have to go anywhere close to the City to get to the ground. A quick detour off the road from the M4 and within minutes you are into the tight and steep streets of the village. After a quick pint it was back up the single track road and into the car park at Plain Ham.

The car park sits on the South side of the ground, and once parked up and in place, it reminded me so much of Shortwood United from Nailsworth, a club blogged a couple of years ago. A village, narrow roads, top of a hill, car park behind the goal, ground cut into a hillside, the similarities were endless.

The club house and dressing rooms are the first thing to greet you, after you’ve passed the home of the City of Bath Petanque Club, which from my limited knowledge is a boules type game that originated in France. They have a smart facility, but today was all about the football.

Sat in the bar, a club official came to talk to me, turns out he was a former Captain of the club and was now the groundsman. A lovely chap, I mentioned the Shortwood comparisons, he smiled and agreed, it appears the two clubs have a bit of a bond.

With kick off fast approaching I thought it would be a good idea to go and pay my admission, and once through the turnstiles, you can’t help but be impressed by the rural beauty of the location, and of course the fantastic views.

The ground is cut into a hillside, so the West side is raised significantly above pitch level, and has a low roofed stand running down two thirds of the touchline. The concrete walkway in front of it eventually drops to the same level of the pitch as it gets to the top corner, upon which it turns right and heads behind the goal which is tree lined. A very small area of cover sits to the right of the goal but to be fair you would be hard pressed to get more than three people in it.

The side opposite the stand is again lined with trees, but behind which there is a considerable drop down to some allotments. A larger area of cover sits on this side just before we get to the South goal, where again the path slopes upwards back to the turnstiles and the clubs facilities.

The views from the elevated areas of the ground are stunning, and while not looking out over the City, they are to the East of Bath and the villages built around the hills are a wonderful sight on what was a clear day.

Larkhall Athletic joined the Western League in 1976, and they competed in the second tier continually, right up until 2009 when they won promotion to the top flight. They won the top flight in 2011, and then again in 2014, this time gaining promotion to the Southern League.

In their first season at Step 4 they made the Play-Offs, beating Evesham United in the Semi-Final, before losing to Stratford Town in the Final. Since then they’ve never threatened to trouble the top six, but this season they sat third in the table before the game against recent FA Vase winners and second paced Thatcham Town.

The game was hugely entertaining, it had a bit of everything.

Thatcham were not at the races in the first half on a bobbly pitch and found themselves 2-0 down. The first goal came in the fourth minute through Alexander Lambert who scored from close range, while the same player netted a fantastic second after running from the half way line to score.

The second half was not without controversy. Firstly, the visitors were awarded a penalty for what the referee adjudged to be a foul by the Larkhall goalkeeper on Kyle Tooze. I thought it was a bit soft to be honest, but after discussing it with his linesman, the referee chose to award a free kick to Larkhall for a foul during the build up.

Yellow cards started to proliferate proceedings, and Thatcham’s irritation was becoming plain to see, with the manager also receiving a card for his protestations, but the real clanger moment from the referee came with fifteen minutes to go.

Thatcham were awarded a free kick for a run of the mill holding offence, and Sam Barder (who was on a yellow) shouted to his teammates to “Get it in the box”, however, the referee heard something different, he thought he heard “Get him in the book”. A second yellow and a red for dissent, ridiculous, and you had to feel sympathy for Barder.

But, as the time approached 5pm and the final whistle blew, you could not argue with the outcome. Larkhall had been superb, they were organised, disciplined and when the chances came they put them away. Thatcham will view it as a bad day at the office.

What a cracking day, at a cracking club, and you know what, the cheese and onion rolls were to die for!