Tavare

Sevenoaks Town  0  Sheppey United  3

Isthmian League  – First Division South East

Admission / Programme - £10 / £2

Every once in a while complacency gets the better of me.

Without a care in the World, I left the house just before 10.30am on a fine and mild Saturday morning, with a trip to Hanworth Villa firmly on the agenda.

I think because we have moved into a warmer weather period, I chose not to even take a cursory look at the forecast, and it would ultimately prove to be a problem.

It would have been about the Luton area, I was sat in a traffic jam that had delayed my projected arrival time until 1.45pm, when I chose to have quick look on Twitter at the games status. It turned out that a precautionary pitch inspection had been passed as the overnight rain (that I was not aware of) had left the ground a little on the soggy side.

It then became apparent as I dropped onto the M25, that the rain had started again, not heavy incessant rain, but more prolonged sharp showers. The journey down to the M3 exit was a bit on the stop / start side of things, but again, looking at the roads and the sky, I did start to wonder whether we might have a problem.

It was as I was pulling into the car park that I saw players leaving the ground, and it was quite clear now that the game had been postponed, literally moments before I’d arrived, so now I had a bit of a problem and needed a Plan B. When I say Plan B, normally I would travel with one, but today, not so, and with time absolutely not on my side, I needed to move fast.

My first thought was the plastic pitch at Ascot United, which wasn’t too far away, but they weren’t at home. Something in the back of my mind though was telling me that Ascot shared with someone, but I couldn’t recall who it was. I did some checking but couldn’t fathom it out, although later that evening I discovered it was a team called Lyne who played in some pretty low down Surrey League, and yes, they were playing at home!

So, I needed nearest game that was on, ideally on a plastic, at a ground I’d not been to, preferably at Step 4 or above. It was Sevenoaks Town, and the sat nav said I could make it with ten minutes to spare before kick off.

I’ll be honest, I did drive a little bit quicker than I ordinarily would have done, and the technology did it’s job, I was pulling off the M25 into Sevenoaks at the projected time. And despite a bit of a queue to get into the Northern edges of the town, I was soon through and parking up at the road side, ten minutes before kick-off. It was a quick scramble up a grass bank, and then along a slightly muddy track to the turnstiles, through which I clicked precisely five minutes before the start time, with the players lined up ready to enter the field.

Sevenoaks then, I’d done no research, I knew very little about the club, or the town, but I did know something about it that had a sporting connection, and this is a little out of leftfield.

When I was in was in the Sixth Form I developed a bit of a passion for cricket, I can remember becoming fascinated with the game, and for a couple of seasons I would buy the Playfair Annual so I could keep abreast of all things statistical (it was cheaper and an easier browse than Wisden!). The only games you could really watch on television at that time were the Test Matches, and I can remember being on my first lads holiday in Ingoldmells, sat in a caravan watching Graham Gooch score his 333 against India on a little portable set.

Anyway, a player who came back onto the international scene around that time in an ill-fated Ashes series, albeit briefly for one game, was Chris Tavare, and it was one of those names that I suddenly remembered hearing from when I was a small child back in the Seventies, no doubt from having the television on in the background. Curiosity got the better of me, added to the fact he had an unusual surname, so I decided to do my own research. No internet back then of course, so it was all down to what I could find in books, and so I soon discovered that the man they nicknamed ‘The Snail’ was infamous for his somewhat defensive style of play.

Famed for spending a considerable amount of time at the crease without scoring many runs, his effort of scoring 35 runs in six and a half hours in Madras was one of his most remarkable moments. It didn’t matter though, according to Playfair, the man who started his career at Kent, and who studied at Sevenoaks Schools (you see where this is going now?) before going on to Oxford University, was now at Somerset and on the County scene, banging the runs out.

Somerset at that time had an opener called Jimmy Cook who was an absolute run machine, a South African who at the time was denied the chance to play Test Cricket due to the ban, while along with Tavare they also had the complex character that was Peter Roebuck, a man who post cricket had a successful journalistic career, but took his own life in the midst of allegations of abuse to minors.

For one season, my obsession was such that every day I would check Ceefax in the evening and analyse all of the cricket scorecards, and in a notebook, record every player that had scored a century throughout the season in the domestic game. Jimmy Cook lead the way, but what I also did was keep a record of every innings played by Tavare, and to be fair, he scored a serious amount of runs. I wish I had still had that notebook…..

It just so happened a few years ago, when Sevenoaks Town got promoted to the Isthmian League, it jolted my memory and I was reminded of Tavare and his education at the school where only money and sheer brilliance no doubt gets you onto the register! I did a bit of research and it seemed post retirement from cricket, Tavare had retuned to Sevenoaks to teach Biology at the school, with the obvious choices of professional coaching and journalism being a field he chose not to go into. Clearly a studious man, he was back in academia once again, this of course, a man who also while playing for Somerset, spent the off-season working for the Ministry of Agriculture looking at the impact of insects on the farming community!

Let’s get back to the football.

Sevenoaks Town won the Kent County League in 2003, and with it earned promotion to the Kent League, where they remained until 2018 when a Championship winning season saw them promoted to the Isthmian League. An inaugural campaign tenth placed finish in 2018-19 was their last full season before two Covid hit years, whereas last season they managed a thirteenth placed finish. This season they sit on the edges of the play-offs.

The ground is fairly close to the railway station known as Bat & Ball (named with Tavare in mind I wonder?), which is located on the very Northern edges of Sevenoaks. With a 4G surface, the ground is blessed with a couple of seated areas on the North side of the complex, which flank a small covered standing area, while the other areas of cover are a modest sized terraced area to the left of the dugouts on the opposite side, while behind the West goal is a small seated area albeit mainly for officials.

What I did like though was the large bank that sits behind the East goal, which if you are felling tight, offers a great view of the proceedings. The dressing rooms and a tea / booze bar sat behind the West goal, adjacent to the small stand previously mentioned.

Visiting Sheppey United, who were just above the hosts in the table, had a decent following in the crowd of 214, and they went back to the island happy with what they saw. The game was goalless at half time but Josh Wisson opened the scoring on 64 minutes before Danny Leonard got a decisive second with ten minutes remaining. The victory was sealed in injury time when Jake Embery got the third goal for the visitors.

The journey back wasn’t great, I queued for ages at the Dartford Tunnel, and then spent a considerable amount of time in stationery traffic once again around Luton. It also dawned on me twelve hours too late that I’d forgotten to pay my Dart Charge, so I’ll look forward to that fine arriving.

So not the day I was planning, and as I unlocked the door at 9pm, not the arrival home I was planning either, but, a recue job in the end on the back of being a victim of my own complacency.

And, I never thought the day would come where I could devote the large part of a blog to the sporting and biological legend that is Chris Tavare!

Boundaries

Eaton Socon  1  Raunds Town  0

Spartan South Midlands League  – First Division

Admission / Programme - £5 / No

As league boundaries have shifted over the past couple of years due to the expansions at various steps in the football pyramid, it’s fair to say that one league who’s footprint has moved significantly is the United Counties League.

Back in the day, and by that we are talking the mid-eighties, the UCL was a league that started around the Daventry area and worked it’s way down the M1 corridor to the Bedford area. It would also meander in an Easterly direction as well and pick up the A1 corridor as well from Peterborough to the Northern edges of Stevenage.

Not any more though, at Step 5 it now starts in the Mansfield area, and across its two divisions it runs down past Leicester to Northampton and slightly beyond to Milton Keynes. At Step 6 though it is very much an East Midlands league, not venturing any further South of Leicester.

Picking up the mantle, especially at Step 6 is the Spartan South Midlands League, which now encompasses clubs based on the South side of Leicester, and runs all the way down to the M25. Distance wise it’s pretty vast, but as long as the roads are clear, the journeys to be fair are not that onerous.

I was also a ‘doer’ of the UCL, but not so the SSML, so now we are seeing clubs coming into the pyramid from Northampton southwards that ordinarily would drop onto the ‘to do’ list, but not any more. Earlier this season Moulton was one of those clubs I randomly chose to pay a visit to one midweek, but to be fair I’d not made any plans to get to any other.

That was until my old mate Pete, while sat in the bar one evening at Selston, told me he fancied a visit to Eaton Socon, and they had a few midweek games pencilled in. I kind of jumped on it and suggested that we might travel down together as I’d not been and from a journey perspective it wasn’t a bad one.

You could be forgiven for wondering where Eaton Socon is? Well, it’s a village conjoined to St Neots, just off the A1, not far from where the A14 and the A1 converge. I’ve been to St Neots Town, and I’ve been to Eynesbury Rovers which is also conjoined, but Eaton Socon who only came to Step 6 this season, well that was a new one. 

Eaton Socon were promoted from the Cambridgeshire County League at the end of last season, and have acquitted themselves well in their inaugural elevated campaign, sitting in a top six position before the game. Visiting Raunds Town are a club who I’ve seen play in an FA Vase semi-final, and, reach the lofty heights of the Southern League, but these days they are plying a modest existence.

We landed in Eaton Socon in good time, finding the ground, which sits just off the main road that runs through the village, with ease. It was early, nothing was doing, so we decamped to a pub down the road to kill some time, before returning an hour or so before kick off.

The rain had been falling steadily most of the afternoon but we had no issues with the game being on, the pitch looked in very good shape and appeared to be firm. It turns out that to gain promotion the club had to turn the pitch ninety degrees as it wasn’t initially long enough. This was done, floodlights were installed, and two areas of covers that would have originally been along one side, were now behind the goal. One of these was a small shelter over some flat standing, while another larger variant contained the materials to construct some wooden bench seating.

Also behind the goals were the dressing rooms, which linked onto a large indoor bowls centre, and a clubhouse that wasn’t open. When I say not open, they did have a small temporary looking building (also behind the goal), which did warm drinks and cans of beer if you so wished, and I have to day while it may have been small and basic, the welcome itself from the club officials was both warm and friendly.

So, we move onto the game, and I have to be honest, it won’t live long in the memory. It had a goalless draw written all over it until late in the second period when Callan Irvine netted for the hosts to give them a 1-0 lead, that they saw through to the final whistle. Was it a fair result? Probably, just about, but there wasn’t an awful lot in it.

The roads back to Derbyshire were largely quiet so I was dropping Pete off at his Borrowash homestead just after 11pm, and arriving back myself not long after quarter past. The thought of a United Counties League midweek game a few years ago wouldn’t have appealed greatly given the time and the distance involved, let alone a Spartan South Midlands League game, which in all fairness I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near under any circumstances. But how times, and football, changes.

Eaton Socon though, a good little club with big ambition. They talked about the costs involved just to get into Step 6, and they were considerable. The move from County League to the National League System is not an easy one, but both on and off the pitch they can be very proud of what they’ve achieved.

Medway

Chatham Town  0  Haywards Heath Town  0

Isthmian League  – First Division South East

Admission / Programme - £10 / £2

There are certain parts of the UK that I have an inexplicable fascination for, a fascination borne out of the unknown.

One of those places is the area of Kent specifically known as the Medway towns.

I don’t get to Kent very often, in fact you can largely count my encounters of the place on one hand, bearing in mind I don’t class the area of Kent that sits inside the M25 as proper Kent, it’s London as far as I’m concerned!

Football wise I’ve been to Ebbsfleet, Dover, Gillingham, Maidstone and Whitstable, and apart from boarding the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone, that’s pretty much fifty years worth of experiences of the place.

But those Medway towns, namely Gillingham, Rochester and Chatham, I find them curious in the demographic, geographical, economic and indeed footballing sense. Yes, I went to Gillingham once on the quest for the 92, a Tuesday night League Cup tie against Middlesbrough, I was working in Dartford (not proper Kent) and staying right by the crossing so it was an easy run. Memories are a bit sketchy, and it was dark, so I couldn’t really see an awful lot. I did find a decent boozer near to the ground, which if I recall was significantly easier to find than a parking space.

Chatham Town got promoted to the Isthmian League at the end of last season after finishing runners-up to Sheppey United, and that marked a return after being relegated to the Southern Counties East League in 2017 (formerly the Kent League). Historically a Southern League club, Chatham’s relationship with the Isthmian League has been an interesting one, I recall a few years ago it was a somewhat moot point when Chatham were placed in the Northern Division as opposed to the Southern Division, which meant every away game involved a bridge, and a tunnel, and the queues that accompanied those journeys. I think footballing politics were at large, I won’t say any more, I have my sources!

But anyway, I’ve had my eye on Chatham, and from checking out images and reports, the noises I’d been hearing and the views of the ground suggested this was a place well worth visiting. Sat second in the league table, with crowds around the 700 mark, you sensed something was happening in this Medway town, at a time when the professional club up the road was fighting for it’s Football League survival.

Now, my old mate Derek is the font of all knowledge when it comes to Kent. In fact he’s lived pretty much everywhere in the Country, notwithstanding a period living in some Russian outpost where the locals kept brown bears for pets. Various jobs and indeed liaisons have seen him move about, with the South East of England being a particularly well trodden area. I took him to Maidstone United a few years ago and beforehand we had to go to Bearsted so he could have a look at the premises that used to house the off licence (he claims it was a high end wine shop but I’m not daft!) he ran.

So I had a little chat with Derek about Chatham, and of course, he was well acquainted with the area, the history lesson kind of followed (regarding the docks), along with his views on the local population. I was sold, and with a home game against Haywards Heath Town off of Sussex looming I decided to take a punt and head ‘darn sarth’ once again for a journey into the relatively unknown.

I was a tad perturbed just after leaving Belper when the sat nav suggested the journey was going to take close on four hours. Google Maps hadn’t said that twenty minutes before I set off, but then as I reached the M25 suddenly it all became clear. No, the bridge wasn’t shut, no, we didn’t have someone driving the wrong way round the motorway, what had actually happened was I’d got my technology set up to avoid tolls, so it was trying to send me down the M11, through the Blackwall Tunnel and down the A2. A couple of buttons later and I’d shaved half an hour off, reduced the journey by close on twenty miles, and I could chill a bit.

I rarely cross the QE2 Bridge in daylight, and with the sun shining it was nice to see the views along the Thames, and once I’d managed to avoid the carnage that was the queue to get to Bluewater Muppet Centre, it was a very steady drive down the A2 and M2 to the Medway Bridge which again offered lovely views up and down the estuary, with the docks in the distance.

In hindsight I really should have set off much earlier and gone into Rochester and taken a look around at the docks, the cathedral and indeed the castle, but it was not to be, so I headed further on and approached Chatham from the South, very quickly finding the ground and parking up in the street outside.

First impressions were indeed positive, while not a new ground by any stretch, it is very much in new clothes. Behind the goal on the Maidstone Road side is a huge two story building that houses the dressing rooms, a clubhouse and a hospitality area, while set in front of it is some steep terracing which is raised significantly up from pitch level, offering excellent views of the action.

Moving round clockwise you’ve then got hard standing leading down to a small area of covering that straddles the half way line, while behind the opposite goal is again hard standing but with a large new building in place which houses the clubs academy.

Finally on the side that is to the Southern point of the ground, is a large refurbished seated stand, with a tea bar, a club shop and an outside bar say adjacent to it. To be honest I was really impressed with what I found, so much so I felt I had to take advantage of the refreshment facilities and order myself a pint.

A crowd of just over 700 rocked up, and similar to my home town club, Belper Town, they have worked out how to get the punters to spend money! Everyone seemed to be wearing some sort of merchandise, and a large chunk of the spectators at some stage either had some food or a drink in their hand. The queues to get served were minimal largely due to a good number of staff on duty, and you didn’t have to wander far to be tempted to dip your hand into your pocket! In fact, if you were feeling healthy, they were giving away free apples!

The game finished 0-0, but it wasn’t a dull 0-0, we had plenty going on, but for Chatham, if I was being slightly critical they were perhaps a bit guilty of overplaying in the final third when a slightly more direct approach could have been more effective. Haywards Heath though given their lowly league placing put up a good fight, were well organised, and probably deserved the point.

As you’ve perhaps gathered, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Chatham, it didn’t disappoint at all, and as for scratching the curious itch that was the Medway towns, it’s a start, but I do still feel like I have bit of unfinished business.

Sittingbourne is in that vicinity isn’t it?   

 

Jeff Stelling

Winchester City  1   Swindon Supermarine  6

Southern Football League  – Premier Division South

Admission / Programme - £11 / £2

Every once in a while a football club comes along that flies through the leagues at a pace, and in turn leaves people asking two very pertinent questions.

“How far will they go?” and “When will it all come to an end?”

The first question is a fair and reasonable one, the second question perhaps slightly unfair albeit borne out of a natural cynicism based on previous experiences.

I remember it well, it would have been the early 2000’s and Winchester City were happily trundling along in the Hampshire League, the second tier of that competition I might add. I did find that slightly unusual based on the fact that Winchester is quite a sizable place and I would have expected it to be the home of at least a Wessex League club, if not a Southern League club given the respective population.

Following a merger with neighbours Winchester Castle, and by now in the top flight of the Hampshire, they won promotion from the Premier Division at the end of 2002-03 season and with it gained an elevation to the aforementioned Wessex League. The ambitious new board at the club were determined to take the club forward.

The pace continued, they won the Wessex at the first attempt, but not only that, they shot to national prominence by beating AFC Sudbury in the FA Vase Final at Birmingham City. It was at this point that people were starting to sit up and look at the club, and wonder just what might be about to develop.

Promotion to the Southern League didn’t arrive though, the ground didn’t meet the requisite grading, so the following season they went again, this time finishing runners-up to Lymington & New Milton. Not to worry though, the following year they did clinch the top spot once again and with it were elected to the Southern League in readiness for the 2006-07 season.

It was at this point that things started to wobble though, with many thinking they might go on again and push for a further promotion, two mid-table finishes and a bottom place in 2008-09 saw them back in the Wessex League…..the cynics were now crowing! Financially things were also looking a little ropy.

It took three more seasons, but they returned to the Southern League, this time going straight back down again, finishing bottom having conceded over one hundred goals. So as we moved into the 2013-14 season, once again, it was Wessex League football. However, with a new board in place, financially things were looking much more stable.

By 2015-16 they were back again, and this time they’ve stayed, producing better league table positions each year for three seasons until Covid hit, but, with a fourth placed finish last year, they won 4-1 at Cirencester in the Play Off semi final, before another 4-1 victory in the final, this time at home to Bristol Manor Farm.

So, we are in the 2022-23 season and Winchester sit at Step 3, a level that many would have thought the club would have got to some years before now, but these things take time, and money of course. It’s been a rollercoaster, and in fairness, those who cast a cynical eye over the club and wondered if a boom and bust period was about to envelop the club, were probably right to a certain extent, although thankfully the bust was more of a significant blip than full scale implosion.

I’ve had Winchester City on the radar all season, but now was the time to pay them a visit, it was a pretty benign day on the weather front, and with play-off contenders Swindon Supermarine in town, I thought it might be an interesting encounter.

The journey was completely hassle free, the A34 ran perfectly all the way down from the M40 and the Northern edges of Winchester were hit in less than three hours from blighty. The ground itself is on Hillier Way in the Abbots Barton suburb of the City on the Northern edges, so sadly you don’t get to pass through what I understand is a very attractive centre with it’s cathedral and all things historical. Jeff Stelling lives in Winchester apparently?

The approach to the ground takes you through an area of housing until finally after a few left and right turns you find yourself on the approach road which is shared with the Rugby Union club. Plenty of parking can be had at the ground, which from a footprint point of view, is quite a size.

Once through the turnstiles, which sit behind the North goal, you have the dressing rooms and a clubhouse immediately to your left. Moving round in a clockwise fashion you’ve got a tea bar, a club shop and then a seated Atcost style stand on the half way line. You cannot access the area behind the South goal, but moving round to the East side a shallow area of flat covered standing sits behind the dug outs, and looks to be remaining from the old Hampshire League days.

Finally, behind the North goal, just before the turnstiles, is a small area of covered terrace, which again looks to come from the stable whereby it arrives on the back of a lorry readily constructed and has to be then lowered into place!

So onto the game then. It didn’t go very well for Winchester to be fair, in fact it went pretty disastrously if I’m honest.

James Harding had put the visitors two goals up inside the first seven minutes before Conor McDonagh made it 3-0 just after the ten minute mark. The game was now effectively done and a shell shocked Winchester managed to get through to half time without conceding any more goals.

The hosts started the second half quite brightly and pulled a goal back through Warren Bentley, but then Tyrone Duffus scored on 57 minutes while Harding completed his hat-trick two minutes later. The sixth and final goal came a few minutes after the hour mark from James Edge.

247 paid to watch the event, with a decent number having journeyed over from Swindon. They won’t have many easier away days this season, if at all. Also watching the game was former Leicester City, Pompey and Cambridge United striker Steve Claridge, presumably taking a break from his BBC punditry duties, or, going a week too early in terms of supporting Gary Lineker!

Winchester still have a bit to do to secure Step 3 status for another season, but for now, they are probably quite happy to be competing at this level, a level that looked a given all those years ago, but proved to be a lot tougher to actually get to than many first thought….

The Happy Valley League

The 19^th Hole  0   Chapel Town Reserves  4

Hope Valley Amateur League – A Division

Admission / Programme - No / No

It was a weekly source of amusement for me when Steve was embarking on what seemed to be an impossible task to complete the Hope Valley League.

The fun would start on our regular Friday night call when we would tell each other our plans for the weekend. It would go a bit like this…

“I’m doing another Hope Valley, it might be Hope Sports v Grindleford, but one website says it’s on the cement works car park, and another says it’s on a cabbage patch in Bamford, but if not I’ve got a Plan B down the road at Bradwell, but one website says they’re playing Calver, another says it’s JB Sports. That said, Bradwell’s Twitter feed says they’re all at a players stag do this weekend so f*** knows what’s going on…….”

My reply would be something like…

“Good luck, I’m going to Coalville v Basford, and I’m 100% certain it will actually happen where it’s supposed to happen!”

And then we’d get to Saturday lunchtime, I’d be in a clubhouse having a pre-match pint, Steve would be sat in an empty car park trying to re-set the sat-nav to what had now become Plan D because Plan’s A, B and C will have all gone belly up!

This went on for well over a year, but to be fair it wasn’t bad at the start because he had plenty to choose from, it was more towards the end when it was the final few he needed to tick off. I can also recall one day when he was trying to get to one of the final grounds on his list, he phoned up the home club secretary to confirm where a game was being played, and got the following..

Steve - “Is your game on today mate?”

Sec - “It is.”

Steve - “Where is it being played.”

Sec - “Who’s asking?”

Steve - “I want to come and watch it, that’s all?”

Sec - “Are you from some sort of publication?”

Steve – “No, I just want to watch the game, are you going to tell me where it’s being played?”

Click…..

So clearly not straightforward, but I was hugely entertained by it all. When he finally did complete it, I actually thought about making a certificate up for him, but thought better of it when it came to light a team called Tipsy Toad had been newly invited into the league and I could sense the pain in his voice.

What I did do though was vow never to even contemplate embarking upon anything quite so stupid and painful as trying to complete the Hope Valley League. But then the World became a different place didn’t it?

It would have been April 2021, and our old pals Boris, Rishi and Matt (in conjunction with Prof Whitty and JVT) decided that after a stop-start football season that had been punctuated by lockdowns, we could commence playing again. That was good of them, but the problem was, the vast majority of leagues had declared themselves null and void, however, one or two decided they were going to carry on where they left off, and one of those was the Hope Valley.

Fixtures were scheduled from early April through to early June, so I had a look at it, and worked out over the course of two months I could in theory fill my boots, and, be watching football matches in what is undoubtedly some of the finest scenery you could possibly find.

So it began, it started at Bamford, then Furness Vale, then Hathersage, then Baslow, and before you knew it, I had rattled through a significant number of grounds, and to be honest a number of things stood out. The football was good and honest, the scenery was truly wonderful, the weather was nice, and given the locations, a very nice venue for a pre-match pint could be had.

Oh, and fixtures tended to happen when and where they were meant to happen!

As we moved into May I got to more outstanding locations like Youlgrave, Buxworth (which is stunning), Bollington and Dove Holes (or Love Hole as the sign entering the village has been discretely changed to!). In many ways I wish I’d been blogging at that point, because I would have had so much to talk about.

But, here we are two years later almost from when I made that decision, and as of yet I haven’t managed to complete the leagues venues, mainly because I’ve not really targeted them, I’ve preferred to pick them off as opportunities arose. A cursory look at the start of the season told me I only had two grounds left to get to, one being Hayfield’s home at Chapel-en-le-Frith Leisure Centre, and, The 19^th Hole who played home games at the Fairfield Centre in Buxton.

It was the works annual awards event in Nottingham on a Saturday night, I had to attend, I was presenting prizes, I had no get out of jail card, and that meant I had to be ready and on a train just after 6pm, so it needed to be local as far as football was concerned.

The 19^th Hole were at home to Chapel Town Reserves, allegedly, at the Fairfield Centre, allegedly, so I rang Steve the night before and told him, he was in stitches, of course, my day would inevitably end in disaster.

More in hope than expectation I trundled onto the housing estate that is Fairfield, a place that is as far removed from the Spa Town as you could possibly imagine from an aesthetic point of view. Located just beyond the flats that sit above a row of shops is the Fairfield Centre, a community hub with sports facilities that The 19^th Hole (a local pub with golf club associations) use for home games.

Once parked up, it was all about checking to see if the game was actually happening, and I was mightily pleased to spot someone in a club tracksuit who duly confirmed it was indeed game on, with a 2pm kick off.

Description wise, it’s literally a huge expanse of grass with space for a decent number of pitches, with the one being used located at the very far end, edging up to the housing and the nearby school. No rope or rail, and on a windy day but murky day you could see out over the hills that flank the roads that lead to both Leek and Macclesfield.

The game pitched two sides in the second of the two tiers of the HVL, named the A Division. The hosts sat in mid-table while the visitors occupied one of the two promotion places. The first half was reasonably even but Chapel took a 14^th minute lead through Ben Percival.

Three more goals followed in the second period, all within ten minutes of each other as the game moved towards it’s close. Sonny Shaw got the second, Aiden Theyer the third and then Henry Lythe Depee got the final and fourth goal for the visitors.

As always, it was played in a good spirit, it was a relatively comfortable ride for the referee (they operate a small pool in the HVL and are all well known to the teams), and given the fact the game kicked off five minutes early and half time was also only a five minute interval, I was back in the car and away with no problems at the end.

So, one more to go, I remember when Steve was in a similar place, it certainly wasn’t as straightforward as it perhaps ought to have been. Wednesday 3^rd May 2023, watch this space, somethings tells me my luck has got to run out at some point…..

But on a serious point, if you haven’t dipped your toe into this league yet, I strongly urge you to do so, other than the odd blip, it certainly does not disappoint.

Service Station Memories

Hamilton Academical  2  Inverness Caledonian Thistle  1

Scottish Football League – Championship

Admission / Programme - £20 / £1

I can remember it like it was yesterday, the UEFA Cup draw pitted Derry City against Gretna, and the First Leg of the tie was to be played at Gretna’s temporary home of Motherwell’s Fir Park.

I wasn’t going to miss it, even though I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the away end. Funnily enough tickets for the Gretna section were pretty easy to come by, so with that sorted, I had to think about the logistics. You see, my experiences of Scotland were limited to a couple of Belper Town away games at Gretna (when it was in Gretna), and a long weekend away with my brother in law on the West coast, which in terms of adventure, culminated in a train trip to Glasgow.

I decided to drive, and stay overnight at a hotel which was located at Hamilton Services on the M74. I remember setting off at 6am, parking at the services, walking through the park, past the mausoleum, then the golf course, before finally arriving at Hamilton Railway Station from where I caught a train to Glasgow Central.

I had a brilliant day, loads of Derry fans were in Glasgow, we had some beers, and then I made my way over to Motherwell and met up with more fans at the Jack Daniels bar which was close to Fir Park. I think the Jack Daniels bar has now been refurbished and renamed The Steelworks, but I digress, the game itself was one of the top two most memorable football matches I’ve attended in my life. Alongside seeing Belper Town win 5-1 at Falmouth Town in the FA Vase 5^th Round in 1995, seeing Derry City beat Gretna by the same score line in 2006 was an amazing moment, a stunning occasion, capped by four simply wonderful goals in front of a massive away following was an unforgettable experience.

I was back in the bar after the game, before getting a taxi back down to Hamilton Services for a night’s sleep, ready for a long drive home the following day.

So that was my experience of Hamilton, until recently that is. Since then I’ve attended a couple of work related meetings in the town, but getting to watch a football match has always eluded me.

An opportunity finally arose which coincided with February’s monthly work trip North of the border, which this time, including travelling, spread over three days. On the Tuesday of the game I spent the bulk of the day in our Shawlands office, which in itself is only a short ride from the centre of Glasgow. Once the work was done it was back to the hotel for a quick change, and a wee bit of scran over in the trusty Sir John Moore variant of JD Wetherspoon.

Getting to Hamilton is a breeze from Glasgow, catching a train from the lower level at Glasgow Central you head out via the stops that serve Celtic Park, through Cambuslang and Blantyre, before alighting at Hamilton West.

If a football ground is as near to a railway station as Hamilton West is to New Douglas Park, I’d like to know where it is (we are talking the professional game here). You basically exit the platform, walk a couple of hundred yards down a path that runs parallel to the railway line and the ground is right in front of you. I was a touch early so my original plan was to go the ground to buy a ticket and then head to the pub called the Academical which was back up by the station.

It didn’t strictly work out like that, once I got to the ground and went into the shop, I was asked if I wanted a pint, which in turn saw me being shown up the stairs to some sort of members bar which sat at the back of the main stand.

Happy as a pig in the proverbial, I went about Googling the home club, but also, trying to establish, if I was in New Douglas Park, where precisely the old Douglas Park was in terms of location. Turns out I walked straight past it, it’s actually next door and has been replaced by a supermarket car park. Again, other than Tottenham Hotspur, has any other professional club ever moved to a new home so close to the previous residence?

The New Douglas Park is a strange set up. The main stand sits along the West side of the ground, while a smaller but identical version sits behind the North goal (presumably the away end when the size of the support warrants). But then on the East side is a small seated areas with a tarpaulin style roof, very much of a temporary feel, while behind the South goal at the old Douglas Park end, it’s just a high fence with no spectator access.

Only the main stand was open for the game that pitted an Accies side who sat bottom of the league, against a visiting side (who I saw lose a play off at St Johnstone last season) currently in a mid-table berth.

have had some success over the years, if you term being in the top flight a success. They made a couple of appearances in the Premier League in the late eighties, being relegated both times, but then returned in 2008 for a three year spell. This of course came to an end, but they were back in 2014, where they remained until 2021. A highest placed finish of seventh coming in the first season upon returning.

With a seat taken at the back of the stand, I sat back and enjoyed what turned out to be a very engaging game, in front of 752 spectators, and that included a decent number from Caley, of which I would say about 50 or so made the trip.

Daniel O’Reilly netted from close range to give the hosts the lead just shy of the twenty minute mark, but as we closed in on half time and I was unsuccessfully plotting my return to the members bar, Scott Allardice slotted home an equaliser from the edge of the box.

The second half saw Accies go for it, and they got their just reward in the 73^rd minute when Connor Smith scored from the penalty spot. Billy Mckay was sent off late in the game for the visitors, but it was a vital win for the home side who are battling to avoid relegation to the third tier.

It was a jog at the final whistle to make the 9.45pm train back to Glasgow, which incidentally had a good number of younger Caley fans on it, so I can only assume they may have been students in Glasgow? Anyway, we made the train, and just after 10pm it was into the lift at Motel One.

It might not quite have been Fir Park 2006 with all of it’s glory, but Hamilton Accies had been a great night. A proper Scottish football club with a rich history, and if you think back to the opponents Derry City faced on that UEFA Cup night, the same could not be said about the club that disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived…….