Chocolate Orange

Chipstead  2  Sutton Common Rovers  3

Isthmian Football League – Division One South Central

Admission / Programme – £10 / Online

I’ll be honest, since the M25 debacle a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been right royally irritated about being denied the opportunity to go to Chipstead.

Not like it really makes any difference to be honest, just a case of reshuffling the fixtures and pencilling it back in again, it matters not really. That said, I felt irritated all the same, Ascot was great, but it wasn’t Chipstead. Touching the FA Vase was fantastic, but it wasn’t Chipstead.

Getting the picture yet? Very inexplicably, and quite irrationally, it’s been bugging me, so the first opportunity to redress the balance, and I was going!

Two weeks it’s taken, of stewing, pondering and wondering what might have been, but the time arrived, Saturday 25^th November, a home game against near neighbours Sutton Common Rovers, and for me, as it was my birthday, the second most exciting thing of the weekend after Mrs H treated me to a meal at a Thai Restaurant the night before!

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, this time setting off well in good time, and despite the usual shite around Luton, the M25 was pretty much plain sailing, and as the clock ticked just past 1.30pm, I was winding my way down the leafy back lanes that bought me into Chipstead from the South. Chipstead is only a village, located not far from Banstead, and indeed very close to Kingswood, a place I spent some time in while I was on residential training at Legal & General (the location where some of St Trinian’s was filmed apparently!). I may be wrong, but I seem to think George Best spent some of his latter years living in Kingswood.

The football ground is located on the right hand side, just before you enter into the residential part of the village, and as a result it’s very rural and leafy, and on a cold autumnal day, it was a pleasant place to be, despite what was without doubt the bitterest Saturday of the season so far.

The car park sits between the football ground and Chipstead, Coulsdon and Walcountians Cricket Club (yes, the area is as middle class as the name would suggest!), it wasn’t the biggest so I was glad I was early, and thinking about it, if I had made it in time for kick off the other week, Christ knows where I would have parked.

The clubhouse sits just outside the ground, with the dressing rooms conjoined, however, if you want a pint, you need to go into the club before you go into the ground as it’s not accessible once through the turnstiles.

After you’ve had a pint, and gone through the turnstiles, High Road (yes, that is the grounds name), is a pleasant facility, with three areas of cover. Behind the South goal is some narrow terracing with a roof on it, which runs down to the goal from the corner nearest the turnstiles, whereas behind the opposite goal is another smaller area of cover which is of the scaffold and cladding design, just covering the concrete walkway. The seated area is on the West side of the ground and is a typical Atcost style structure, with the tea bar to the side of it and the toilets behind.

The history of Chipstead is a lengthy one. They were formed in 1906, and in 1962 joined the Surrey Intermediate League, before moving to the Surrey Premier League in 1982.

The Combined Counties League beckoned in 1986, and their period in the competition was a successful one. Winning the league twice and being runners up on three occasions. The final championship came in 2006-7 when a 99 point haul combined with 114 goals scored, saw them promoted to the Isthmian League for the first time ever.

If we are being honest, the Isthmian, at times has been a struggle. The club have finished tenth three times, but five times have ended up in the bottom four, albeit surviving every time. This season they were sitting in a mid-table position prior to the game, very much like the visitors.

A best FA Cup performance came in 2008-09 when they reached the final qualifying round, only to lose 4-1 at Torquay United, while the Vase and Trophy have not really provided any notable highlights. That said, when it comes to trophies, a number of League Cup’s and Divisional Cup’s were plundered in the Combined Counties League days, albeit the bulk of them back in the Nineties.

The game itself proved to be entertaining. The hosts took the lead in the 20^th minute thanks to a neat finish from Daniel Berry, but SCR (I will go abbreviated from now on) grabbed an equaliser ten minutes before the break through Charlie Martin.

SCR came out for the second half looking that bit more fired up than Chipstead, and it was Martin who game them the lead when he ran onto a ball over the top and lobbed the goalkeeper, and then within five minutes that same player grabbed his hat-trick goal from the penalty spot following a handball decision.

At 3-1, you felt SCR had it in the bag but as we moved into injury time the hosts were awarded a penalty and up stepped Martin Sontan to score, but it was to no avail, and despite six minutes of added time, I felt it was a deserved victory for the boys from up the road.

125 watched it, many taking advantage of the fact that the door between the bar and the ground was left open for the second half…..a wise move on the part of the club. I couldn’t partake though, I had the M25 and the M1 to contend with, which both behaved impeccably, as they normally do when you aren’t on a deadline!

It was satisfying though, satisfying to scratch the itch, to rip off the plaster, to put it to bed, call it what you like, but when you turn 51, little things are all it takes to please….like a chocolate orange for example, but that can wait until tomorrow!