Lock Out

Wantage Town  1  Windsor  3

Berkshire & Buckinghamshire Senior Cup – First Round

It’s a long drive from Wantage back to Belper on a Tuesday night.

So when I pulled on to my drive at 11.45pm, I was looking forward to a nightcap and my cradle, however, when it became clear that I was locked out of the house thanks to a key being left in on the other side, it was really was not what I needed.

I decided to send a couple of texts to Mrs H, pleading for her to come down from bed and let me in, but it transpired they wouldn’t send due to network errors. I found out about the network error when I then tried to call and it wouldn’t connect. I then decided to switch my phone off and on again, but as it was only at 5% battery when I did it, by the time it booted back up again, the battery was flat!

Oh happy days! So I gave the Ring doorbell a couple of blasts, but within a few minutes it was clear it wasn’t waking her up, it subsequently transpired that Mrs H turns it onto silent mode at night….

I was at this stage genuinely fearing spending the night in my car, which was far from ideal given that I needed to be up at 6am to pick up some senior executives from my company at 8am from a Hotel in Sheffield. But, knowing that my in car USB port was broken, I happened to find in the glove compartment an adaptor that plugged into the lighter socket, and bingo, the green light came on, we had a USB port after all, which was great. At least it would have been great had I got a cable to attach it to my phone, I hadn’t, I’d left it in the house!

Next idea, my laptop, take it to the window downstairs and hope it picks up the WiFi, which it did, and that meant I could send a Facebook message to Mrs H. That didn’t work, so I sent one to the Mother In Law to ask her to ring her, assuming she was still up bearing in mind it was half past midnight, and guess what, that failed.

So, with options running out, I tried knocking on the door and the window, that once again failed, so with a limited supply of objects to throw at the bedroom window, I opted for the one and only small coin in my pocket.  It hit the window perfectly, but then it landed on the window ledge (I couldn’t do it again if I tried), so with the first effort failing to rouse her, I was now well and truly stuffed.

A flash on inspiration came over me, find a phone box! Now I’ve not set foot in a phone box for 25 years, and even then it wasn’t to make a call, so actually having any recollection where they were located in Belper was going to be a trial and error job. I did eventually find one in a car park half way between home and town, but it was out of order and it smelled of piss. So, with the time now past 1am, I drive into town and found a working box near the bus stops.

Next problem, could I remember the good lady’s number, and also, how did you work the bloody thing! I got the number right and the call connected, but it rang to answer machine upon which I left a quite fraught and uncomplimentary message. My only hope now would be, if I was to drive home, would she have heard the phone and got the message?

Wantage Town were on my radar a couple of years ago, but they got relegated from the Southern League back to the Hellenic League, so they kind of dropped off if it until promotion at the end of last season following a championship campaign, which saw them return.

The Alfredian Park ground of ‘The Freds’ is the nearest ground to my house (if I could get in it) in Steps 1-4 of the non-league pyramid that I’d not been to, so I worked out it was just about realistic to travel for a midweek game. When I set off from Sheffield I was still in two minds somewhat, but with the M1, the A43 and the M40 behaving despite it being rush hour, I felt much happier about the journey even with the trials and tribulations of the Oxford Ring Road still to ambush me.

I got to the ground, which is on the road out of the pretty and well to do Oxfordshire town, in good time for kick off, and with a parking space found inside the ground, it was an opportunity to survey the scene.

A narrow track leads from the main road and takes you through the gates and the turnstiles into a car park which sits behind the goal. Also set in the car park are the dressing rooms and the sizeable clubhouse which looked to be doing a decent trade despite a small crowd being in attendance for a Berkshire and Buckinghamshire County Cup tie. I know what you are now thinking, well Wantage used to be part of Berkshire, so their participation is presumably based on historical matters.

The only cover at the ground is on the side furthest away from the road, and this comprises of some terracing, some bench seating and some ‘proper’ seating. It looks quite modern so maybe it’s replaced what was once in place?

Both ends and the other side are hard standing, but overall it’s a tidy and well kept ground, with a lovely playing surface, and also in a very pleasant residential area. Quite how the locals view the club is anyone’s guess, but they’ve been allowed what they have so complaints about lights and cars and stands can’t have been too vocal.

So, on the field, what’s been happening?

I’ll admit to not knowing what’s happened at Wantage, but after winning the Hellenic last season, I can only assume that they’ve had a complete change of playing staff. Because so far in the league they’ve played nine and lost all of them scoring  just two goals and letting in 43.  Thame United have put nine past them whereas AFC Dunstable and Berkhamsted have both found the net seven times.

Windsor (the former Windsor & Eton), who turned out in a kit in the style of a Union Jack, with the red replaced with pink, sat half way up the Combined Counties League. They had beaten Wantage 7-0 early in a pre-season friendly, so that in itself didn’t bode well for the hosts.

The game went to the form book with the visitors winning 3-1, but to be fair, despite a noticeable gap in quality, Wantage showed some fantastic batting qualities and never once looked like throwing the towel in. Look, they’ll finish bottom and will probably be relegated, that sounds harsh I know, but they aren’t a Step 4 football team in all fairness. Whatever has happened, has happened, and they need to go down again to find their feet.

The journey back had one annoying traffic related element when it transpired that that entrance onto the Oxford Ring at Botley was closed, so I had to go all the way round the other way, past the ground of Oxford City, before heading back out to the M40. Otherwise, all was fine.

So, did Mrs H get the message just after 1am?

Thankfully she did, but, have a guess who got the blame? Yep, you don’t need me to tell you, but I really must get my in car USB port fixed if I want to avoid a repeat.

I’ll never forget my trip to Wantage, for so many reasons……..