Grifters

Nuneaton Griff   1   Coventry Sphinx   1 (4-3 pens)

Midland Football League – League Cup

It seemed like a very good idea at the time.

It would have been February 2004, a Wednesday night, and the snow had been falling steadily in the parish of Dronfield throughout the afternoon.

I’d seen a game I quite fancied, it was Nuneaton Griff v Rugby Town in the Midland Combination, it was declared as on, despite the adverse weather conditions.

I set off from Dronfield, and within half a mile I’d found myself sliding sideways down the main road towards oncoming traffic. Thankfully, I ground to a halt before colliding with anything, but even so, it proved to be an un-nerving experience, so I chose to give Nuneaton a miss.

It subsequently got called off late in the day anyway!

By the time it got round to December 2004, I decided to head for Griff again, on a Wednesday night, but this time the weather was not an issue, I saw them draw 1-1 with Barnt Green Spartak.

That was fifteen years ago, almost, and since that point I can honestly say that I’ve never had any inclination whatsoever to head back to the Pingles Stadium to watch Griff again, not because they did anything to upset and annoy me, far from it. Simply they weren’t on my radar, and maybe also because every time I think of them I have flashbacks to my car heading uncontrollably down a snow covered road!

That all changed a bit though earlier this year, and it was down to a friendship I struck with a gentleman called Rod Grubb.

I’d set up a programme trading business, on a small scale, via mail order and via eBay, and Rod stumbled across me. We got talking, and kept in touch, and it turns out that Rod was indeed the programme editor at Nuneaton Griff. We’d never met before, so I made him a promise that at some point this season I’d head down to watch them, and at the same time, put a face to a name.

After a couple of aborted attempts, I finally got a date in the diary, a Wednesday night, and given the previous weeks torrential rain, it was declared as very much on.

I don’t know Nuneaton as a town very well, apart from the previous visit to Griff, I’ve been to the old and the new Nuneaton Borough grounds a couple of times each, and I went to watch a team called Stockingford Allotment Association one evening, which from memory was somewhere in the town, very close to a cabbage patch.

So to a certain extent, despite the relative closeness of Nuneaton to Belper, it was a bit of a journey into the unknown. But with my trusty sat nav taking me down the M69 and via the back way into the town, I found myself handily parked up in the pub car park at the bottom of the access road to the stadium, which gave me time to do a bit of research into the club I was about to visit.

It seems Griff were formed in 1972 as Nuneaton Amateurs, the year I was born in fact, maybe we could be twins? Anyway, Football Club History Database only picks them up from 1999 so presumably they played in some local leagues and of course the Coventry Alliance prior to that, I guess?

So, in 1999, they joined the Midland Combination and were somewhat controversially placed into the Premier Division, but that was fully justified as they won the Championship in their first campaign. The following year they did it again, but also won the League Challenge Cup at Villa Park and the Coventry Telegraph Cup at Highfield Road the night after, becoming the first team to win two cups on consecutive nights at different Premier League grounds!

Up until the end of the 2013-14 season the club had a mixed time, some successful seasons, some less so, and then when the Combination merged with the Midland Alliance they were placed in the First Division, where they remain today, despite having finished bottom last season, and sitting bottom this time around.

They reached the Fifth Round of the FA Vase in 2015-16, losing to Salisbury, but other than that, they’ve not registered much on the national scale. Although an 8-5 home defeat to Rocester in the Vase a couple of seasons back opened a few eyes.

I didn’t have much of a recollection of the Pingles Stadium, other than they had a tall stand, and it was an athletics stadium. So when I found the turnstiles, which isn’t that easy, what I found did bring back a few memories. Yes, it was still an athletics stadium, and yes it did still have a tall and smart stand, but also I recalled the nearby railway arches, and the tress that lined one side of the complex.

They have, according to Rod, extended the clubhouse and dressing rooms in recent years and are now trying to get an alcohol licence. To be honest though, I have no recollection whatsoever of that from my previous visit.

It’s a tidy venue, and with plans to refurbish the athletics track, and the floodlights, to go with the new electronic scoreboard and media block, it will be tidier still. For what Griff both want and need, it does just the job, and clearly it’s well cared for.

I finally got to meet the mighty fine gentleman that is Rod, and had the pleasure of spending the game in his company. He invited me in for coffee and cake at half time, which was very kind of him and of the Griff Chairman who I also had the pleasure of meeting. Griff might be struggling on the pitch due to being one of the clubs in the league that doesn’t have a  playing budget, but off the pitch they are first class.

So what about the game?

Considering visiting Coventry Sphinx were from the league above, albeit struggling, Griff made a very positive start and looked well organised. It came as no surprise either when Lewis Collins found the net in the 38^th minute to give them the lead.

Sphinx got an equaliser in the 77^th minute from a Lewis Noon free kick but to be fair, even up to that point Griff had not looked in any significant danger. That said, once the goal went in, it was all hands to the pump for the hosts as Sphinx had their most dominant spell of the game, without finding any further goals.

The game went straight to penalties, and Sphinx saved the first Griff penalty only for the liner (a former Griff player!), to quite rightly rule that the goalkeeper was two yards off his line when the kick was taken. The re-take found the net.

That kind of set the tone, and when Sphinx saw their last penalty saved, it was a 4-3 victory for Griff who progress to the next round. The Sphinx manager resigned after the game.

I gave Rod a lift home after the game, it was the least I could do in return for his hospitality. And for his and all of the volunteers who’ve worked so hard over the years at the club, I do hope they can retain their Step 6 status this season.

If you’ve never been, I urge you to pay them a visit, this is a very good, and a very welcoming football club, and one to definitely bear in mind when the weather is not so good. As Rod told me, they don’t lose many games, if any, to waterlogging.

Snow is another matter!!