Broadchurch

Bridport  4  Axminster Town  2

South West Peninsula League – East Division

Admission / Programme - £6 / £1.50

I don’t watch too much television these days if I’m honest. I don’t have a great attention span, and in recent times I’ve lost count of the number of series that I’ve started watching but never completed.

Having said that, one series that I did watch from start to finish was the first Broadchurch which of course starred David Tennant, Olivia Colman and Jodie Whittaker amongst others.

I do remember being quite taken by the setting, with the large cliff face leading to the long stretch of sand, and of course the modern yet subtle circular building that was in effect the local nick! Like anything, I was curious as to where this may have been filmed and a quick bit of research told me it was a coastal area close to Bridport in Dorset.

Fast forward, the Easter break was upon us and the family getaway was to be in South Devon. That was to begin with an early start on the morning of Good Friday, with the aim to be down into South West Peninsula League land in readiness for one of the 11am kick offs. Worst case, depending on traffic, Cullompton Rangers just off the M5 was the first destination we would get to, after that we could have gone to Honiton Town or Okehampton Argyle, but ideally if all behaved itself it would be Bridport v Axminster Town.

Bridport is an interesting one, they only joined the SWPL at the start of the current season having transferred from the Western League. To the best of my knowledge they are the first and only Dorset based club to play in a league that had been previously a solely Devon and Cornwall competition.

The traffic was fine, Bristol didn’t do any damage to us and before long we were exiting the M5 at the Yeovil / Weymouth junction and heading down through Chard and Axminster to our destination. Bridport is kind of the first place of size you arrive at when travelling from Devon into Dorset, and is a place I’ve driven past on more than a couple of occasions but without ever stopping off to take a look.

Parked up at the ground to the South of the town centre a good hour or more from kick off we had a little walk into the town for a look around and what a lovely place it is. One kind of random spot as we wandered down the main street was a vehicle parked up with the branding for Tristan Murless, a local electrical contractor. Now, that is the kind of name that’s not overly common, and I immediately recognised it from reading the book by journalist Ian Ridley about his time as Chairman of Weymouth Football Club. In that book Tristan Murless was talked about at regular intervals as a fellow director of the football club, and described by Ridley as ‘a man about town!’, read into that what you will!

Anyhow, randomness aside, the circular walk took us along to the river and down the path back to the ground. The sun was shining, it was a glorious day in Dorset and a good sized crowd were making their way into the tidy ground. So the ground then, you enter in the South corner with some open flat standing behind the goal immediately to your left. In front of you is another area of flat standing that runs the length of the touchline but in the middle is a tall area of cover providing shelter.

Behind the North goal is the clubhouse that was doing a good trade, while next to it is a pretty tall and imposing building that houses the dressing rooms. Moving round to the West side of the ground you have the tea bar, and a seated stand that straddles the half way line. Just further on from the seated stand is another smaller shelter that appears to serve as accommodation for those less able or mobile. I liked it, a ground that gave the spectator everything they needed, but at the same time unspoilt by progress and indeed draconian ground grading regulations.

So what’s the story with Bridport then?

Well, they were founder members of the Dorset Combination in 1957 before joining the Western League in 1961 where they remained until the 1983-84 season. That particular season saw the club resign part way through and their record expunged, with the club effectively taking the reserves place in the Dorset Combination again. They managed to win the competition three times on the bounce and did eventually return to the Western League in 1988, where again they remained until the end of last season, albeit being promoted and relegated between its two divisions a couple of times. They have regularly competed in the FA Cup, Trophy and Vase over the years but sadly they have yet to win any of those competitions!

But last season, their last in the Western League, was a disaster, They were in the Premier Division and lost 34 of their 36 games, conceding 185 goals in the process. Relegation was always going to happen but how they felt about going into the SWPL as opposed to the bottom tier of the Western is a question I don’t know the answer to. Looking at the geography, I suspect life in the SWPL may be somewhat easier.

This season they are in a lower mid-table spot having clearly regrouped, whereas the visitors from just up the road were in the top five of the table that is currently looking like a battle between Crediton United and Brixham for the title.

The best of the season crowd of 238 at St Mary’s Field were treated to a cracking game of football.

Luke King gave the hosts a third minute lead with a header before Riley Weedon made it 2-0 in the 11^th minute with a well placed free kick. A penalty was then awarded to the visitors, one that divided opinion to be honest but for me it was a penalty kick, which Richard Hebditch duly despatched.

Within a minute was 2-2 when Kieren Daniels inadvertently put an attempted clearance into his own net, albeit the defender had very little thinking time, or margin for error. However just before half time Bridport regained the lead when Weedon weaved his way into a shooting position and found the net with a low shot.

Oscar Latas saw red for the visitors early in the second period following a second caution, and that to a certain extent killed the game, with Bridport looking the more likely to get any further goals in the contest. Chances did go begging but eventually in the closing stages Brad Rowe sealed the victory for the hosts when he was given space to pick his spot.

Meanwhile, Master H had been busy trying to think of something for us to do after the game, before we could go and check in at base camp in Exeter. He suggested we go to a little seaside resort called West Bay that was just South of the town.

None of us knew anything about it, so taking his advice, off we went, and after finally finding a parking space in which was clearly a popular location, we had a wander up to the beach. It was only then that it struck me where we were, to our left was the instantly recognisable cliff face, which then prompted us to look right and spot the recently constructed circular building. We were in Broadchurch, and bizarrely at no moment during the day, up until that point, had I given any thought to the fact that we were going to be in the vicinity of the iconic TV setting.