The L&R 100

THURMASTON W.M.P. 2009 4-3 F.C. HOSKINS
Friday 31st August 2012
Alliance Football League Division 1
Garden Street, Thurmaston, Leicestershire

Sunday League football on a Friday night!!!

After a busy weekend a week ago with two games in Somerset and a further one in Birmingham, a quiet one is one the cards with less travelling involved. First up is a game in the Leicestershire based Alliance Football League between Thurmaston WMP 2009 and FC Hoskins.

I don't know a lot about either side but a number of the Thurmaston players played for (the now defunct) Syston Midland Railway last season in the Leicester Sunday League (LSL. I saw Syston four times and they won all of them including the final of the LSL Premier Cup final @ Hinckley United FC. This was a game that saw me witness one of (if not) the worst challenge / foul / assault I have ever seen at a football game, which saw the opponents (Wigston Car Breakers) goalkeeper break the leg of Syston forward  Troy Buccolossi  in two places. All is know about Hoskins is that they are ran from the Tom Hoskins pub on Beaumanor Road in Leicester and they play their home games at the Mowmacre Sports Ground on Thurcaston Road.

The pitch on Garden Street is located in the middle of Thurmaston, set back from the main Melton Road that runs through the village. It is in a nutshell a recreation ground - end of with their being no facilities pitchside. The players change in the nearby Thurmaston Progressive Working Mens Club.

A cracking game of Sunday League football that was played on a Friday night on a village rec. 

A deserved win for Thurmaston against one of the division favourites. 

Seven goals, two penalties, a sending off and a very poor ref. 

Thurmaston (playing in the black and white stripes) opened the scoring inside sixty seconds, only for Hoskins to be awarded a very soft penalty some thirty seconds later. Penalty scored - game all square. Fifteen minutes and Thurmaston re-took the lead, only for a f**k up between their gk and defender resulted in a gift of a second equaliser within ninety seconds. Thurmaston were then awarded a very dubious penalty themselves around the midway point of the half - penalty scored and it became 3-2. Towards the end of the half and Thurmaston doubled their advantage to go in at half time 4-2. 

The second half saw Thurmaston dominate the opening exchanges but could not put the game to bed. Hoskins then took control and got a goal back with a header at the far post - game on. The game was end to end but Thurmaston looked very dangerous on the counter but failed to kill of Hoskins. Around five minutes fro

m the end Thurmaston should have been awarded another penalty but the ref turned it down. In contrast to the two given harshly in the first half, this one was clear cut with Jamie Sharman being brought down from behind - no consistency. The ref then sent off Ryan Whatley for presumably foul and abusive language due to protesting the decision, though this was an over the top reaction. More chances came and went in the final few minutes for either side, but Thurmaston get the three points in the opening game of the season. 

Finally a reference to the title - this was my 100th venue that I have seen football at in Leicestershire and Rutland.

A slideshow of 27 photos taken during the 1st half can be viewed below:

FA Cup and Festival League

Saturday 25th August

Wells City 0-4 Bodmin Town

FA Cup Preliminary Round

The Athletic Ground, Wells, Somerset

Sunday 26th August

Lea Hall Sports & Social 6-0 Warren Rovers

Festival Football League Premier Division

Mackadown Sports & Social Club, Mackadown Lane, Birmingham

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Yesterday (25th August) was my annual trip down to Cheltenham to meet up with good friend Colin Buchanan, and was chosen due to Cheltenham Town having an away game. With plenty of fixtures to choose from on both sides of the M4 motorway the difficult part was deciding where to go. Firstly we took in an under-18 game between Bristol City and Brighton & Hove Albion at the Q.E.H. Sports Ground in Failand, Somerset. The Q.E.H. is a vast affair housing a cricket pitch, four rugby pitches and plenty of football pitches. The two that City use for their under-18's and under-16's matches are furthest away from the main entrance. The game was played in glorious sunshine and was fairly entertaining in which the visitors came away with a 3-2 victory. There is no admission charge and no catering facilities on site, though thankfully if you are caught short there is a toilet block near to the pitches!!!

After deliberating the options for game two we headed further south into deepest Somerset to the cathedral city of Wells for an FA Cup tie. The draw had thrown up a home tie for Wells City against Cornish side Bodmin Town and pitted the Western League against the South West Peninsula League.

The Athletic Ground, City's home is on the southern edge of Wells and is pretty basic. You enter in the corner and we were charged £6 admission which included a sixteen page programme. The changing rooms, stand, tea hut and boardroom are all on the far side, with the stand being elevated and set back from the pitch.

Wells started off brightly but as the half worn on were chasing the Bodmin Town shadows, and it was only a matter of time before the visitors opened the scoring. Two quick goals early in the second half saw the game ended as a contest, before a fourth late on put a gloss on the score. Wells played their part but despite getting forward often they seldom tested the Bodmin keeper. The reward for Bodmin is another road trip in the 1st qualifying round to Southern League outfit Bideford.

Photos of the ground and game can be viewed in the slideshow below:

Having spent the night in Cheltenham I headed home around nine am with a planned detour for another game of football. Most Sunday football does not start until next week, but as luck would have it there were games in the premier division of the Festival Football League. The detour took me ten minutes off the M42 to the Kitts Green area of Birmingham and more specifically the Mackadown Sports & Social Club on Mackadown Lane. This ground is probably familiar with the Midlands based ground hoppers as it was home to Midland Combination side Clements '83 for a couple of years. For anyone that hasn't been to the Mackadown, there is a large car park which houses the changing rooms and a cafe, while the pitch was set above the car park and was railed off on three sides with dugouts on the near side. It is also a haven for both train and plane spotters with it being very close to Birmingham Airport and adjacent to the West Coast Main Line.

The fixture saw defending Festival League champions Lea Hall Sports & Social open their account against Warren Rovers. The first half ended goalless but Lea Hall would have been wondering how as they dominated the proceedings for the most part. The second half saw Lea Hall strike early with a first time shot following a well worked move that opened up the Warren defence. The visitors then had their best spell of the game but were undone with two quick goals around the midway point of the half. Their heads dropped and it was then a case of how many Lea Hall would score. In the end they added three more and recorded a six nil victory. 

Some photos of the game and venue can be viewed in the slideshow below:

A pummeling for Potton

OADBY TOWN 8-0 POTTON UNITED
Saturday 18th August 2012
United Counties League Division 1
Wigston Road, Oadby

Leading up to today I was being very indecisive (no sarcastic comments needed!!!) about where to go to get my footy fix. Do I put my groundhopping hat on or do I put my Oadby Town hat on?

Well it went the way of Oadby Town for their opening game in the United Counties League after they transferred from the East Midlands Counties League. Prior to the main even I took in a game in the Football League Youth Alliance between the under-18's of Burton Albion and Bradford City. This kicked off at 11am at the Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College in Woodhouse and ended 0-0, with an attendance of 40.

Probably like a lot of the country Leicestershire was bathed in glorious sunshine and I arrived at the ground at around 1.45pm. Admission was £5 and a further £1 for a programme and it was a case of heading to the clubhouse for a pint.

Over the summer Oadby have undergone changes on both the playing and management side with Clem Dublin joining from St. Andrews as joint 1st team manager alongside Lee Harriman. Having not seen Oadby during their pre-season games I only recognised about half of the team, and these included a some of them who played for Clem last season at St. Andrews.  Examples being goalkeeper Warren Butlin and Kris Stevenson, the latter of which I remember seeing play for Kingsway Rangers in the Leicester & District League a few years ago.

The game started off fairly evenly with some robust challenges from the visitors that resulted in numerous free kicks for the hosts. Oadby then took control of the game from the quarter hour mark and from then on it was primarily one way traffic. The opening goal came on twenty two minutes when Sam Benjamin headed from from twelve yards out. Eight minutes later and Tom Williams doubled the home sides advantage as he stabbed home a corner from just inside the penalty area. The third goal followed straight after as Jon Stevenson got the first of a brace and made it 3-0. As the first half went into the latter stages midfielder Jake Duffy got in on the act with two goals on 41 and 45 minutes respectively make it 5-0 at half time.

The second half was only four minutes old when Stevenson got his second beating the Potton keeper with a shot from outside the penalty area. A raft of substitutions followed from both sides and the game became a little disjointed, but Oadby had time to add two further goals. Firstly Duffy completed his hat-trick on seventy-three minutes and substitute Ben Harris completed the scoring with eight minutes left. 

Oadby could and should have won by a greater margin but some good goal keeping helped keep the score down.  

It is difficult to read much into this result regarding predictions for the season as Potton were one of the weaker sides in the United Counties League last season, but the 8-0 scoreline was the biggest victory I have seen them personally achieve since I first watched them in 1998.

Admission: £5
Programme: £1
Attendance: 91

A slideshow of forty photos taken during the first half can be viewed in the slideshow below:

Friday night football

MELBOURNE DYNAMO RESERVES 4-0 MACKWORTH ST. FRANCIS RESERVES

Friday 17th August 2012

Midlands Regional Alliance Division 2

Melbourne Recreation Ground, Cockshut Lane

Why would I attend a reserve team fixture you may ask? Surely a case of scrapping the bottom of the barrel football wise?

Well there was only one reason - Dynamo's reserve team play at a different location to that of their first team, which is Grange Park in the neighbouring village of Ticknall. 

The Melbourne Recreation Ground is located on the western side of the village and is home to three sports - cricket, football and rugby. The pitch used last night was in the right hand corner of the sports ground. 

The game was fairly entertaining considering the level, which if the Premiership is one the Midlands Regional Alliance Division 2 is fourteen. The scoreline flattered the hosts as Mackworth were the better side for the most part but could not convert any of the numerous chances that came their way. 

The goals for Melbourne came on 17 (a deflected shot that sailed over the Mackworth keeper into the top corner); 31 (a powerful headed from a well delivered free kick); 37 (a back heel from a few yards out) and 49 (a shot into the top right hand corner from close range).

Admission: none

Attendance: around 8 - but people came and went during the game

Some photos taken during the first half can be viewed in the slideshow below:

The front page

Last season saw Newark Town publish a couple of my photos in their match day programme which were taken at their game @ Belper United, but now I have gone one better!!!

Shirebrook Town programme editor Paul Harrison has used a photo I took at their pre-season game against Glapwell on 14th July on the front cover. Also there are four further others on page 30 of the Selby Town issue dated 8th August.

Wolves

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 1-1- ALDERSHOT TOWN
(aet; 7-6 on penalty kicks)
Saturday 11th August 2012
Football League Capital One Cup 1st Round
Molineux

A case of back to normal today, or certainly being a more sedate weekend after the amount of travelling done previously with my trips down to London and South Wales. Today due to taking advantage of cheap tickets sees myself and my dad head west to Wolverhampton for a visit to Molineux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club.

I have visited numerous non-league clubs in the area since 1999, of which these include Bilston Town, Goodrich, Willenhall Town and Wednesfield so when I saw that they (Wolves) were selling tickets for this game at £10 + a £1.50 booking fee it became a no-brainer. Tickets were purchased three weeks ago, with our tickets for the middle of the Billy Wright Stand - Upper Tier.

We arrived in Wolverhampton with around an hour to kick-off, and managed to park a few minutes walk away in a private car park that cost £5. A programme was purchased before having a walk round the ground and taking some photographs. The view was excellent from our seats with it being on the half way line, though the leg room was very limited.

Wolves were founded in 1877 as St. Lukes Football Club, and just two years later merged with The Wanderers to form the club known today. They have played at their Molineux ground since 1889 , while a year earlier were founder members of the Football League.

Without wittling on about the club all I have decided to do is list the club's first team honours:

Football League Champions: 1953/54; 1957/58; 1958/59
Football League 2nd Division winners: 1931/32; 1976/77
Football League Championship winners: 2008/09
Football League Division 3 North winners: 1923/24
Football League Division 3 winners: 1988/89
Football League Division 4 winners: 1987/88
FA Cup winners: 1893; 1908; 1949' 1960
Football League Cup winners: 1974; 1980
FA Charity Shield winners: 1949 (shared); 1954 (shared); 1959; 1960 (shared)
Football League Trophy winners: 1988
Texaco Cup winners: 1971

The game was not one of the best I have seen but certainly not as bad as the dross served up last week at the Millennium Stadium. Like last week the game ended 1-1 after extra time and went to a penalty shoot out. The first time I have ever seen two consecutive shoot outs - Wolves won this one 7-6 to progress to round two, though will have to pay considerably better than this if this wish to advance to the latter stages.

The home side always looked the better side but were for the most part toothless and had very little bite. The dangerous Sylvan Ebanks-Blake gave them the lead on 53 minutes, scoring from an acute angle after good work from Tongo Doumbia. The lead lasted just nine minutes when Michael Rankine headed home a Josh Payne corner. The remainder of the ninety minutes petered out and it inevitably went into extra-time. The closest either side came in extra-time was when Anthony Forde rattled the post with a rasping shot.

With thirteen penalty kicks successfully converted Wolves' keeper Carl Ikeme saved Jordan Roberts effort to put his side into the next round.

  
Admission: £10 + £1.50 b/fee
Programme: £2.50
Badge: £2
Attendance: 11,555

A slideshow of ground photos can be viewed below:

Olympics - part 3

GREAT BRITAIN 1-1 REPUBLIC OF KOREA

(after extra time; 4-5 on penalty kicks)

Men's Football Tournament - Quarter Final

Saturday 4th August 2012

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

My third and final London 2012 Olympic experience is a three hundred mile round trip to Cardiff. The Millennium Stadium is one stadium that I have been wanting to visit for a while, so when the chance came up to get some tickets for a game here, I opted for this over another quarter final at St. James' Park in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Like for the games the previous week at Coventry I went for the cheapest tickets which came in at £20 each.

The Millennium Stadium was built in 1999 and replaced the old National Stadium which stood on the same site. It has a capacity of 74,500 and the first event at the new stadium was on the 26th June 1999 when Wales beat South Africa 29-19 in a rugby union international. The total cost of construction of the stadium was £121m and is owned by Millennium Stadium Plc, which is a subsidiary company of the Welsh Rugby Union. The stadium is home to the Welsh national rugby union team, but also hosts Welsh national football games and the Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain.

As we would be driving down to Cardiff I checked on the stadium's official website in regard to parking etc, and the advise was to contact Cardiff council to reserve a space for the park-and-ride facility at Cardiff City Football Club. An e-mail was sent on the 13th June requesting a reservation  with the reply coming just a day later confirming this. We arrived at the park-and-ride facility at around 5pm with no problems on route after stopping on route to watch another game of football - a 1st round tie in the Gwent Senior Cup between Newport Civil Service and Monmouth Town at the Civil Service Sports Ground at Bettws.  The reservation we had was not needed and the process was like in London yesterday, smooth and efficient.

After getting off the bus on the other side of the stadium to our entrance point the heavens opened, and boy did it rain. Impressive is about the best way I can describe the Millennium Stadium. Even though it is thirteen years old it is not showing any signs of it, and it is a fantastic sight. We had tickets for the back of the bottom tier near the corner flag, and despite this we had a good view of the pitch.

Unfortunately the game did not match the stadium and the atmosphere with it being an absolute stinker. In fact it is doubtful I will see a worse game all season. The GB team looked devoid of any idea how to break the Koreans down, though their opponents were not much better. Korea settled quicker and looked dangerous with GB goalkeeper Jack Butland making a flying save. It came as no surprise when they took the lead on twenty-nine minutes with a Ji Dongwon shot going through the arms of Butland. The lead lasted just seven minutes as the home nation were awarded a penalty. Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey stepped up and levelled the scores. A few minutes later and another penalty was awarded to GB but Ramsey had his spot kick saved. 

There was an air of inevitability that the game would be decided by kicks from the penalty spot and this proved to be the case. The first eight were all successfully converted before Daniel Sturridge had his saved by Lee Bumyoung. This left Ki Sungyueng to win the game and he made no mistake to give Korea a sem-final match with Brazil.

When the game ended we decided to walk back to the park & ride which took us about twenty minutes, and we were back on the M4 soon afterwards and home in Leicester at 1am

Another long but enjoyable day and this completes my London 2012 Olympic experience.

Photos of the Millennium Stadium can be viewed in the first slideshow, while ones of the afternoon game at Newport Civil Service FC in the second:



   

Olympics - part 2

Women's Handball Competition - Group B

Friday 3rd August 2012

Copper Box Arena

Like previously stated in part 1 it was my intention to get tickets for an event at the Olympic Park itself, but following the original ballot and secondary sales I was unable to get anything other than for football. It was always my intention to keep trying as I had an inkling that some of the other national Olympic associations would send back unsold tickets, and also that once the seating plans were finalised the organisers would hopefully have more tickets to go on sale. As luck would have it a few months ago some more tickets went on sale and managed to get some for the Women's Handball Tournament. I had to pay top whack for the tickets which came in @ £50 each, but as this is something that would never be experienced again and certainly not in my home country, two were purchased for myself and my wife Angela. 

To get down to London we decided to go on the train from Leicester as I did not fancy driving, mainly due to working a night shift. To help matters I managed to get my Thursday night shift changed from a 10-6 to an 8-4 one, which meant I would get home around 4.15am on the Friday morning. In the end I got home This allowed me to get some sleep before having to go and get the pre-booked train out of Leicester at 1155. The train tickets to London St. Pancras cost £34 return each, and with a midday departure would allow us plenty of time to get to the Olympic Park in time for our event which was not due to start until 1930. The train arrived in Leicester on time and got us into St. Pancras at the scheduled time of 1315. It was then a case of going to the other side of the station to catch the Javelin service to Stratford International - a six minute journey across London. 

The Olympic Rings @ St. Pancras Station

On arrival we made our way into the Westfield Stratford shopping centre which is adjacent to the Olympic Park, which for this weekend only was only for athletes, officials and people with tickets for any of the events etc etc due to it being the busiest weekend of the games helped by the athletic events starting. After spending around an hour and half in the shopping centre buying a few souvenirs and other odds and sods we made our way into the park. Getting through security was effortless, very efficient and well organised and took no time at all.

myself @ the entrance to the Olympic Park

We in the park you are greeted by the impressive site of the Olympic Stadium in front of you, the Aquatics Centre to the left, the Water Polo Arena to the right plus not forgetting the Orbit. Having spent some time getting our bearings and having a look round we went to the Coca Cola stall and had our photo taken with the Olympic Torch - monies of which go to the companies' respective charities. Then it was about turn and we went in the direction of the Copper Box Arena itself which is located in the middle of the park between the Olympic Stadium and Riverbank Arena. With stomachs rumbling and time getting on we thought it would be a good idea to get something to eat before heading into the Copper Box. Queues for all food outlets were large and prices high. In the end we opted for the fish and chip option - a wait of around thirty minutes saw us fork out £22.60 for two portions and two 500ml bottles of drink, and then it was onto the nearby Copper Box for the main event.

Orbit

Handball is a sport I know very little about, and only decided to get tickets for this after watching some clips on youtube. Teams consist of teams of seven (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) and matches are contested over two periods of thirty minutes. More details on the sport can be found on the governing body's website, the IHF.

Matches for the handball tournament will take place at two venues; 1) the Copper Box Arena and 2) the Basketball Arena. The Copper Box is a permanent venue that has a capacity of 7,000. After the games it will become a multi-use sports centre for community use and will be operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited. On the other hand the Basketball Arena is a temporary venue and will have a capacity of 12,000. Along with basketball it will also host to semi-finals and final of the handball tournament. 

I was really impressed with the Copper Box (inside and out), and full credit to the designers / architects who came up with it. There is not a bad seat in the house and the atmosphere and acoustics were superb. The seats we had were behind the far goal and about eight rows up. 

Unusually for me I did not check how all four teams were doing in the tournament so far, but going into the games the world rankings of the four nations involved are as follows:

3 - Denmark; 6 - Sweden; 9 - Spain; 11 - Norway 

On this evidence I predictably came to the conclusion that both games would be close encounters, and this proved to be oh so correct though the victories went to the lower (world) ranked nations. 

Game 1
Spain 25-24 Sweden

Spain won this by opening up a two goal lead with about a minute to go, though Sweden did get the last goal of the game. Nely Alberto and Marta Mangue top scored for Spain with six goals each, while Hanna Fogelstrom scored five for Sweden. Spain's victory was in no small park helped by their goalkeeper Silvia Navarro who made fourteen saves during the match.

Game 2
Denmark 22-23 Norway

This all Scandinavian affair saw Norway beat Denmark with a winning goal with just two seconds left. The game was nip and tuck throughout with Ann Norgaard scoring nine goals for the Danes and Heidi Loke top scoring for Norway with six. The winning goal came from Karoline Breivang.

Summing up, my impression of the sport is one that is really entertaining with it being fast paced and physical. I would happily pay to watch this again and I cannot understand why this sport has never taken off in this country. In fact handball is now one of my favourite sports and comes very close a second behind football.

Admission: £50 each

Programme: no Handball ones available

Olympic Stadium @ night

After leaving the arena we paid a visit to the megastore as I was hoping to get a pin badge of the Copper Box and a programme for the handball tournament, but they had none for sale. 

As you can imagine the queues to get back to Stratford International for the Javelin service back to St. Pancras were large, but the staff had everything organised properly. It all ran smoothly and efficiently and we were back @ St. Pancras in plenty of time before our scheduled departure back to Leicester at 0045. 

Before and during the early part of the games there have been plenty of scaremongering and predicted transport chaos, but the reality was very much different. The image that will be portrayed about London in relation to the games itself and the transport is a very positive one that can only enhance the city and country as a whole. A final note should be to the staff at the games who were all well trained, knowledgeable, polite and very friendly.

A day that we as a couple will never forget and we are so glad that we managed to get tickets so something that will never be experienced again.

More photos of the Olympic Park in general can be viewed in the slideshow below:


...and photos of the Copper Box Arena are below: