local re-completion

Saturday 21st March 2015

OAKHAM UNITED 2-3 THORNEY

Peterborough & District League Premier Divisin

Rutland County College, Main Road, Barleythorpe, Rutland

Last season I managed for the first time to visit the last remaining grounds down to level 12 (step 8) in Leicestershire & Rutland. From then on one of my modest aims regarding my football watching is to keep on top of this. At the start of the 2014/15 season three new completely new venues began being in use - two in Leicester and the one visited today. The other two in question were GNG's new ground on Braunstone Lane East in Leicester, The Riverside Football Ground, and the other the home of Thurnby Nirvana's youth and reserve teams, Hamilton Park on the north east side of the city. The first was visited before Christmas and the latter in early February.

I wasn't originally planning to go to a game this weekend as I was scheduled in to work both the Friday and Saturday nights, but having booked the last few days holiday up I took the Saturday as an unpaid day off, but this was due to having a function in the evening and not the football!!!

After having a few hours sleep after work Saturday morning I left my home just after midday and firstly headed to Oadby Town FC to pick up my travelling companion Kev Zupp. The traffic was very light heading east and we arrived at the ground around half an hour before the scheduled 2pm kick-off. The ground is very easy to find with it being signposted off the main road through the small village of Barleythorpe. The village is located no more than a mile north of Oakham station. 

The ground which is located within the grounds of Rutland County College is currently a work in progress. Floodlights, wooden dugouts and a small wooden stand are all in place, while some hard standing and perimeter railing are partially done. The club have also been awarded a grant to erect fencing and enclose the ground in properly. This will allow them to charge an admission should they are successful in getting promotion to the United Counties League. 

Oakham United are a club that I have seen play at two previous venues. Firstly the Vale of Catmose College in Oakham itself, and the second when the hired the 3G pitch at Uppingham Community College last February due to their own pitch being unplayable. This season saw them move into their new facility in the neighbouring village of Barleythorpe which is located a mile north west of the town. On the field of play Oakham sit top of the Peterborough & District League Premier Division amassing fifty-eight points from their twenty five games played so far. They currently are a point ahead of their nearest challengers, Coates Athletic but have played two games less. Opponents Thorney were promoted to the Premier Division in the Summer and at present find themselves in mid-table.

The game was entertaining for the neutral and saw the visitors put a dent in Oakham's promotion charge. After a cagey start from both teams Thorney took the lead, but going into the final stages of the first half Oakham had deservedly equalised. Between the two goals the referee missed an off the ball incident which should have resulted in the Oakham #2 being shown a red card. With a few minutes remaining of the half the Oakham #5 got in front of a Thorney player in the penalty area and shielded the ball back to his keeper. The referee then awarded a penalty kick to the visitors and showed a red card to the Oakham player. This was in my opinion very harsh, and despite his frustrations the player was politely asking why but the referee refused to answer. Anyhow the penalty kick was converted and the visitors went in front at the half time interval 2-1 up.

The second half saw Oakham deservedly equalise and despite a man disadvantage looked likely winners for a good part. It was the visitors who ended up taking the three points as they hit Oakham on the counter attack late on in the game.

Overall Oakham are a welcoming club and it we (myself and Kev) had a chat with their secretary and chairman before the game. Also at the game were a couple of ground hoppers from Crewe and one of them like myself posts on the Non-League Matter forum under the tag of rivington. 

Admission: none

Programme: none

Attendance: 29 (h/c)

Social Media / websites:

Peterborough & District League - twitter - FA Full Time site

Oakham United - twitter

Thorney - twitter

Ground / game stats:

40th new ground / venue visited this season

48th game of football this season

162nd ground / venue visited in Leicestershire & Rutland

917th game of football watched

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

football in a cage

OAKHAM UNITED 0-3 NETHERTON UNITED

Saturday 1st February 2014

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

Uppingham Community College, London Road, Uppingham, Rutland

For a second consecutive Saturday my football game of choice is in the Peterborough & District League (PDL). I had no plans for watching football today, but for some reason I checked the fixtures during the middle of the week, and noticed a change of venue for this fixture. Oakham United currently play their home games at the Vale of Catmose College in Oakham itself, but with all the wet weather they have hired out the 3G pitch at Uppingham Community College. I knew of the establishment but was not aware they had installed an artificial playing surface in the grounds, and as far as I am aware this venue has not been used for any open-age football before, and unless it is hired out by any of the local non-league clubs, will probably be never used again. With this in mind it would be foolish of me to miss this opportunity of "ticking" this venue to watch a game of football, especially as one of my aims is to watch football at two hundred different venues in Leicestershire & Rutland.

Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, located approximately half way between Leicester and Peterborough and six miles south of the county town of Oakham. The journey from my home on the other side of Leicester took around an hour, though about half of that was trying to find a way across the city due to several routes being gridlocked. Once I crossed to the other side of the city centre, traffic was light and I arrived in Uppingham twenty minutes before kick off. The community college is located on the southern edge of the town, and as I later found out is also home to Stoneygate RFC who have moved here from Covert Lane in Scraptoft. 

On paper this game had away win written all over it with Oakham in the lower reaches of the Premier Division table, while their opponents from Peterborough sit top of the pile and are in a battle with King's Lynn Town Reserves for the league title. I have seen both these teams before at their respective home grounds - Netherton in May 2012 when they beat Uppingham Town and Oakham in February last year. In snowy conditions they beat Leverington Sports. 

Arriving at the college there was noticeable factor that would make the game interesting as it were, and that was the wind which was heading in an easterly direction towards the far goal. The first two goal kicks from the Netherton keeper didn't reach the half way line and flew outside of the cage. Despite playing into the wind Oakham didn't take advantage and it was the visitors who opened the scoring in the dying seconds of the half. The opening few seconds of the second half made the trip worthwhile as those who were there witnessed probably their goal of the season. At the kick off the ball was touched to the visitors #4 who hit a superb strike into the wind that dipped over the Oakham keeper and into the net. Having watched over 800 games of football over the years this was the first time that I have seen that happen. From then I expected Netherton to push on and add a few more goals, but the game became sterile and it wasn't until the latter stages that they added a third. 

The game attracted a decent attendance of around 40 with a few number of them being hoppers. Also in attendance were SRSN (Stamford & Rutland Sports Network).   

websites / social media:

Oakham United - official website - twitter
Netherton United - twitter
Peterborough & District League - FA Full Time site - twitter

29 photos can be viewed in the slideshow online below:

Getting one over on God!!!

PETERBOROUGH ROVERS POST OFFICE 2-4 WITTERING

Saturday 25th January 2014

Peterborough & District League Intermediate Shield 2nd Round

Fulbridge Road, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire (access via Tennyson Road)

With what seems like an eternity of low pressure weather systems crossing the Atlantic Ocean, it is case of trying to figure out where the weather is to be best, what time during the day it will rain and what games are going to be postponed due to waterlogged and / or flooded pitches. Thankfully the East Midlands has not been as badly hit as in some parts of the country, and those particularly in Somerset. Despite this there has been an awful lot of rain recently and to be honest I am grateful and thankful that prior to today, I have managed to watch four games of football in 2014. Leading up to the weekend I was keeping an close eye on the weather forecast and come the day before, decided that heading east to Peterborough would be the best bet. I managed to find a 1pm kick-off which, if the forecast was correct would mean we (my Dad and I) would not encounter the rain until we were on our way home back to Leicester. 

I picked up dad at around 11.30am and we then headed east along the A47 for around forty miles. This was to be our first game in the Peterborough League since February last year when we paid a visit to Whittlesey United. The ground was very easy to find, located about 1/4 mile south of exit 19 of the A47, and with arriving about half an hour early before the scheduled kick-off went in search of a local pub. This we managed to do which was a few minutes drive away, though I didn't pay any attention to the name of it. 

The venue is a very basic set up and is literally a public park with a football pitch marked out. There are changing rooms and a small car park but no facilities for spectators, pitch side or off the field. The car park is accessed between houses on Tennyson Road, though with it being tight decided to park on the road itself. 

As expected their was no admission charge or programme issued which is the norm in the PDFL. The game pitted two teams doing very well in their respective divisions - Rovers currently second in division 2 and Wittering top of division 3. The game started off in blistering fashion with the visitors opening the scoring after only a few minutes, but by the quarter hour mark were 2-1 behind. Come the end of the first forty five minutes Wittering had drawn level. The second half was not as enjoyable as the first - Wittering re-took the lead early on and were fairly comfortable after that, with the home side not looking capable of getting back on level terms. In the final throws of the game, with the wind picking up and the clouds darkening Wittering broke and made it 2-4 to confirm their place in round 3.

About ten miles east of Peterborough was when we encountered the forecasted rain. This along with some impressive strikes of lightning around the Uppingham area and a few damaged trees lying in the road made for an interesting drive home. 

Websites / social media:
Peterborough & District League - FA Full Time Site - twitter
Stamford & Rutland Sports Network - official site - twitter

Maps
Grounds visited in Cambridgeshire - currently 22
New grounds visited this season - currently 30

37 photos of the game can be found in the slideshow below:

Another late change of plan

WHITTLESEY UNITED 1-2 COATES ATHLETIC
Saturday 2nd February 2013
Peterborough & District League Premier Division
Manor Field, Station Road, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire

Apologies but there is no report today due to a late change of plan. I was all set to re-complete the Leicestershire Senior League with a visit to Ashby Ivanhoe's new ground for their game against Cottesmore Amateurs, but around 11.45am I saw that the game had been postponed. Bloody annoying as I had already done the background work for a report and also that I had arranged to meet my dad at the ground. With not wanting to mess around checking numerous league websites for fixtures I looked on the Peterborough League website to see what was on, and noticed that both Whittlesey sides Blue Star and United were at home with 2pm kick-offs. A phone call to the Blue Star secretary confirmed their game was on, but on arrival I decided to watch United instead against Coates Athletic.

There are two grounds at the Manor Leisure Centre in the town, though both use the same car park. United have their own clubhouse and changing rooms and their ground (Manor Field) is too the left, while there are two pitches which are part of the leisure centre itself. These are used by Blue Star and Coates Athletic. The Manor is very easy to find with it being both close to the station and town centre and is signposted from the A605 that runs east to west through the town.

In a nutshell Coates upset the form book with a deserved 2-1 victory over their higher placed hosts. A cracking free kick early on put them one up, but this was cancelled out ten minutes later with a curling shot past the United keeper. Coates should have ahead at the interval but a shot cracked against the corner of the upright and another effort was cleared off the line with the keeper beaten. The winner came from the penalty spot shortly after the half time interval, but the awarding off it  appeared to be harsh from my perspective.

Admission / programme: none
Attendance: around 30ish
Tea: 50p
Coffee: 60p

41 photos taken of the game can be viewed in the slideshow below:
  

Oundle Town

OUNDLE TOWN 1-3 CROWLAND TOWN

Saturday 31st March 2012

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

Station Road, Oundle, PE8 4BZ

Today was a case of using up a get out of jail free card as Oundle got us (Dave and myself) out the proverbial shitter. It had been planned to watch Corby Khalsa v Welford Victoria in the Northants Combination (NC) Premier Division, which we thought was being played at Corby Rugby Club. Well following a pre-match drink in the nearby JD Weatherspoon outlet, The Samuel Lloyd we arrived at Corby Rugby Club to find no sign of Khalsa or Welford. When I enquired about this I was told that Khalsa had moved to CTC. I was given directions but with it already 2.30pm decided to check the Peterborough League website on my phone and as luck would have it Oundle were at home with a 3pm kick-off. I suppose we could have stayed where we were and watched Corby United v Ferrers FC in the NC division 4 but it did not appeal in the slightest.

Following the ten mile drive eastwards we arrived at their ground on Station Road with around ten minutes to kick-off. There is a small car park on site with additional parking on the grass behind the near goal and a social club. The pitch was railed off on three sides with brick dugouts on the right hand side. It is a pleasant setting though it would have been nice to escape the biting wind.

Oundle itself is a small town located in north-east Northamptonshire and sits on the River Nene. The population is around the 5,500 mark. When driving through the town centre it reminded me of the quaint towns you see in the Cotswolds.  

The football club were formed in 1883 and since 1910 have competed in the Peterborough & District League. Their debut season saw them finish in 4th place in divison 1. The first divisional title came in the 1954/55 season when the division 3 south was won following the runners-up position a year earlier. The PDL league title has been won just once and that came fourteen years ago in the 1997/98 season. The last five years have seen Oundle struggle and have finished in the lower half of the league table. This season at the start of play they find themselves in 11th place with 28 points from 23 league games. Opponents Crowland Town are three places and eight points worse off, but have played two games less.

The game was one in which both teams predominately cancelled each other out, certainly during the first half. The opening goal came for Crowland on 22 minutes with a volley from Simon Ingram, who turned in a cross from the right. After escaping from the wind at half time in the social club Crowland doubled their lead on 52 minutes. A through ball was slid past the oncoming keeper by Sean Treagus. Crowland took a grip of the game and it was no surprise when they got a third. It came on 69 minutes from Simon Ingram but to be honest I could not tell you anything about it as my attention was caught my a bought of handbags at the other end. Oundle then decided to get their arse in gear and show a bit of pride and deservedly got one back with fifteen minutes remaining. Darren Paling side-footed a volley home from eight yards or so out. Both teams then created a few half chances each in the final throws of the game and Crowland comfortably saw out the game.

Not the best game and not the worst either. If anyone knows where Corby Khalsa now call their home then please let me know. Also if anyone from the Northants Combination is reading this please update the details on the official website and mitoo.

Admission / programme: none

Attendance: 14 (h/c)

A slideshow of 30 photos taken can be viewed below:

Cleansing the Soul

EYE SPORTS 4-0 OAKHAM UNITED
Saturday 14th January 2012
Peterborough & District League Premier Division
Lindisfarne Road, PE6 7XH

After last weeks trip to the land of Satan that is a "premier league" football ground, I need to cleanse my soul as it were and get back to watching the grass roots form of the game. The main stipulation for us today was that we wanted a 2pm kick-off and with dad living in the eastern suburbs of Leicester, we headed across eastwards for a very rare venture into the Peterborough & District League (PDL). I had only previously seen one game in the PDL and that was nearly two years ago when I saw Uppingham Town record a 2-0 victory over Leverington Sports.

With an overnight frost covering much of England doubt set in as to whether any particular game would still go ahead. Armed with about a dozen fixtures and club secretaries I set off about 11am. First port of call was to pick my dad and then make the one hour drive along the A47 to Eye. We pulled into a petrol station on the edge of the village and made several calls, all of which went unanswered - very helpful indeed!!! With the sun being high in the sky and the temperature about four or five degrees above freezing we were reasonably confident that the game would go ahead, added to this was that Eye's ground was south facing which allowed enough time for the sun to thaw out the frost. After a quick visit to the ground which confirmed that the game was going ahead we made our way to the Blue Boar, one of the two pubs in the village for some lunch.We both had the same - a ham, egg and chip lunch washed down with a pint of Elgood's Feelgood Festive which is a 3.7% seasonal ale.

The footprint of the PDL covers an area that goes from Rutland in the west to Wisbech in the each, with Spalding at its northerly perimeter and Alconbury to the south. It was founded in 1902 and Fletton United were the first champions. Currently there are six division and they all contain a mixture of 1st, reserve and 'a' teams.

Eye is a large village in the unitary authority area of Peterborough and has a population in the region of 4,000 inhabitants. Until 1963 Eye was part of Northamptonshire  as the county diocese is focused upon Peterborough Cathedral. However Peterborough had its own county council since 1888 and in 1965 was merged with neighbouring Huntingdonshire. Under the Local Government Act 1972 Eye along with Peterborough and Huntingdonshire became part of Cambridgeshire.

I believe the club were founded in 2002 and joined the Peterborough & District League the same year. A full playing record is as follows:

SEASON	COMPETITION	PL	W	D	L	F	A	PTS	POS
2002/03	PETER-5	26	18	3	5	100	40	57	2ND
2003/04	PETER-4	24	17	2	5	83	32	53	3RD
2004/05	PETER-3	26	15	3	8	66	39	48	5TH
2005/06	PETER-2	26	3	0	23	30	124	9	14TH
2006/07	PETER-2	26	4	6	16	44	86	18	12TH
2007/08	PETER-2	24	20	1	3	87	32	61	2ND
2008/09	PETER-1	22	17	4	1	69	20	55	2ND
2009/10	PETER-1	22	16	4	2	83	28	52	1ST
2010/11	PETER-P	30	16	4	10	59	44	52	6TH

This season Eye currently sit in fifth place in the Premier Division, recording eight wins from their fourteen games played. They are currently on a five match unbeaten run recording a 6-2 victory against Uppingham Town a week ago. The last time they tasted defeat was in November when title favourites Pinchbeck United left Lindisfarne Road with a 1-0 victory. The reverse fixture against today's opponents was on the 26th November that saw Eye record a 2-0 victory.

Oakham United were only formed in the summer of 2011 when two local clubs Rutland Rangers (Peterborough League) and Oakham Imperial (Leicester & District League) merged. Oakham themselves come into this game on a decent run of form recording three successive victories.

The ground on Lindisfarne Road is on the southern edge of the village and the entrance is between two houses. It opens up and there is a small car park to the right and a breeze block building to the left which houses the changing rooms and club room. The pitch is railed off along the two sides and there are dug outs on the far side. 

My thoughts before the game were that this could be an entertaining match between two in-form sides and this proved to be the case. Don't let the score at the top of the report mislead you as this was not was one sided as it suggests. It was an end to end game in which the visitors from Rutland more than matched their hosts at times. To put it another way - Eye took their chances and Oakham did not. The opening goal came with five minutes before the half time interval as Ryan Francis created some space for himself inside the Oakham penalty area and slotted the ball across the keeper into the far corner of the goal. Two goals in the space of five minutes around the hour mark put the outcome of the game to bed. The second goal of the afternoon came on fifty-eight minutes when Steve Shore finished with aplomb following excellent work down the left. The third and killer goal of the game came just five minutes later when Francis got his second of the afternoon. The ball fell kindly to him inside the Oakham penalty area and his first time shot found the back of the net. With around fifteen minutes remaining Francis completed his hat-trick in some style. Oakham were caught on the counter attack and from around thirty yards out Francis let fly with a shot that beat the Oakham keeper all ends up. 

An enjoyable but chilly afternoon with some good football being played. When I will be back for another game in the PDL is another matter but it won't be due to the football on offer.  

Admission: None

Programme: None

Attendance: mid 20's

Entertainment rating: 7 out of 10

websites / sources:

Eye - wikipedia page

Eye village website

Peterborough & District League - official website

Around fifty photos took of the ground and game can viewed in the slideshow below:

Uppity Uppity

UPPINGHAM TOWN 2-0 LEVERINGTON SPORTS

Saturday 27th March 2010

Peterborough & District League Premier Division

Uppingham Sports Field

My choice of game today sees me take in a first venture into the Peterborough & District League (PDL) to see Rutland side Uppingham Town in action. Uppingham have played in the PDL since 2002 when they transferred from the Leicester & District League. There first campaign was in the leagues first division where they secured the runners-up finishing three points behind divisional winners Emneth Seniors and with it secured promotion to the Premier Division. In the six seasons to date in the Premier Division the club to be fair to them have struggled, finishing in the bottom half on five occasions with a highest finishing position being 8th place in the 2004/05 season.  This season Uppingham currently sit in 9th place in the division winning eight of their twenty league games played so far. Their last game saw them lose 1-0 at home to Ramsey Town in the Peterborough Senior Cup, while Leverington lost 2-1 at home to Oundle Town in a premer division encounter. Leverington themsleves joined the PDL in 1962 and won Division 3 (Southern Section) at the first attempt remaining unbeaten in the process, winning twenty nine of their thirty league games played. Two years later and they won the division two title finishing five points ahead of Spalding Youth Old Boys. A division 1 runners-up spot in 1968 secured promotion to the premier division, and they have remained in the PDL top flight ever since. Their one and only premier division title came in 1996 when they finished eight points ahead of runners-up Deeping Rangers. 

League table (as at 20th March)

Pos / Team.............Pl W. D. L. F. A. Pts
1. Whittlesey Utd......24 17  4  3 75 32 55
2. Moulton Harrox......26 17  4  5 71 30 55
3. Deeping Sports......25 15  4  6 74 35 39
-----
9. Uppingham Town......20  8  6  6 40 44 33 (+3 points)
13.Leverington Sports..20  6  1 13 26 48 19

Uppingham itself is a small market town (population 3,721) in Rutland which is the smallest historic county in England. The town is located roughly half way between Leicester and Peterborough with the county town of Oakham 6 miles to the north. The town is probably most well know for its public school which was founded, along with a hospital in 1584 by Archdeacon Robert Johnson. The original school building can still be found in the towns churchyard and is a grade 1 listed building. Old Uppinghamians include:

Jonathan Agnew Leicestershire and England cricketer

Donald Campbell World Land and Water Speed record holder

Stephen Dorrell MP and health secretary

Stephen Fry Actor and writer

Phil Spencer property expert

Rick Stein Chef and restaurant owner

Johnny Vaughan TV and radio presenter

The home of Uppingham Town is the imaginatively titled "Uppingham Sports Field" which is on North Street East. The pitch is a basic roped off affair though the club do have their own clubhouse on the site. There is street parking around the field and there is also a small pay and display car park opposite next to the co-op. As expected there was no admission charge or programme issued which I believe is normal for the Peterborough League. The game itself was not the best with the referee making some strange dicisions at times. Uppingham took the lead on 24 minutes when their number eight scored with a low shot past the keeper that went in off the post, but before that Leverington had two goals disallowed, the first of which was for offside and the second for a foul on the keeper. The game became niggly and dissent was creeping into the game and it was for dissent that Leverington had a man dismissed towards the end of the half. In stoppage time at the end of the half Uppingham were awarded a very soft penalty but the resulting kick was saved by the visiting keeper. The second half was primarily a stale affair with neither side making much of an impact, but as the half wore on Uppingham began to find space with their numerical advantage and secured all three points with just seven minutes left on the clock when a cross from the right was headed home.

Attendance: varied but peaked at around 40
Google maps driving time / distance: 43 minutes and 22.5 miles

websites:

Peterborough and District League: http://pdfl.footballleagueadmin.com/

Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppingham and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutland