Anstey Town 3-2 C.K. Dons Monday 26th August 2013 Leicestershire Senior League Division 1 Terrace Road, Ellistown, Leicestershire
The Falcon Inn
A day out today spent with the wife (Angela) and dog (Millie), and not just for football. Firstly we headed up to Whatton House in the north of Leicestershire and had a look around the gardens. Admission was £3.50 each and payment was made at an honesty box at the entrance. Whatton House is located to the north of Long Whatton and we turned down Mill Lane (next to the church) in the village and followed the single track road to the house. After spending a pleasant hour walking around the gardens we then headed to the Falcon Inn in Long Whatton itself for some lunch before heading south for my football fix.
21 photos of the house and gardens can be viewed in the slideshow below:
The drive to Ellistown took around twenty five minutes and we arrived with around fifteen minutes before the scheduled 3pm kick-off. No admission was charged or programme issued which is what I expected, though Anstey Town used to issue when previously in the Leicestershire Senior League (LSL). Both teams today are new members to the league, though Town were previously members between 1982 and 2009 before dropping down to the North Leicestershire for four seasons. Info on the Dons can be found on a previous blog post by clicking here. As you might have gathered by now Anstey Town do not play in Anstey itself but share the facilities at Ellistown. There is small section of cover between the two dugouts on the near side and an uncovered stand on the far side backing onto the second pitch.
The Dons had made an unbeaten start to life in the LSL winning two (2-0 v Anstey Nomads Reserves and 2-1 @ Hathern) and drawing one (1-1 v Asfordby Amateurs) of their opening three games, while Anstey had drawn one (1-1 v Hathern) and lost one (2-0 @ Barlestone St. Giles) of their opening two games. The first half was pretty poor though Anstey found themselves two nil up and the half time interval. The first came on seventeen minutes when Brown rounded Andrew Nicholson in the Dons goal and rolled the ball into an empty net. The second came just after the hour mark and was the result of a controversial awarding of a penalty by the referee. To be honest I had an excellent view of the incident and had no idea what he awarded it for, but anyhow Brown stepped up and sent Nicholson the wrong way. The second half was much more entertaining and the Dons will wonder how come the end they did not take at least a point from the game. They got a goal back on sixty three minutes when Steve Kirkham slotted the ball past the Town keeper. Anstey though quickly restored their two goal cushion as Brown completed his hat-trick just a minute later as he headed in a cross at the far post. The Dons were soon back within striking distance as a Tom Potts free kick on sixty seven minutes made it 3-2. The Dons always looked the more likely to score next and to be honest if it wasn't for the woodwork would have done. Firstly a Leighton Nicholson shot struck the base of the post, and finally in stoppage time Tom Potts and Steve Kirkham both headed against the bar within a matter of seconds of each other. This was their final chance of the afternoon and Anstey held on for their first victory of the season.
33 ground and match photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:
I have attended two games of Sunday League football since the last post a week ago. Firstly on the 18th August to the village of Snarestone for a game in Division 3 of the Tamworth & District Sunday League, and secondly today (25th August) to Moira for a game in the Premier Division of the Burton & District Sunday League. Snarestone Globe 8-3 Edingale Swifts The Gunnery, Main Street, Snarestone, Leicestershire 30 photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:
Moira United 1-7 New Inn Ashby Road, Moira, Leicestershire 45 photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:
C.K. DONS 2-0 ANSTEY NOMADS RESERVES Saturday 17th August 2013 Leicestershire Senior League Division 1 Grantham Road, Skillington, Lincolnshire
Over the summer the Leicestershire Senior League (LSL) has had a massive shake up in terms of numbers, with reserve sides of teams higher up the non-league pyramid being accepted on mass including the visitors today. Whether this is a good thing is another matter and one in which I personally can see both pros and cons. There were also three new first teams admitted, with these being Houghton Rangers (champions of the Leicester & District League), Anstey Town (champions of the North Leicestershire League) and the C.K. Dons who won the Grantham & District League (GDL) Division 1 last season. The Dons are based in the village of Croxton Kerrial but due to their ground in the village not being up to standard they had to look elsewhere for somewhere to play. The main reason for their home ground failing the LSL ground grading is that there is no shower in the referees room. One option was in the village of Waltham on the Wolds but newly formed Grantham Athletic will be playing their home games there in the Lincolnshire League. The solution that was found was to play a season at the village of Skillington, over the border in Lincolnshire which is around seven miles away from Croxton. Also at the time the plan is to keep the pitch warm over in Croxton, with the club forming a reserve side to play in the GDL. So we have the situation of this...a Leicestershire based club playing in the LSL, but having to play home games in Lincolnshire, while a Grantham based club playing in the Lincolnshire League playing home games in Leicestershire!!!!
The C.K. Dons were formed in 2009 and were subsequently accepted into division 1 of the GDL. They finished in a creditable sixth place in the fourteen team division in their debut season. The following season an eighth place was recorded and the club also reached the final of the GDL's Junior Cup. It was at this time that I became aware of the club, and after exchanging e-mails with secretary Jez Hill I went up to Ancaster to watch the final against Heckington Millers, but the Dons were on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline. The club then took a year out to regroup and then came back a year later stronger and better. They not only won the GDL Division 1 title winning nine out of the ten league games, but reached three cup finals. First up was the Junior Cup which yours truly there to watch and take photos. This was played at Harrowby United's ground in Grantham against fellow Croxton Kerrial side Croxton AFC, but despite leading twice they lost on penalty kicks. The next final was the Benevolent Cup and a 3-2 victory was recorded against AFC Three Gables. And finally the Memorial Cup, but Premier Division champions White Swan Barrowby were too strong and ran out three nil winners.
The village of Skillington is located within the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, six miles south of Grantham and three miles from the border with Leicestershire. The parish church of St. James is a grade 1 listed building and is built of limestone. Skillington also performs well in the small village category of the National Village in Bloom contest, becoming the first consecutive winner in 2003, 2004 and 2005. There are two pubs in the village, The Blue Horse Inn and the Cross Swords Inn but unfortunately both were shut. The latter closed at 2pm so unfortunately no chance of a pre-match pint. The route to Skillington from my home in the west side of Leicester was via Melton Mowbray and Buckminster and took me around an hour to make the 34 mile journey. With nothing going on in the village I made my way to the ground which is at the village hall on the Grantham Road. Only the changing rooms were open and there were no toilet or catering facilities for spectators. The pitch is also home to the local cricket club and for this game the Dons roped off the pitch on all four sides and have built wooden dugouts to meet the LSL's grading criteria. The match...it was played in dry and blustery conditions throughout and was hard fought and competitive. Both teams were fairly evenly matched during the game and clear cut chances were at a premium. It was the home side that came close to breaking the deadlock when a sweetly struck shot from Paul Chappell was touched onto the post from the visiting keeper. The second half started a few minutes early and I missed the Dons taking the lead. Apparently it was a screamer from midfielder Tom Potts. A few minutes later and the Dons were two up. They were awarded a free kick just inside the Nomads half near the left touchline, and Chris Morris's kick was headed home at the far post from Chappell. Again like the first half clear cut chances were few and far between, though the Dons should have been further ahead but Chappell shot straight at the keeper when through on goal. Late on in the game and Potts nearly got his second with what would have been an early contender for goal of the season. He hit an unstoppable shot from forty odd yards out that smacked the cross bar with the keeper motionless. Overall a good start for the Dons, and I feel they can use their location to their advantage as not many teams will like coming over to Skillington, especially in the middle of winter. I don't think they have enough to win the division, with my tip being Houghton Rangers, but should they keep the crux of the side together then a top six finish will not be beyond them. Admission / programme: none Attendance: 9, but plenty of sheep in neighbouring fields. 39 photos from the game taking during the first half can be viewed in the slideshow below:
Since my last post two weeks ago I have attended three games of football, two of which I took photos at. Saturday 3rd August 2013 Oadby Town 4-3 Harborough Town Pre-season Friendly Freeway Park, Wigston Road, Oadby, Leicestershire
60 photos can viewed in the slideshow below:
Saturday 10th August 2013 North Warwickshire & Hinckley College U-21's 3-1 AFC Worcester Olympic U-21's Midland Combination Under-21 Division North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, Hinckley Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire Loughborough University 2-2 Alvechurch Midland Football Alliance Loughborough University Stadium, Holywell Sports Complex, Loughborough University, Leicestershire 70 photos of the ground and game can be viewed in the slideshow below:
No plans originally today after spending the previous four Saturday afternoons watching three different sports (cricket, football and American Football), but having spotted that Wisbech Town Football Club had a pre-season friendly the decision was made to make the one hundred and thirty mile round trip. Wisbech is somewhere that has been on my radar for a number of years, and rather annoyingly didn't get to their old ground in the town Fenland Park. A visit to the club also became high on my priority since they joined the United Counties League (UCL) over the summer, having previously played in the Eastern Counties League (ECL). Why you may ask? Well simply because last season I completed the UCL for the first time with visits to the three remaining grounds, and want to keep on top of it as it were. After today there is still one more ground (Campbell Drive, Peterborough Sports FC) in the UCL to visit, with the intention to visit when Oadby Town play there on November 30th.
As the post title says this will be (in my records) my 500th venue that I have seen football played at. This total could and would have been reached sooner had I not got involved with Oadby Town in the late nineteen nineties, but I have no regrets and I feel I have the best of both worlds - the buzz of supporting a team, and also relaxing at games and not caring which team comes out on top. Some landmarks in terms of numbers are as follows:
1. Filbert Street - Leicester City FC sometime in the 1980's for Tommy Williams Testimonial
100. Rolls Royce Sports & Social Club - Hucknall Rolls FC 19th March 2002
200. Carters Park - Holbeach United FC 24th September 2005
300. Moira Dale Recreation Ground - Castle Donington Town FC 20th April 2009
400. Horsewell Lane - Sparta Moshdock FC 9th October 2011
Wisbech is a market town, civil parish and inland port with a population of around 20,200 inhabitants. The town is located in the Fenland District of north-east Cambridgeshire, and is approximately twenty one miles east of Peterborough and thirteen miles west of King's Lynn. The tidal River Nene runs through the town and is spanned by two bridges.
more information on the town can be seen on the Wikipedia page: Wisbech
The football club were formed in 1920 following a merger of three local clubs and joined the Peterborough & District League (PDL). In their first season they finished in 9th place in the thirteen team division one. Town were crowned PDL champions five times (1924/25, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1931/32, 1932/33) before making a step up and joined the United Counties League (UCL) in 1935. Between 1936 and 1939 they also competed in the East Midland League (EM), which was probably due to a lack of fixtures in the UCL. In 1939 with the outbreak of World War 2 the UCL and EM competitions were abandoned, and they competed in played in a war time competition of the PDL. When the hostilities ended in 1945 Wisbech competed in both the UCL and PDL and finished 3rd in both competitions before solely concentrating on the UCL. Between 1946 and 1950 Town were crowned UCL champions three times and were runners-up once. In 1950 they transferred to the Eastern Counties League (ECL), spending just two seasons in the ECL before joining the Midland League. Six seasons were spent in the Midland League before another transfer, this time to the Southern League, which at the time was probably the strongest league outside of the Football League. Success was hard to come by in the higher standard of football, winning the division 1 title once in the 1961/62 seasons. In 1970 they switched back to the more local ECL, and since their formation spent the most time playing in the same competition (twenty seven years), winning the league title three times (1971/72, 1976/77 and 1990/91), before a runners-up position in the 1996/97 season secured promotion back to the Southern League. Five years were spent in the Southern League before they were relegated back to the ECL in 2002. After eleven years in the ECL Town are on the move again, this time back to the UCL for the start of the 2013/14 season. How long will they stay in the UCL this time? Who knows as they I believe their aim is to be playing step four football as soon as possible. This though will not be easy as the UCL premier division will be very competitive this season with the likes of Spalding United, AFC Rushden & Diamonds and Deeping Rangers expected to make a promotion challenge.
The drive across to Wisbech for me is very straight forward in terms of the route (all along the A47), but isn't the easiest drive. This is because of having to drive across Leicester - not a pleasant experience at the best of times, but with school children being on the summer break there are road works galore going on, and also the A47 is for the most part a single carriageway, with the part of it being dueled is around Peterborough. According to Google maps it is sixty four miles and should take 1 hour forty minutes, though I expect it to take slightly longer. In reality this was about right, with the only time that I was held up was a set of traffic lights on the east side of Leicester. I got into Wisbech at around 1.15pm and managed to park for free in the Horsefair car park. With not knowing about any decent pubs I made my way to the JD Wetherspoon outlet, the Wheatsheaf Inn on Church Terrace. A typical 'spoons lunch was had which was washed down with a very nice pint of Gold by the Grainstore Brewery. From then it was a short drive to the ground along Lynn Road at the eastern extremities of Wisbech.
I found the ground to be typical of recent new-build non-league grounds - practical and functional, but lacked character or originality. On to the people that are involved with the club - well I found them a friendly and welcoming bunch. A notable mention goes to the chap that does the announcements, as he waited for me at the end of the game and gave me his copy of the team sheet - much appreciated and thank you. The admission charge for this friendly was at the reduced rate of £3, though with no programme issued I purchased a strip of raffle tickets for £1 and ended up winning 2nd prize. This was a bottle of red wine which I donated back to club, this was due to myself not being a wine drinker and the wife preferring the white grape variety.
The game was a competitive one and gave both teams a good work out with just two weeks before the UCL season starts on August 10th. Very few chances were created in the first half, and when it looked like it would end goalless the home side took the lead on 43 minutes. An excellent Tom James cross from the right was headed home by right back Neal Spafford. The second half was a more open affair with more chances at either end being created. With around seventy minutes on the clock Spafford needlessly pulled back Eynesbury substitute Lee Bassett's shirt and the referee rightly awarded a penalty. Bassett stepped up and slotted the ball past Tom Roberts in the Wisbech goal for the equaliser. Five minutes later and Wisbech were awarded a penalty kick themselves which was for handball. Unfortunately for the home side Callum Reed's kick was high, wide and not very handsome!!! The final fifteen minutes saw both sides test the opposition keeper before the referee, Anthony da Costa ended the proceedings bang on ninety minutes. In all fairness a draw was the right result.
10 photos of the ground can be viewed in the slideshow below:
Babington Community College, Strasbourg Drive, Leicester
On a very hot afternoon I made the fifteen minute journey to the Beaumont Leys area of Leicester for a football match US style. Most of the matches are played on Sunday afternoons, but this was to be the only home game of the 2013 season for the Falcons on a Saturday.
The playing fields at Babington College are as basic as they come. With building work going on you have to park in the main college car park on the opposite of Strasbourg Drive and walk down a path at the side of the building site to reach the field. There was no admission charge or refreshments available and the only bit of shade was against some corrugated fencingas seen in the photo below.
The Falcons went into this game with a three and two record, while their opponents from Manchester four and two. The two teams met earlier on in the season with the Titans recording a crushing a 60-0 victory. The game this afternoon was also fairly one sided with the visitors outscoring their hosts by five TD's to none. The Falcons struggled to get anything going on the offence all afternoon, which from my point of view was down to some basic errors at the snap and the offensive linesmen not offering enough pass protection to the QB. At the end of the 1st quarter the Titans were 14 points up with the TD's coming from Wide Receivers Danny Caballero and Chris Heap. By the half time interval the Titans had increased their lead to twenty points with another TD, this time from QB Alan Mead, though the point after was blocked by the Falcons defence. Two further TD's came in the second half from Will Kinghorn and RB Nick Copley to complete the scoring.
Chris Heap scoring the Titans second TD
33 more photos of the game can be viewed in the slideshow below:
