Saturday 26/12/15 – Midland League Premier Division – Step 5
Coleshill Town 4 Stourport Swifts 2Admission £4, programme £1.50
Hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows £1.50
Attendance: 102
Despite Volegate
(see the Boxing Day thread in Café), the Ostrich did manage to get a Boxing Day match in despite another Saturday of water-logged postponements. I very nearly couldn’t be bothered, but a watery sun broke through the gloom around 1:30, so I took the opportunity to pay a visit to Pack Meadow, a reasonably short hop from the nest, for a first sighting of Coleshill Town’s new 3G artificial pitch. Because they had to be nomadic whilst the pitch was installed, this was the third ground I’ve seen Coleshill play a home league game on this season, which must be some sort of record!
My local club, Sutton Coldfield Town, put in a 3G pitch back in the summer of 2012. They are not cheap; I think the cost of preparing from scratch the drainage and the new surface is around £300,000, and the shelf life is about 10 years. A rich benefactor helps, but I presume sports grants are also available. Clubs up to Step 2 in the non-league pyramid can use them, and with a bit of careful marketing and hiring out (6-a-side soccer leagues etc.), they can generate income for the club. It took some time for Sutton Coldfield’s 3G pitch to bed in, and for the first season, the playing surface was markedly slow, and the bouncing ball threw up a lot of black crumb material which is part of the surface.
In contrast, four years on, the quality of these pitches has moved forwards and Coleshill Town have a superb, fast-paced surface, very different to what I remember from the first season at Sutton Coldfield. The ground has been improved with the pitch surrounds extensively tarmacked and a metal fence installed around the playing area, which can be divided up into three separate smaller pitches for 6-a-side games by winching netting across the surface. Coleshill have installed new perspex dugouts and two portakabin changing rooms, which are positioned closer to the pitch than the old ones in the clubhouse. Pack Meadow still has a rural feel, despite all these new developments, and I was rewarded with the sighting of a buzzard swooping low over the mole-hole infested grass training pitch at the back of the main arena before the commencement of the match.
Both teams started this fixture in mid-table, 13th and 12th respectively, although Coleshill should be perhaps be doing better in the league, given the talent in their squad. The weather deteriorated markedly during the game, with a strengthening blustery wind sweeping across the pitch. It was end -to-end stuff from the start, with Stourport scoring after 15m, taking advantage of a floundering defence to knock the ball into the net from close range. Coleshill turned the game around completely, replying with three goals before the interval and a fourth shortly after the restart, thanks to some pretty clinical finishing, including a Josh Quaynor direct free kick into the corner of the net, and a lovely lobbed goal by Mykel Beckley. The game went a bit flat after that, but Stourport pulled a goal back on 69m after the home defence switched off, and could well have had a third before the end. By that time it was getting positively stormy, and I was glad to wend the 10 miles or so back home to a warm cuppa tea.
by Ally » 19 Dec 2015, 21:30 
