14/10 – Two away wins to report this week. Firstly on Tuesday, under a leaden sky, up the hill to Cockrams, where Shaftesbury took on unbeaten Andover Town, and both teams served up a cracking first half – well, I what I managed to see of it through the murk, drizzle and rolling low cloud that in Autumn constitutes the default Shaftesbury micro-climate
. It wasn’t quite as bad as one evening game I attended last season where even the lights of the adjacent Tescos petrol station disappeared completely without trace in the fog, but cross-pitch visibility was extremely poor until the 64th minute when the cloud suddenly lifted.
Hallahan had given Andover a first half lead, netting a rebound, but Shaftesbury had looked the more likely to score up till then and could have been a goal up on 16m when the away keeper lost the ball and a Rockies player swivelled and hit the crossbar. There were chances at both ends with Andover’s Gosney raiding well up the left wing, and Shaftesbury’s Smith shot well wide with the Andover keeper Thomas on the deck.
The second half was a more even affair. Silver gave Andover a breathing space when a close range header found the net on 68m, but that only lasted for 3 minutes until Flint picked up a sweet through pass from Beckley and netted from around 10 yards. Shaftesbury continued to hunt for the equaliser, and right on full-time, Beckley’s effort from 5 yards out clipped the bottom of the post and bounced clear. 1-2 to Andover, and hard luck on the Rockies, who well deserved a point.
One interesting innovation is they have started selling hot steak pies for £1.50 from the hatch, a welcome addition to their main staple, the over-flaky sausage roll.
Today proved to be a bit of a conundrum. Originally I was intending to visit United Services Portsmouth for their Wessex League game with New Milton, but I found out that the fixture had been switched for some reason to New Milton. Trying to find an alternative fixture was difficult. There were no Western League games today as all the “blazers” were off to a beano in Bristol this evening to celebrate 125 years of the league
. Several other local county leagues, like the Dorset Premier, were also not playing today. Finally, to compound matters, it was one of rugby union’s “weekends off “, and whilst this allows league clubs to play in local Divisional Cup games, these are notoriously difficult to find details of, and they are not taken seriously
. Indeed, of the 15 ties listed on the RFU website, 8 are marked “Home Walk Over” (the opposition couldn’t be bothered to turn up
) and those 8 include 2 I had my eye on – thankfully I didn’t plump for either of them.
What I eventually decided on was a train ride down to Devon to watch Honiton Town play - my first venture into the South West Peninsula League
. In fact even here, I had thought I would have a rugby County Cup tie at Honiton RUFC as a back-up fixture – but that was called off on Friday when their opponents Wessex RUFC cried off.
It’s just under a mile walk from Honiton station to the soccer ground – go down the road directly into the town centre (New Street), turn left there along the High Street (interesting mix of antique shops and some really tatty establishments, but very few unoccupied units and an unusual dearth of charity shops), keep on going out of town, up the hill (large nursing home on left) and turn right just beyond there into Ottery Moor Lane. It's just before the church; I'm telling you that in case you go because the road sign has been almost completely covered by rampant ivy!
The ground is then dead in front of you, with a pay table at the gate. Thankfully, the hourly return train to London Waterloo is sensibly set at 17:57, allowing an elderly Ostrich ample time after the game to haul itself up the steep hill back to the station .....
Honiton Town’s pitch borders a cricket square, so it’s railed on one side and roped on the other. Down half the length of the pitch on the railed side, a close stand of conifer trees have been clipped to provide some overhanging shelter for spectators but there is also a small brick covered standing area next to the dugouts. Further on down the touchline are another 4 bus shelter-type covers similar to the dugouts, but three of these are lying on their backs and the fourth is cordoned off! The cream-painted clubhouse/bar is behind the near goal, small and cosy, but with no less than three widescreens showing Liverpool’s goalless draw with Manchester United, and alongside it is the changing room block which might also double as the cricket pitch veranda. Patio tables and bench seats outside the clubhouse provides the only seating, and soon filled up. The ground is not floodlit – planning permission was obtained but has now lapsed; however, the club are conscious plans are afoot for a new housing development behind the far goal, so they are going to look at the floodlight question again – if they can afford it, which is a moot point.
Honiton Town are strangely nicknamed the “Hippos”, after fossilised remains of said animals were found during the construction of the Honiton Bypass
. Apparently they dated from a warm spell during the Ice Age when Devon was temporarily as hot as Africa! The football club were promoted to the SWPL at the end of last season from the Devon & Exeter League and are currently mid-table, playing at their highest ever level. Crediton United were 2nd in the league before today’s game. This certainly wasn’t a 1-4 game, Honiton created sufficient chances playing against a shaky defence to have taken the league points, and indeed hit the woodwork at least twice. They were 1-0 up on 29m when pressure paid off and Freemantle got round the keeper to score, but Crediton equalised on 56m when Ord scored from close range after the ball had rebounded awkwardly off a defender, and took the lead on 69m with a diving header from Goss. Two goals in the last 5 minutes, one rather peculiarly noted on Twitter as an own goal - I thought the Crediton no.8 had headed it in unchallenged, sealed the game for the away side, but up until that point, the Crediton goal had had a charmed life; Honiton had done everything but manage to equalise. The difference was simply that Crediton took their chances and put them away …..
Ossie surreptitiously filched a chair out the bar at halftime so that the weary bird had somewhere to perch during the rest of the match, but when he came to return it just before the game ended, he found to his horror the entrance door locked!
Nevertheless, he wandered round the building and managed to locate a side entrance which was still open, and lugged it inside to where the barman was clearing up.
“Sorry, I’m just returning this; I borrowed it at half time.”
“Thank you. We were just wondering if you were going to walk off with it ….”
South West Peninsula League Division 1 East (Step 7): Honiton Town 1 Crediton United 4
Admission: £3 including programme (16pp home-produced and quite readable), refreshments: £2.90 fishcake and decent chips from the chippie at the bottom of the town, £1.50 for an orange J20 from the clubhouse (contrast that with £2.50 charged at Shaftesbury midweek
), £1 for a halftime cuppa-soup, DIY using the hot water urn on the table in the clubhouse, and £1.65 for a pint of milk and two packets of chocolate raisins from Budgens on the hike back to the station ….attendance: 96
