A fortnight ago, we left the Ostrich’s last blog on a cliff-hanger
-
Will the Ostrich get to a game next Saturday or will he be forced to act as mine host at the Coronation Tea Party Mrs O is preparing …… 
Well, after a week of scouring the supermarkets for odd ingredients to enable Mrs O to bake, or cook, or whatever it is you have to do to prepare a frittata (canned artichoke hearts, fresh asparagus
), not to mention securing Union Jack party plates, Coronation-themed napkins, strawberries and cream and a Jewel the Jack Russell chocolate cake
, the exhausted bird was resigned to his fate - but thankfully over the brow of the hill rode Master O, on a flying visit to Dorset for the Coronation Weekend, and the latter agreed to act as Replacement Mine Host at Mrs O’s Tea Party.
So with the guests arriving at 10:00 sharp for the televised procession, Ossie was out of the house promptly at 9:45
and down to the garden centre for an all-day brekkie for one (the slimmed-down variety: 1 sausage, 1 bacon, 1 mushroom (large!), beans, tomato, toast and coffee for £11.70) before a leisurely 36-mile cross-country trip into the depths of the Somerset Wetlands!
This particular fixture saw my first visit to the Ethan Berry Stadium, home of Middlezoy Rovers, which has been on my bucket shop list for some time. An easy spin down the A303 and A372 via Langport, latterly down dead-straight roads with numerous humped bridges over various waterways and rhynes, with the football club’s floodlights first becoming visible in the distance above the dark earthen ramparts that surround the site of Westonzoyland Airfield. Used by the RAF, this was one of the oldest airfields in the country and remained operational in some degree or other until the 1960’s. Now, it’s largely derelict but there were wind-socks up and flying, and the runway is now used by microlights and the Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol, which helps support the emergency services.
The turning off the main road into the heavily-potholed farmer’s track that leads up to the football ground is not the easiest ,but once inside the stadium’s perimeter, there was plenty of parking available. The attractive, red-roofed single-storey club house and changing room block runs half the length of the pitch; the function room and bar are both well-appointed, and some impressive silverware was on display at one end of the bar, but not unfortunately ithe Somerset FA Senior Cup which they had won the previous Wednesday.
The clubhouse sports a wide veranda, adequate I would have thought for most inclement weather, but if the prevailing stiff southerly breeze, which set the floodlights and perimeter fencing singing, had been rain-bearing, it wouldn’t have been much fun even under the canopy. Thankfully, the early morning rain had dried up as I had headed west, and by the afternoon, the ground was bathed in warm sunlight.
Middlezoy are in contention for promotion from the Somerset County League to the Pyramid proper next season, but they’re not counting their chickens just yet.
They have to meet ground grading conditions and get voted in at a meeting of the Blazers; they should find out their fate this coming week, I believe. They have a small number of improvements to make but their plans are well advanced. They’ve even trial-drilled a borehole on their land and water was quickly struck (big surprise on the wetlands!
), and as they’ve secured an abstraction licence, no problems with pitch watering next year.
The game pitched 3rd in the league versus 7th, and given the number of fixtures both clubs have had to play in recent weeks thanks to all the postponements over the winter months, it was perhaps not a huge surprise that after a very competitive and robust first 45 minutes, the game became more turgid in the second half - but it was always watchable.
Middlezoy opened the scoring on 5m when a corner to the far post found their no.7 with his back to the goal; he swivelled and fired the ball across the keeper and home. The second on 30m came from a quick break down the left, the defence was caught cold and no.11 drew and easily beat the away keeper.
Stockwood Wanderers, from Bristol, pulled a goal back shortly after half-time but Middlezoy wrapped it up on 68m when the Stockwood keeper managed to block a shot, but Middlezoy’s no.11 just beat him to the rebound to prod the ball into the net.
I was impressed with the set-up at Middlezoy and I hope they do get their promotion confirmed. They give the impression of being a very go-ahead club with an enthusiastic committee, so good luck to them.
06/05/23 – Somerset County League Premier Division
Middlezoy Rovers 3 Stockwood Wanderers 1No admission charge
Refreshments: a cheeseburger for £4 from the food hatch in the clubhouse.
Attendance: 51.
And so to the bird’s final game of the season.
Yet another new ground in the Somerset County Leagues - but this time in the bottom-most division, and featuring the bottom two clubs! You can’t get a lot lower than that!
The village of Tunley sits in the old Somerset coal-fields on the other side of the Camerton valley from Peasedown St John, which Ossie visited earlier this season. Indeed, you can see Peasedown nestling on the horizon from the more elevated parts of Tunley Athletic’s recreation ground. To get to Tunley from Radstock, however, you have to drive down into the valley and up the other side, and this being BANES territory (Bath & NE Somerset District Council), the whole route is 20mph with numerous chicanes and other traffic-calming hazards scattered at regular intervals. At the entrance to each of the chicanes, you are advised to “give priority to oncoming traffic”. And that’s the same in both directions!
So the result is, you sit looking at the bloke at the other end of the chicane until one of you flashes the other through. And if you both flash simultaneously ……
Tunley Recreation Centre is a lovely little ground accessed by a narrow track down from the main drag - blink and you’ll miss the entrance.
It’s opposite the King William pub, which is about the only landmark in the village. There’s a reasonably sized car-park on site with overflow grass parking next to the children’s play area. The recreation ground’s hall is an unprepossessing block behind one end of the pitch, but it’s spacious inside with a small bar and refreshment area. A separate changing room block sits alongside it. The ground has a raised embankment in one corner which gives a panoramic view over the area.
The pitch, which is railed on three sides, slopes slightly from end to end. There are two small dugouts and a rather solid-looking covered standing area, basically occupied by a number of ancient plastic chairs
. A sign on this stand says “Tunley Athletic Centenary 2012”, but I’d have thought it had been there for much longer than that, judging by the forlorn state of it.
An unfortunate incident during the pre-match warm-up.
A wayward 35-yard blockbuster from one of the Burnham players hit the referee’s Fiat which was parked directly behind the goal and crazed the windscreen.
A salutary reminder to watch where you leave the car at some of these smaller grounds …... in fact, when I first arrived, I’d parked alongside that very spot, but I had decided on reflection to relocate onto the grassy strip.
An entertaining game got off with a bang, Tunley’s no.8 placing a superb shot into the corner of the net in the 2nd minute, giving the away keeper no chance, and Burnham equalised on 5m with an emphatic header. Chances followed at both ends with Tunley always looking the more likely to find the net, and the half-time score of 3-1 was a fair reflection of play. Burnham looked lightweight in midfield and their defence at times went AWOL in the face of some direct attacking by the home side, who were clearly “up for it”!
Tunley notched two further goals in the second half, one of which came from a 40 yard run through the defence and a cool finish. Burnham managed an 86th minute second goal, in off the post, to complete a 7-goal thriller.
13/05/23 – Somerset County League Division 3
Tunley Athletic 5 Burnham United Reserves 2No admission
Refreshments: Diet Coke (no calories, no sugar!
) and choc bar from the recreation hall £1.50.
Attendance: 24.
And that’s it for this season! Enjoy your summers; the bird may or may not be back next July, depending on health and fitness!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FHEeG_uq5Y
There’s also a slight chance of the FA Cup final. We’ve applied for tickets and the club have been allocated 30500 which is the same number Liverpool had last year but they were transparent in how they were distributed so some searching discovered that only 71% of that amount (around 21000) went to those in a ballot once club staff, exec box users, sponsors etc were sorted. 
