The bird has managed to attend six fixtures in July, and there would have been a couple more if two Saturday afternoons hadn’t been lost to inclement weather - the first (July 8th) due to high winds that toppled my tomato plants
, thankfully all rescued without too much damage, and the second (July 15th) when it was chucking it down and my planned game at Baltonsborough (sort of near Glastonbury, to save you getting out your SatNavs 
) was moved to a 3G pitch in Street which I’d already visited pre-Covid.Anyway, first up were old favourites Glastonbury themselves, who can usually be relied upon to arrange an interesting friendly or two. The opposition was Tor FC, from the same town, so a local derby, and whilst not perhaps on the same level as Man U versus Man C
, it did attract 95 spectators. Tor are a Yeovil & District League side, so at least three levels below Somerset County League side Glasto, but they gave a very good account of themselves before losing 3-0. It was a high tempo affair but with more enthusiasm than skill; a few robust challenges on the field but the game was played in a good spirit throughout. Glastonbury (the “Dollies”) used to be a Western League side up until 1999. but have very much fallen down the pyramid since: however. they still play at the old redundant greyhound stadium on the edge of the Somerset wetlands, so it’s a “proper” enclosed ground with a stand, veranda-ed clubhouse / bar and floodlights, which looked quite functional, and plenty of parking capacity. I relieved the barman of a Snickers bar and a packet of crisps (£2) - not a lot was on offer on the day, unfortunately.
Next up was a trip to New Cuthbury, Wimborne Town’s new stadium. I liked Wimborne’s old ground - this new one, although obviously a huge improvement with regard to facilities - is just a little bit clinical for my taste; all corporate grey and white and prefabricated metal sheeting
. That said, the clubhouse is bright and spacious, the two main stands (with a total of around 250 seats) give good views, and there’s plenty of covered standing behind the two goals. The whizzy electronic scoreboard with a game clock is a nice addition , and would have been even better if they’d remembered to start it running at the start of the second half and not a couple of minutes in 
! The refreshment kiosk at the north end of the clubhouse offered teas, coffees, ice-creams, and exceedingly large sausage rolls 
, but I settled for a packet of Pipers cheese ‘n onion crisps from the bar £1.20.Another issue with this new ground is that there’s only one road in and out of it. A huge housing estate is going up alongside the B3073 Ringwood road east of the town centre called Quarter Jack Park, and I believe the funding for the new “community” stadium was partly from section 106 money, a sort of bribe housing developers have to pay to get planning permission. There appears at first sight to be plenty of parking in front of the long, single-storey red-brick clubhouse when you get to the ground itself, but it quickly filled up, so people were parking on the verge which narrowed the roadway and I overheard that things got a bit heated prior to kickoff
. The visitors were Weymouth (one league higher than Wimborne) and this (sort of) Dorset grudge match
attracted a good crowd of 387. Goalless at half-time, Weymouth brought on several young players, including one Joel Rollinson and berlimey he was good ! Playing as an attacking left-winger, it only took him three minutes to get into the penalty area where he was chopped down at the third attempt 
for a cast-iron penalty, converted by captain Tom Bearwish. Weymouth added two more in the second half for a comfortable 3-0, or so we thought, until Wimborne somehow scored twice in the last three minutes, which I think might have led to an interesting discussion in the Weymouth dressing room after the match! Game 3 (Gawd help me) was an evening trip and a first visit to Holt United
. Dorset Premier League Holt United play at Gaunts Common, which is in the middle of nowhere somewhere near Verwood. My heart sank when Google Maps directed me to go “via Witchampton”, because when I elected to go see Witchampton FC play backalong, not only couldn’t I find the ground in Witchampton, I couldn’t even find blinkin’ Witchampton itself 
! All the signposts appeared contradictory, and I finished up that particular afternoon actually navigating by the sun ! So, Gaunts Common is not the easiest of places to get at if you’re coming from North Dorset, but others seem to have found it OK as the car-park was rammed to capacity when I arrived 45 minutes before the start! There’s a small clubhouse and bar at the back of the carpark, which runs behind one goal, and when you access the pitch, you go past a pay-station hut - this is the first sign that “The Bulls” have ambitions to climb the pyramid up into the Wessex League. Holt won the Dorset Premier League (Step 7) last season, but failed the ground grading. So, a new stand is in the offing to be placed down one touchline; in fact, wandering around there, I could see some rudimentary work had taken place - a number of bright, shiny steel anchoring bolts were set in concrete squares. On the other side of the pitch, the brick-built dug-outs have a covered spectator’s section between them with a bench seat, and back behind the near goal, a covered seated stand already exists - admittedly with only 16 plastic buckets. And of course they’ll need floodlights and additional fencing to fully enclose the ground and keep the coos out.
The visitors were Wessex League Portland United and Holt took the game to them from the start, although it was all a bit scrappy stuff. Portland led 0-1 at the interval, but the Bulls deservedly equalised on 60m. Just when we thought that would be it, we had a burst of 4 goals in 8 minutes, and the final score of 3-3 was eminently fair!
Driving back from Gaunts Common as the skies darkened, I was amazed at the number of Dorset drivers bumbling around with no lights on, including on the main Blandford road! Takes all sorts, I guess ....
I’ll report on games 4, 5 and 6 hopefully sometime next week!
- of infinitesimal better taste than Salisbury’s awful effort! 
