Ossie's Further Footie Meanderings ....

[TheOstrich]

So to the Season “Proper”!

Every year, over the summer months, Ossie sits down with quill, ink and the FA FullTime Non-League website and, as the various leagues release their fixtures, starts to plot out a Master Plan of teams he needs to see or grounds he needs to visit . Usually, all goes well until late in the day, the wretched Western League issue their fixture lists - at which point the bird shouts “Aaarrghhh”, throws his spreadsheet up in the air, and has to start again from scratch as the Western League seem to unerringly delight in setting up vital games on dates which clash with other leagues ! If you just follow one team like Leeds or Man U, you don’t have this problem, but for the seasoned ground-hopper, it’s an annual nightmare - choices, choices ……

Anyway, this 2023/24 season, touch wood, all has gone swimmingly for once, and the Ostrich has a nice little itinerary in place through to April 2024 which happily encompasses all 17 of his never-seen-before target teams - five in the Vanarama National South (Step 2), two in the Southern League (Step 3), seven in the Wessex Leagues (Steps 5 & 6) and three in the Western Leagues (also Steps 5 &6). The only peculiarity has been the Vanarama League fixture compilers having a right giraffe and sending three of my five Step 2 teams to Yeovil Town on three successive Saturdays . After three successive Saturdays at The Huish, I shall probably have lost the will to live , as well as being bankrupt, as despite relegation, they’ve hardly reduced their ticket prices .

However, the Master Plan is in place, is up and running, and fingers crossed Ossie will reach the finishing line, although the threat of bad weather postponements over the Winter months always lurks .

First up, Saturday 5th August, newly-transferred into the Wessex League Division 1, AFC Aldermaston (“The Atom Men”) were visitors to Downton . I always enjoy a visit to the Robin’s Nest, although it’s a bit of hike, and despite Downton being quite close to Salisbury, I actually have to drive into and out of Hampshire (at Fordingbridge) to get there. The BBC Weather App had been forecasting all sorts of mayhem in the run-up to that day, but by Saturday morning, the stormy winds had been downgraded to just plain gusty, mainly coming in during the second half, so, given it’s a 65-mile round trip on decidedly country roads, I gave it a whirl nevertheless, and arrived relatively unscathed despite a tremendous downpour sweeping across the A338 at Breamore.

Downton are one of the big hitters in their league, and they had no trouble in despatching Aldermaston 6-1 in an action-packed opening match of the season. As I type, they remain unbeaten in 5 games and top the table. During the second half, the wind did indeed pick up and the line of 50 foot silver birches on the side of the ground opposite the stand were absolutely thrumming by the final whistle . I decided to drive back a slightly longer route via Salisbury itself and the A30, quite hairy at times and plenty of debris on the carriageways. Food prices were high; I was charged £1.30 for a Snickers bar !

Ossie’s next game was back at Frome Collegians, an evening pre-season friendly between their reserves and Coleford Athletic from the Mid Somerset League. An altogether better game than Collegians’ first team friendly against Bratton the previous week, Coleford turned out to be quite a hefty side - but their roving no.11, a hulking 6 foot 3 or thereabouts, was like greased lightning up front and his sheer pace regularly left the Frome defenders trailing in his wake. He scored after 13m, dribbling across the box before planting the ball in the corner of the net, but he also had at least four 1 on 1’s with the keeper throughout the match and failed to make any of them pay . The home team looked dead and buried with 10 minutes left, but somehow clawed two goals back to earn a creditable draw.

Saturday 12th August saw the Ostrich at Westfield FC, a first visit to a ground which has been on his bucket-shop list for some time, as it’s on the campus of the Best Western Centurion Hotel, Radstock, and I was hoping for a decent meal before-hand , but it turned out to be not quite that sort of hotel, and I finished up with a tuna and sweetcorn baguette and pint of milk from the local Co-op!!

With it absolutely teeming down at 14:40, I did wonder about making a dash for nearby Welton Rovers as there’s no cover at Westfield’s ground, the only potential shelter being the tall fence and line of conifer trees behind one goal, but I stuck it out and was rewarded with a rain-free first half and intermittent drizzle after the break. The game itself, however, was a bit of a non-event. After just a minute, Burnham’s Curtis Bradshaw raced through the defence onto a long ball but trying to control it, it bobbled up and he inadvertently handled it. Then on 3m, from almost the same position, he got his shot away and a defender deflected it past the keeper to make it 0-1. Bradshaw scored again on 29m, a thumping header from a corner, and that was effectively game over. Westfield scored the obligatory late consolation goal on 89m, a direct free kick swung in from wide; cue a frantic extra four minutes or so, but Burnham, who promptly took the ball to the corner flag, weren’t to be denied . Not the most exciting of games, but an interesting afternoon out in the old Somerset Coalfields.

The following Saturday, up to Shaftesbury to see the second of this season’s target teams, Hamble Club from Hamble-le-Rice near Southampton. Big yachting area and all that . Watched by a pretty large crowd of 197, this was an FA Cup Preliminary Round tie, and Shaftesbury duly defeated the Monks quite comfortably at the end of the day, although even the most ardent Rockies fan wouldn’t have put money on a home win at halftime. Both sides traded early goals, Shaftesbury taking the lead on 5m through Joe Wickham who rode three tackles on the edge of the box before scoring, and Hamble equalising 4 minutes later through Clayd Roach, who was a constant thorn in the home side’s flesh throughout the afternoon. Both sides played hi-tempo, aggressive football, and hit the woodwork more than once - with Hamble gaining the upper hand, Roach put an easy chance wide on the half-hour mark, and the Rockies in particular were grateful for the lino’s offside flag on several occasions.

The visitors took a 1-2 lead on 52m when Roach netted a superb goal from wide, and I thought at this stage that Hamble would probably go on to win the tie. But no, Shaftesbury equalised on 64m with a slightly contentious penalty (for hand-ball, I believe), and on 68m took the lead when Wickham collected a long cross-field ball from Holmes, sidestepped the keeper, and rolled the ball into an empty net. That took the wind put of Hamble’s sails, and they conceded two further goals on 79m and 85m, both scored by Ash Pope with decisive strikes.

Now there’s a lot of talk at the moment about the “new rules” this season and in particular time-wasting. Well, I’m usually loathe to criticize any referee, but late in the second half, we saw the Rockies keeper dribble the ball wide across the goal area, wait until an opponent was approaching him, pick up the ball and then collapse prone on the ground . Not once, but twice. If that’s not time-wasting, what is? And he had been warned about it previously. Surely a yellow card - but no, nothing . Previously, a home player had booted the ball away when a free kick had been given against him, and (following the inevitable mass outrage from the Monks ) had been duly booked. We are going to need to see some consistency here ……. anyway, it was a very enjoyable afternoon’s entertainment, and the quality Cheeseburger at half time for £4 went down very nicely .

Tuesday 22nd August, and this particular local derby involving my “home town” club would normally be well off my radar; however, it was a lovely evening down here in Dorset, (the ambiance only soured by the fact that the local muck-spreading season has now commenced - phew! ), and as I’m not a huge fan of Gillingham Town, I thought there’d be a certain vicarious pleasure in seeing how many a resurgent Warminster Town would whup the woeful, managerless Tangoes by .

Not that that notion went entirely to plan …..

Two horrendous - and I mean horrendous - defensive mix-ups on 8m and 20m gifted Gillingham two first half goals. Warminster equalised firstly on 13m via a close range header, and then again on 25m after poor defending at the Gillingham end. The Tangoes did most of the pressing in the second half and were rewarded with a 66th minute winner which took a huge deflection off an away defender. The game concluded with 10 minutes additional time (probably about right with injury stoppages) and a welter of bookings from an increasingly unamused referee , including at least two on the home team bench, as Warminster frantically chased an equaliser.

Now as I mentioned, this was a local derby and the crowd was abysmal - just 41 . This was Gillingham’s fourth home game this season; the other attendances have been 42, 36 and 32. That really is financially unsustainable at this level of football, and unless they can increase their support, I do wonder how long they’ll last. Anyway, over and above a fiver for admission and programme, I did my bit and contributed a further £2.50 at half-time for a decent Cornish pasty .

[Kaz]

Ah, the bird is back! Thanks Ossie

[cromwell]

Crikey Os, you do get about a bit. Those are very poor attendances, Sharlston get way more than that for amateur Rl matches. Unless Gillingham get a sugar daddy i think you're right, they will go bust.

[TheOstrich]

Thanks, Kaz!

Crommers, the conspiracy theory round here is that the local Town Council "assisted" the football club with grants to help it get its new ground up and running a few years back. If that was the case, it is not something that has been made too public, for obvious reasons ........

There is no sugar daddy as far as I am aware although they do seem to be quite good at attracting sponsorship. There's a local Sports Club Bar / Hospitality venue outfit who are quite involved and the ground has just been renamed "The Rocky's Bar Stadium" But you're absolutely right, a Step 6 club in a League involving regular trips up to Bristol / South Gloucester is not viable long-term on those sort of attendances. 40 paying spectators = £200 income at the gate. Matchday referee and assistants expenses payable by the home club could be approaching £100 alone.

[TheOstrich]

An update on Ossie’s Master Plan, and so far, the agenda is very much on course! In previous seasons, any Master Plan has usually been ripped up by this point - but not so far this year (fingers crossed).

What we have to report on this time around is an unholy “trilogy” of three Yeovil Town games in the Vanarama National South (Step 2) - I had been forecasting that by the end of this session, I’d probably have lost the will to live, but actually they have proved both absorbing and entertaining. I never thought I’d be putting “Yeovil Town” and “entertaining” in the same sentence, but you do get your surprises.

First up, Tonbridge Angels on Saturday 26th August. Prior to the game, much time was spent on Google Maps plotting a devious, meandering course from The Nest to The Huish, using country roads and avoiding the A303 (August Bank Holiday + rail strikes, anyone?) and other known roadworks / bottlenecks in the area. Needless to say, nothing went to plan - I got just a mile and a half out of town heading for Buckhorn Weston when I encountered a feed wagon stuck in the road trying to pass a tractor cum hedge-flailer coming the other way; that’s rural Dorsetshire for you. Never had these problems when I lived in Brum …..

The only noticeable change at the Huish this season is the development of the hospitality area behind the Thatchers Stand, which now sports a marquee, drinking den, three food and fizz outlets, and a stage for live performances - on this day, pre-game, it was the Roadstars, a local 3-piece party-rock covers band. A Hard Day’s Night and all that, which rather summed up my footballing experience today.

Yeovil seem to have at least rediscovered the art of going forward, something which was conspicuously missing in the two games I attended at the tail-end of last season when they were in a terminal nose-dive. They bossed midfield, and drove on with Hyde and Murphy up front, but Tonbridge were certainly no push-overs and some sublime ball skills and approach work kept a slightly fragile-looking Glovers’ defence on their toes. However, Yeovil scored on 12m when Jordon Young slotted the ball home from the right-hand edge of the area to finish off a nicely-worked attacking move. Despite this, Tonbridge keeper Jonathan Henly was playing a blinder, fisting away a cracking direct free kick on 33m and making a reaction save to a short-range clipped ball from Jake Hyde.

More of the same in the second half as Yeovil pressed for a second goal; despite all the hard work, nothing was materialising, and at the other end Turner skimmed one just wide for Tonbridge. Shortly after half-time, in a patch of brilliant sunshine between the regular thunderous downpours we experienced all afternoon, they turned the floodlights on!

The referee, who could not in any way be described as a homer , had turned down a Yeovil penalty shout in the first half which had outraged the Glovers’ Faithful around me - not without some justification, I felt - but he made up for it by giving the home side a penalty on 65m which was much less clear-cut. What followed next was of some interest, in relation to the new laws on timewasting etc. this season. Murphy spent well over a minute placing the ball on the spot and keeper Henly, with some justification, complained about this overt prevarication to the referee . Trying to get an opponent booked is now technically an offence, and the referee promptly booked Henly! Murphy then spent another minute adjusting the position of the ball. So why was he not also booked for timewasting? The referee had been quick enough to yellow-card Yeovil’s keeper Will Buse earlier for holding onto the ball longer than deemed necessary ….. anyway, justice was done when Henly saved Murphy’s poor kick, and the ball was scrambled clear.

Murphy and Hyde were replaced shortly afterwards, and Frank Nouble and Ollie Thomas formed a new partnership up front. It wasn’t until half-way through the 9 minutes of added on time that Tonbridge final conceded that second goal, when Nouble got through a tiring defence and took his opportunity well; his first goal for the Glovers. By that time, the game had got a bit fractious with Thomas fouling Tonbridge’s diminutive Jernade Meade who promptly squared up to his much larger tormenter; both were duly booked.

So, a slightly unconvincing win on the day for Yeovil, I felt, but a win’s a win and it’s the points wot matter. And a decent performance by unfancied Tonbridge showed that this league will be anything but a push-over for the Glovers.

Second up, Saturday 2nd September, and Chelmsford City were the visitors. This time, I didn’t even get across the town boundary before encountering a tractor reversing a trailer-full of top soil down the wrong side of the road ! How on earth do you reverse a trailer down the wrong side of the road? The answer is very, very slowly …..

Bristol City had apparently recalled Ollie Thomas back from his loan during the week, which was a huge loss to Yeovil’s attacking potency, thus now reducing from mediocre to abysmal . On a positive note, they had signed goalkeeper Joe Day from Newport County on a season-long loan and he certainly proved himself today, rescuing the Glovers on more than one occasion with reflex saves - although he does have a bit of a tendency towards punching rather than gathering the ball.

Chelmsford arrived unbeaten so far this season, and it did seem to me looking back on the game that this was probably more by luck than judgement. Still, couldn’t fault a sturdy defence which kept Yeovil’s unconvincing efforts at bay until Morgan Williams rescued the home team with a desperate 20 yard effort in the 90th minute which eluded City keeper Josh Oluwayemi. Chelmsford had taken the lead just a few minutes earlier when Day had done fantastically well to palm away what had appeared to be a certain own goal - but Adam Mills had been on hand to poach a goal from the loose ball.

The 87 minutes before this final flourish had seen Yeovil trying their hardest to press forward, but I don’t think Hyde and Nouble, who started the game up front, had anything like the nouse to penetrate Chelmsford’s lines. When Murphy came on in the second half and provided a bit more verve up front, Yeovil did look somewhat more dangerous, but that’s a relative statement . Chelmsford were neat and patient in midfield and created a few good chances of their own up front, but looked by no means world-beaters. Their biggest danger was complacency, and complacency nearly did for them when their keeper short passed the ball out to a defender who seemed unaware he had a Yeovil player right behind him . The defender was robbed, but the away keeper saved the resulting shot.

So a game that by all accounts should have finished 0-0 eventually finished 1-1. One must be grateful for small mercies …..

Thirdly and finally last Saturday, lowly Eastbourne Borough were the opposition. Worth noting perhaps that this game was sensibly played with drinks intervals every 15 minutes or so, leading to 7 minutes added time at the end of each half.

Well Eastbourne certainly didn’t give the Glovers any respect in today’s encounter; in fact, but for two strokes of sheer brilliance, Yeovil could have gone in at half-time with a two goal deficit rather than parity. The first came on 8m with Eastbourne in the ascendancy and pressing hard. A shot was cleared off the goal-line to Eastbourne’s talented Leone Gravata, who was running Yeovil ragged down the left wing, and Gravata hit a first time volley back that was fizzing into the corner of the net when Yeovil keeper Joe Day pulled off a split-second acrobatic save to divert it over the bar .

Yeovil opened the scoring three minutes later when Frank Nouble rose to power home a header from a corner kick. Nouble is a tall, bulky bruiser of a forward, an ideal target man, which is why Yeovil play him on the wing . He does have some pedigree though; he made his debut as a 17yo in the Premiership for West Ham at Wolverhampton Wanderers, apparently, and has England U17 and U19 caps. A bit of a journeyman, I see he’s also had a spell at Ipswich Town amongst others ….

Anyway, chances followed at both ends. Staunton cleared an Eastbourne shot off the line, and the away side were very nearly in trouble when a defender misheaded the ball across the face of his own goal - but nobody could put it in. Then Eastbourne struck with two goals in two minutes, both scored by Jack Paxman taking advantage of the frailties in the Yeovil defence, the first on 35m slightly fortuitous when a Gravata shot was blocked and rebounded back out to Paxman, and the second was stroked in from 10 yards or so, again after the Glovers had failed to clear their lines.

At 1-2, Yeovil were looking visibly rattled but on 45m+2, a long ball was punted forward out of the home defence which Nouble and a defender chased down the touchline. Eastbourne keeper Ben Dudzinski - fatally - came way out of his goal to cover. Somehow, Nouble got a foot to the ball; the whole ground fell silent as the ball looped way up in the air, goalmouth-bound, came down and bounced once - directly in line with the post from where I was sitting - before rolling over the line for a 40-yard equaliser of either sheer brilliance or sheer luck (you can decide from the YTFC goal highlights) that must be an early contender for my Goal of the Season .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXSsZng03VY

2-2 at the interval, the game could easily have gone either way but was eventually settled on 68m when Josh Owers conjured a 15 yard shot out of nowhere to beat the keeper. Even then, Eastbourne might still have equalised but Decarrey Sheriff saw his shot at an empty goal roll agonisingly past the post.

So another Yeovil victory, but again, hardly a commanding performance and I can’t help feeling that they’re riding their luck somewhat …...

Parking’s £3, and seats in the Screwfix stand cost £16 (concession) this season - getting to the Ticket Office early, I usually manage to get an aisle seat high up. The glossy programme is also £3, but content’s not the greatest. Three successive visits meant I was able to sample the whole range of £4.50 pasties, and the chicken, bacon and leek one wins it for taste . Crowds were remarkably consistent - 2,896, 2,933 and 2,726 respectively.

Away from this plethora of Glovers’ games, the Ostrich has also managed a couple of evening affairs - a lowly Yeovil and District League Division 1 game at Somerton Rec where Bullet’s FC lost 2-3 to Langport Town, and I all but tripped over a lurking bunny rabbit in the gloom on the long march back to the car park at the end of the game! Bunny was unscathed, and high-tailed it.

And finally, newly-formed Gillingham Town Under 23’s first competitive match in the Hampshire Combination & Development Football League. The opposition was last season’s champions, Dorchester Town U23s, who not unexpectedly won 0-4; no real disgrace to the home side, although they did have two players red-carded in the second half . I might take in a few more of these Thursday night U23 games this Autumn, not least because they put the hot plate on when I enquired and rustled me up a Cornish pasty (£2.50). As they’d gone to that trouble, it would have been churlish not to have had two ……..

[cromwell]

Yeovil will have you down as fan of the month Os!
Those are decent crowds for non league football.
Great read, as ever.

[Kaz]

A great read there, Ossie! You're really earning your Yeovil airmiles

[Workingman]

I swear I posted to the OP because I could not get the BANANARAMA league out of my head.

I now learn that if you are in Bananarama league one you could slip into Bananarama league two. (See what I did there?)

Floodlights!!!

Ossie, it sounds as though you got a few entertaining games in for all your efforts. But, but(!) pasties at £4.50 a go. Ah well, a bit of give and take... more weight on the waistline yet a much lighter wallet.

[victor]

Great write up Ossie.
Yeovil are hanging in there.
Its the Weston,Taunton games etc that you need to get to for a good crowd and atmosphere

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[TheOstrich]

It’s over a month since I last updated Ossie’s football meanderings, and (as Facebook always insists on admonishing me in its Notifications) “a lot has happened since you last logged in”! I was going to watch Gillingham U23’s tonight but between half past four and six o’clock, we had two huge downpours here , so I decided to give the waterlogged soccer a miss and update this thread instead.

Having got that run of three Yeovil Town games out of the way , I decided, for a bit of light relief, to watch a few evening fixtures at Gillingham Town’s Woodwater ground which is only a five minute drive or so from The Nest, and frankly, judging by their paltry attendance figures, they needed the support.

First up, the first team took on high-flyers Radstock and were firmly trounced 0-5 . It was about the right result. The current Gillingham side, at that point one place off the bottom of the table, are too lightweight an outfit for the rigours of the Western League; Radstock on the other hand are a team with drive and purpose this season after a poor campaign last year, and weren’t out to take any prisoners - but it did take them a while to get going. When one of their attackers froze when presented with a complete gift of a chance after 32m (and drove the away bench to new heights of apoplexy in the process ), it was increasingly looking like the whole affair might finish goalless, but on 39m their centre-forward slotted home the opening goal, and the floodgates duly opened in the second half.

Next, a Thursday evening U23’s game saw the home side take on Weymouth. Could they improve on their opening 0-4 league defeat by Dorchester a couple of weeks previously? The answer was no, it also finished 0-5 , but at least they didn’t have two players sent off this time!

Back to the first team and a Tuesday evening fixture against Bradford Town. That’s Bradford-on-Avon to any Yorkshire readers ! Given that the programme notes stated: “a fair number of our existing first team have departed to join our ex-manager [Andrew Holmes] at his new club [Chard Town]” and “the new faces” tonight “come from our U23 side”, I expected the worst! As Gillingham’s social media feed is pretty much non-existent, I have no idea how many youngsters were drafted into this particular fixture, but overall, the team gave a plucky display in losing 1-3 which might give them some hope for the future. Bradford’s first goal was a spectacular flying header from Owen Bartley which gave the home keeper no chance. Not the most edifying of games, thanks to a lot of scrapping and ping-pong in midfield, but plenty of chances were created at both ends and in that respect the match was quite entertaining.

Turning to Saturday soccer, Ossie has continued to pursue his target teams this season, and mid-September, the bird headed back into the Somerset coalfields to make a first-ever visit to the attractive West Clewes ground of Welton Rovers for their fixture against newly-promoted Brixham AFC. The ground is a few miles west of Radstock in Midsomer Norton and is overlooked by the Paulton “batch” or conical spoil heap from those old mining days. The club produce an interesting “programme” - what appear to be a conventional A5 publication actually folds out into one exceedingly large poster-sized sheet ! Anyway, the Fishermen were too good for the local side, and ran out comfortable 0-2 winners. Decent cheese ‘n onion buns on sale behind the bar at a quid each; the £2.50 tray of chips was a tad disappointing, though, and the default seating in the clubhouse seemed to be tall bar stools which at my age, I fing exceedingly difficult to get on and off!

Next up, Salisbury versus Bracknell Town in the Southern League. To get to the Raymac Stadium, one has to drive through the middle of the town on the A36, and it’s not the easiest of jobs, manoeuvring through the Saturday lunchtime shoppers' traffic in order to access the Amesbury road at a set of roundabout traffic lights that always seem to be on overdrive and only allow three of four cars through at a time . The queues are horrendous and one has to rely on the goodwill of other motorists to “let you in”.

Not quite sure what to say about this game. Firstly, I found Salisbury’s constant tactic of a short goal kick, followed by sideways and backwards passing between the defence and keeper, followed by a long march with the ball up to midfield, extremely irritating . Bracknell started out initially trying to harass the defenders, but eventually gave that up as a bad job, and just left them to it. The game became so slow at times that I fully expected the electronic scoreboard clock to start ticking backwards . But when Salisbury did decide to mount an attack, they went from 0-50 in under the proverbial 10 seconds , and they created sufficient chances up front during the game to have at least doubled their final tally. Michael Eacott in the Bracknell goal had a fine game, including one great reaction save from a deflected shot. Anyway, unbeaten Salisbury scored twice in the second half to notch a comfortable victory and maintain their promotion push. As I’ve always found Salisbury’s catering consistently abysmal , I opted for a Ginsters' Bombay Potato and Spinach Vegan Pasty (£2) from Waitrose for lunch, on the grounds I’ll try anything once . That was a mistake which will not be repeated.

The following Saturday, a rare foray nowadays across a couple of county borders into Devon to see Axminster Town completely dismantle Torridgeside (from Torrington) in the South West Pensinsular League. After 6 minutes, the Tigers were two up and cruising , and by rights they ought to have scored eight or nine goals against a team who couldn’t cope with their "Route 1 and Shoot on Sight" tactics. The Tigers eventually won 5-0, which made the near-100 mile round trip a worthwhile venture, and at last, a real proper meat and potato Cornish Pasty , served on a plate with cutlery , together with a large mug of tea in a “Tigers” mug for £4.50!

Saturday 7th October, and back to Salisbury to see Laverstock & Ford (the Bulldogs) take on Brockenhurst (the Badgers) in a Wessex League Premier match. I arrived at the ground in good time, but the Salisbury traffic was even worse than usual, not helped by a queue to get past a 2 car prang and police presence on the outskirts of the city at Bemerton . I wish Lavvy would signpost their entrance driveway off Church Road a bit better though, as yours truly managed to miss it not once but twice, despite having visited this ground two or three times before - and I always find their heavily slanted parking slots are a bit of a test to get in and out of.

The fixture pitched 9th placed Lavvy against the 4th placed Badgers, so a close game was anticipated, and in a way it was, but it wasn’t particularly easy on the eye. The Bulldogs, going down the slope, took the lead on 8m when the ball broke across goal to Archie Lovegrove to net easily from around 10 yards, and it became 2-0 on 18m when Lewis Wakeford converted a penalty for what I assume was a holding-back incident in the box - my view of which from the main stand was neatly obscured by a floodlight pylon ! After the break, Brockenhurst started to create a few chances but Laverstock comfortably held them at bay. On a soporific, sultry afternoon, neither side were playing inspirational football, and when the two gentleman who were sitting next to me in the first half finally returned to their seats on 75m - after an extended half-time stay in the clubhouse - and asked me if they’d missed anything, I was able quite truthfully to answer “No”.

In the last 10 minutes, however, the Bulldogs did mount a final flourish. One shot cannoned off a post, and then on 87m, Chae Sykes wriggled his way inside the box before emphatically scoring Lavvy’s third and final goal. Job done for Laverstock, but overall, not a particularly memorable game for the neutral spectator; at times in the second half, the sight of the skydivers descending on nearby Old Sarum airfield proved more watchable than the football . Back home hot-foot in 65 minutes to beat the evening road closures for the Gillingham Town Carnival that would have effectively cut me off from the chippie …..

And finally last Saturday, my first rugby games of the season! A long drive up to Chippenham’s Allington Fields complex, which is conveniently situated just off the town’s by-pass. I couldn’t believe that the by-pass still has road cones, barriers and temporary speed restrictions on it - to my knowledge, they have been digging it up for at least six years now . If anything, widening it from one to two lanes had made it more dangerous as there seemed to be a lot of excessive speeding down the bits they have completed.

Traditionally, you pay your admission at a gate half way down the rugby club’s main drive, but it wasn’t manned when I passed through, so I enquired at the bar and offered to pay there, but they said forget it and even handed me a complimentary copy of the day’s programme! That called for a celebratory slice of gluten-free carrot cake (£2.50) from the clubhouse bar , which was just as well as there was no evidence of any hot food on offer today. I last visited Allington Fields in March 2018; since then they’ve installed a spanking new floodlit artificial pitch in front of the clubhouse, neatly surrounded by white Duralock plastic railing, and opened a brand-new cricket pavilion alongside the entrance driveway, hosting Allington Cricket Club in the summer and the rugby club’s juniors and minis in the winter.

I was able to cover the afternoon’s two scheduled matches, siting myself happily between the main and no.2 pitches. On the latter, Chippenham’s thirds took on Royal Wootton Bassett’s fourths in a Counties 3 Wilts & Dorset North league fixture, kicking off at 14:30 in front of a partisan crowd of 41, and scored within a minute of the start, the away defence flapping at Chippnum’s speedy backs. That set the tone for the match; the home team ran the ball in at regular intervals and it was 26-3 at half-time and 53-10 at the finish. RWB’s sole try was a penalty try and the final score of the game. Some impressive conversions from the Chippnum fly-half as well.
The main game started at 15:00 and Chippnum’s first score was also a penalty try, given I think for an illegal tackle on the line (7m), and Ed Hendy burst through three minutes later to make it 14-0. Their opponents, Gordano (from Bristol) appeared quite a dogged bunch and grimly set out in pursuit , clawing a converted try back on 18m when Moss broke through a couple of tackles. Chippnum restored their lead on 23m when Baker plunged over, but Gordano buckled down and by the interval had closed the score was 21-19.

Both sides exchanged converted tries early in the second half and at 28-26 it was looking like the match could go either way. A tense second half saw a classic 66m push-over try touched down by Chippnum’s no.8 Alafoti-Moana Faosiliva, and despite Gordano’s best efforts to reduce the lead again, the home side managed to cling on for the victory. Journey back to Dorset in around 70 minutes, accompanied by heavy showers and a spectacular full-arc rainbow!