November
No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! –
November!
by Thomas Hood
It was a bit like that for the first match, but surprisingly, it was very mild for the time of year, so much so, that when I got to Bedford Station to catch the 18.36 to Elstree and Boreham Wood, I did think twice about whether I needed to take my coat or not!
Boreham Wood 1 Basingstoke Town 1
Quite amazing, the difference in price between Kettering and Bedford by train to Elstree and Boreham Wood. It is £23.70 fromKettering and fifteen minutes down the line at Bedford, it is a mere £11.15. So it’s a no brainer, I hopped into the car and drove to Bedford!
Boreham Wood FC Members of The Blue Square Bet Football Conference
Monday 12th November 2012 Blue Square Bet South k.o.:- 7.45pm
Boreham Wood 1 Basingstoke Town 1
Omer Riza (pen) 74 Tim Sills 2
referee:- Mr. L. Betts attendance:- 201
On the brightly lit streets of Elstree, nearly every cuisine under the sun was on offer at a variety of well patronised hostelries. In the ground itself, the usual gunk of burgers and hot dogs was on sale and the expensive (£3.00) cheeseburger that I eventually succumbed to was tasteless and arid!
Meadow Park, Broughinge Road, Boreham Wood, Herts
James Russell, the home goalkeeper, made a complete hash of a routine centre and dropped the ball which slid between his legs, goal wards and before it crossed the line, Tim Sills of Basingstoke prodded it decisively into the net. The home team were in the play-off places, their visitors struggling against relegation, but you wouldn’t have guessed as much from this contest. Basingstoke Town were manifestly the better side and but for a rare mistake in the penalty area some fifteen minutes from time, would have returned southwards with all three points!
Tuesday 13th November 2012 Chromasport & Trophies United Counties League
k.o.:- 7.45pm
Premier Division
Desborough Town 1 Spalding United 2
Kevin Byrne Ben Williams (og)
TJ Nightingale
referee:- A. Humphries (Daventry) attendance:- 72
The Waterworks Field, Desborough, Northants
It was another mild evening and I was making my first visit to The Waterworks Field since 25th September. Ian, who is even older than me (although he doesn’t look it!) and used to play for the club in the 1960s, was there amongst the usual crowd of knowledgeable and interesting spectators. In fact, this evening’s crowd was bigger than usual because the opposition had brought support of their own.
Spalding United are playing well this season after demotion from The Northern Premier League and lie handily placed in fourth position with only two league defeats all season.
Desborough meanwhile, have excelled themselves after the disasters of last season and although they have lost as many as they have won, they are comfortably placed in mid-table.
Desborough Town 1 Spalding United 2
In the first half, Spalding were rampant. They really should have scored at least four as their strikers were given free rein by the home defence. After half time, however, Desborough allowed them a lot less room and they had hardly an effort on target. Sadly, for all their huffing and puffing, the home team could not grab the equaliser and Spalding took all the points!
Desborough Town
In the culinary stakes, Claire, there was a new item on the Desborough menu this evening in the form of a mini Cornish pastie. It didn’t look much like a pastie, more like a latticed apple turn over. However, after our lunch out today, I refrained from further damage to my creaking frame!
Wednesday 14th November 2012 FA Carlsberg Trophy k.o.:- 8.05pm
3rd Qualifying Round Replay
Corby Town 3 Wealdstone 2
Sam Ives 45, Carl Piergianni 82 Peter Dean 9, 69
Josh Moreman 90
referee:- Michael D’Aguilar (Cannock) attendance:- 280
A reference, I suspect, to The Hillsborough disaster and a message for my middle son, Mike!
It was a cool night with gusts of fog wafting across the ground and the Wealdstone team coach was late, only arriving around 7.30pm. Accompanying them were some eighty or so vociferous supporters and the game got under way at five minutes past eight.
Corby Town 3 Wealdstone 2. At half-time, the mist wasn’t too bad
It was a bit of a cliff hanger, really, Corby Town are a division higher than their opponents, but it was Wealdstone who opened the scoring and went ahead once more in the second half. It took late goals from Corby on 82 minutes to save the tie and 90 minutes to avoid extra time with the game finishing at 10.00pm.
In the second half, the fog became much thicker!
FA Carlsberg Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round Wednesday 14th November 2012 Corby Town 3 Wealdstone 2 amidst the swirling fog!
The official crowd was announced as 280, but I counted over three hundred people there.
Bedfont Sports 1 Hanwell Town 0 Middlesex Senior Cup 1st Round
Teamsheets for the match!
The clock tower at Bedfont Sports Recreation Ground
A fast and efficient service between Wight and the mainland. I enhanced my naughty boy status by constantly having to be told to sit down! (and, yes, I know that is a spilt infinitive!).
Laurence had remembered the whitebait, which came in portions so large there was no room for chips or any further sustenance! Above, a tonsured Chris counts his change outside Corries Cabin.
Newport (IW) FC, St Georges Park, St Georges Way, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2QH
Saturday 17th November 2012, FA Carlsberg Vase 2nd Round
Newport (IW) 1 Cadbury Heath 0, FA Vase 2nd Round
St Georges Park, Newport IOW
The match itself was a dour affair which the home side won, whilst Cadbury Heath will be disappointed to have come away with nothing. It was a combination of woeful finishing and frank bad luck that kept them off the score-sheet. Newport had their moments too, but I always felt that Cadbury Heath were inherently the better side and on another day might easily have won at a canter!
Behind the goal, the chalk cliffs rise with occasional brief glimpses of the chalk facing
It gets dark early at this time of year. The floodlights enhanced the spectacle!
You can just about pick out the shape of the Red Jet as she came in to ick us up for the return journey to Southampton. This time, I didn’t stand up, but lots of other people did, and they didn’t get told off! Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me!
The return journey in the dark slipped by in the smooth ride of the leather seated jaguar, expertly chauffeured by Chris, who drives with sublime serenity and without any of my aggression and irritability! My car was still parked where I’d left it, but covered in a layer of ice and I was safely home by 10.00pm in plenty of time for Match of the Day”!
Before I go, I must just mention an earlier blog where I went to Boreham Wood’s ground to see Arsenal Ladies take on FFC Turbine Potsdam in the UEFA Women’s European Cup. It was a match where, when I got there, the programmes had sold out! I had sent an e-mail to the club requesting a few details from the match and even asking if there were still programmes about. I didn’t get a reply at first, but a week or so later, I had an e-mail from Ciara Grant who actually played in the tie and she very graciously answered all my enquiries and even offered to send me her programme from the away tie in Potsdam to make up for the one I didn’t get in the first leg. That programme (and a selection of other programmes from their league season just past) arrived whilst I was in Newport (IOW) and capped what had been a splendid day’s football.
After such a generous response, I am determined now to follow Arsenal Ladies campaign in Europe (the next round is in March 2013) all the way to the final at Stamford Bridge on 13th May 2013. My sister, Mary, a lifelong Arsenal supporter (even though born and living in Lancashire), has said that she’ll come to watch them too!
