Football Grounds Picture Quiz (5)

The Merse Memory comes up trumps again to leave us with just C, D and E to be correctly identified.

Nothing changes too much in Cornwall and many of the grounds still have a 1940s and 1950s feel to them. The main exceptions are Truro - rather patched up with its temporary stand - and Wadebridge where, as Merse states, that old structure has gone. I've heard complaints about Wadebridge lacking in character but, given I've only seen the current version, it seems a rare example of keeping up with the times.

Thanks for that Dave. Mind you it's tough keeping up with Merse's memory (Jim's elephants have nothing on the man), Jon's forensic skills and attention to detail, Aussie's pithiness and all the other skills people bring to this forum.

Might you pass numbers 49 and 70 regularly on your travels?

When you're playing or reffing, looking at the stands is a long way down the list of prorities!

Of Wadebridge, I must have played there during the last game of either 69 or 70 in one of my few first team starting opportunities and was marked by former Argyle and Torquay centre half Reg Wyatt who wasn't THAT long out of League football. Needless to say, he had one of the easiest afternoons of his career, he never gave me a kick (of the ball that is!) and was one of the cleanest and most gentlemanly opponents I ever played against. They also included Johhny Brown who had been a legend at Bristol Rovers.

The pitch was appalling, sloping downhill towards the halfway line from either end and sideways too.................big crowd though; and raucous too! They were playing for League Runners Up honours that day and we held them to a 0-1 defeat.

Having Newton Rec to pay on was something we didn't really appreciate until we went away. The pitch at the Rec was amongst the biggest and best one could ever imagine, although the delapidated state of the ground was akin to the picture of Albion Rovers on here over the weekend; with just a few score scattered around a huge bowl that could have accomodated 10,000 had it been developed and maintained properly.

Places like the old Torpoint ground, Bodmin and St Blazey had appalling sufaces and as for St Austell...............well all of a sudden experience of KGV at Watcombe came in handy. If you ran out of the dressing room beneath the stand too fast you'd struggle to stop before you hit the bottom touchline!

Nanpean was the most surrreal, they played at the bottom of a huge man made bowl that had been carved out for clay mining and one reached the excellent playing suface by tip towing down a steep flight of steps from the pavilion.................it was like playing in the San Siro with hardly anyone there!

I was once given a video about the football grounds of Cornwall - a limited edition, strictly mail order, plain brown envelope job (can anybody transfer it to DVD for me, please, because it's years since I've watched it):



Nanpean features prominently in this epic. I've only seen the ground from the road and I'm not sure if this link pays it full justice: pyramidpassion.co.uk/html/nanpean_rovers.html

However, these pictures from www.flickr.com give a pretty fair impression:

You won't see 49 on that route but - with a diversion later in the day - you'll pass 70.

For 49 head north, young man, and venture up a hill with a sea view!

Bob's a big mate of Romford Kev and I, Kev's got that video ~ and I've watched it. He's a big Torquay fan too!

I absolutley pissed myself because although Bob's had a shaved head for as long as I can remember, in this production he appears with what looks the most awful "syrup" on his head only worse still, it's his own Barnet! No wonder he shaved it off.

Bob's a director of United Artists looking after the royalties of some of the world's top performers and has been a director of Bath City in the past and also co-owned speedway club Eastbourne Eagles until recently. He underwrote some investment for Hemel Hempstead FC a few years ago and it was at their game at Thurrock one evening that I last bumped into him although we speak on the phone once or twice a year.

His brothers Bill and Ed are well known, Bill as the award winning writer of books and films on Football Hooliganism and Ed as a stand up comedian.

No relation to the barber in NA Dave! ;D