Keep A Record Of Your Ground Visits

Went to my first “new” ground of the season on Bank Holiday Monday – that of AFC Totton for the game against Weymouth.

Testwood Stadium is brand new – it only opened earlier this year – and is on the A36 Salisbury Road on the edge of the built-up area (not too far from the M27). That makes it around 35 minutes walk from the town’s railway station along a long stretch of predominantly 1930s ribbon development. The ground is neat and tidy with a stand – high and fairly narrow – on one side with an impressive clubhouse in one corner. There’s covered standing accommodation on the opposite site with three or four steps of concrete terracing around most of the perimeter. I liked it.

Totton scored early but didn’t manage to get another until late in the game by which time they’d missed a ludicrous number of chances. You could have made a case for them winning clearly whilst – equally – Weymouth might have snatched a draw against the odds. Totton, in their first season in the Southern Premier, have made an excellent start. By contrast, Weymouth could struggle again. Ben Gerring, who played a few games for Bovey Tracey at the end of last season, was their captain on Saturday.

........heres' the site my learned friend Mr_Barton Downs and I were chatting about on our Curry Night out recently - he mentions of course that he knows of certain people who are up in the 5-6,000-ish grounds number-wise, but this guy here is a good one to keep a weather-eye on - very amusing blogs and a rather peculiar obsession with parakeets!!!!........

flynn123.wordpress.com/

........as always - an excellent posting from Barty - and sooo interesting as awell..........

Two recent additions for me before my circumstances change and I draw back for a while. I guess I’m now satisfied with the grounds I’ve visited in this quadrant of the country. “He knew the football grounds between Land’s End and London” would be an epithet of sorts although I’d like to think that, when the day comes, I’ll be remembered for other, greater reasons.

Wheatsheaf Park, Staines Town

As already featured at www.torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=groundreviews&action=display&thread=7732

I was there for the local derby against Hampton and Richmond. I arrived in Staines in dry conditions at 1.20 for a 3 pm kick-off. It started to rain at 1.40. Within ten minutes it was pissing down so I headed straight to the ground. The players were warming up and the pitch looked fine. By 2.40 puddles were forming; ten minutes before kick-off the ball was barely moving across the surface. Shit, this doesn’t look good...

The game kicked-off and I was sure the referee would give it twenty minutes before calling it off. The conditions, to use the old expression, made it a “mockery”. Hampton went ahead after seven or eight minutes when the ball stopped dead in the penalty area and Staines failed to clear. The next fifteen or twenty minutes were amongst the most farcical I’ve seen and there were several mistimed challenges which could have resulted in injury. I expected an abandonement at any minute.

The game being called off would have meant another page in my Book of Footballing Misfortunes. Looking back, I’m still amazed it was concluded. The rain eased – but never stopped – and I’d say the conditions only eased from the wholly absurd to merely chaotic after about sixty minutes. By that time Hampton were three up. They eventually won 4-1 and it proved a thoroughly entertaining second-half. The nearby games at Woking (Hayes & Yeading are playing there this year) and Sutton were called off after 20-25 minutes for precisely the reasons why I expected an abandonement at Staines.

Impressed by Wheatsheaf Park – I sat in the main stand and sloshed around to circumnavigate the ground at half-time. Crowd of nearly six hundred, a few of whom were critical of the players: “they’ve just got to keep it on the ground and play football!” In truth most of the crowd appreciated that it was not a day to criticise which, in its own odd way, made it a rather muted affair.

Not an area I know too well. Staines, for me, is still a place on the A30 just before London and somewhere we used to stock up with groceries from Sainsburys before those 1960s return trips home after visiting relatives in W5 (no Sainsburys in the South West in those days). I vaguely remember the air crash there – Britain’s worst? – but, with my poor knowledge of popular culture, I was oblivious to the West Staines Massive (which now explains why Staines’ excellent A4 programme is titled “It’s Massive”). I was also unaware of the local linoleum industry and how there had once been a team called Staines Linoleum.

Also, as I remembered when passing through on the train, Addlestone once had a Southern League team. I’d clean forgotten they - as Addlestone & Weybridge Town - once forced a replay against Brentford in the FA Cup. Well, I never...

In memory of the Staines’ – or should I say Staines-on-Thames? –linoleum industry:



Falmer, Brighton and Hove Albion

I was at Brighton v Wrexham yesterday. It’s been my intention to visit the new stadium at Falmer but I didn’t think the opportunity would arise so soon. Yesterday suddenly became perfect : no game for Torquay; tickets easily available; reduced prices (£16.80 for a front row seat in the upper tier close to the halfway line).

I certainly got a decent game which Wrexham nearly won at the end. Brighton, as is the fashion these days, discovered a variety of reasons to rest players and field several youngsters. Oddly, I’d seen five of the fourteen who played – the hugely-impressive Forster-Caskey; Sampayo, Hall, Rodgers and Agdestien – in the reserve fixture at Plainmoor in November.

Wrexham, for their part, were excellent – they were clapped off by the home supporters - and you can see why they’re doing so well. A shade over 2,000 Wrexham supporters heartily belting out choruses of “Wrexham Lager, feed me till I want no more”. Indeed, the level of the away support prompted an interesting comment from behind me: “what fantastic support considering they’re a league below Crawley!” Right, yes, Crawley “bigger” than Wrexham? Hmm.....

Maybe I was sitting amongst the less-regular punters who were taking advantage of the cheap tickets, but they didn’t seem that well-informed. Perhaps that’s a consequence of the “lost generation” of supporters who were inconvenienced by the two seasons at Gillingham and the small capacity at Withdean. It was always going to be a challenge for Brighton to recapture them but it’s been ideal in that the opening of Falmer corresponded with Championship football. The numbers are there but I wonder if there is a slight “culture gap” because of those who have been absent or who are new to the business of supporting a football club.

As for attendances, the new ground is certainly attracting away supporters: 2,029 from Wrexham yesterday; 2,400 (which must be the maximum for league games) from Southampton, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and West Ham; at least 1,400 from Doncaster, Blackpool, Peterborough, Hull and Coventry. Only Barnsley and Burnley have dipped under a thousand. Again, I guess the opportunity to watch your team at Brighton had been problematical for many supporters since the demise of the Goldstone.

And, of course, Falmer is an attraction in itself. If you’re travelling by road, you don’t have to bother with the town and you can come and go without sight of the sea (how totally improper). I wanted my cuppa on the front and was aware that a queuing system operates for the trains between Brighton and the station at Falmer. I turned up at 1240 and easily got a seat on the 1252 although the train was pretty busy. I was surprised how many people were around when I arrived. Add an hour and I’m sure you’d be okay, but don’t leave it too late. Besides, it’s worth a linger anyway.

I must say I was immediately impressed by the whole place – I’d not seen it since the day of our game at Lewes in January 2009, about five weeks after work had begun. It’s not one of those breeze-block soulless edifices on an industrial estate. The construction has style and lots of interest and the location – built on a sloping hillside - adds to the allure. Sit in the upper West Stand and you know where you are because you can see the Sussex Downs looming above the North Stand. There’s little things to dwell over: Bonny Cummins’ paintings in the Upper West concourse (as re-produced below) and – outside – an array of twenty-odd canvas banners representing former Brighton players (can you guess which two ex-Torquay United players are included?).

And how about this? At halfway time they did an interview with Norman Gall who played 440 league games for Brighton in the 1960s and 1970s. First he was asked about Brian Clough’s time at the Goldstone. He wouldn’t talk about it and gave the impression he had no time for the whole episode which came right at the end of his career. Then he was quizzed about his goalscoring record – four goals in all those league games - including, Norman was asked, a spectacular long-range header. “Well” he replied “it was at Torquay and....”

The paintings of Bonny Cummins, taken from www.bonnycummins.com/:



















www.bonnycummins.com/

Oatway and Nelson, sir! Oatway also being Brighton's current first team coach (read his column in The Argus every Saturday).

As for Binney, we chanced upon a chap on the Popular Side recently who claimed to have faced Fred whilst playing in goal for Doncaster Rovers. He gave us his name but no record can be found in terms of first-team action which is often the case with such encounters.

November 8, 1969 apparently. One appearance acknowledged up until November 14:

www.torquayfansforum.com/index.cgi?board=6070&action=display&thread=5020