Tilbury v Dereham Town

Chadfields

Ryman League, North Division

September 26, 2015

Ground No 174

IF it hadn't been for Adolf Hitler, Leyton Orient and the demise of greyhound racing in Tilbury, I would never have spent a hot Saturday afternoon in the dying embers of summer soaking up rays on the Chadfields terraces.

Tilbury, you see, used to play next door on Orient Field - so called because the bloke who owned it was an O's director. During the Second World War the club were kicked out so the ground could be used as an anti-aircraft battery to defend the nearby docks from Hitler's Luftwaffe.

When hostilities ceased they were allowed back into their former home... but only on the proviso that they became Orient's nursery club. Blow that for a game of soldiers, or something similar, they replied and moved into the dog track next door which had fallen into disrepair.

With the cloth cap and betting slip brigade left to find somewhere else to try and win some beer money, Chadfields was turned into a football ground and remains a fitting venue for Ryman League action.

Almost too good in fact. With its concrete terraces, covered standing areas and two seated grandstands, Chadfields positively screams out for far more fans that the hardy 63 - including a noisy and enthusiastic bunch from Dereham - today.

The turnstiles are on the right as you enter the car park, just before the clubhouse, so you enter at one corner of the ground.

Catching your eye first, after collecting your free programme, is the distinctive main stand. Straddling the halfway line, it houses the boardroom and changing rooms underneath but there's nothing in front of it except hard standing - it's almost as if they've forgotten to add a paddock area of terracing in front it.

There doesn't appear to be a clear view of the action from the seats, either. Instead, anyone sitting there has to peer through the nine what appear to be window frames. In fact viewed from the other side, the stand looks like a small Butlins chalet block. When the teams came out I half expected them to be accompanied by redcoats ready to line them up for a knobbly knees competition.

I'm not sure what the view would be like from the seats but it's certainly the sort of unique stand that adds character to a non-league ground.

There's hard standing on either side of the structure and a section of missing fence exposed some disused and bricked up turnstile buildings, suggesting that the previous entrance to the ground was between houses on the estate that backs on to it.

On the opposite side is another, more conventional, brick-built stand with three rows of bucket seats. It's flanked by covered terracing, one section of which was home to a group of leather-lunged Dockers die-hards who were in vociferous form throughout the game.

Behind each goal is concrete terracing although anyone standing there has to watch through the enormous panels of wire mesh put up to prevent wayward shooting resulting in lost balls. "It's like being at school when you used to watch the girls play netball," remarked one visiting fan, thus letting slip the reason his exam grades weren't up to scratch.

Behind one goal is the clubhouse and function suite. I'd seen this described as looking "unwelcoming" and with its stark, no-frills exterior and black metal shutters, it didn't do much to offer a better description for itself.

More than welcoming, however, was the tea bar next to it and my cuppa went down a treat.