Earlsmead Stadium
Ryman League Premier Division
Saturday, February 23, 2016
Ground No 183
WORLD renowned seat of learning for posh boys, Harrow School, was one of seven schools which met in 1963 to establish the Cambridge Rules, which in turn formed the basis of the Football Association's first ever rulebook.
Despite this, the Crispins, Tobys and Tarquins also play their own version of the game, known as footer, in which the future Tory politicians and entrepreneurial reality dodgers can handle the ball in certain situations, aren't permitted to play the ball if they're in front of it and must score by shooting between a pair of ticks.
The lack of straw boaters and the more down to earth demeanour of the crowd today suggested the posh lads were too busy with their own version of the beautiful game to come and support their local team, based just 2.3 miles away from the establishment where Winston Churchill, Robert Peel and Benedict Cumberbatch all learned Pythagoras's theorem and how to converse in Latin.
Had they joined us, they wouldn't have had any trouble finding anywhere to sit or stand - the Earlsmead Stadium, capacity 3,070, is the sort of ground that deserves higher attendances and the 161 of us present were rattling around a bit in there to be honest.
Home to the club since 1934, it sits in the middle of a well-populated Metroland residential development, the floodlights poking their heads above the rooftops as you stroll along Carlyon Avenue from the conveniently situated Northolt Park railway station.
While the station is handily placed, the ground doesn't have any nearby pubs for a pre-match pint, apparently. Being a diligent groundhopper I contacted the club for recommendations, only to discover the three nearby boozers have all closed down.
Still, lunch and a couple of pints of Greene King St Edmunds in the Victoria and Albert at Marylebone Station went down a treat and there are not one but two bars in the two-storey structure at the ground.
With the trains from Marylebone running only once an hour, we had ample time to pop into one of them for a pint of Young's (nice but a tad too cold, I felt) and catch the end of a pretty amazing Norwich v Liverpool game on the telly.
Entrance points to the ground are at either side of a shallow concrete terrace behind one of the goals. Immediately to the right are the loos and a tea bar (if only I'd noticed they sold slices of bread pudding before I'd bought a Double Decker) and beyond that a long covered standing area acts as a backdrop to the dug-outs.
The opposite end is also made up of shallow terracing, with an overflow car parking area behind.
To the left is a 1970s main stand with 350 seats, flanked by covered standing areas, the first of them made out of an old air raid shelter by all accounts.
My journey today took me directly past both the Olympic Stadium and Wembley Stadium but my more modest surroundings provided me with an entertaining game - a come-from-behind 2-1 win for the hosts against a side who hadn't lost since October - and a thoroughly enjoyable day out. And not a straw boater in sight.
Had they joined us, they wouldn't have had any trouble finding anywhere to sit or stand - the Earlsmead Stadium, capacity 3,070, is the sort of ground that deserves higher attendances and the 161 of us present were rattling around a bit in there to be honest.
Home to the club since 1934, it sits in the middle of a well-populated Metroland residential development, the floodlights poking their heads above the rooftops as you stroll along Carlyon Avenue from the conveniently situated Northolt Park railway station.
While the station is handily placed, the ground doesn't have any nearby pubs for a pre-match pint, apparently. Being a diligent groundhopper I contacted the club for recommendations, only to discover the three nearby boozers have all closed down.
Still, lunch and a couple of pints of Greene King St Edmunds in the Victoria and Albert at Marylebone Station went down a treat and there are not one but two bars in the two-storey structure at the ground.
With the trains from Marylebone running only once an hour, we had ample time to pop into one of them for a pint of Young's (nice but a tad too cold, I felt) and catch the end of a pretty amazing Norwich v Liverpool game on the telly.
Entrance points to the ground are at either side of a shallow concrete terrace behind one of the goals. Immediately to the right are the loos and a tea bar (if only I'd noticed they sold slices of bread pudding before I'd bought a Double Decker) and beyond that a long covered standing area acts as a backdrop to the dug-outs.
The opposite end is also made up of shallow terracing, with an overflow car parking area behind.
To the left is a 1970s main stand with 350 seats, flanked by covered standing areas, the first of them made out of an old air raid shelter by all accounts.
My journey today took me directly past both the Olympic Stadium and Wembley Stadium but my more modest surroundings provided me with an entertaining game - a come-from-behind 2-1 win for the hosts against a side who hadn't lost since October - and a thoroughly enjoyable day out. And not a straw boater in sight.
No comments:
Post a Comment