Darlington v Boston Utd

Blackwell Meadows

National League North

April 7, 2018

Ground No 206

"It is starting to look a lot more like a football ground," Darlington director John Tempest told the Northern Echo after Blackwell Meadows' extended main stand was opened a few weeks earlier.

It's true, it does. But right now Blackwell Meadows still looks very much like a rugby ground too, and a long way from being the home of a Football League club - which of course is what the Quakers aspire to be once more.

The Quakers' ride has been a rocky one in recent years. Moved out of their homely and perfectly adequate Feethams ground by a former safecracker chairman who was, let's say, unrealistic, they found themselves plonked in a new 25,500-capacity stadium that usually attracted crowds of less than a tenth of that and as a result there was more atmosphere on the moon than there was there on matchday.

Financial problems resulted in them being relegated all the way down to the Northern League and groundsharing with Bishop Auckland before a long-awaited upturn in fortunes saw them steamroller through the leagues and back 'home' to Darlington in December 2016.

So the fact that Blackwell Meadows looks like a rugby ground is no surprise because up until just over a year earlier, that's exactly what it was.

It's still home to Darlington RUFC who moved there in 1994, of course, and it's still very much a work in progress as far as the round ball code is concerned and to come this far is to be applauded rather than derided.

The rugby club branding is more predominant and on arrival before you've shelled out a fiver to park your car (I always find this a bit steep for an out-of-town location) you're met with is the big brick-built pavilion/clubhouse.

Once inside it's this building that screams 'oval balls' at you, with it's clock tower, first floor balcony and windows from the clubhouse overlooking the pitch. It couldn't be more 'rugby' if it sprinkled chilli power on your nether regions and challenged you to drink a barrel of beer without taking a breath.

In front of the adjoining changing rooms are three rows of seats - the main seated area before the soccer lads moved in - although some of those seats are as much use as a soft drink in a rugby clubhouse due to the placement of one of the big Perspex dug-outs.

Part-way along the opposite side is the new main stand, now housing just under 600 seats. It currently runs around two thirds of the length of the pitch, but it's a fair bet it'll be extended further to reach the other corner in due course.

Behind the goal at the west end is a flat standing area for away fans and a small out-of-bounds grass bank although there are plans to put up terracing.

Opposite, however, is a 1,000-capacity covered standing area, just like the Tin Shed at Feethams where the Qaukers die-hards would stand, cheer and sign derogatory things about Hartlepool United. In fact some of the steelwork used to make the structure was rescued from the old ground when the bulldozers moved in.

Those halcyon days seem a lifetime ago but bit by bit, Darlo are getting there. I'll drink to that in the rugby club.

Epsom and Ewell v Camberley

HIGH ROAD (HOME OF CHIPSTEAD FC)

COMBINED COUNTIES LEAGUE, PREMIER DIVISION

MARCH 10, 2018

GROUND NO 205

AT the tail end of the 19th century future Lord Mayor of London Horace Brooks Marshall, the first Baron Marshall of Chipstead, would wander around his vast Shadben Park Farm estate, breathe in the fresh Surrey air and no doubt reflect on the enormous success of his publishing and distribution business.

These days part of that land is occupied by the High Road football ground, home to both Chipstead FC and, since 2011, Epson and Ewell, today's hosts.

Lord Marshall was obviously a smart chap, and were he alive today he probably wouldn't have made such a pig's ear of getting into the place as I did.

First of all I turned into what it would seem was the wrong car park then after having reversed in to a space I noticed a sign telling me to 'park facing fence' and to cap it all I entered the ground through what I assumed to be the main entrance but was in fact simply a gate that happened to be open. No wonder the lad in the tea bar looked confused when I tried to give him my admission money. Nice cuppa for a quid, mind.

Having found the correct entrance - albeit from the wrong side - and being thanked for my honesty, I paid up and bought my souvenir club centenary programme.

The programme describes a visit to Wembley to play Hoddesdon Town, a Surrey Senior Cup final against Dulwich Hamlet in front of 6,000 spectators and a push for the London League title.

It also carries a report from the club's first ever game, back in March 1918, when it was known as Epson Juniors (the Ewell bit was added in 1960 in an attempt to attract support from all across the borough).

An excellent feature on the club's history reveals that it hasn't all been rosy since. Epsom and Ewell currently play in neither Epson nor Ewell, which is a shame, and they've been groundsharing since 1993, having had to sell their former West Street ground for housing to raise some readies.

It also reveals, however, that the club have revealed a 'vision' to the council to build a new ground at the Hook Road Arena - so maybe soon they'll have somewhere of their own to call home.

Meanwhile they operate from Chisptead FC's base, a modest ground not too far from their home borough.

The first thing I noticed after walking through the (wrong) entrance was that the pitch rises a fair bit around the centre circle. I know some people ask for their ashes to be scattered on the centre circle - maybe this one is particularly popular?

Hard standing surrounds the pitch, with small covered areas at either end, and there's also a 150-seater stand (which could count former England captain and Spurs manager Gerry Francis as one of its occupants today - his son was playing for Camberley) next to the snack bar and another covered area on one side.

This stand, added in 2004 to replace an old wooden structure, bears a sign which reads Chipstead Football Club Memorial Stand. That kind of reads like it's a memorial to Chipstead FC but fortunately that's still alive and kicking.

It must be hard for Epsom and Ewell to consider this home, but hopefully it won't be long until they have a ground of their own again and they can look forward to the next 100 years with optimism.

Carshalton Atletic v Sittingbourne

War Memorial Sports Ground

Bostik League South 

January 6, 2018

Ground No 202

THIS might be the eighth tier of English football but Carshalton Athletic are cutting edge trailblazers, and make no mistake.

There's the 4G pitch, the bold plans for a £12m revamp of the ground a few years ago which were scuppered by NIMBYs and even the availability of a wonderfully tasty latte at the tea bar.

And then - how about this - there's also the e-programme. Yep, a programme that's available to read on your phone at the match after connecting to the free stadium Wi-Fi, and to download, print out and add to your collection when you get home if (like me) you feel cheated an empty if you go to game and don't get a programme.

The first about this great leap into the cyber-unknown was after I heard parted with my tenner to get in. I queried whether the programmes were available inside since none were immediately visible and we'd arrived in plenty of time.

"No," said the turnstile operator, "you get them on your phone." Now that was something of a curveball. I'd never heard of such a thing! I didn't know whether to be impressed, horrified or somewhere in between.

Neither of the people at the turnstile was entirely sure how to actually access said e-programme but a tweet to the club's official Twitter feed provided me with a link to the website quicker than you could say "IP address unknown".

I'll be honest, at a stadium called the War Memorial Sports Ground, I'd expected to see a stone obelisk honouring those who fell in combat, or maybe pictures of renowned fighter pilots on the clubhouse walls.

Turns out, however, there's neither, although the ground was named in memory of  club players and officials who died in the First World War, which ended just three years before Athletic took up residence there.

Had the redevelopment, planned in the early 2000s, gone ahead, the War Memorial Sports Ground would look very different to how it does today. Bad news for the club, but better news if you like visiting grounds with a bit of character.

Behind each goal is an area of hard standing. The end nearest the entrance is fully covered while the opposite looks as though it was at one time, but there's now just a roof over the section behind the goal. 

The sheet metalwork behind each bears more than a few battlescars of banging from enthusiastic fans as they chant for their team on a matchday!

The tea bar with the nice latte is immediately on your left as you enter, and then you come to the clubhouse. Get there early enough and you can bag yourself a seat at the window with an excellent view of the pitch as you sup your pint. 

On the other side of the halfway line is the main stand - a neat and sturdy structure with 240 seats. This fella would be wise to keep his wits about him, though... the one him replaced burnt down along with the earlier clubhouse 18 years ago and the previous permanent structure that stood there was blown down by strong winds.

At many grounds the centrepiece is its main seated structure, but here that honour goes to the imposing covered terrace than runs the full length of the sloping pitch on the other side of the ground.

Stand on these majestic terraces and you could be at a lower division League game in the 1980s.

Close your eyes and you can imagine the smell of fags, stale beer and BO in the days when  terraces like these would be jam-packed full of fans enjoying their weekly football fix and when the thought of getting a match programme on your phone was steak and kidney pie in the sky.

Redcar Town v Yarm & Eaglescliffe

Mo Mowlam Memorial Park

North Riding League

November 18, 2017

Ground No 201

REDCAR has taken a bit of a kicking over the last few years.

The closure of the steelworks, which produced the steel used to build Sydney Harbour Bridge, directly cost over 2,000 people their jobs and led to more than 800 picking up their P45s.

Teesside is a proud area and Redcar an unpretentious and welcoming seaside town which deserves better.

A reminder of the town's steelmaking past can be seen from the home of Redcar Town, the heavy machinery and buildings from the disused plant peering eerily into the ground from across the trunk road.

Teessiders are a hardly lot, though. And while the steelworks across the road have been abandoned and closed, Redcar Town are a club on the up.

When I lived on Teesside two years earlier, Mo Mowlam Park was little more than another pitch in some playing fields,

Now it's fenced off, a turnstile block is in place and there's a large pavilion running along one side of the ground, containing a spacious café serving hot drinks, Town scarves and bits and bobs and a gteat selection of hot food,

Town play in the new North Riding League - the successor to the Teesside League - at the very bottom of the pyramid but I'd be staggered not to see this go-ahead club in the Northern League in a few years.

There's a good-sized car park, and enough room on either side of the pitch to put up a stand or two. Then once some hard standing is put down, hey presto, you've got an NL ground.

A  nice touch too is that the ground is named after Redcar's popular and inspirational former MP Mo Mowlam. If this club does climb further up the pyramid into the NL, they'll hopefully have her name spelt correctly on the sign outside by then...

Worcester Park v Bagshot

Skinners Field

Combined Counties League Division One

November 4, 2017

Ground No 200

WHENEVER I think of Worcester Park, my mind races back to my very first job - in a posh West London store - and a particularly dopey casual sales assistant brought in to help with the Christmas rush.

The store offered a free delivery service throughout the London area and said sales assistant - who probably stood to inherit half of Hampshire on completion of his Oxbridge degree in applied bionics but had absolutely no common sense - caused massive panic in the grocery department by marking a huge package to loaded onto the van for free delivery to Worcester. Apparently he hadn't heard of Worcester and thought it was the same as Worcester Park.

Anyway fast forward 30-odd years and I find myself in Worcester Park to visit my 200th football ground.

I'd seen it Skinners Field from the window of a train as it stopped at Worcester Park railway station, slap bang next to the ground, although I decided to drive on this occasion.

The way in isn't obvious (we later found a big Worcester Park FC sign hiding behind a shrub on the other side of the entrance) and there's no on site parking so there's no car park entrance to offer a clue but the ground is hemmed in by roads, the railway and a stream so it doesn't take too much to work out where it could be.

After crossing a small bridge over the stream, you find yourself at the back of a good sized bar/clubhouse and café (two teas and a bag of Maltesers for £1.80 and a great selection of cooked food) - head to the right and you're on your way in.

If you had to envision a ground at the bottom level of the pyramid, you'd probably come up with an image of Skinners Field.

Basic, functional, no floodlights and just a tad quirky, it's unlikely to change and despite being flying high in the league the club have already been told to forget about promotion because their ground doesn't meet the required standards. In fact more than that - they've been told they will be relegated out of the league regardless if where they finish!

Spectators are only permitted on one side of the ground and behind one goal.

A flat hard hard-standing area on the side that's not out of bounds leads to the ground's only stand - a small structure with three shallow steps, leaning against the changing rooms. Built into it are the dugouts.

Beyond that the pitch is just roped off rather than fenced off and the paving slabs through a grassed area towards a wooden building at the back make you feel like you're walking through someone's back garden to the shed rather than strolling along the perimeter of a football pitch.

Behind the goal is the railway line and some cricket nets while on the far side the pitch blends seamlessly into the cricket pitch used during the summer (there's also a bowling green and tennis courts in this  multi-sport facility).

Behind the remaining end is a hard standing area, picnic tables and all, in front of the bar/clubhouse and snack bar.

There's also a sturdy brick wall and a flood gate, complete with strict orders to keep it closed at all times. This is on account of the fact that the Environment Agency were rather too keen to make the pitch a flood plain.

Thankfully a new drainage system, a wall and a gate that must never be opened put an end to those plans.