Bowers & Pitsea v Stansted

Len Salmon Stadium

Essex Senior League Premier Division

September 12, 2015

Ground No 173

 

WE are, as the Volvo radio ads suggest, a nation that loves double acts. Morecambe and Wise; Torvill and Dean; Ant and Dec.

Add Bowers and Pitsea to that list.

Pitsea, a concrete jungle of 1960s and 1970s buildings that blends seamlessly into the new town of Basildon, is home to an Essex Senior League ground well worth a visit. If you had to sum up the charm, character and feel of a ground towards the lower end of the pyramid grading system, you'd only have to visit the Len Salmon Stadium.

Situated right on the very outskirts of Pitsea, you arrive at the ground after driving through a sprawling residential estate.

It's impossible to imagine where there might be room for a ground as you pass through White Van Man heartland but suddenly there's an opening and a sign pointing to the ground. You head down a narrow lane then, boom! It opens up before you - sizeable car park, ground, clubhouse.

Entrance to the ground is close to the far corner flag. Behind the goal is a long, covered standing area - it feels more like walking into a large garden shed than into an area of a football ground. Even floor is largely wooden. Today was a warm, Indian summer's day with short sleeves the order of the day but you could imagine standing in there on a wet winter's afternoon, steaming Bovril in hand and feeling happily sheltered from the elements.

Immediately to the right of the turnstiles are loos, but to the left is the stuff that makes the Len Salmon Stadium such a gem.

There's split level terracing with a café behind (nice cuppa for a quid) and beyond that a VIP box with comfy seats and all; a 180-seat covered stand (the programme describes it as "well-appointed" - I  wouldn't disagree) and then some more terracing - an eclectic yet neat combination.

Behind the other goal is the Town End - this I know because of the banner attached to the brick wall behind the net - and some hard standing which extends along the far side too, with its backdrop of tall trees, but that is out of bounds to spectators.

Curiously for a team that plays in red and white there is an awful lot of sky blue in the ground (and a smattering of claret so presumably it's a nod to West Ham, in whose fanbase they are entrenched) but it certainly makes the place bright and appealing.

Today's match brought Bowers and Pitsea a 4-1 victory to keep them top of the Essex Senior League. The club have ambitions of climbing the pyramid and have the team and ground to match. I hope they manage it and I'll certainly be following them along the way.

Sporting Bengal Utd v Burnham Ramblers

Mile End Stadium

FA Vase 1st qualifying round

September 5, 2015

Ground No 172

 

WELCOME to the best kept sporting secret in London.

 

Sporting Bengal United's aims, objectives and achievements are admirable. Operated by the Bangladesh Football Association, the club was formed in 1996 to encourage Asian football in London.

They're currently holding their own in the Essex Senior League, having reached the League Cup final last year and they've even had players called up by the Bangladesh national team. But, blimey, they don't make it easy for anyone trying to find them on a matchday.

The Mile End Stadium is a not insignificant facility. Essentially an athletics stadium, it once attracted 27,000 fans to a Blur concert and as well as an adjoining sports centre with a pool, gym and more, there are also five-a-side pitches, a hockey pitch and tennis courts.

But once you get off the tube at Mile End you're on your own. No clues.

It's not much better when you get there either. The abundance of sports bags, towels and goggles being carried by the kids in the queue should have given it away - I'd ended up in a queue for an afternoon swim before being directed to the entrance round the other side.

Even on that side you wouldn't have known there was a match on had you not been able to see right through the wire mesh fencing that surrounds the stadium. No signs, no billboards plugging forthcoming matches, no mention at all of this being a home of the beautiful game.

Opened in the 1950s as the King George V Stadium, it's pretty unremarkable to be fair. There's one main stand with wooden bench seating, hard standing around the pitch/track and that's it. The sports centre runs immediately behind the far side/straight but the modern high rise structures of One Canada Square and its Canary Wharf neighbours behind the end/bend to the right of the stand forms a far more striking backdrop.

I'm not a fan of football at athletics stadiums due to the obvious distance from the pitch. And with no operational Tannoy, the tea hut being a couple of vending machines in the reception area and the small crowd looking rather lost in its surroundings, the Mile End Stadium doesn't help itself. There wasn't even a half-time draw.

It wasn't a great game either, although the hosts looked stronger and sharper as the game wore on and cancelled out an early goal by Ramblers (or Rumblers as the programme would have it) to force extra-time and a replay thanks to a regal finish from Prince William (not the Prince William of course - he would have been watching the egg chasers at Twickenham I'd imagine).

But the fans - especially the lads in front of the ground who yelled "shooooooooooooot" every time a Bengal player got the ball - gave plenty of encouragement to their team.

As a project, Sporting Bengal United is marvellous and long may it continue. But as a matchday experience for the floating fan? It's certainly different. It's not non-league football as we know it.

But the young and enthusiastic fan base made this matchday experience stand out too, and that's something that would be very welcome at other grounds of a comparable level. Let's hope they get the secret out in the open!





Prestwich Heys v Springhead

Adie Moran Park

Manchester League Premier Division

August 22, 2015

Ground No 171

THE new chairman of Prestwich Heys has some work to do if he is to tackle the big issues at the club.

Writing in the programme for today's big first versus second clash in the Manchester League, Neil Gilmore outlines two causes for concern he says should be dealt with "sooner rather than later". One is supporters, mainly the younger ones, going on to the pitch and the other fans bringing dogs with them to the game - both apparently no-nos in the North-West Counties League, to which Heys have genuine aspirations to be.

However as I glanced up from reading the programme before the match I spotted a couple of young kids having a kickabout in  one goal area and four pooches whose afternoon walkies involved a trip to the footy.

None were doing any harm, however, and it's all part of the charm of non-league football for me. Fortunately Mr Gilmore, a retired policeman, chose not to use the strong arm of the law on this occasion to enforce his vision of a dog-free ground and a pitch made out of bounds to anyone but players, officials team personnel.

The programme, incidentally, was well put together and interesting. It's entitled Touchliner, which was the nom de plume used by Alan Proctor Bell, a key figure in the formation of the club and later chairman, who wrote match reports for the local paper.

Another nice touch is that the ground - their home since Bury Council kicked them off their previous Grimshaw's base in 1991 - is named in honour of Adie Moran, who died in a tragic swimming pool accident in 2007 while chairman and manager of the club.



There's a good-sized car park outside the ground and access through the turnstile brings you in at one corner of the pitch.

To the right there is a new, small covered area, and there's hard standing all around the pitch with brick built dug-outs on the far side.

On the near side is a larger expanse of flat concrete standing. Behind the first buildings you come to are the changing rooms, then a homely bar/café with a couple of tellies, beneath one of them a decent collection of trophies, Nice cuppa for 70p too.

On the other side of the bar is a large, flat area which looks tailor-made to house a stand should the club achieve its ambition of climbing the pyramid.

There's no stand (at the moment anyway) but there were plenty of chairs stacked up in front of the changes, which meant you could just pick one up, plonk it where you like and sit down to watch the game.

I suggested to my brother-in-law - a West Ham fan - the Hammers fans would do something similar at the Olympic Stadium and let fans pick up a chair and find a spot on the athletics track to watch the action but he didn't seem all that amused.

The match ended goalless which ensured both sides extended their unbeaten records. Could this be the year that Heys return to the North-West Counties for the first time since 1986? Maybe. Dogs and kids beware.

Hampton & Richmond Borough v East Thurrock Utd

Beveree Stadium

Ryman Premier League

August 15, 2015

Ground No 170

 

A TEAM called Hampton. Nicknamed The Beavers. Oh I know it's schoolboy humour but a club boasting not one but two colloquialisms relating to rude parts of the body marked the Beveree Stadium out as a 'must do' ground.

 

Having got the obvious puns like "Is Dick Advocaat their manager?" and "Does Rod Fanni play for them?" out of the way, we jumped on the train from Wimbledon to the sleepy London suburb of Hampton for this Ryman Premier League clash.

 

When you step off the train at Hampton, it's almost impossible to believe there's a football ground just a few hundred yards down the road because, well, it's a bit quiet and a bit posh! There's even cheese and wine bar on the way, although we chose the more down to earth Worlds End pub where the burger and chips, pint of Surrey Nirvana and Premier League football on the telly went down a treat.

 

The ground is nestled off the main road and surrounded almost entirely by tall trees, as though they are trying to hide it from the rest of the world. I'm sure they're not and, in any case, it's certainly not something that deserves to be hidden away.

 

The Beveree Stadium is an eclectic mix of shapes and structures. Stands old and new sit side by side and face to face.

 

Entrance is through turnstiles acquired when the nearby Hurst Park racecourse closed in 1962 (Mansfield Town bought one of the grandstands) and immediately you get the feel that this a well-run club that likes to do things properly.

 

There's a club shop, a hut selling old programmes, a matchday programme outlet and a fund-raising stall.

 

To the right is Hammonds Bar (Doom Bar on draft - result) and next to it, behind the goal, are a sort of two-tier pavilion, some terracing and the elevated Alan Simpson Stand (named after the club president, better known as the bloke who wrote the scripts for Steptoe and Son with Ray Galton) - a modern, 100-seater structure.

 

Along the side - known as the School End - is a narrow strip of hard standing. There's a covered area looking out over the D of one penalty box and a video gantry, proudly bearing the club crest, level with the halfway line.

 

Behind the other goal are three steps of terracing, with a semi-permanent-looking roof giving a feel of walking through a tunnel as you head for the far side.

 

And the far side is where it's at as far as the Beveree Stadium is concerned.

 

In the middle is the main stand, modest but functional, and to one side is a large covered area of terracing. To the other is another covered stand, closed on the day of our visit. The 'mix and match' feel of 'The Bev' all adds to its charm, but this stand sticks out like a sore thumb - its garish green seats in marked contrast to anything else in the ground.

 

It's said that The Beavers struggle to get big crowds because of its close proximity to Twickenham, marking it out as heartland of the game played by men with odd-shaped balls. But the 303 present for this match all seemed to enjoy themselves, especially as the home side came from behind to win 2-1 and notch their first win of the season.

 

I went home happy too - it was a decent match at a delightful ground.

 

 

 



Brentwood Town v Harlow Town

Brentwood Arena

Pre-season friendly

August 1, 2015

Ground No 169

BRENTWOOD. Present or erstwhile home of Pixie Lott, Frank Bruno, Steve Davis, Frank Lampard, Jodie Marsh and Chantelle Houghton.

 

It's also home of the less famous Brentwood Town FC, although football in the town has a long history - with arguably more to be proud of than at least two of the above.

 

For example the original club bearing the town's name went all the way to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1886 where they lost to eventual winners Blackburn Rovers.

 

More recently, in the 1970s, their star striker was none other than England legend Jimmy Greaves, though he was unable to keep up his record of scoring on his debut as he had done for Chelsea, AC Milan, Spurs and West Ham.

 

All of that was long before the current Brentwood Town, formed in 1954, moved to their current home in the shadow of the town's leisure centre.

 

They went there in 1993 after a spell of ground-sharing with East Thurrock having been based at Larkin's Playing Field before that and are now looking forward to their first season of Ryman League Premier Division football.

 

Today's opponents were Harlow who finished 18 points above Brentwood last season but, while their hosts went up, they missed out in the play-offs. Football can be a cruel mistress.

 

The stadium lies within the grounds of the Brentwood Centre leisure hub so it's easy to find and there are plenty of parking spaces right outside.

 

Entry is via turnstiles in the corner of the ground. To the left is a spacious covered standing area with shallow terracing behind the goal while to the right you come to a couple of portable buildings (I thought one of them may have been a tea hut but on peering in through the open door I found it contained a lawnmower, the machine they use to mark out the pitch and some tools) and then the main stand.

 

The stand is a wooden structure with around 150 seats with the changing rooms and a homely bar/tea bar which served a lovely cuppa for a quid and offered a good view of the pitch which would come in handy on those cold winter evenings.

 

That's pretty much it as far as the ground goes, with strips of hard standing around the rest of the pitch - ringed by a wooden fence - and two brick-built dug-outs and a video gantry on the other.

 

It's not the most charismatic of grounds, but it certainly does the job. And if I was being critical I could say it doesn't look like a great deal has been done to it since it opened in 1993.

 

But I don't want to do them down. Under the management of former Wimbledon and Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth they're on a roll  and it would be nice to think they can get some decent-sized crowds in next season to get the place rocking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crook Town v Celtic Nation

Sir Tom Cowie Millfield

Northern League Division One

April 15, 2015

Ground No 168

IT is said that, with the conga having not yet made the transition from traditional Cuban carnival dance to Western party celebration, Crook fans danced the Charleston during a cup win at St Albans in 1927.

It's safe to say there was little chance of any outbreaks of terrace dancing tonight.

And not just because the game - between two already relegated teams - ended 0-0. It was Crook's first clean sheet of the season, though, so that was at least something to celebrate.

It's because Crook, without a doubt one of the great clubs of grassroots football, are in the doldrums these days.

Five times winners of the FA Amateur Cup, they've also played in front of 100,000 crowds on a tour to India, entertained a Manchester City team including Franny Lee, Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee to mark the switching on of their new floodlights and from 1901-1902 were able to call upon the talents of Jack Greenwell who went on to play for and manage Barcelona.

These days Crook are facing up to Northern League Division Two football. The highest attendance of the season at a ground that once attracted around 20,000 fans (they stopped counting after a while by all accounts) has been 186 and they've leaked six goals or more at home on no fewer than seven times.

But this is a ground that positively screams its past glories and history at you. Positioned at the side of the A689 (which makes it easy peasy to find) it looks imposing as you arrive.

After crossing the road from the car park and walking through the turnstiles, you walk up to the top of a row of terracing behind the goal.

And there it unfolds in front of you, a ground that once regularly attracted 10,000 fans for cup games and, according to one report I read, never failed to entice fewer than 4,000 through the gates throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

To the right and in front of you are steep grass banks and it doesn't take much to imagine those areas packed solid with cap-wearing supporters of a bygone age, waving their rattles, cheering on their team - a fug of Woodbines smoke wafting overhead.

Immediately to the left is a covered area of terracing, its roof still bearing the scars of thumping clearances from defenders of days gone by, among them Frank Clark who made his own small alteration to it while playing for the Black and Ambers in the 1960s.

Further on is the main stand, a delightful old-style, 500-seat structure built in 1925. Apparently it was condemned in the late 1980s and cordoned off to spectators but thankfully its been brought back to life since.
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Back in 1898 the club forked out £625 to buy the land formerly occupied by a mill and set about building their new ground. That equates to around £70,000 in today's money - and it was cash well spent.

A couple of years ago 90% of residents polled said they were in favour of a plan to knock the place down, relocate the club to a new ground and build a shop and a petrol station on the land.

This is a gem of a ground and thankfully it all seems to have gone a bit quiet on that front.

You could almost hear the ghosts of the thousands who once packed Millfield's terraces roar their disapproval at such a thought.