New Season 4W & PS

[cruiser2]

May we have a new thread for the new football season,
I enjoy the match and other reports from The Ostrich.
But the present on is now on page 27.
So don't hesitate, lets celibrate and star at number one

[TheOstrich]

LOL Cruiser, thank you very much for your kind remarks.

I usually start a new thread each season - but first I have to think up a suitable name for it!

A postscript - my 2017/18 season finished ignominiously on Saturday 26th June when Maiden Newton & Cattistock FC failed to turn up for a game at Gillingham Town Reserves - in theory the very last match in their old Stadium - but prior to that, I had a rip-roaring May schedule slumming it in the local leagues which saw no less than 56 goals in 10 matches and a memorable visit to the bucolic countryside location of Witchampton FC. If you’re a Luddite like me, and don’t possess a sat-nav, GPS positioning or any other modern technology, good luck finding this ground! I managed to get into the general area of the village, having travelled through parts of rural Dorset that I don’t think even Dorset knows exist, including one isolated and extremely heavily fortified farmhouse (I dread to think what was going on there) but then got confused by 3 successive fingerpost road signs, all declaring “Witchampton ¼”. The next sign I then passed, having travelled through no habitation, said “Witchampton 2” – pointing back in the direction I’d come from. When I did eventually find the village centre, such as it is, I had the devil’s own game orientating myself and set off south for the Witchampton Sports Ground rather than north. Having eventually realised my mistake, and reversed my course, with time ticking on, I had to resort to stopping and asking a passing walker. “You’ve just driven past it,” he said, “it’s 30 yards behind you.” The key to finding the ground is that you have to locate an impressive turreted gatehouse which leads to Crichel House, a rather splendid Grade 1 listed country house, and the rough drive to the Sports Ground is just beyond it on the same side of the road.

We are now in the "close season" and Ossie is planning next season's adventures. None of us is getting any younger, and I may be looking at more trips by train, as long as the ground is within a mile or so's walk of the station. There's more possible locations than you might think, ranging from Waldron Athletic (the back-streets of Torquay) to Dulwich Hamlet (sort of near Croydon). The FA have been heavily involved in a ham-fisted rejigging of all the "non-league" leagues of late, and having announced the new constitutions, many clubs are now busily filing appeals. In consequence, don't expect to see next season's fixture lists until mid-July. Meanwhile, the South West Rugby Union is all done and dusted, fixtures published online two days ago, and clubs told they've got a month to amicably switch dates if they want to (but don't push your luck). So I can say with reasonable certainty that my first rugby game of the season will be on Saturday 1st September, but whether this will be at Exeter University (following my failed attempt to get there last March ) or Maidenhead is still up for debate!