Four Weddings and a Penalty Shootout

[victor]

Another great report ,i don't know how you find the time to record and write up all these match details

[TheOstrich]

Thanks, folks.

I'm often accused of being a journalist at a game, Crommers, and have to explain I'm just keeping notes for my own records .... I used to write them up on a popular non-league footie forum but fell out of the habit last season with all the kerfuffle of the house move and the PC malware I got caught by which proved difficult to eradicate. Now it's just my ground-hopping mate in Doncaster and you guys who have to suffer my ramblings!

Yes, those crisps were quite nice, Kaz, more chunky than Walkers. Not a brand I recognise. Company based in Corby, Northamptonshire, according to the empty packet wot I've just unearthed out of the bin. I forgot to ditch it at the ground and inadvertently brought it home in me anorak pocket ....

[TheOstrich]

05/08 – a telephone call from delighted Master O.
“I’ve had this communication. I’ve got a tax refund of £2,000!”
“It’s a scam”
“What?”
“It’s a scam. For goodness sake, do not click on the link!”
“What link?”
“The link in the email …”
“It’s a letter.”
“Blimey. Text me a copy of it ….”

And it was right. After a bit of delving, it seems that HMC&E and the NHS between them have totally mucked up his tax deductions for 2016/17. So he’s made an on-line application for a repayment, and on the crest of an euphoric wave at the unexpected largesse, he booked a ticket for this afternoon’s Spurs v Juventus friendly at Wembley (2-0 apparently) ….. meanwhile, the Ostrich was also on the Wembley trail, but at entirely the other end of the spectrum! Today saw the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round games, the start of the competition that ends in the Cup Final next April or May.

After studying the fixtures, Ossie decided to return to one of his earlier haunts – the lure of the Shepton Whopper all-inclusive burger, and opposition in the shape of another South West Peninsula League club lured out of its habitual patch, proving too great. After reports of massive tailbacks on the M5 on both Friday and Saturday, and conscious there was a big festival coming to an end today at the Royal Bath and West Showground which I’d normally drive past heading up to Shepton Mallet, I again decided to stick to country roads and avoid any chance of holiday traffic mayhem. So out via Buckhorn Weston (where I rounded a bend and startled a roe deer in the road in front of me; it disappeared quickly over a hedge), Wincanton, Castle Cary, Evercreech and Doulting, probably putting an extra 10 miles on my journey, but stress-free. And despite towering, white cumulo-nimbus clouds, and certainly heavy rain showers moving slowly across the landscape, it was, for once a dry footballing day today.

Arriving at the ground in West Shepton, I was most impressed that the club officials on the gate remembered me from the Torpoint Athletic game a few weeks back, as did the lady in the kitchen who got the grill fired up early and the chips on for the said Whopper!

Today’s opponents, who duly rolled up on time in a 50-seater coach, were Tavistock AFC, based on the western edge of Dartmoor although I suspect the town is commuter-belt Plymouth, as there’s a rail link there from nearby Gunnislake. They’re nicknamed “The Lambs” and the club badge appears to feature a sheep in a sling, presumably being weighed – Tavistock is certainly an ancient market town but Wiki seems to indicate most of the wealth has traditionally come through cattle, cloth and tin / copper mining. Sir Francis Drake was born there, and the town also gets an honourable mention in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, befitting its Dartmoor location.

The football club are in fact the current SWPL Premier Division champions, and with that sort of pedigree, I wasn’t overly hopeful that Shepton Mallet would get a result today. But the home side started brightly and gave Tavistock a lot of problems early on by quickly raiding down the slope using the wings and getting behind the defence. They merited a goal and eventually got it after 27m in slightly fortuitous style when a shot by Hill hit the post and rebounded in off the goalkeeper.

All looking reasonably good at half-time, then, but I had a niggling feeling that one goal wasn’t going to be enough. In the event, it was nothing like enough. With the slope in their favour, Tavistock took control in the second half, equalised on 55m, quickly went ahead through a Sullivan shot, again in off the post, before clinching the game with a 69m penalty and a late close-range header.

So yet another (technically) higher grade Western League club beaten by one of these mysterious South West Peninsula League sides. In the next round, I see Tavistock now have a home tie against either Wessex League Shaftesbury or fellow SWPL rivals Exmouth Town, who fought out a 0-0 draw today. I’ll be following The Lambs’ FA Cup progress with interest ….

If you’re interested, there’s a short video clip of Tavistock’s first goal on the club’s Twitter feed (not the second goal as stated) and a couple of other photos from the game.
https://twitter.com/tafclambs

FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round: Shepton Mallet 1 Tavistock AFC 4
£4 admission, £1 programme, £4.80 for a Whopper and cuppa tea to wash it down with, £2 for an orange J2O from the clubhouse, £1 raffle ticket (no idea when it was drawn, mind you ), attendance 97.

[Ally]

Woop woop for Master O's tax refund.

Great read Ossie.

The raffle draw.

[Kaz]

I love the thought of an Ostrich roaming the countryside in search of the perfect whopper burger!

Another fun report Ossie, and great news for Master O!!

[cromwell]

Looks a nice little ground, that. Well done to master O for the back tax!

[TheOstrich]

05/08 – Firstly, a mid-week evening excursion to Meadow Lane, the home of Westbury United (who we last met about 10 days ago playing a pre-season friendly at Gillingham Town) to see the Whitehorsemen take on Malmesbury Victoria, down from the other end of Wiltshire. Westbury’s ground is in the middle of town, between the railway station and the shopping centre, and it’s easy enough to locate once you’ve negotiated your way through Westbury’s plethora of mini-roundabouts. A late scare when the referee indicated he wasn’t happy with the pitch, but it turned out to be nothing more than a large divot hole, which the groundsman rapidly filled with mud!

A fast and furious, end to end sort of game in which the final result, a 2-2 draw, was eminently fair. A late night drive home through country roads via The Deverills, then up and over White Sheet Hill which is fine at this time of year, but I wouldn’t want to do it in winter …..

So to Saturday, and “Cobblers!!” shrieked Ossie, bouncing up and down excitedly in the car. Yes, a trip today to the shoe capital of Somerset, home of the Clarke’s Shopping Village (and the elite Millfield School, of course), to see Street FC, the Cobblers, in action at The Tannery Ground. A cross-country run on byways rather than highways ensued, in order to avoid any potential problems with holiday traffic on the A303. I approached the southern edges of Street using a backroad from Keinton Mandeville and Kingweston, and finally the B3151 which displays some stunning glimpses of Glastonbury Tor in the distance. The football ground is brown-signposted off the B road, and lies down a private paved track running off Middle Brooks; drive slowly or you’ll miss the entrance …..

It’s an open, spacious venue, with a second full-sized pitch running at right angles to the main pitch behind the near goal. There’s a turnstile block, a long, white stuccoed building containing the changing rooms and clubhouse, and a separate building up the far end housing the “Kickers and Dribblers” pre-school nursery and playgroup . There are three separate stands down the clubhouse side, one with seats and two covered standing areas, and a further larger seated stand on the far side.

Mad panic before the start when a sudden gust of wind scattered the raffle tickets from the table by the turnstiles away to the heavens, but four of us raced outside the ground and managed to track down all the errant “paperwork”, including The Ostrich using his long neck and beak to retrieve a £5 note from under a van in the car park!

As for the game, Street, (who finished 2nd last season, but I understand hadn’t quite completed the work to get the ground grading up to scratch should promotion have been offered), could have won it by a country mile but squandered rather a lot of chances before declaring at 4-0. I timed the first goal at 1m 36s and it had become obvious even by then that the opposition defence was a bit fragile! A penalty and a further goal on the stroke of half-time made it 3-0 at the interval, and with a fourth goal on 51m, Street could really have gone on and doubled that. One was left feeling they needed to have been a bit more ruthless in front of goal – they had the vast majority of possession and territory, yet couldn’t convert their chances. Longwell Green rarely ventured out of their own half after the break, and limited themselves to the occasional 40-yarder just to keep the home keeper honest , but in the last 10 minutes, however, they did manage to force four corners, and missed a sitter from the last one which would have least given them a consolation goal.

Western League Premier Division: Street 4 Longwell Green Sports 0
£4 admission, £1 programme (excellent, had a long chat with the programme editor, who added considerably to my scant knowledge of Somerset football), £1 for a tray of chips at half-time, £2.30 for an orange J2O and salt ‘n vinegar crisps from the clubhouse, £1 raffle ticket (drawn at half-time, 897 won it, I had 890 ), attendance 91.

[Ally]

Great read Ossie!

Thank you!

[Kaz]

When I read "Cobblers!" and first mention of Street I thought Mrs O had shown a red card, and dragged you off shoe shopping!

Another brilliant read Os

[cromwell]

Great read Os! £1 for a tray of chips seems a bit of a bargain. Street! I passed through Street about 30 years since. It was memorable mainly for a man stumbling out of a pub and reeling into the road right in front of our car. The gentleman then collected himself and in a comedy I'm-not-drunk-me-ho-no walked in a dignified manner across the road before tripping over the far kerb and falling flat on his face.

The cider must be strong down there!