Not many people would disagree with you, Cruiser!!
04/08 – Ossie’s pre-season friendly games were a rather uninspiring lot. Firstly a visit on 7th July to the opening of local club Gillingham Town’s brand new ground (stadium would be pushing it) which is about an extra ¼ mile’s walk out of town, down a dusty track running at the side of the old ground.
The club buildings are a collection of converted containers and prefabricated structures, comprising a smallish bar with a small widescreen (patio area behind it), a hatchery serving hot and cold drinks and crisps, a toilet block and a changing room block. For this game, the furniture was enhanced by a further collection of patio tables and trestles for the evening’s cider festival, a Dextra Group PLC curtainsider acting as a stage for the live music (indeed, watching local country-rockers “Mustang Sally” warming up was marginally more entertaining than the football at one point
) and a number of straw bales, one of which the bird perched on for a period in the first half.
There’s currently no cover. However, an area has been cleared behind one goal and I understand the intention is that the small pre-fabricated covered stand will be lifted from the old ground and transported down to its new location. A local farmer will be doing this; however, the harvest started early in the light of the weather conditions, so the move is on hold as and until the farmer can get around to it. There’s also no floodlighting, and whilst I guess this is an ambition, I suspect it won’t be anytime soon. The goal at one end of the pitch backs onto land owned by Windy Ridge Farm, and various speculative housing developers have eyes on it, so it may be a race to get floodlighting in before the NIMBYs arrive. Even though the new ground is in a splendidly rural location with some glorious views, especially from the far side of the pitch back towards the town, things may look very different in 5-10 years’ time, given the amount of new development slated for the town.
There was a formal communal ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:00.
I had thought about taking part in this, but in the event, the main participants seemed to be a horde of littlies accompanied by various local town dignitaries and politicians. Given the presence of a photographer, I decided I didn’t want my carefully-nurtured street cred completely trashed sometime in the future by pics of me posing with Conservative councillors surfacing on social media
, so I kept firmly pitchside!
Another slightly off-putting thing was a camera drone flying – presumably with permission, because I think technically it’s illegal to fly them at sporting events – over the pitch and stadium before and during the game.
Nevertheless, if you pan down to July 8th, there’s rather a good video montage:
https://twitter.com/gilltownfcThe game itself was entirely what you would expect on the first Saturday in July, in blisteringly hot conditions – a pretty pedestrian affair, in which the home team looked marginally the better side and the 2-0 scoreline was about right, even if the last of the two easily-converted goals didn’t arrive until stoppage time.
Next up, a week later, it was too hot to contemplate anything adventurous, so it was back to Gillingham Town for the friendly against New Forest club Bashley. 0-1 and an entirely forgettable affair.
July 21st saw the Ostrich taking advantage of the last Saturday before the rail strikes began with a trip to the Camrose ground in Basingstoke, which will probably be in its last season, the place having been bought out for redevelopment, with Basingstoke FC moving to new facilities in Winklebury.
Although it’s a 1 ¾ miles hike from the station, there is a convenient bus service, no.1 to Brighton Hill, which runs from outside the station right past the ground on a 10-12 minute frequency. The club’s car park separates the large and imposing clubhouse from the stadium itself; the turnstiles, behind one goal, lead you to the Club Shop, the Burger Bar, and round to a small area of covered standing and the iconic elevated main stand, which is accessed up a flight of steel stairs, all rather peeling paint and faded glory.
Again, a fairly turgid game which higher level Maidenhead United won 0-2, and possibly more interesting than the game was the sight of a number of Red Kites lazily spiralling above the ground, riding the thermals. Very distinctive birds of prey with prominently forked tails – you don’t get they in Daarzet!
Finally on July 28th, a trip to another ground under threat of redevelopment, this time Wimborne Town, who welcomed Isthmian League side Worthing (“The Mackerelmen”) for the first ever game between the two clubs, and both teams contributed to a highly entertaining 4-4 draw. The highlight was probably a huge wind-assisted punt upfield by the home goalkeeper which bounced spectacularly on the hard pitch, soaring up and over the stranded Worthing keeper – only to hit the wretched crossbar
and ricochet back into play from where it was cleared …
……………………..
So to yesterday, and my first visit to Hardenhuish Park in Chippenham. I drove up on the A350, mercifully free of holiday traffic, and approached the ground down the Bristol Road from the roundabout on the bypass. I was not surprised to see there’s been little progress with the long-running bypass widening scheme since I was last up this way in March
, and it’s still a mandatory 40 mph and Traffic Cone Central, as it has been for the last 15 months or so. The ground itself is about ½ mile towards the town centre, and there’s a rough car-park off the road on the left which will take around 40 cars, and a smaller upper car-park dedicated to the football club and accessed up the track to the Sports Centre which has 20 spaces. Totally inadequate, and I was told both are quickly filled for Chippenham Town games, so most folk resort to parking along the length of the main road.
There’s an old-fashioned stand with low-racked bucket seats (the clubhouse / bar is accessed from the rear and is upstairs), and covered standing on the far side and behind one goal. Separate buildings house a VIP Suite, the tea hut, a Control Room or two, and the club shop.
Before the football game, I wandered into the adjacent cricket ground where Beckington were batting against Chippenham 2nds, and 37-0 on my arrival – I spent a pleasant 40 minutes or so watching 7 overs, in which they progressed steadily to 58-2. It’s an attractive location, with a balconied clubhouse and a nifty electronic scoreboard on the far side of the ground. Needless to say, a very hard and fast pitch, with one of the home bowlers incurring what looked like a groin strain mid-delivery, and hobbling off the field.
Back at the football ground, the Ostrich’s target today was Chippenham Park FC who are said to be a separate club but are
de facto Chippenham Town’s reserve side. The programme noted Chippenham Park “has seen a huge overhaul of club philosophy, management and playing staff”, which basically meant they sacked pretty much all of last year’s squad and promoted 18 youngsters from their “Academy” side
. The disgruntled ex-players have moved en masse to neighbouring Corsham FC, in the same league, and the upcoming fixture between the two teams in a couple of weeks’ time promises to be a bit tasty!
Their opponents today, Warminster, were reprieved by appeal from relegation to Step 7 during the summer (one of very few appeals that were successful), and look like they might well have another struggle on their hands this season, judging by today’s rather disjointed performance. They had their chances, were unlucky on occasions (with one direct free kick cannoning back off the post), and the Chippenham keeper made some excellent saves when he needed to, especially in the last 10 minutes or so. For the home team, Enock Luc, playing as an attacking half-back down the right, had quite an exceptional match, not only getting behind the defence with ease and firing in dangerous crosses, but also sprinting back to intercept and clear a goal-bound effort from Wright just before it crossed the line. Not Warminster’s day! And also a good performance by referee Lewis Mansfield King, who had to supervise a niggly and sometimes peevish match that resulted in numerous fouls and 4 bookings. That said, all in all, it was a pretty run of the mill affair to get Ossie’s season underway …....
Western League Division 1 (Step 6): Chippenham Park 1 Warminster Town 0
Admission: £3 oldie’s concession, programme £1.
Refreshments: burger from the teahut £3, half-time chips £2 (rather bland; they appeared to have had only the briefest acquaintance with the fat fryer) and a can of Pepsi and crisps in the clubhouse £1.70. Sugary J2O’s are on the banned list until the bird has undergone his annual diabetic review ….
Attendance: 48
. Metropolitan Police FC, for example, were moved from a London-based league to a south-western league, meaning they’ve suddenly got to cope with unheard of trips to places like Taunton and Merthyr Tydfil. Their appeal was peremptorily dismissed, leading to loud complaints on social media that the Tribunal had supressed parts of their evidence, and threats of a High Court injunction followed. As one wag intimated: “Metropolitan Police, and Failure to Disclose Evidence? Well that’s the biter bit!”. 
This totally unexpected resignation prompted the FA to embark on an emergency exercise moving different teams around different leagues to fill the gap, the knock-on effect being felt as far away as Essex! So even more teams then became extremely cross 
I had read up the instructions but watched carefully what the other punters were doing. It seems you just tap in once at the start of your journey, that’s it. I hope I’ve done it right …… 
