Monday, February 25, 2008
Revisited: Redbridge
Sunday, July 25th, 2004
Redbridge 1 Ipswich Town Reserves 0
Friendly
Oakside, Redbridge, Greater London
Redbridge, until they renamed themselves in the summer of 2004, had been known as Ford United since their formation in 1959 following the merger of the Dagenham based Ford Sports and Briggs Sports football clubs. As the former name suggests the roots of the club lie in the motor industry and the name change was made in an effort to help identify the club more with the area in which they play rather than the Ford Motor Company down the road at Dagenham who broke their ties with the area a couple of years back. Their nickname “The Motormen” is the one remaining link with their automotive past.
The last car was produced at the huge Dagenham plant in 2002, a Fiesta as it happens, after more than 70 years of operation as the American giant’s largest European manufacturing plant. I recall being suitable impressed by a school trip there in the Seventies, impressed enough during that day out to later own a number of Mark I and Mark II Cortina’s after I had passed my driving test.
There is uncovered terracing behind each goal with the northern end offering the best view of the playing area and the most convenient positioned as it is just inside the turnstiles and adjacent to the tea bar. Flanked by a golf course to the north and parkland to the south and east only the occasional tube rumbling by reminds you that you are inside the M25.
posted by chevblue at 9:19 pm 0 comments
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Bury Town 1 Maldon Town 1
Ryman League Division One North
Ram Meadow, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk
This is not the first time I’ve reported on a trip to Bury Town’s Ram Meadow ground but it is the first time I’ve included pictures of any consequence. I hope you approve.
I believe my first ever visit there was back in June 1978 when Ipswich Town, fresh from a 1-0 win over Arsenal in the FA Cup Final the previous month, were the visitors for a testimonial game which Bobby Robson’s men won 5-0 in front of 3,500 fans.
Ram Meadow at that time had been Bury Town’s home for just a year. The previous summer St Edmundsbury Council decided to slice up Bury’s old Kings Road ground (in the centre of the town) by building a dual carriage way down one touchline and covering over the rest of the pitch with concrete and tarmac for a car park. A multi-storey car park, cinema, DIY store and several fast food outlets have since further augmented the beauty of site.
The football club were awarded £15,000 in compensation and despatched to a flood plain in the shadows of the Silverspoon sugar refinery at the north eastern edge of the town centre were they’ve been ever since. Shunned by the council and with crowd’s that don’t match the (relative) success the club has achieved it’s a minor miracle that the club has survived at all enduring a particularly rocky spell financially during the mid-1990’s.
Taking its name from an old pub named the Ram that used to stand on the site, Ram Meadow has a capacity of 3,500 with covered accommodation for 1,500 spectators that includes 300 seats. Entrance to the ground is through turnstiles behind the southern goal which are accessed from one of the town’s main car parks. To the left as you enter is the club shop, followed by the club house with covered standing area in front and the main stand whose peculiarly angled roof provides little in the way of cover when the rain drives in from the east (here speaks the voice of experience).
On the opposite touchline is a smaller stand that boasts fewer seats but much better cover. There are covered terrace areas too, one behind each goal, and with the perimeter now guarded by a smart new aluminium fence, which is backed by a large number of trees to the north and east the overall effect is quite pleasing. This is a nice spot to watch football.
Town picked up a useful point today as they look to build on a 17th place finish in the Ryman North last season, there first at this level after 10 seasons in the Ridgeons (Eastern Couties) League.
Vital statistics: Admission 6 pounds, programme 1 pound 20 pence, attendance 310.
Match Number: 1419
And finally, in what could become a regular feature on this blog, Extreme Groundhopping goes multimedia with a bit of footage from this afternoons game featuring the voices of two doddery old farts and a banana skin (not the official FA Cup one obviously)...
posted by chevblue at 10:28 pm 0 comments
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Revisited: Harwich & Parkeston
Saturday, September 4th, 2004
Harwich & Parkeston 3 Stansted 2
FA Cup Preliminary Round
The Royal Oak, Dovercourt, Essex
My visit to Harwich & Parkeston some four years ago now was one of my first to a non-league outfit after deciding to make more of an effort to watch local sides in action, starting by working my way around the Ridgeons (Eastern Counties) League. The pictures of the Shrimper’s Royal Oak ground that you see here first appeared on David Bauckham’s excellent Pyramid Passion and it was that site, the cream at the top of non-league url’s, that inspired me to record my exploits on the blog you are reading now - Extreme Groundhopping.
The Royal Oak is actually in Dovercourt, which neighbours the larger and better known Harwich although the two are joined at the hip, as it were, and together with Parkeston (the quay at Parkeston is now better known as the Port of Harwich) the three have physically merged over the years to form one contiguous built up area. Dovercourt steals the march on it’s two neighbours however having played host to the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi during the 1980’s – at what used to be the town’s very own Holiday Camp!
Formed in 1877 Harwich and Parkeston have enjoyed reasonable success in the FA Cup having reach the first round proper on a number of occasions, the first in the 34-35 season when they lost 3-0 to Bristol Rovers at the Gas Men’s old Eastville Stadium, and most recently in 1976-77 when they bowed out to Enfield after a replay.
They made their first appearance in the Eastern Counties League in the 35-36 season, winning a Championship and Cup double in the League’s inaugural season, a campaign that also saw the ground record attendance of 4,740 set for the visit of Ipswich.
However, they’ve enjoyed their best moments in the old FA Amateur Cup, having finished as runners-up twice, albeit 54 years apart. There first appearance was in the 1899 and their second in the 1952-53 campaign when a crowd of 100,000 watched then take on the University side Pegasus at Wembley, the latter lifting the now defunct trophy in a 6-0 romp.
More on the club’s history at the Football Club History Database and at the club’s own website.
The grandstand on the west touchline has seating for around 150 and is decked out in the club colours of black and white. Difficult to tell it’s age but it almost certainly pre-dates its plastic seats, a number of which had been ripped out with several even appearing to have survived an attempt to set light to them. The local youths no doubt honing their pyrotechnic skills.
Behind the northern goal is a small covered concrete terrace, a grass bank sits between the eastern touchline and the gardens of a row of semi-detached homes to the rear and that’s it as far as spectator comfort is concerned apart from the tea hut – in the south-eastern corner - which was doing a pretty brisk trade in cold drinks I seem to recall (it being a pretty scorching day in early September).
The only obvious recent ground improvements come in the form of a new-ish building that houses the dressing rooms and offices and which was officially opened by Joe Royle – then manager of Ipswich - a year or so before my visit. Sitting twenty-yards back behind the southern goal it looks a bit at odds with the rest of the place as if it and the ground have had a falling out.
posted by chevblue at 10:21 am 0 comments
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Ipswich Town 2 Blackpool 1
Coca-Cola Championship
Portman Road, Ipswich, Suffolk
Vital statistics: Admission by season ticket, match programme 3 pounds, attendance 21,059.
Match Number: 1418
posted by chevblue at 7:09 pm 0 comments
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Ipswich Town 1 Watford 2
Coca-Cola Championship
Portman Road, Ipswich, Suffolk
Vital statistics: Admission by season ticket, match programme 3 pounds, attendance 24,227.
Match Number: 1417
posted by chevblue at 7:06 pm 0 comments
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Kent Works Side circa 1920
My late grandfather led an interesting and varied life, passing away in 1989 after an innings of ninety-two years. He was a one-time dairy farmer, postmaster, journalist at the Kent Messenger, chorister, photographer, accomplished painter and in later years grew some pretty spectacular and prize winning vegetables! None of these skills I should hasten to add where passed on to me. He was also a member of Kent CCC for many decades and a season ticket holder at Gillingham. In amongst his rather large collection of photograph albums are the pictures you see here. Obviously a works footie team - probably from a foundry if the middle photo that shared the same page as them is anything to go by - but sadly no indication in the album as to where or when they were taken (although I would guess from the Medway towns in the 1920’s).
posted by chevblue at 10:12 am 0 comments
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(Bavarian Center)
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(Schwaben Center)
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(Tampa Bay Stadium)