Ticehurst 4 v 2 Hastings Rangers

Monday 19th April 2010
East Sussex League Division 2
Bell Field, Ticehurst
Admission and Programme: N/A
Attendance: 15
Match Rating: 4

Tonight I took advantage again of the early evening kick-offs for local league football  and headed to Ticehurst. In truth, there wasn't much to tempt me to this game - from the third tier of the East Sussex league, and both teams stuck firmly in mid-table, however on a very pleasant, sunny evening, a scenic village setting such as this makes a football game there attractive no matter what the predicted fare would be on the field.

The Bell Field, which is situated close to the centre of the small village of Ticehurst, is quite a typical ground in the East Sussex League. There are no facilities here, apart from a fairly modern wooden building containing the changing rooms. The ground is lined with trees along three sides of the ground, and behind the trees along one length of the pitch is attractive farmland. Behind the other length, where the spectators congregates, is the village. On a warm, sunny evening, it made for a very pleasant and peaceful venue to watch football.

Ticehurst roared into a three goal lead in the first half, indeed it could have been more as they hardly gave Hastings Rangers a sniff. However, they pulled a goal back a few minutes before half time with a wonderful goal that would have graced any game, a curling shot from outside of the box right into the top corner, giving the goalkeeper no chance. That gave Hastings hope of getting something back from the game, and they almost were right back in the game right from the kick off, with an audacious shot straight from the kick-off, when the ball was touched from the kick off, and the Hastings shot hit a shot which the Ticehurst keeper only just scrambled away from the top corner.

Hastings were much improved in the second half, and finally managed to pull back another goal. However, any chances of a share of the spoils was removed about five minutes from time with a good breakaway goal by Casey Ham, which completed his hat-trick.