Bourne Town 1 v 2 Raunds Town

Saturday 29th July 2017
United Counties League Division One
Abbey Lawn, Bourne
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 459
Match Rating: 3

For my final game of the day, I rejoined the United Counties League groundhopping event by crossing back into Lincolnshire, with about a 40 minute drive from my earlier game at March.

Abbey Lawn is part of a fairly large sports complex including a cricket field, tennis pitches and a bowls club, and is a few minutes walk eastwards from Bourne town centre. Visitors follow a short drive from the main road, and enter the ground in one corner, after paying admission at a fairly large brick hit in one corner. All of the facilities are along the length closest to the entrance, with a rather bland but spacious clubhouse situated behind a sheltered area covering three steps. A tea bar window is located in the wall between the covered terrace area and the clubhouse. There is then a taller all-seater stand. Beyond that stand is a grassy area which this evening contained a refreshments gazebo, barbecue and some tables offering goodies for the groundhopping visitors. Around the rest of the ground there is just hard standing. The ground was smart and immaculately maintained, with the surrounding recreation ground, trees and church giving the place a really nice feel to it. The programme was the only big disappointment of the evening, very much a case of lots of style but precious little substance. It was certainly designed well and printed on very high quality paper, but only consisted on 8 pages, half of which were advertising and only 2 pages of any kind of interesting material, with welcome messages from the manager and chairman, and the club's history. To charge £2.00 for it was excessive in the extreme. On the plus side, team sheets were handed out free of charge, as well as a whiteboard displaying the teams on the back wall of the covered terrace.

Last season, Bourne Town finished in 15th place in the 20 team division, while Raunds Town finished in seventh place.

Although the weather was fair at kick off, rain arrived about 15 minutes into the game and continued throughout the rest of the match. This was an even game throughout, but the home team paid the price for not really carrying a goalscoring threat despite doing plenty of attacking. The visitors took the lead on 36 minutes following a wonderful jinking run through the defence by Dan Porter before striking the ball low past the keeper.

Eight minutes into the second half and Bourne came close to an equaliser when a close range shot was involuntarily saved by the keeper's dangling hand. They did create some other half chances, but it was the visitors who scored again on 81 minutes when a diagonal ball over the defence found Dave Townsend, who took a good touch before firing past the keeper. Plenty of huff and puff by the home side was rewarded with a penalty after the striker overran the ball and was tripped by the keeper, and the ball was duly dispatched by Josh Russell, firing into the right side of the net. The problem for Bourne was that that came in stoppage time at the end of the match and there was no time to grab an equaliser.

So a defeat for Bourne on the pitch, but they certainly won off the pitch as they were rewarded for their excellent organisation of the evening as well as extensive promotion of the match to the local community as well as groundhopping with a real bumper crowd. Yet again today, there was a friendly feel to the place and with hard working, dedicated official, I wish the club well.

March Town United 0 v 3 Holland

Saturday 29th July 2017
Eastern Counties League Division One
GER Sports Ground, March
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 97
Match Raring: 3

Following my morning game at Holbeach, the middle two local games organised for groundhoppers in the Peterborough and District League did not appeal to me at all, being at basic, roped off pitches. Although a visit to Spalding United appealed for its ideal geographical location en route to the evening game at Bourne, that match was only a friendly, and so I had a choice of games in the Eastern Counties League. I had originally planned to go to Wisbech St Mary for my 3pm game. However, as I was leaving my morning game at Holbeach, I changed my mind and decided to visit a ground with much more tradition and character to it and so I headed a little further south down to March.

The GER Sports Ground is located a few minutes walk northwards from March town centre, and although there is a turnstile block in one corner, this was not in use today, instead one has to enter the ground through the clubhouse located a short distance along the road to the other corner of the ground. The brick clubhouse is sensibly sized, if a little on the small side, and spectators pay their admission fee at a bar table before walking outside to get pitchside. Immediately to the left there is a tea bar window, whilst to the other side is the real stand-out feature of the ground, the large and imposing wooden stand. It is a sight to really savour in this day of bland metallic stands, looking attractive from the outside and with wooden benches to sit on inside. The teams used to come out from the middle of the stand, but the tunnel is now closed off, with the changing rooms now in the clubhouse building. Unfortunately the stand does not offer great views, with plenty of supporting pillars along the front to obstruct one's view, and it is also distant from the pitch, so floodlight pylons also get in the way. The grassy area between the stand and pitchside railing has some picnic tables on it. To the right of the stand, is a narrow control tower type building. Behind the far goal there is a grass bank behind pitchside hard standing. Unfortunately, spectators are not permitted access behind the other goal nor along the remaining length, despite there being a corrugated iron construction to cover a standing area to one side on the dugouts. There was certainly a warm and friendly feel to the place, and the ground combines well some modern facilities with its traditional jewel in the crown. However, the ground certainly is rather rough around the edges away from the clubhouse area and a little tidying up would not go a miss to improve the general appearance of the ground. The 32 page programme was the cheapest I encountered today, and probably the best too. It had an attractive cover, was well laid-out and had plenty of varied interesting reading material.

March Town United finished last season in 16th place in the 21 team Eastern Counties League Division One, while Holland, in their first season in senior football, finished in fifth place. Holland certainly had the better of the fixtures last season, winning 7-0 in at home and 1-4 away.

On a mainly cloudy afternoon, the visitors always seemed to have the upper hand, and they took the lead thanks to a superb goal, Keelan Sorrell hitting a volley from all of thirty yards and the ball flew into the net. They made it 0-2 on 33 minutes when Tom Holdstock was sent clear by a low ball through the defence, and he struck the ball low across the keeper and into the net from the edge of the area. That was how the scoreline remained at the break, with the visitors looking in control of the match.

March came out looking a better team after the break, and they came close a couple of times to halving the deficit, first a lovely low shot from the edge of the area went just wide of the post, whilst a free-kick was fumbled by the visiting keeper, and a follow up shot was scuffed  but was cleared off the line. It looked very close to a goal, and the linesman was well out of position to make a decision. Less than 2 minutes later, and Holland put the game to bed with another screamer, Holdstock bringing the ball forward a few steps before smashing the ball from outside of the area past the keeper and into the net. That killed the match as a contest, and it was Holland who looked much the more likely to score again.

So the early signs appear to indicate this season continuing in the same vein as last season for both clubs.

Holbeach United 6 v 0 Sleaford Town

Saturday 29th July 2017
United Counties League Premier Division
Carter's Park, Holbeach
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 333
Match Rating: 3

I decided to kick off my competitive action for the season with a bang today, taking advantage of the United Counties League groundhopping event, which provided morning and evening fixtures around an afternoon game(s) elsewhere. And so I set off from home at 6.45am for the long car journey north to Lincolnshire, for the unusual kick-off time of 10.45am.

Carter's Park is located just to the north of Holbeach town centre, and with extremely limited parking available within the ground, the club helpfully organised parking spaces for today's anticipated bumper attendance in the adjacent college. The main entrance is very close to the passing main road, with a fixture board and a blackboard with details of today's event written in chalk alongside. After paying admission at a wooden hut, spectators enter along one length of the pitch. The main all-seater stand is located to the right, and although not particularly aesthetically pleasing, it offers good views. Beyond the player's tunnel, there is a small covered standing area, beyond and behind which there is a modern clubhouse featuring two bars, varying in styles but both attractively and comfortably laid out. To the other side of the entrance, various club and groundhopping merchandise was sold from tables, and a couple of burger vans were present. Immediately behind both goals there are small covered areas, with just hard standing around the rest of the ground. It is a really smart ground, very well maintained and with plenty of attractive touches with club signage even extending to the dustbins. Colourful trees all around the ground, and a church spire visible behind one goal, all make this is a very pleasant venue to watch football at. The 44 page programme was a decent read, if understandably lacking somewhat in information given that this is the first game of the season, and was a little heavy in advertising (about half of the content) for a price that was slightly on the expensive side at this level.

Holbeach United finished in 7th place in the United Counties League Premier Division last season, and have strengthened their squad with a host of new signings over the summer, including a new forward line. Sleaford Town finished in 14th place, but by all accounts the summer has been quite turbulent for them, having to rebuild their squad.

On a mainly sunny morning, this was a match that was completely dominated by the home side from start to finish, and the only surprise was that they only racked up six goals. They opened the scoring on 15 minutes when a ball through the defence found Lewis Leckie, and although the keeper got a faint touch to the eventual low shot, the ball spilled to Will Bird who tapped into an empty net. Two minutes later and Bird showed good pace to accelerate in from the wing, and his eventual shot from a tight angle came back off the near post. But a minute later and it was 2-0. Bird ran down the left before crossing the ball low into the middle for an unmarked Leckie to tap into the net. Chances continued to come and go for Holbeach, but the scoreline remained 2-0 at the break, which gave Sleaford a little bit of hope if they could emerge a transformed team after the interval.

That was never likely, and Holbeach proceeded to deliver something of a trouncing. On 52 minutes, they made it 3-0 when, following a corner played short, the ball was crossed into the box for Bird to plant it firmly past the keeper and into the net. Three minutes later and captain Nick Jackson made it 4-0 with a far post, close range header from a corner. The game then lost its intensity for a while, until the home side were awarded a penalty on 81 minutes when Charley Saunders was dragged to the floor close to the byline and the edge of the area. Saunders himself drilled the ball into the bottom left hand corner to make it 5-0. And five minutes from time, a drilled shot which was heading wide was deflected into his own net by a Sleaford defender.

So a dominant performance from Holbeach, and their forward line looked lively and exciting throughout and should score plenty of goals this season. Sleaford will hope that today was just a slow, cold start for them, otherwise they have a long and difficult season ahead of them. Well done to Holbeach United off of the pitch too today, who handled the much larger than usual crowd very well, with a friendly welcome from club officials. It was good to see them rewarded with undoubtedly bumper takings.