Wednesday 16th August 2023, Kick-off 18.30
Kent County League Premier Division
Pavilion Road, Hawkinge
Admission: Free
Programme: None
Attendance: 177
Having the day off work today, and with decent weather forecast, I decided to have a day out in Folkestone today, to explore the Folkestone Harbour Arm, a very pleasant leisure area that has been developed on the site of the former ferry port and around the preserved and restored former Folkestone Harbour train station, before heading to this game a few miles inland in the early evening.
Pavilion Road is located just to the north east of the small town of Hawkinge, and has a very pleasant peaceful and rural setting in the countryside. A rather impressive and modern pavilion straddles the half way line, offering a bar area inside, a tea bar window in the exterior wall offer hot food and drinks, a small patio area outside the front door, individual seats scattered around, and a small wooden covered area to one side, albeit this is probably too distant to comfortably watch the game from, particularly when people stand pitchside. The rest of the pitch is just roped off, with portable dugouts on the opposite side. Programmes are not usually produced in this division, although Hawkinge intermittently do, sometimes online, sometime printed, rarely advertising which if any, but despite the club tweeting a cover of the programme for this game in the morning, nothing was posted online, a response in the clubhouse was vague, and a request on Twitter / X went unanswered.
By Kent County League's standards, for clubs located along the Kent coast, this game was considered a derby, with about 15 miles separating the two clubs. And after mid table finishes last season - Hawkinge in ninth and New Romney in seventh, both clubs opened this season with a win in their opening fixture on Saturday, Hawkinge beating Peckham Town 0-1 away, while New Romney won 1-0 at home to Ide Hill.
On a gloriously sunny evening, albeit with a cool breeze blowing once the sun started to set, this was a rather scrappy game for long periods, albeit that Hawkings always seemed to just about have the upper hand. And the hosts opened the scoring in the 15th minute, when an initial shot from the edge of the area was blocked by a defender, the loose ball was struck low again from the edge of the area but this time parried away by the keeper, and Billy Smomerville pounced on the loose ball wide of the goal on the six yard line, striking the ball powerfully home via a deflection off the keeper into the roof of the net. And they saw the rest of the half out quite comfortably to lead by a goal at the break.
The second half followed a similar pattern, with Hawkinge still looking the likelier to score, and they thought they had in the 57th minute, following a quck break downfield ended with the ball being laid off to a team mate who stroked the ball home, but the goal was disallowed for offside. But three minutes later, on the hour mark, Hawkinge did double their lead following a long punt downfield, and Lewis Hopgood hit a lovely shot on the half volley to arrow the ball beyond the keeper's dive and into the net. On 66 minutes, New Romney gave themselves hope when they pulled a goal back, when an inswinging free kick from the left was headed home by sub Jay Critcher, but that hope was all but extinguished on74 minutes when Hawkinge restored their two goal lead following a good slalom run from the left wing, past several defender and into the box culminating in the ball being slotted into the far bottom corner by Tyla Clements, to ensure the local bragging rights were deservedly claimed by Hawkinge.
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