Letchworth Garden City Eagles 1 v 0 Irchester United

Tuesday 7th September 2021, Kick-off 19.45
Spartan South Midlands League Division One
Pixmore Playing Fields, Letchworth Garden City
Admission: £5.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 64

Having this week off work, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit some new grounds which would not normally be within range for me after work, starting with this game in northern Hertfordshire this evening.

The Pixmore Playing Fields are just under half an hour's walk from Letchworth Garden City train station, and located a short distance behind the County Ground, home of the Hertfordshire FA. A short lane passed by a leisure centre, leading to the Pixmore Playing Fields, with the home ground of the town’s rugby club adjacent. Access to the football ground is gained by paying the admission fee at a wooden hut by the entrance gate, with an 8 page programme available for purchase, a well designed and produced publication printed in colour on glossy paper that sufficiently covered the essentials. Parking is available just inside the gate, and straddling the half way line is a breeze block stand containing three rows of seats. Behind the stand is a smart cream coloured clubhouse building with a pitched roof, and a modern and spacious bar area inside. There is hard standing along the end closest to the entrance and along both lengths, with just grass to stand on behind the remaining goal. It is all perfectly adequate to host step 6 football, and presumably adding furniture would not be a problem should the club be required to do so in the future. The location is peaceful and rural, and with a secondary pitch located behind one length, and junior playing fields behind the clubhouse, it is certainly evident that the club's youth teams are at least as important to the club as the senior first team.

Both clubs playing this evening are new to the Spartan South Midlands League this season. After consistently being there or thereabouts at the top of the Hertfordshire Senior County League for many seasons, Letchworth Garden City Eagles finally achieved promotion into Step 6 football for this season. They have had a mixed start in their new surroundings, winning two and losing three of their opening five league games, with two of those defeats coming in the last two games. Irchester United have spent their last 40 seasons in the United Counties League, before being laterally transferred in the summer, as the Spartan South Midlands League's footprint was extended northwards to cover Northamptonshire. And they have found their new surroundings far from plain sailing so far, picking up just three points, a win, from their opening six league games, losing their last four. It's quite obvious where their biggest problem lies, having shipped 27 goals in their six games, and have twice conceded seven. They have played all of their games away from home so far, and so will undoubtedly hope for an upturn in fortunes when they play back at home.

As the two teams came out to kick-off, it was rather surprising that the referee was happy to let play commence with a clash of kit colours, with Letchworth sporting a navy and black striped shirt whilst Irchester wore an all purple kit. Letchworth almost got off to the perfect start with barely a minute on the clock, when a cross took a deflection off a defender to send the ball only just off target for a corner. Letchworth looked the better side during the first half and did most of the attacking, and they took the lead on the half hour mark, after a free kick from the left wing was delivered into the box, and was headed down towards Nicolay Rusev, who let the ball bounce before striking it beyond the keeper's dive and inside the left hand post. On 36 minutes, Letchworth saw a low curling shot bounce off the outside of the near post.

Thankfully, the kit clash problem was solved at half time as Letchworth came out in yellow shirts, and again it was Letchworth who dominated possession and chances, but Irchester also had their moments on the break, and there was a feeling that if Letchworth didn't score another, it would not have been at all surprising had Irchester claimed a share of the points. Letchworth really should have scored that second goal on 54 minutes when a fizzing cross the the right evaded three Letchworth forwards from close range, and shortly afterwards, a powerful close range shot forced an excellent reflex save by the Irchester keeper above his head to tip the ball over the bar. Apart from that, Letchworth had plenty of shots on goal, but mostly rather speculative from outside the area which were off target. But in the end, one goal was enough for Letchworth, for the three points they deserved on the balance of play. But credit to Irchester as they did enough to suggest an upturn in fortunes should come sooner rather than later, not looking an outfit that had shipped so many goals previously.

Brighton & Hove Albion Women 2 v 0 West Ham United Women

Sunday 5th September 2021, Kick-off: 14:00
Women's Super League

The American Express Communuty Stadium, Falmer

Admission: £5.00

Programme: £2.50

Attendance: 2,274

Having missed out on taking in a football game yesterday - the first Saturday in many years that I did not go to football when the opportunity was there - I was certainly determined to take in some today. After a long day yesterday watching the cricket at The Oval between England and India, I had little interest in making my way back up to the big smoke today, preferring to stay local, and with Brighton & Hove Albion Women unusually playing their fixture today at The Amex (their usual fixtures take place at Crawley Town's Broadfield Stadium, and the train connections working out better than my alternatives, I headed along to Falmer today.

Tickets for this fixture were a very reasonable £5.00 each, happily with no additional tickets fees payable, with tickets downloadble to one's Apple or Google Wallet, and use the NFC technology at the electronic turnstiles. Only the lower East Stand was open for today's fixture, unusually, as I believe it is more common for the West Stand to be open for such fixtures when only a small part of the ground is opened. And this decision turned out to be rather unfortuante today, as very warm sunshine, making its first appearance for many weeks today, shone straight onto the spectators, with conditions feeling very hot. A 32 page programme was producted for this fixture, in full colour on glossy paper, although it did require some effort to track down, with no vendors outside the stadium or in the concourse, and I only realised that they could be purchased from the refreshments counter when I saw some on the counter. Queuing has always seemed to be a major issue at the Amex, and today was certainly no different.

Brighton had a reasonable season in 2020-21 under the leadership of former England Women's coach Hope Powell, finishing in sixth place following eight wins and three draws from their 22 league games. West Ham finished in ninth place in the 12 club division, and although only the bottom place club was relegated, West Ham were only three points clear in the end. Last season, Brighton won both league fixtures against West Ham 1-0.

On a hot and sunny afternoon, this game was even in the opening stages, and West Ham had the early chances. First, Adriana Leon sent in a perfect whipped cross from the right, but Mel Filis could only head the ball high and wide, and on 27 minutes, Leon sent a curling cross from well outside the area, which swirled over the keeper and bounced off the crossbar. But just as West Ham were getting in the ascendancy, the game turned on 33 minutes. After the West Ham keeper just managed to claw the ball away from the feet of Ellie Brazil and when the ball rolled to team mate Danielle Carter to run onto, her first time goalbound shot was blocked by the hand of West Ham defender Hawa Cissoko, and the referee had little hesitation in pointing to the spot for a penalty, and showing a straight red card to Cissoko. Inessa Kaagman struck the spot kick into the right side of the net, evading the hands of the keeper who went the right way. And on 40 minutes Brighton doubled their lead with a hint of good fortune. Megan Connolly's speculative long range low shot took a couple of deflections before finding its way into the path of Guenmin Lee, who cooly slotted the ball past the keeper's dive and into the net.

So, the visitors certainly had a mountain to climb in the second half, a player down as well as two goals down in hot conditions, but to their credit they kept battling away and saw a few shots go just high or wide. There was a feeling that Brighton were doing just enough to see the game out, and they did have a couple of chances themselves, but in the end a clean sheet victory was close to a perfect way for Brighton to start their season.

Brighton: Walsh, Le Tissier, Kerkdijk, Williams (Gibbons 67), Koivisto, Brazil, Whelan (Simpkins 78), Connolly, Kaagman, Lee (Symonds 55), Carter (Green 78).

Subs not used: Bowman, Babajide, Green, Stenson, Robinson, Adabowale.

West Ham United: Arnold, Wyne, Flaherty, Cissoko, Fisk (Parker 45), Evans, Stringer, Filis (Longhurst 45), Hasegawa, Leon, Walker. 

Subs: Leat, Garrad, Cairns, Joel.

Red Card: Cissoko 33

Booked: Longhurst 55, Stringer 60

Referee: Emily Heaslip

Booked: Symonds

Attendance: 2264

Short video highlights of this match can be viewed by clicking here.

England v India

Saturday 4th September 2021, Start time: 11.00
Fourth Test Match, Day Three

The Oval, London

Admission: £85.00

Programme: £6.00

Attendance: 25,000 (approximate)

Originally, I was supposed to be visiting Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium today, for their club's Womens Super League fixture. However, when my partner discovered that tickets would be available for the Test Match today, I very happily went agreed that that would be a much better proposition. Back in the nineties, I was more interested in cricket than football, being a member at Sussex County Cricket Club, and it was only when my interest in groundhopping really took over, and the "modernisation" of county cricket meant it became more inconvenient to watch cricket in midweek and in the evenings, that I welcomed something of a rest from sport during the summer months (the football close season). And so this would be my first visit to The Oval in at least 20 years, and my first ever time watching the England cricket national team in any format, and so I very much look forward to taking in the day's play today.

The Oval is about a ten minute walk from Vauxhall train station, the most convenient option for me, however Oval underground station is even closer. The Oval is absolutely steeped in history, with records of a match being played here as far back as 1724. Surrey County Cricket Club played their first match there in 1845, in 1868 it hosted the first ever touring side to England (the Aboriginal Australians), and hosted the first Test Match to be played in England, against Australia in 1880, and Australia's win at The Oval in 1882 gave birth to The Ashes. The history goes on and on throughout the years, and the stadium is a really impressive facility these days, still with the imposing Members Pavilion steeped in history rising tall above the rest of the ground with various tiers of seating and corporate boxes included within in. Uncovered seating then stretches square of the wicket on both sides, although attached to the left of the Members Pavilion, a double storey uncovered stand has been installed above the seating in the last year. At the Vauxhall End, the bowl of seating continues throughout, with a upper tier and some boxes now installed, along with a high roof, which has a modern and attractive design to it. Plenty of food and drink options were available underneath the stands, with beer prices at between £6.20 and £6.80. Our seats were in the front row of the Galadari Stand, which offered an excellent view of the action. Programmes were available, and the 84 page publication was a very decent read indeed.

In previous test matches in this series, the first Test at Trent Bridge was rain affected, ending in a draw with India probably favourites to win, chasing 209 to win and at 52-1, when the final day was abandoned without a ball being bowled. India won the second test at Lords by 151 runs, after England were bowled out for just 120, but England comprehensively won the third test at Headingley, with India bowled out for just 78 in the first innings despite choosing to bat, and eventually England won by an innings and 76 runs. So, the series was level at 1-1, and this match was also quite intriguingly poised after the first two days' action. After the first day, I was a little concerned as to whether I would get a full days' play on the third day, after India were bowled out for 191, and England made a less than convincing start to their reply, closing the day on 59 for 3, with talisman Joe Root falling in the final half hour of the day. Day Two saw England carve out a 99 run first innings lead, finishing up on 290, with Ollie Pope top scoring with 81 and Chris Woakes scoring 50, coming in at number 9. There was a string feeling that England should have carved out a bigger lead though, with the pitch expected to flatten as the match continues. India made a solid start to their second innings, accumulating 43 without losing any wickets from the 16 overs bowled.

On a very overcast day, with a cool breeze blowing across the ground, this proved to be not the most exciting day of cricket, as India batted very sensibly, mindful of there being plenty of time left in the match to occupy the crease, eek out the runs and build an advantage to set England a challenging target in the final innings. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul looked assured, slightly surprisingly as the overcast conditions would have been expected to have given the England fast bowlers some swing. At 11.35, with the score on 71-0, Rahul was given out lbw by the onfield umpire following a delivery by Ollie Robinson, but the decision was overturned by DRS, with ball tracking showing the ball would have missed leg stump. Soon after, Rohit, on 31, offered a very difficult chance to Rory Burns, but the ball just escaped his grasp at full stretch low down to his right at second slip. But at 12.26, England finally did get the breakthrough, although the onfield umpire originally gave not out, but DRS verified that Rahul did get a faint nick on a delivery from James Anderson, and Jonny Bairstow caught the ball behind the wicket. India went into the lead overall just before lunch, and although off spinner Moeen Ali asked for an lbw decision to be checked on DRS, it was given not out. Indeed, it was not even close, quite some way wide of the off stump. India went in at lunch on 108-1, a lead of 9 runs overall.

Pujara duly completed his half century soon after tea, and the match seemed to be continuing to drift towards India, with little sign of where the next wicket was coming, and the feeling that there needed to be some "oomph" from somewhere. As it turned out, that came from the new ball, with the very first delivery with it taking the wicket of Rohit Sharma off the bowling of Ollie Robinson, awkwardly hitting the ball to deep square leg off the top edge, sending the ball into the clutches of Chris Woakes. That certainly livened the crowd up, and the England players too it seemed, as Robinson's same over also claimed the scalp of Pujara, with DRS having to overturn the umpire decision, when the ball took an inside edge, bounced of Pujara's body and into the hands of Moeen Ali at gully. Finally it felt that England were making things happen, but the new India batsmen, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, saw the storm out. At around 5.30, conditions that were overcast and gloomy all day deteriorated, to the extent that England had to bowl spin from both ends, with nothing to suggest that either Moeen or Root would grab a wicket from their single over each, and not wanting to waste the new ball that was only ten overs old, Root asked to put Woakes back on to bowl, which inevitably caused the umpires to deem that it was too dark to allow any fast bowling, and so the players went off for bad light. There was little sign that the light would improve sufficiently this late in the day, and sure enough, when the clock ticked past 6pm, the scheduled close of play time, the umpires called stumps to bring a close to the day's play.

A few minutes after lunch, Cheteshwar Pujara hit a four but as he approached the non strikers end, his ankle game way, causing a lot of pain and distress, requiring extensive treatment for almost ten minutes before deciding he was fit to continue. The afternoon session really did seem to drift for England, with a lot of toiling without the Indian batsment looking in any danger, as Rohit Sharma went on to complete his century, his first century outside of India, and Pujara closing in on his half century as tea arrived.

So, this was a day which India dominated, putting themselves in a very good position to build a commanding lead on what looks a flat pitch, and will become all the more so with sun forecast for the remaining two days, and India look favourites to bat themselves into a position from which they could not lose, but a lot will depend on whether England can snaffle some early wickets on Day 4.

This was not the most entertaining day of cricket to watch it must be said, but it was still a really enjoyable experience and I look forward to coming again next year.

Highlights of the day's play can be viewed by clicking here