Tunbridge Wells 3 v 0 Holmesdale

Tuesday 22nd March 2011
Kent League Premier Division
Culverden Stadium, Tunbridge Wells
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.50
Attendance: 87
Match Rating: 3

Rare enthusiasm during the working day to go to a football match that evening - probably buoyed by the dry, sunny weather - encouraged me to head to the Culverden Stadium for the first time this season for this Kent League game between Tunbridge Wells and Holmesdale.

Description and photos of Culverden Stadium - during daytime - can be found from one of my previous visits to the ground . As for this season's programme, a very reasonable effort with plenty to read and plenty of stats - as it needs to have, with an excessive price of £1.50.

This was yet another game where there is now little left to play for for either team this season, with Tunbridge Wells in eighth place in the 16 team league, but with Holmesdale down in 13th place, only three points ahead of bottom place Sporting Bengal - but as there is no relegation from the Kent League, the only motivating factor left for Holmesdale is to finish as high as possible in the league. Surprisingly, considering this is late March, tonight was the first time the two teams had met in the league this season, although earlier in the month, they met at the Culverden Stadium in the Kent Senior Trophy, with Tunbridge Wells edging a tense semi-final by 1-0, so tonight was the chance for revenge for Holmesdale..

The first half was, for the most part, a forgettable affair, a midfield battle with neither goalkeeper having a shot to save until a couple of minutes before half time, when Tunbridge Wells really should have scored, having three shots blocked in quick succession. The second half continued in a similar vein until, out of nowhere, Tunbridge Wells scored three times in the space of just six minutes to win the game. First, on 61 minutes, Keelan Mooney scored a brilliant individual goal, bustling his way from far out, brushing off several defenders before cooly sidefooting and slotting the ball past the keeper. Number two came just two minutes when Andy Boyle hooked home through a crowd of players after a corner, and the third came on 66 minutes when Drew Crush met a corner ball with a backward looping header from 10 yards out over the keeper. This ended the game as a contest as the visitors looked shell-shocked although to their credit they did battle gamely on. As the second half wore on, the game more and more petered out, and Tunbridge Wells claimed a win they just about deserved although the scorelne hugely flattered them.

Norton Sports 2 v 3 Herne Bay

Saturday 12th February 2011
Kent League Premier Division Cup Quarter Final Second Leg
Woodstock Park, Sittingbourne
Herne Bay won 5-2 on aggregate
Admission: £4.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 106
Match Rating: 4

For today's fare, I headed to the Medway towns in north Kent to visit the newest venue in the Kent League to watch an intriguingly poised Premier Division Cup tie between two clubs who were landlords and tenants prior to this season, Herne Bay visiting Norton Sports in the Quarter Final second leg of the competition.

Norton Sports' new home, Woodstock Park, is about a half hour walk south from Sittingbourne rail station, just into the countryside beyond the extermities of the town and and is a very neat and tidy complex, with plentiful parking outside and one walks past the fairly impressive clubhouse on entering the ground. This is the first season that the ground has hosted senior football, Norton Sports having lodged at Winch's Field, the home of today's visitors Herne Bay for the last two seasons since their promotion from the Kent County League. So it's not surprising that facilities are still somewhat basic here at the moment, with only the length of the pitch by the clubhouse and behind one of the goals open to spectators, although all with tiled hard standing, and a slight bank outside the clubhouse makes for a reasonable vantage point to watch the action. There are two uncovered stands, a small one close to the entrance and clubhouse, and a larger one behind one of the goals. In this day and age, a surprising feature is the lack of floodlights, which caused the early 1.30 kick off today. Presumably Norton Sports have made a firm commitment to install lights as soon as practicably possible, although there is no sign of their installation currently. The basic facilities in no way detract from a pleasant rural, neat and peaceful feel to the ground.. Note should be made of a very reasonable £4.00 admission fee, which is one of the cheapest charges I have encountered at this level and compares particularly well with other Kent League clubs, a league in which one encounters some of the highest charges at County League top division level. The 24 page programme was a pretty reasonable effort with a minimum of advertising and plenty of facts to digest, although short of reading material if I were to be super critical. Strangely, there was a match report of a game four games ago, but not of the last three.

Herne Bay brought a 2-0 lead from the first leg, and away goals would only count if scores were level at the end of extra time. Herne Bay are always one of the strongest teams in the Kent League and this season is no different, as they are in second place in the league, just two points behind leaders Erith Town but with a game in hand. Norton Sports are having a reasonable season as well, in seventh place in the 16 team league but have lost their last three games.

The home side needed to claw a goal back early in the match to give themselves a realistic chance of turning the tie around, and that's exactly what they did, when an Ashley Baverstock drive was diverted into his own net by Toby Ashmore on four minutes. They should have extended their lead, having had a surprising share of attacking and chances against a good side who were sloppy for most of the first half. However, a hammer blow for Norton Sports came five minutes before half time, when a fierce shot by Byron Walker could only be parried upwards by Nick Shaw and into the net. Ryan Rook gave Norton Sports renewed hope on 73 minutes, with a low shot after a previous shot had deflected into his path seven yards out. But with ten minutes remaining, the home side seemingly threw away any chance they might have had a forcing extra time when a free kick deep in their own half was passed straight to Herne Bay's Rhys Lawson, who strode forward to set up substitute Darren Marsden for a simple finish, and the visitors ensured a win on the day as well as in the tie overral when Marsden struck again in the final minute with a delightful measured finish from the edge of the area into the top corner. So in the end, a spirited display by Norton Sports to try to retrieve the tie, but ultimately the two goal defeat in the first leg proved fatal, and it was Herne Bay who progressed to a semi-final showdown with Corinthian.

Beckenham Town 2 v 1 Tunbridge Wells

Saturday 20th February 2010
Kent League Premier Division
Eden Park Avenue, Beckenham
Admission: £6.00
Programme: N/A
Attendance: 78
Match Rating: 4

After the currently customary pre-Saturday concerns that if I were not careful, I could encounter a dreaded blank Saturday, after heavy rain during the week and a very hard frost this morning, I headed off to South London for this Kent League encounter between two teams stuck firmly in mid-table, Beckenham Town and Tunbridge Wells after confirmation that this game was definitely on, for what would be my last Saturday game in England for at least four weeks.

Eden Park Avenue is located about a half hour walk from Beckenham Junction train station, although Eden Park station is almost adjacent to the ground. On paying my £6 admission at the turnstile, I was extremely disappointed to hear that no programmes had been printed for this game. Apparently the printers were to blame, but according to the locals, it is certainly not the first time this has happened at Beckenham this season and there really can be no excuse in my opinion for a Senior club not being able to produce a programme, not even an emergency team sheet, particularly when many clubs at Intermediate level voluntarily produce excellent publications. Combined with the fact that team line-ups were not announced nor were they written on a whiteboard, and at a time when County League football is struggling to attract sufficient numbers of paying spectators through the turnstiles, I trust that the Kent League will suitably punish Beckenham.
Happily the lack of programme was the last disappointment of the day. The ground is neat and very well maintained, although its location in deepest suburbia ensures that it certainly wasn't the most scenic ground I have visited this season. The ground has only one small covered stand, with cushion seats left unsecured on top of benches. A novel idea for a seated stand, and not a bad one I would say! An attractive wooden clubhouse is located behind the goal, as is a teabar, however I didn't use either as I refused to spend any more money in light of the club's programme negligence.

Going into this game, both teams were sitting comfortably in mid-table, with already seemingly nothing to play for, as is often the case in a league where there is no relegation and in the case of this year, the top two sides are running away with the league. Beckenham were in fifth place, some twenty points off the leaders Faversham Town, and Tunbridge Wells down in tenth place, only 5 points behind Beckenham, although they were on a bad run of form, having lost by four and three clear goals in their last two games, and lost four of their last six games.

The game itself was an entertaining and very even affair, with both sides freely carving out chances for themselves, and both sides missed a wonderful opportunity to open the scoring inside the first 20 minutes, first Tunbridge Wells when the keeper made an awful mess of a backpass, to leave the forward with practically an open goal, but he could only hit the post, admittedly from a tight angle. A worse miss followed for Beckenham shortly afterwards, when the ball was pulled back to the edge of the area and with the keeper already committed, the Beckenham player ballooned the ball over the bar. Beckenham did take the lead halfway through the first half however, thanks to a well taken penalty after a defender was adjudged to have pulled back the forward. Tunbridge Wells deservedly got back on level terms on the stroke of half term.

The second hald continued similar to the first, played in a competitive spirit and with chances aplenty at either end, although as the game wore on, the pitch cut up badly and by the end of the game this clearly had taken its toll on the players, some of whom looked dead on their feet. Beckenham scored what turned out to be the winner ten minutes from the end, and defeat was harsh on Tunbridge Wells, who contributed fully to an open and enjoyable game.

Lordswood 1 v 1 Whitstable Town

Saturday 29th August 2009
Martin Grove, Lordswood (Walderslade, Chatham)
FA Cup Preliminary Round
Attendance: 83
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00

Another fine late August day meant another long hike to a game today, this time to north Kent and the southern ooutskirts of Chatham for this FA Cup Premiminary Round between Lordswood, of the Kent League Premier Division, and Whitstable Town, of the Ryman League Division 1 South (although only for the last two seasons and previously were also in the Kent League for many years), and there was the possibility of a giant killing here, although there was little prospect of that, with Lordswood having lost their opening two games in the Kent League (although winning their FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie against Sussex League opposition) and Whitstable making a steady start in the higher league. To get to Lordswood's ground by rail, Chatham station is the closest, but I chose to make the 5 mile walk from Aylesford, which took about an hour and three quarters. This was an enjoyable although quite difficult walk, heading towards the North Downs but then having to negotiate a very long and steep hill to get over the North Downs. Although mounting the North Downs is pleasant enough, with a narrow path uphill and with great views back towards Maidstone and beyond behind.





The ground itself is quite a typical County League ground with one small stand with seating and has perfectly adequate facilities for crowds in double figures, although there is little charming about the place, even though it is placed between two cricket pitches. One negative feature which quickly became apparent as the game started was the poor state of the pitch, which was very bumpy and dusty, which made controlling the ball very difficult. This no doubt helped make the first half quite a poor and dull affair, and there was little to tell between the two teams - if anything, Lordswood, the supposed underdogs, looked the better and stronger team, although Whitstable almost took the lead just before half time with a wonderful shot which smashed against the crossbar.




As the teams went in at half time, this was very much a game which could have gone either way, however within just a couple of minutes of the restart, Lordswood looked like they had come out of the changing rooms half asleep, defended sloppily and allowed Whitstable to take a lead with a well take shot from inside a crowded penalty area. Whitstable certainly looked a far better outfit after the break, although Lordswood were still looking good, well organised outfit with the occasional chance on the break.It looked like their chances of taking the tie to a replay disappeared when their right back got himself sent off for some off the ball nonsense, however still Lordswood looked good and it was thoroughly deserved when they equalised a quarter of an hour from time, with a stunning shot from outside the box which went over the keeper and into the net. Chances were few and far between for the rest of the game, which ended in a draw, requiring a replay at Whitstable on Tuesday to settle the tie. In home turf, you would surely have to fancy Whitstable to progress, although if Lordswood, a team consisting entirely of amateur players playing for nothing, play as well as today, an upset still couldn't be discounted. So after an intriguing if not the most enteraining game, I made my way back to Aylesford to catch the train home. Mention should also be made of Aylesford, a very nice old fashioned village on the banks of the River Medway an with a church overlooking the very narow high street.

Tunbridge Wells 2 v 2 Sevenoaks Town

Saturday 15th August 2009
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Culverden Stadium, Tunbridge Wells
Attendance 127
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.50




Always one of the best moments of the season this weekend...the opening round of the FA Cup, and my first game of the weekend took me to one of my local clubs, Tunbridge Wells. Culverden Stadium will always be one of my favourite grounds at this level, in an attractive setting surrounded by trees and with terracing behind the goal which gives an excellent view of the pitch as well as a (relatively, for this level) passionate atmosphere.

An added bonus of this game was it being a local derby, which Tunbridge Wells usually has the upper hand on in recent encounters, and several players had made the move south from Sevenoaks to Tunbridge Wells over the summer, adding more spice to the game. Tunbridge Wells were favourites for this game too, on the back of a 6-0 opening day win (admittedly against the Kent League whipping boys, Sporting Bengal).

On a gloriously sunny day, this was an even game in the first half, with Tunbridge Wells taking the lead 10 minutes before half time. However, Sevenoaks were the superior side in the second half and within 10 minutes of the restart, were leading 2-1, fully deserved. Although Sevenoaks continued to have the edge, Tunbridge Wells wasted some excellent chances and it wasn't a surprise when they equalised 10 minutes from time, and a draw was how it ended to take the tie to Greatness Park, Sevenoaks for a replay. A fair result overall, and I wouldn't like to call the outcome of this tie, probably Sevenoaks would be slight favourites to earn a lucrative trip to Dulwich Hamlet in the next round.