Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the tag “ryman league crowds”
Football at Met Police Football Ground East Molesey
Met Police play their football in the Ryman Premier league and since their promotion from Ryman south a few seasons ago have been solid performers and have sometimes even threatened to reach the play-offs. Crowds are not massive and generally around 100-150. The ground however is one of the best in the Ryman League. You can see a whole series of photos on my website http://www.footballgroundz.co.uk but for those unfamiliar here are a few shots from yesterday.
What made me laugh a little was the guy who looks like he is trying to escape from the ground! Maybe he was a Cray fan as they lost 7-1
Tooting 0 Sittingbourne 0
Decent game and end to end despite what the score suggests. The pitch was in extremely good condition and judging by the water being pumped out into the car park and hence into the drains, there is a good under pitch drainage system. Shame only 200 turned up to watch.
Football Ticket Prices Fall and Potentially Football is Free now in 2014
Going to football games is not a cheap hobby. Let me give you an example. A ticket for an away Brentford fan at Peterborough on New Years day costs £25 if bought in advance and £28 on the day. This is for a standard league 1 game. It is good to see a few initiatives from football clubs to overcome this and potentially help themselves too. Lets not forget that ticket revenue is only one source of income, sales of items from club shops, burgers and programmes also contribute. At a recent home game Brentford in league 1 took around £11,500 in catering income alone, and let me tell you their catering is no Fat Duck. Lets examine a few of the good guys:
- In 2013 Brentford had a ” pay what you want” game. The deal was simply you choose what you pay and anything over 5£ for the ticket was donated to a sports charity. The only thing asked was that the ticket was bought in advance. They also had a similar venture in 2012 however sadly on that day the game was postponed due to adverse weather.
- In 2014 on February 3rd, the game between Hastings v Walton and Hersham in Ryman South , is a ” choose your own admission fee” game. The rationale here is that the game was previously abandoned after 61 minutes and this now has to be replayed. The only costs that Hastings are aiming to recover are the travelling costs for the away club ( fair enough) and the match officials. All other monies will be donated to St Michaels Hospice. A great and sensible initiative . Any locals who do not normally watch Ryman league football should come on down and give it a try, potentially at zero/little cost.
- As a season ticket holder at Brentford we have a great offer for all season ticket holders to be able to purchase up to 4 tickets each for £5 for the home game versus Port Vale on Jan 11th. They must be bought in advance and not available on the day. Yet another piece of good marketing and good common sense from Mark Devlin and the team at Brentford.January is a fiscally challenging month for most and initiatives like these do really help.
- In 2014 on Jan 4th Basingstoke v Tonbridge Angels in Conference South (Skrill South) is essentially pay what you want minimum £1. On the excellent club website, Sarah Parsons explains“‘This is a gesture to the whole town and outlying districts, we are giving something back to the community by allowing people to come to the match for a price which they decide. We know that January can be tough on family budgets so come to the football match and spend the day with us, and in the clubhouse afterwards. We really want to open our doors for people to come and see us, old fans and new fans, everybody is welcome. Maybe family, friends or workmates of existing fans have always been shy to come along in the past. We have the exciting prospect of a new ground in the pipeline but why not come along and start supporting your local football team now? We know many will still support the likes of Arsenal & Chelsea in the big Premiership matches, that’s fine, but maybe if people came along to see football at this level they may be pleasantly surprised. Ultimately the Town’s football team will be what we as citizens of the Town make it. We have to set a £1 minimum entrence fee due to rules but hopefully people will give us more as every penny helps a small club like ours to grow to become something that the whole Borough can be proud of in future. Tonbridge Angels are a good side in our league and we anticipate a good competitve league match. Our team currently sit in or very close to the league play off positions so it would be great if as many people as possible came through the gates to roar their Town on and hopefully towards victory on the day and ultimately promotion to the Conference National league at the end of this season “This is an initiative that should be supported and encouraged. www.basingstoketown.net/the-club/town-announce-happy-new-year-day/. Lets us hope that more clubs will go down this route. Nonleague football is a great game and often skill and excitement levels are equal to those in some of the lower leagues. The catering is undeniably better than at league clubs!
Walton and Hersham 1 Ramsgate 1
By chance the second time in a few weeks that I have seen Ramsgate play. A decent enough game played in a low atmosphere ground with a crowd of 100 in attendance. The ground is essentially one sided now with the condemning of the main terrace stand. Walton have had a mixed start to the season under their new manager Steve Baker and on the evidence of yesterday they are a work in progress but going in the right direction. They played good football and generally were entertaining. Ramsgate played a lot more of the physical stuff and a little less of the football, but nevertheless a decent team. The game got off to a bizarre start as firstly kick off was delayed by 45 minutes due to a major M25 accident. In the second minute Ramsgate had their full-back carried off with what looked like ligament issues. In the fith minute Ramsgate had their number 11 sent off, maybe harshly. Not long after Ramsgate scored and although Walton chased the game it was not until the 80th minute that Walton equalised with a new header from their impressive number 9, Will Turl. He also had the opportunity to score again in the final minutes with an identical move and header but fell just short. Interesting aspects of the game? The referee made any number of errors, do not blame him for that, but why not at least consult with the linesman? The Ramsgate goalkeeper, although competent certainly had eaten some if not all of the pies. All in all end to end stuff and at this level a highly entertaining game.
Something for real football fans to read and mull over the implications for many non-league clubs
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Disallowed Walton goal.Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe
Walton V Ramsgate. Copyright Chris Bushe. Will Turl
Stompond Lane. The Home of Walton and Hersham FC
Stompond lane has been the home of Walton and Hersham, who now play in the Ryman South division, ever since I began watching the club almost 50 years ago. There have been some famous moments. Walton have played FA Cup first round games here in front of thousands of spectators including against Exeter and Brighton, managed then by Brian Clough. Walton also won the Amateur cup in 1973. Things however have been declining since then almost consistently. Far from being one of the best non-league clubs they are now one of the smallest in crowd terms at their level and things may get even worse. The council plan to redevelop Stompond Lane and force Walton and Hersham to share with their neighbours, also in Ryman South, Walton Casuals. This plan has not been met with joy by either club however statements only a week ago suggest that this plan to redevelop Stompond Lane is becoming fairly final.
I do not know enough to really make an informed decision here however one can see a number of aspects that make some sense. The crowd base of both clubs is around 100 each and does this warrant two individual football grounds in Walton? The population of Walton, which is where the club is based, a few miles from Hersham, in 2011 was 24,137. Neither ground is perfect, although each has character and reasonable parking. Yesterday I visited to see Walton play Ramsgate. The crowd was 102. Down at Walton Casuals yesterday the crowd was 163 boosted somewhat by the good start Casuals have had to the season where they top the league. What is currently proposed is that the two clubs share Walton Casuals ground. What might equally be proposed is that these two clubs if this happens might be candidates to merge in the future. Should either of these things happen?
- Stompond Lane is becoming very run down. The whole ground, and I love this ground, is becoming almost untenable. The clubhouse looks sad and jaded and does not invite visitations. The main stand has a huge number of seats missing, plastic bucket seats, that are attached to wooden benches. Many have been removed.
- The stand opposite the main stand had warnings yesterday that it could not be used. When this is combined with the fact that no-one stands behind the goals, as the pitch has a running track around it, meaning that behind the goal is almost placing spectators in the centre of the town, the net effect is that this is now a one sided ground with little or even zero atmosphere.
- The council have recently introduced parking restrictions on Stompond lane, meaning that 2 hours is the maximum one may park before being fined some hideous amount. Realistically most fans spend nearer 3 hours at each game. This means that parking is now effectively limited to the club’s car park, which is ample and fine for the kind of recent crowds, but gives little hope that the crowd base if ever improved would have anywhere to park.
- Should the clubs ever consider amalgamation, they would concieve a club that had a fan base at lowest of around 200 and potentially more like 250-300. This is moving towards the size needed for Ryman Premier football. Although Walton Casuals sit top of the league, should they get promoted one wonders whether things will be in any way successful or lead to an immediate return to this level. The clubs might consider Inverness, who before joining the Scottish football league had three separate clubs. They all combined and have risen as of yesterday to actually top the Scottish Premiership. Maybe this kind of success might not happen in Walton but maybe also it should be considered. Who should vote on this? Certainly not myself, a visitor now maybe 2-3 times a season, but the 263 fans who do come week in and week out.
On my football grounds website I have many photographs of Stompond Lane and should the club move I shall add many more http://www.footballgroundz.co.uk
A good report on recent matters can also be found here
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/local-news/new-plans-submitted-stompond-lane-5908373
A few here however just to introduce the novice to the ground that is and was Stompond Lane.
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
Stompond Lane. Copyright. Chris Bushe
Walton Casuals 1 Eastbourne Town 2. Walton Casuals a consistent team.
A somewhat pleasant day where the sun threatened to shine and photography was halfway possible without floodlights, not that one notices when they come on at Walton . A good day out though, decent game, crowd 106 and the best burger I have had at football for some while.
Walton Casuals if nothing else play in one of the better strips and today there was a riot of orange, red, yellow from both teams. Walton also are consistent having not won a home league game all season and that is why they are second from bottom of the Ryman south League.
The first half was all Eastbourne and until Walton scored with almost the last kick of the half, it looked like it would be a 5-0 type of game. the second half was all Walton and they were unlucky not to equalise.
The football standard in Ryman South does seem variable this season and although neither of these clubs would fancy their chances against the top sides, they did play a good open game in a decent spirit, and the game was well refereed too.
Mu Maan may be the most important player for Walton judging by how the programme had him down playing at both number 8 and number 10. I did wonder before the game if he might be a large gentleman needing two shirts, however in fact he was of normal size and in fact never really caught the eye today.
Football Fans at Carshalton V Kingstonian
The fantastic thing about football is the whole variety of people who support football clubs and nowehere is this more marked than in non-league football. One would not be surprised to see fans driving in in Jaguars, Mercedes, Cycles, Penny Farthings and rowing boats, such is the variability. The key thing is that they love football and it was a delight to see 391 fans today at Carshalton V Kingstonian. Carshalton must be one of the most community based clubs around and althought having a difficult season that might end up with relegation, still carry on regardless. 
Carshalton 2 Cray Wanderers 1. Ryman Premier
The weather was unhelpful this weekend and many games got called off in non-league but this game thankfully survived. The pitch looked like a mud bath and that was maybe because it was. Having said that the football played was perfectly fine and the ground staff need to take some praise although I understand that not a lot was done to the pitch from the preceding tuesday night game.
Carshalton have had a troubled season to date. Change of manager few months ago, awful start and currently bottom of the Ryman Premier, seemingly heading even at this stage for Ryman South next season. Things of late however have changed. A surprise away win on boxing day at Hampton, followed by a few decent results and another victory a few days ago versus Enfield. This was a key game against a mid-table club.
The first half was surprisingly low key. Little in the way of flying tackles etc. The second half very different. Cray were awarded a penalty by an unconvincing referee in the 25th minute and Carshalton scored with a long range shot that maybe should have been saved in the 31st minute. Little else to warm the soul. I had to resort to eating the last cornish paste, which I suspect was left over from tuesday, which tuesday I will not speculate, but it tasted divine in the cold.
The second half was all about end to end stuff, with Carshalton scoring the winning goal in the 84th minute with a truly special goal from Luke Nolan. This was a goal that you never think can happen. A run by the left full back, beating a few players cutting inside and hitting a shot from around 30 yards that roared into the top left hand corner of the net. With no exaggeration this is one of the best goals I have seen this season. Michael Kamara was highly visible all game with his bandage making him look more like Monty Panesar but played a decent game. Nick Hamann the goalkeeper has to be one of the best keepers at this level and I suspect could play higher. The German flag you can see behind the goal reflects his nationality.
This is a club trying to play their way out of trouble. They have left it late but maybe not too late with now 3 wins in their last 5 games. A lot will depend on key games, injuries and of course luck. I shall be following their progress and now count myself as a fan. As the crowd was 201 it is fair to say that I increased the crowd size by 0.5%.
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 