Other Blogs || Sign up for your own blog || Back to the Guide
Blue Square South Guide
Terra Firma. Tales from the travels of Weymouth FC...
24-07-2009
Vol 2: Tiverton Away
I know it’s a week late. But anyway…
I woke up on Saturday morning with a bit of a headache. Also during the night before I had a strange dream that I rode a bike to watch a team play in Newcastle. The manager of this team just so happened to be Matty Hales. I got up, had a shower, whipped on some cheap hair gel and then went out and delivered the old newspapers. Prior to this I went down to “Picnics” and bought a Cajun chicken sandwich, to have for lunch. I had the usual chat with the various people on that route and then learnt that I actually delivered a Paper to Malcolm Curtis’s dad. I found that quite strangely ironic. Ain’t it a small world? Anyway I trudged up Scrambridge hill, to those not in the know Scrambridge hill is the hill leading from Brewers Quay up to Chapelhay. Up the hill I went to eat a pretty large bowl of “Frosted Shreddies”. Then for the morning session of internet surfing. Just the usual: Social networking sites, Games sites, Other forums, News and then the magical land of Terras-Talk.
After all that I got a lift up to the ground in beast, that is my mum’s MG Metro. We actually got the team coach up there. I have always wondered what it is like to be a player on there. It has a kitchen at the back with tables with four seats around them all down the coach. It was also air conditioned. But it wasn’t the cloud 9 I was expecting. There was only nine people on the coach, that is providing that my memory has served me correctly. The usual regulars trawling home and away, whatever the fixture. Off we went up the road from Dorchester-to-Yeovil, which in my opinion is even more beautiful than the Weymouth-to-Bridport road. Once past Yeovil we chugged across the bandit country of the Devon/Somerset border. As we stepped off the coach it started raining. Typical. Anyway now for the traditional walk into the town centre before the match. We cruised up the hill in the typical lost fashion. Past a pub called the “Kings arms”. Idiots. For correct grammar there should be an apostrophe before the “S”. Paranoia, a pet hate or being turned into a obsessive compulsive supporting Weymouth FC? You choose. After finding the town centre I was reminded by how much a small world it is by bumping into Mark from Newcastle. I met Mark at the cultural hotspots of Barrow and Altrincham. Also at York. He was down in Newquay on a 2-week holiday. As the rain started to fall heavier we wondered down to the ground. After a little de-tour, by my bad navigation, we got there. On the way we discussed what we’d been up to since our last meeting at Alty. He told me how he’d done his knee in playing cricket for a team in the Durham county league. We also talked about the pitfalls of Newcastle United and how I’d been up to pretty much nothing. Back down the hill we went. Initially we walked round the back of the bar thinking we could go in there and then into the ground, but to our amazement you had to pay and then you could go into the bar. A little annoying. We paid the entrance fee, incidentally they didn’t have a student price. Shock. Off we then rolled to the bar. I went onto the ItBox slot machine and failed miserably to win some money. Then into the bar with quite nice green furnishings. We sat down next to Big Merv and his crew. Had very tasty pasty & pint of cider and the proceeded into the ground to watch the game. Tiverton has a nice ground. A seated stand down one side of the ground and two tidy stands behind each goal.
Well the match kicked-off. Some players I didn’t recognise, well actually I only recognised; Scott Brice, Kyle Critchell and Ryan Harrison. Because I wrote this so late I can’t remember much of the game. I do remember at cock-up between Brice and Harrison, where both players ran for the ball then both left the ball. Tivyy’s guy stroll in and tapped into an open net. We had a new right-back. On the programme it was listed as Andy Harris but it clearly wasn’t him. He played pretty well getting forward and attacking. Josh Klein-Davies had a role to chase the ball over the top. But every ball that got kicked over was rubbish. So he hardly ever touched the ball. Disappointing really because I quite liked him. Not much more I could remember. The whistle blew and we went into the bar. I went on the ItBox machine again to try and win some cash. I went on a hangman game. But along came these two kids, who clearly had a lot of experience of this game and played it for me. I didn’t even ask them to play, I just shut up and let them get on with it. I put in 50p and got out £1. Result! Anyway we went out and up behind the other Tiverton goal. The floor behind the goal was caved in. Perhaps from the massive away support they get? Maybe not. Anyway in the second half Hector Mackie played well. Well I think it was Hector Mackie? Dean Grubb equalised with a neat little run down the left and beat the keeper at the near post. We got the ball forward well but we had no strikers to do anything with it. Tiverton’s second goal was a very well worked goal playing round our players with a neat finish to the corner. Hector Mackie had a shot which went out for a throw-in. That was pretty funny. Not much more to say on the second half. Not a great performance against a well drilled Tiverton side. So off we went home after an interesting day out…
Posted by Buffalo at 11:35:34 2 comments Leave a comment
12-07-2009
Vol 1: Bridport Away.
Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. Should have been the chant of the day yesterday. Pre-season football kicking off half way through the summer. I swear football was a winter game? But it’s being played at the same time as the first ashes test. Bit too early if you ask me. Middle of summer even though it was chucking it down! Anyway, I got up did the daily ritual of delivering newspapers and then trundled off down to the bus station. I sat there, to the left of me was a group of female Italian exchange students and to the right was a couple of rough sleepers. I know who'd I'd rather be sitting next to.
I waited for my mates in the slow persistent drizzle. The X53 finally turned up 15 minutes late, we then boarded. The traffic in Weymouth at Saturday lunchtime is awful. It took us 45 minutes to get to Chickerell from the King’s statue. I was pretty disappointed that it rained yesterday. The coast road from Weymouth through Abbotsbury to Bridport is really very picturesque, on a clear day that is. But with low mist and rain it wasn’t so beautiful. Then a small debate erupted about where we were meant to dismount. We recognised that we were in Bridport. But where in Bridport? After worrying that we were meant to get off four stops back and therefore leaving a very realistic possibility of ending up somewhere in the wilds of East Devon. But then we were informed by one of the locals on the bus that it was the next stop. There was a good bit of relief at hearing this.
After scaling down the stairs we elected to pop over to Morrisons, for a lunch of donuts and Irn Bru. Then we navigated across the road then across an appealing little river. Then down to the ground. In choosing to get the very early bus up there we arrived before most of the players and officials. We then paid the £3 entrance fee and then arrived in, the guy “working” at the entrance had one of the strongest Dorset accents I have ever heard. I thought it was quite a nice little ground actually. At one end a very cosy little bar with metal bars over the windows. Assumingly, to stop ball smashing them. To the left was a small stand on half-way with four rows of black and red seats. On the right side was what could only be described as a “barn”, it looked a lot like the stand at Ebbsfleet just a lot smaller. We then meandered over to the burger bar, operated by two very polite midgets. I ordered a hot dog and chips. The hot dog was actually two sausages in a burger bun, but it tasted very good. I’ve had better chips, but I’ve also had worse.
Then after a short sit in the bar, we went outside to watch the match. From what I could make out, it was a team made up of; under-18s, trialists and Simon Evans (who I assume was back as a trialist). Quite an even first-half, with long range shots from both sides. Weymouth broke the deadlock, on which minute I don’t know, by what player I don’t know. Number 7 I think. He looked pretty useful with quite a good cross on him. Number 10 was good in the first-half. Physically he looked like a tall James Coutts. But had a few more tricks in his box than James Coutts. Number 9 looked like Richard Logan, very useful from what I’ve seen of him. I look forward to watching those two through pre-season. I apologise for not knowing any names. I was going to buy a programme but we got there to early and they hadn’t arrived yet. But when I went back to buy one they had all sold out! That’s life… The two trialist wing-backs played pretty well, I’d like to see them again. The under-18s that I could recognise played OK none really impressed me. To be honest Bridport impressed me, they are a tidy little side, who put some good moves together at times. Another thing I thought was good was the banter between their goalkeeper and us lot behind the goal, that was pretty funny. Their keeper made a few smart saves, I thought he was pretty useful.
I didn't know Eddie Mitchell did refereeing, either it was him or a twin because that ref looked so much like him. The physique, the hair and fake tan all looked so much like him. Maybe he is trying to a make a Dorset super team; Bournemouth, Dorchester, Weymouth and now Bridport! Moving swiftly on... The second-half wasn’t as good as the first. Bridport made a lot of subs, the rain got heavier and tempers started to fray. We went and sat with the Bridport regulars in the stand. A few players went lunging in, if it was a league game they would have been booked for that. Our second goal was scored in a goal mouth scramble from a corner. I don’t know who scored that one either! We left a little from the end to go and get the bus back home. As we were walking down the side of the river past the ground, we could tell from the crowd erupting that another Weymouth goal had been scored. I’m informed that the final result was 3-0. We got to Bridport bus station after a short walk. Sitting there was probably the least hard looking group of Chavs, I have ever seen. Anyway, we got back on the X53 and headed back to Weymouth very happy with how our team had performed…
Posted by Buffalo at 13:53:15 3 comments Leave a comment
Latest Entries
Vol 2: Tiverton Away
Vol 1: Bridport Away.
Just a note.
Welcome.
Blog Archive
Jul 2009 (2)
Jun 2009 (2)