It's that time of year, as the end of the season approaches, that as a groundhopper you start chasing your tail to see clubs, grounds and stands that are about to be consigned to history. It was for one of these reasons that today I made the trip to North Somerset.
Welton Rovers are a club based in Midsomer Norton, having been founded in 1887, originally established to provide the opportunity for the local mining community to play and watch football. Their ground, West Clewes Recreation Ground is one of the oldest in the Western League.
The wooden stand at West Clewes was built in the 1930's but is rapidly approaching the end of it's lifespan as the club have recieved planning permission to pull down the old wooden stand and replace it with a more modern structure or, to use groundhopper parlance, it is being Atcosted!
Welton have had a good season this far, and are currently in third position in the table, but have probably left themselves too much to do in order to clinch the second promotion spot. Today was another victory, over visitors Wells City, but they made things harder for themselves than they needed to be.
Rovers found themselves two goals to the good thanks to a first half brace from Ryan Gay, the second of which was a superb volley, but they really should have been out of sight before Jamie Howson pulled a goal back late on for Wells City, when the linesman adjudged the ball to have crossed the line. This meant some anxious moments in the home defence as Wells pushed for an unlikely equaliser but Welton held on to send the Green Army home happy.
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| The Green Army in full voice! |
Pre-match was spent a few miles down the road having a quick pint in the centuries old Tuckers Grave Inn - if you happen to be in the area it is well worth seeking out, as they don't build them like this anymore! (The Stranglers even wrote a song about it on their 2004 album Norfolk Coast).
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