BRICKFIELD RANGERS (Clywedog Park)

WELSH NATIONAL LEAGUE (WREXHAM AREA) PREMIER DIVISION, BRICKFIELD RANGERS 1- 2 MOLD ALEXANDRA, ATTENDANCE: 48 (h/c)

No programme today
but I did get an issue on
my visit to Court Road
in 2005

After the madness (and expense) of an Easter Weekend groundhopping in the North East, I opted to stay local (and cheap) by heading to the outskirts of Wrexham town centre.

This season Brickfield Rangers have a new home at Clywedog Park having moved from their spiritual home of Court Road, where they had been based since their formation in 1976. This was where a very young Robert William Savage started his playing career.

When I began my groundhopping odyssey many years ago, Court Road was one of the first grounds I visited. The ground was simply a roped off pitch and it is fair to say that Clywedog Park is a vast improvement. 

The pitch is fully railed off and there is a tea bar behind the goal. There is no football furniture but the club are hoping to install changing rooms as currently they are using the adjacent secondary school.

Today Brickfield (playing in unfamiliar orange instead of their usual green and white) were taking on Mold Alex, the result today having implications at both ends of the table.

At the beginning of play, Rangers were third bottom whilst Alex were top of the table. However Mold have second placed Hawarden breathing down their necks, just a point behind but with a game in hand.

Mold scored two first half goals, the opener was from Lewis Buckley after a well work free kick routine and Buckley also added the second , this time a tap in after a goalkeeping error.

Brickfield manager Peter Gabriel had clearly urged his side to don't give up and they had more of the ball in the second period. They did pull a goal back late on through Ryan Nelson but Mold were able to see the game out to claim the victory.

CAMELON JUNIORS (Carmuirs Park)

SCOTTISH JUNIOR CUP SEMI-FINAL 1ST LEG, CAMELON JUNIORS 2-1 GLENAFTON ATHLETIC, ATTENDANCE: 1,200 (est)

It was a journey North of the Border today as I made my way to the Forth Valley for the semi-final first leg of the Scottish Junior Cup.

Camelon Juniors FC are based in Camelon, a district of Falkirk (about 2 miles west of Falkirk itself) and play in the East Region Super League.

Camelon, Junior Cup winners in 1995, were taking on Glenafton Athletic for the right to play either Hurlford United or Irvine Meadow in the final in May.  This is a competition that is taken very seriously in these parts and are usually blood and thunder affairs that tend to attract decent crowds. Today was no exception.

There were over 1,000 fans present and Glenafton brought a fair few up to the game. It was the Glens fans who made most of the noise and provided the spectacle of regular pyro displays before and during the game!

The match itself was an absorbing encounter with both teams playing some good football, especially given the conditions were awful with a strong wind blowing from one end of the pitch to the other and persistent heavy rain throughout the 90 minutes.

The visitors from Ayrshire started the strongest and took the lead after 4 minutes when Cameron Marlow burst through the home defence, rounded the 'keeper and fired the ball home from a very acute angle.

Camelon worked their way back into the game and were level after 26 minutes when a corner kick into the box fell to the feet of Colin Leiper who prodded the ball home from a few yards out.

After an even opening 45 minutes, Camelon, with the wind at their backs, had the better of the second half exchanges. They eventually scored their second goal after 77 minutes when Craig Menzies headed the ball into his own net. In the celebrations that followed Camelon's Andy McGown was shown a straight card for gesturing to the travelling Glenafton fans.

Overall though there was nothing between the teams and the game is set up nicely for next Sunday's second leg in New Cumnock. I'll be honest, I can't predict the eventual winner......

MARCH TOWN UNITED (GER Ground)

EASTERN COUNTIES LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, MARCH TOWN UNITED 0-2 CORNARD UNITED, ATTENDANCE: 25

Following on from last weekends visit to Welton Rovers to see their old wooden stand, today was another such trip to see another iconic old stand, soon to bite the dust, this time at the home of March Town United.

March Town, founded in 1885, were one of two teams in March, the other being March GER United (the GER being the Great Eastern Railway) who were founded in 1911. March Town played at various grounds whilst March GER United played at the current ground after it opened in 1923, the year the famous old stand was built.

At the end of World War II, March GER United did not reform and March Town took over the GER ground, adding the suffix United to their name in 1950.

The wooden stand is a distance away from pitch, due to the ground hosting cycling, greyhound racing and cricket up until the 1960's. There are also plenty of posts obscuring the view of spectators, so even though the stand is a rare beauty some of the views are not the best. I sat towards the front of the stand and to be fair, it wasn't a bad spot.

This will not be a problem much longer as work is soon to commence on a new stand and changing block. The club hope work will be completed in time for next season.

The game pitted 3rd bottom versus bottom and you could tell. The game wasn't the greatest and won't live long in the memory. Cornard scored two second half goals, through Joe Paton and A.N.Other to take the three points. 

Another highlight of the afternoon was a visit to the local Wetherspoons, which is the old Hippodrome Cinema. Decorated with old film posters, with the upper tier of seats still intact, this has to be one of the few 'spoons worth a visit, couple that with the ongoing beer festival and it made for an ideal pre-match.

WELTON ROVERS (West Clewes Recreation Ground)

WESTERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE, WELTON ROVERS 2-1 WELLS CITY, ATTENDANCE: 62

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!

http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Welton-Rovers-reveal-plans-new-stand-West-Clewes/story-19898093-detail/story.html

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.

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).