Diddy Men Serve Up Bollox and Are Derailed By Super Marine !!

And so to Loop Meadow and a bonus long weekend to see the Evostik South Division Division 1 South & West curtain raiser between Didcot Town and Swindon Supermarine.

 

Didcot Town Football Club was formed in 1907 from the merger of Didcot Village FC and Northbourne Wanderers, and boasts four club nicknames - Diddy, The Railwaymen, The Artillerymen and The Gunners. Initially playing in the North Berkshire Junior League, Diddy set up an offshoot team in 1923 - Didcot Wednesday - for those players who couldn't play on Saturdays due to work commitments, but had a half day off on Wednesdays instead.

 

By 1927 the club had moved to the Reading & District League and the 1953/54 season saw the creation of the Hellenic League, with the Railwaymen crowned champions in its inaugural season. Despite moving to the Metropolitan League in 1957, the club reverted back to the Hellenic in 1963.

 

As part of the redevelopment of Didcot town centre, ahead of the 1999/2000 season, the club relocated from the old Station Road ground (now Sainsburys car park !) to the magnificent new Loop Meadow stadium the other side of the railway tracks. The new stadium saw a change in fortunes, with the Artillerymen winning the FA Vase, beating AFC Sudbury 3-2 at White Hart Lane in 2005. The league title was lost by one point - that one point being a deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

 

However Diddy won the Hellenic League the following season to be promoted to the Southern League South & West. In 2009 the club was promoted to the Southern Premier but were relegated two seasons later, after losing 6 points following the demise of Windsor & Eton FC who they had beaten twice. Last season's mid table finish did, however, see the club's best ever FA Cup run, culminating in a televised First Round game against Exeter City, with the League 2 side winning 3-0.

Swindon Supermarine, 'The Marine', the visitors from the Webbs Wood Stadium, was established in 1992 from the merger of two troubled clubs in the Hellenic League - Supermarine FC and Swindon Athletic FC.

 

Supermarine FC was set up in 1946 from the social club of the Supermarine aircraft company famous for the Supermarine Spitfire aeroplane. Originally called Vickers Armstrong, then shortened to Vickers, the club played in the Swindon & District League before becoming founder members of the Wiltshire League. Thereafter the club moved up to the Hellenic League but were bottom of Division 1 at the time of the merger.

 

Swindon Athletic FC was founded in 1968 as Penhill FC, changing name in 1989. Also Wiltshire League founder members, the club ascended to the Hellenic in 1985 but was facing ground grading failure when the two clubs merged.

 

The new merged club won the Hellenic League in the 1997/98 season but was not promoted due to ground requirements. Three years later, again as champions, the Marine was accepted into the Southern League South & West and promoted to the Premier in 2007.

 

2010 saw a £50,000 funding shortfall and the very existence of the club hung by a thread until a supporters' consortium took over. Last season Supermarine reached the play offs, matching the 2013 term (after relegation the season before), but failure to achieve promotion has seen a wholesale change in playing personnel.

So Thursday and it's a slight detour to see the mini giraffe sculpture that forms part of Sale Art Zoo and then eschewing this week's must have offer from the Tyre Warehouse - a free bag of carrots with every tyre purchased.... Then on to the patchwork M6, and a welcome return of the PIES graffiti - now outed as a mythical Merseyside anti-heroes band, and due to release their debut album after three decades.......

 

It's a journey featuring smart motorway, broken down vehicles, lorries afire, burning trees, discarded fenders, plenty of rain and long delays. Three and a quarter hours later we finally arrive.

 

Friday brings better weather and a walk into the dreaming spires of Oxford. A brief stop at The Four Candles, and yes it is named after that iconic Two Ronnies sketch J On the wall are two fork handles and four candles....  Avoiding the cyclists, it's a trip to the Ashmolean Museum, then taking in the Sheldonian Theatre, Bodleian Library, Bridge of Sighs, Radcliffe Camera and finishing atop the Castle Mound at Oxford Castle, all the while marvelling at the historical attractions.

 

Saturday sees glorious sunshine - it is the first day of the football season after all - and a trip down the A34 to Didcot. After a fruitless search for a disabled space, and three car parks later, we eventually arrive at Didcot Railway Centre - and Steam Day !!

 

After travelling down both lines I take my leave and head for the Draycott Engineering Loop Meadow Stadium. I know needs must but Loop Meadow just sounds so much better.... Under the railway, onto the one way Cow Lane and then round the Ladygrove Loop, past an abandoned travellers ' site and to Bowmont Water, home to Oak Lane Health Centre, Willow Brook Leisure Centre and, of course, the Loop.

 

Inside the gorgeous sun beating down can be no excuse for a bare looking pitch. Entrance is by the main all seater stand, and to the right are two small seated covered stands in the corners, bisected by a covered terrace and a backdrop of the Railway Centre and the West Coast Main Line.

 

The far side supports a walkway and the dugouts, backed by Ladygrove Park and, on the hill, a bench overlooking the pitch - with several interested onlookers. To the left is a tree lined end, behind which is the travellers' site.

With the sun beating down, a bird of prey rising with the thermals in a cloudless sky and the hissing and whistling of steam trains in the background, the season is underway. Diddy are in red and white with keeper Leigh Bedwell in all white and Marine, appropriately, in all blue ! We also learn that Diddy's underwear sponsors are Bollox - yes, really......

 

Marine's captain Bradley Gray nearly hits the corner flag with the game's first effort but on 7 minutes we have the first goal. Gray's lovely through ball to strike partner Connor Waldon sees him flick it past his marker and score with a rasping left foot drive. Diddy's response has captain Adam Learoyd's header well saved by Marine custodian Connor Johns.

 

Waldon scores his second with a slight deflection after a drinks break, and Johns makes a fine save one on one from Diddy's Ryan Brooks. Waldon gets his hat trick just before the break, beating Bedwell with a brave header.

 

An open first half, far too open if you're a Didcot fan, finishes with Marine 3-0 up. Diddy caught with their pants down - or just plain Bollox ? The tannoy remains completely silent throughout the break.

 

The second half brings threats of a Diddy fightback thanks to the hard running of Brooks and fellow striker Ben Whitehead, but Johns remains relatively untroubled. The game becomes stretched as players tire in the heat and just before the hour Callum Parsons is teed up by Gray for the visitors' fourth.

 

We are then treated to a display of 18 gliders in the sky and a flurry of substitutions. Two of the visitors' replacements combine - Dan Martin put through hits the post but fellow substitute Lewis Thompson mops up to make it 5-0.

 

Finally in the 90th minute Diddy break their duck as Whitehead heads home a redirected corner for a home side consolation. Utter silence, bewilderment, then 'Christ we've scored' and then rather apologetic applause.....before the referee draws the veil on a 5-1 away victory.

 

Just time for a quick visit to Witney and, opposite the butter cross in the market square, a brief stop at the Company of Weavers, a nod to the town's traditional industry of blanket making. Then, thankfully, a less eventful journey home !

All Hail Windmill Army Reigning In The Sun - Nor Lye Strike Gold...

And so to Eynsham Hall Park Sports Ground, and a bonus overnighter (thanks Mark !) to see the Evostik South Division Division 1 South & West curtain raiser between North Leigh and Tiverton Town.

North Leigh is a small village of less than 2,000 inhabitants in West Oxfordshire just outside Witney. The football club was established in 1908 and boasts three nicknames - The Windmill Army, Yellows and Nor Lye. Initially competing in the Witney & District League, they progressed up to the Oxfordshire Senior League and then the Hellenic League. Fittingly this was won in their centenary year in 2008, taking them to their current, highest level of Step 4.

Tiverton Town also boast three nicknames - Tivvy, Yellows and The Gold Army. The visitors from Ladysmead were founded in 1913 as Tiverton Athletic, and merged with Uffculme St Peters in 1921 to form Tiverton AFC. Their first games were played at the Athletic Ground (now Amory Park) in the East Devon League, moving in to the North Devon League and then the Exeter & District League. The club were evicted in 1921 and moved to the rugby pitch at Elm Park, The Elms, in a rather one sided ground swap with the rugby club. A war battered Elms was virtually destroyed in World War 2 so the club was renamed Tiverton Town and moved to Ladysmead, although they had to use a pub ten minutes walk away for changing purposes.
 
The club gradually climbed the leagues, joining the Western League in 1973. The appointment of Martyn Rogers as manager in 1991 saw the club's halcyon days with the league won in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 1998. Having been runners up in the FA Vase in 1993, losing to Bridlington, they triumphed at Wembley against Tow Law Town 1-0 in 1998 and retained the Vase beating Bedlington Terriers by the same score the following year.
 
The club was promoted to the Southern League Division 1 West in 1999, and then the Premier in 2001. 2007 saw the Southern League Cup captured, but the club started to struggle to maintain its air of invincibility. Tivvy finished in the relegation zone at the end of 2009/10 but despite a reprieve, Rogers stepped aside after 19 seasons in charge. It was only a stay of execution as relegation followed the following season and, despite a brief flirtation with an internet entrepreneur, they have remained at the lower level. Club legend Rogers was reappointed manager in May 2014.

 

So Friday evening and on to the patchwork M6, and a welcome return of the PIES graffiti - 'PIES - THIS IS YOUR TIME' and 'VOTE PIES'. With long delays forecast ahead, a detour first into a godforsaken council estate in Stafford (the culprit - you know who you are !!), and then past the roundabout art in Cannock and bizarre architecture in Bridgtown.
 
The Black Country greets us with 'No car cruising - by high court injunction', and we skirt Walsall cruising past Rostance Edwards FC, an accountancy firm playing at Step 8, before rejoining the M6. Further smart (?) motorway delays, with closed lanes displaying 50 mph limits, and an accident then phantom lane closures on the M40 provide more hold ups before we eventually arrive at the new housing estate in Botley - pitch black with no street lighting and with monstrous kerbs. The navigator (you know who he is !) pronounces 'I'm lost, I'm lost' - never a truer word spoken.......
 
Saturday brings glorious sunshine and a walk into the dreaming spires of Oxford. Breakfast is at The Four Candles, and yes it is named after that iconic Two Ronnies sketch. On the wall are two fork handles and four candles.... Avoiding the cyclists, it's a trip to the Ashmolean Museum, then taking in the Sheldonian Theatre, Bodleian Library, Bridge of Sighs, Radcliffe Camera and finishing atop the Castle Mound at Oxford Castle, all the while marvelling at the historical attractions.
 
A gentle meander through countryside, stopping only to pay the Swinford Bridge toll - all of 5p - brings us to Eynsham Park. The ground is set in the picturesque surroundings of the Eynsham Hall estate, with the landowner charging the club a peppercorn rent.
 
Ample parking and a stroll past a faded clubhouse brings us to the ground. The near end supports a shallow covered terrace behind the North End goal which joins on to a welcoming clubhouse, Shep's Lounge Bar, and snack bar. Down the touchline is a pathway for standing with grassed areas overhung by leafy trees. Opposite the dugouts is the main stand named after George Hazell, the benefactor who bequeathed the club its floodlights. The stand highlights the prodigious slope on the pitch - one half having four seated rows above pitch level, the other only two.
 
The far end is open, backed by hedging, with two gates leading to a field occupied by oblivious sheep resting in the shade. In the distance, and just visible despite being framed by more trees, stands the majestic Eynsham Hall.

The Windmill Army are in traditional yellow and black, but can name only three substitutes. The third substitute is wearing a surgical boot and pink vest; needless to say he does not feature in the game. Tivvy are in change all white, and have only four substitutes, with no sub keeper.
 
The game gets off to a lively start with home keeper James Foster making a splendid fingertip save from Tivvy centre forward, Owen Howe. At the other end, Morgan Williams finishes horribly from a two on one and only a slight deflection, diverting the ball closer to the goal rather than corner flag, spares his blushes. From the resultant corner to the far post, right back Miles Welch-Hayes heads the ball firmly down. It hits the ground, loops over Tivvy's keeper and a covering defender attempts to punch the ball over the bar - his forearm smash only succeeding in pushing the ball into the net for the home side to lead.
 
Plenty of banter from the linesman too - during an enforced injury and drinks break, and with Tivvy manager Rogers encroaching on to the pitch, he asks the 60 year old if he wants to bring himself on....... The reply is absolutely unprintable !!
 
Just after the half hour, the Millers' Callum McNish is brought down for a contentious penalty. Cue apoplexy on the Tivvy bench and then relief as keeper Rhys Lovett saves Jamie Cook's spot kick. Foster makes another terrific save from Tivvy's Dan Smith to preserve the half time lead.
 
The second half begins in similar fashion and six minutes in, Williams motors down the left flank and sends over a pinpoint cross to McNish. The forward cushions the ball, swivels to beat his man and crashes the ball into the top right hand corner for a goal of real quality.
 
Tivvy must know it's not to be their day when Howe's firm header from a right wing cross thuds against the inside of the post. Foster remains relatively untroubled as the away side struggle to break down a resolute Windmill Army defence, and it finishes 2-0.
 
Just time for a quick visit to Witney and, opposite the butter cross in the market square, a pint of Hook Norton's Summertime in The Company of Weavers, a nod to the town's traditional industry of blanket making. Then, thankfully, a less eventful journey home !