It’s Suffolk FA Junior Cup day again and I can’t wait for the action to start. It’s exciting stuff with a much-awaited match featuring clubs that play their football in two different competitions adding that David v Goliath touch to proceeedings. Add to that the chance to tick off another Anglian Combination Football League ground from my ‘to do’ list and you could say that we’re definitely in hopping heaven here!!

We are travelling to the other side of the county with a long winding journey on slow roads taking us to the town of Lowestoft for our chosen game. Waveney Football Club from Division 4 of the ACL welcome minnows Lowestoft & District Leaguers Corton Seltic to the Denes High School playing fields for an important First Round tie. Mind you on days such as this, status stands for very little with plenty of local pride at stake in what is seen by locals as a tricky derby match. It’s a bit of a banana skin too for the hosts as they entertain a side several rungs beneath them in the local non league pyramid ladder. If you're a betting man (or woman) it's not an easy one to call!

With honours even after a fairly uneventful and goalless opening half there’s very little to choose between the sides. With much huffing and puffing it’s Waveney who start to show their class and manage to break the dead-lock when Tom Aldis rolls the ball into a channel for Striker Mawford (49) who gets a lucky ricochet off a Seltic defender Andrew Savage that diverts it into his own net following good support from Kevin Oldman. Within ten minutes the hosts add a second with unmarked Curtis High (59) rising perfectly to send a bullet header from Aldis’ corner beyond helpless keeper Adam Piper to take the pressure off his side. The game is soon over as a spectacle though when a long run from captain and full-back Richard Gamble (74) is rewarded when he meets a delightful cut back from Stephen Scarff to slot home. Apparently this most surprising source has now netted two goals in his last two games, something totally unheard of in these parts!! On balance of play this well-earned victory now sees the Golds travel to Willis FC (Suffolk & Ipswich League) where a seemingly much stiffer test awaits them in the second round of the competition.

The match played on a flat, well grassed pitch in sunny conditions attracted almost twenty spectators including a few supporters who had travelled from neighbouring Corton. They certainly made themselves heard particularly during the second half as they increasingly vented their wrath on the match referee Keith Howlett as the game slipped away from their grasp!

Waveney FC plays its home games on the sports fields at the Denes High School, a large mixed comprehensive, found off the A12 Yarmouth Road. The club has formed a local partnership with the educational establishment (involving Football Foundation aid) and as a result has full use of its facilities with the kind help of sports centre supervisors who help out on match days. Visitors here must park up in the school grounds first before accessing the playing fields located at the back of the site. Entrance through the Leisure Centre reception leads you along a main corridor past the changing rooms and to the fields beyond.

As expected the site not only hosts football but provides facilities for rugby, cricket, netball and tennis. The latest addition is a brand new floodlit MUGA (multi use games area) which looks imprssive. Two full-sized fooball pitches are marked out on site and these are laid out out at a perpendicular (T-shape) to each other, both being conveniently close to the changing rooms.

Waveney FC play on the furthest pitch which is bordered by a tall wooden panelled fence and hedges which back on from local housing on one side and a rugby pitch on the other. Two portable wooden dug outs painted neatly andstrikingly in the club colours of gold and black are positioned close to the half-way line on the nearside. There is no other cover on site. Unsurprisingly the school buildings form a distinctive backdrop to the action. Interestingly co-tenants Blundeston Magpies were also playing at home today (on the other pitch) against fellow L&DL side Oxford Arms in another Suffolk FA 1^st round Junior Cup tie (1-7).

Although the club doesn’t issue programmes it does publish a most informative and regularly updated website which provides plenty of information for visitors including a list of fixtures; results; and photos (courtesy of FGIF media for covering today’s game) as well as useful club contact numbers and a map with directions. We found many of the locals to be most welcoming during our short stay at the Yarmouth Road venue and I would for this reason encourage you (in better weather perhaps) to take in a game at Waveney FC.

On a personal note it was great to tick off another Anglian Combination League club ground which now means that out of the 63 (first teams) playing in the entire competition I now have only trips to Redgate Rangers; Yelverton and Earsham left on my 'to do' list. Phew!!! Ah the joys of hopping in the Suffolk flatlands. Have fun wherever you go.     

FGIF Match Stats

Scorers: (H) T Mawford (49); C High (59); R Gamble (74) and (A) N/A.

Attendance: 18; Admission and Programme: N/A; Match rating: 3/5; Ground rating: 3/5.

Links

http://www.waveneyfc.co.uk/

http://www.angliancombination.org.uk/

http://www.suffolkfa.com/