No.23 - Sat 8th December 2012; North West Norfolk League Division 1;                           2pm at the Watlington Sports & Social Club; Church Road; Watlington; Norfolk; PE33 0HE.

 

Matchday images (37) https://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/WatlingtonSportsSocialClubFC

Watlington Sports & Social Club (0) 1 Ingoldisthorpe (2) 3

Visitors nick Orlovs the points...

By mid-day the phone lines linking FGIF HQ with the outside world (well, non league football world, to be more precise) were close to melting point. On days such as this the ravages of a recent icy, cold and wet spell of weather make it increasingly difficult to find a game that’s survived the elements. Indeed with every call made my shortlist of hopping alternatives was dwindling pretty fast. But being a compulsive type I never give up hope and was finally rewarded for my persistence when club secretary Cyril Jones confirmed that the North West Norfolk League game at Watlington Sports & Social Club this afternoon was definitely on.

 

Within the hour I had covered the relatively short distance comfortably and arrived at the tidy ground in Church Road amid bright, sunny but cold conditions. The venue found just off the main A10 carriageway midway between Downham Market and Kings Lynn is close to the village centre. A left hand turn on the crown of a bend leads you to the main entrance and car park marked by a neat welcome display board. An impressive large red brick building (erected in the late 1990’s) running lengthways offers excellent facilities for community use in the village hall and provides valuable changing accommodation for the local football club. At the end of the drive and to the right is the homely social club (adjacent to the bowling green) complete with bar facilities for patrons. Next to this over to the right is a sloping playing field used for junior football and training (having the benefit a couple of floodlights in situ).

 

The main football pitch is found in a separate tree-lined field behind the village hall away to the left, being only a short walk from the changing rooms. Marked out on a slightly elevated plateau the land here is very undulating with a great deal of wild and overgrown bracken, brambles and long weeds bordering most of the perimeter except the grassed area behind the goal nearest to the village hall. Although there are no pitchside facilities for both spectators and players, it’s nonetheless a picturesque spot with the beautiful church of St Peter and St Paul making for a splendid backdrop to the action.

 

Today Watlington Sports and Social Club FC welcomed Ingoldisthorpe to Church Road for an important and long-awaited NWNL Division 1 fixture. Before play both sides occupied a bottom half of the nine team table – yes, that’s right, only nine clubs now make up the entire first division following a couple of shock resignations (including Norfolk FA Junior Cup holders Reffley Royals FC) at the start of the season. As a result each club has played only six league games to date since September! With the hosts still looking for their first home victory of the campaign the stats spoke for themselves and clearly suggested an away win was on the footy cards.

 

As expected the result went according to the form book and the visitors took all three points back to Hunstanton with a comfortable 3-1 win. Although they gave a good account of themselves Watlington always looked second best in what was a hard fought and competitive match.

 

The game was only a few minutes old when the powerful Polish striker Artur Olovs surged forward to set up young Tom Nicol (5) who had the easy task of side-footing the ball home from close range. Watlington had two opportunities to equalise through Tom Peel (33) and Andrew Long (42) who both hit the woodwork with headers from a similar distance inside the area following a couple of free-kicks. But it was their opponents who extended their lead on the stroke of half-time when home defender Daniel Camp was caught in possession by a persistent Olovs (45) who nicked the ball before driilling it under keeper Andrew Butters to make it 0-2.

 

Watlington deservedly got themselves back into the game just after the hour mark when on the counter Lewis Hewitt laid the ball off for Andy Stratford (62) to place it perfectly in the bottom left hand corner of the net beating keeper Adam Daniels from six yards out. Any chance to equalise was soon snuffed out when Olovs (73) spectacularly scored direct from a free-kick taken from 25 yards out close to the right hand sideline. This was enough to win the game which ended on a sour note as frustrated tempers frayed in the closing minutes giving referee Anthony Bird some unwanted extra paperwork as he calmly and efficiently restored order. The result leaves the hosts still looking for their first home win and heading ever closer to the relegation places.    

 

Although the game was played in bright sunshine for the most part, the pitch side temperature felt much closer to freezing as the surrounding oak trees cast long shadows from the low position of the watery sun. It was well brrrracing to say the least!! Unsurprisingly only a handful of spectators were in attendance. A range of snacks including crisps and chocolate as well as a hot cuppa were all available from the bar in the social club during the afternoon.    

 

The club are very lucky to have Cyril Jones as one of their committee members. Cyril has been actively involved in local football since moving to the area from his native Bletchley in North Buckinghamshire where he qualified as a referee. With stints on the United Counties League and more recently the Anglian Combination League (on the board of which he served as an officials’ representative), the sprightly seventy-two year old has been with Watlington Sports & Social Football Club for the last ten years. Apart from being the club secretary and active lino Cyril also cites part-time groundsman and mole catcher as his other duties. Indeed he enthusiastically explained to me how much time he spends tending to the pitch where over the course of this season he has caught no less than sixteen moles in his efforts to keep the bumpy surface in good nick! There are two large areas of newly rotivated soil close to the half-way line which clearly shows evidence of his most recent handy work.

 

This was definitely another great hopping day out. I was really pleased to get to a game considering the recent bad weather and would suggest it could be somewhere worth keeping up your football travelling sleeve if you are ever in this neck of the woods and stuck for a game. My thanks also go to Cyril for making me feel so welcome during my short stay. Cheers my friend! The joys of hopping continue...have fun wherever you go!

 

Incidentally the league publishes an excellent regularly updated website which provides amongst other things a superb directory with all the contact information you need as well as a link to the important information covering fixtures, results and tables on the FA’s Full-Time site.

 

FGIF Match Stats

Scorers: (H) A Stratford (62) and (A) T Nicol (5); A Orlovs (45; 73)

Attendance: 11; Admission and Programme: None; Match rating: 3/5; Ground rating: 2/5.

Links

http://www.nwnfl.co.uk/

edited on 09/12/12