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Saints victory was worth the wait!
As the name suggests St.Edmunds 65 Football Club were formed over forty years ago and started playing in local football before joining the Bury and District League. It was during the 2002-03 season that an application to join the Suffolk and Ipswich League was made but facilities at the Victory Sports Ground (a venue where Suffolk play Minor Counties cricket) were not up to standard. The club decided to look for an alternative venue and moved to their present home at the Rougham Sports Hall where they have played for the last three seasons.
The site near Rougham Green can be reached from the A14 by following signs for Rougham using the the recently constructed tunnel which passes under the main carriageway. Continue through the village until the the club entrance appears on the left-hand side of the road. The ground is situated in a most rural location and the club shares its facilities with the local cricket club. The playing field itself is bordered on three sides by open countryside with a large pavilion in the corner nearest to the entrance.
When I arrived at 6.15pm the St.Edmunds players were already warming up on the main pitch. Despite waiting another fifteen minutes there was still no sign of the visitors from Woodbridge and the referee was by now starting to look rather concerned. Eventually several cars pulled into the car park and a group of players emerged. It was by now almost 7pm! The referee looked at his watch once more and decided that under the circumstances he would reduce the playing time in an effort to finish the game before it got too dark.
No sooner had eleven Woodbridge players entered the pitch than the referee signalled for the game to start. Fellow travellers Brian Buck and Ted Alleway were also quite relieved when the game kicked-off. The club linesman nearest to us announced that the game would now involve playing two halves of thirty-five minutes. At least we had a game! One local standing near to us remarked that it didn't really matter as there was 'nothing on it' anyway.
His words were lost on us. Both sets of players challenged for every single ball and created chances at both ends in what was a highly competitive encounter. For the record St.Edmunds opened the scoring only for the visitors to pull one back at the start of the second half. Brian looked at his ever trusting stopwatch and told us that there was still ten minutes of play left. The game certainly wasn't over and the lads from Bury kept up the pressure. This paid off and they scored two more to win the game and take the three points. As we walked back to our cars we could not help wondering whether this victory may have been down to the warm up before the game. The enforced wait certainly helped!
Travellers may be interested to know that St.Edmunds do not issue matchday programmes. Incidentally there were no refreshments for the game which attracted only 14 spectators on a mild evening.
FGIF Rating: 3* | 