Cash Cowes

Cowes Sports 0 v AFC Newbury 2, Sydenham's Wessex League, Division 1. 

By 2004, I'd given up watching Reading, and was instead watching non-league.  I'd picked a few local teams, and was watching their away games to clear the various leagues.  For the Wessex league, I was watching AFC Newbury, which was strange decision as my Dad watched rivals Thatcham.  Anyway, this was a ferry trip across to the Isle of Wight. 

Cowes were formed in 1881.  At the turn of the last century, they were quite a force in football in the south, winning the double in the inaugural season of the Hampshire League.  This saw promotion to the Southern League, where they were runners up to a certain Thames Ironwork, who were West Ham, before they started concentrating on scamming local authorities and kicking the shit out of each other.  They were promoted to the first division, joining contemporaries Tottenham Hotspur, Millwall, Bristol City and Swindon.  Cowes soon returned to the Hampshire league, winning it on six occasions, until they were promoted to the Wessex League in the early nineties.  By then, they had merged with Wight Sports, adopting their suffix.  They had remained in the top league ever since, though without really troubling either end of the table.

AFC Newbury were formed in 1996 to replace the long standing Newbury Town, who had gone bust after been taken over by an oil Barron and taking half of Readings first team squad to the Isthmian second division.  The new club was basically a renamed Ecchinswell, a village just south of Newbury, who had a rising team in the Hampshire league, but couldn't gain access to the Wessex league as the ground was just a field.   They therefore took over the Farraday Road home of Newbury Town and combined with a couple of boys clubs to form a very strong youth set up.  With financial backing from major local company Vodafone, they assembled a very strong team, basically from the previously dominant Andover Town, recruited Guy Whittingham as manager, and rose up to challenge at the top of the Wessex League.  A third place position the previous season wasn't good enough for their application to the Southern League to be accepted, but they went into this game in second place, behind a dominant Winchester City.

Cowes originally played at Brooklyn Park, adjacent to the river Medina.  They were early victims of property developers, it being sold for housing in 1912. They moved to the then out of town Testwood Park, purchasing the ground during WW2.  This has been a shrewd investment, as they have been able to sell off various parts for development, the ground now being encased in housing.

The main stand dates from the purchase of the ground in 1946.  Local folklore states that it was built in 24 hours.  I could believe that about Crockenhill, but this looks more substantial

Alongside the stand was the newly built changing room and clubhouse block.

On the other side, was a raised area that looked suspiciously a stand that hadn't been built in a day.

The opposite touchline used to have a basic cover, but it seems to have disappeared since my first visit in Hampshire league days.  Newbury used to play in green, but the Vodafone sponsorship saw them get the then fellow sponsees Man Utd template kit, with a Newbury badge.

At the entrance touchline, signs of the training area sold off during various financial crisis.

At the opposite end, once fine views down to the Needles have been shrouded by a housing estate.

I have no idea why I included a broken skateboard deck in this shot.

Slightly more artistic.  Or as artistic as a photo can be that silhouettes a bank clerk getting his weekly 90 minutes of semi-authority. 

Newbury took the midway through the first half, mainly because I informed an unsighted Anthony Alayne that Dave Asker was unmarked in the centre.  I claimed the assist, purely to spite the fantasy football weirdos.

They then doubled the lead in the second, past the first recorded example I have of a @keepers_towel.  A very ornate one it is too.

2016 Postscript

Cowes Sports carried on in the top division of the Wessex.  However, in 2010 they finished rock bottom, and were relegated to division 1.  They stayed there for five seasons, before a second place finish saw them return to the top last season.  An additional cover has been erected on the foundations adjacent to the main stand.

The season was the high point of AFC Newbury's short existence. In the FA cup, they progressed to the fourth qualifying round after beating Local Conference South side Basingstoke Town, four divisions ahead of Newbury, 4-2 at the Camrose, after being 2-0 down at half time.  They got to the quarter final of the Vase, losing at Beddlington Terriers, a game I watched adjacent to Steve Harmisson, who proved to be one of the dullest people in existence.  However, approaching the end of the season, wages started being paid late, and various stories of financial woe emerged, the team dropping to sixth place.  This carried on to the following season, which Newbury struggled through, but at the end of it lost the Vodafone backing and were kicked out of the council owned ground. They lasted a couple of games into the new season, playing at a local school, but called it a day in September 2006.  A local pub team, Old London Apprentice, took over the lease of Farraday Road.  They changed to become Newbury FC and gained promotion through the Reading Senior League, to the Hellenic.  However, the councils desire to build either a bypass or industrial units on the ground, means they won't give the club a lease longer than a year, so they have now had to drop down to the Thames Valley League.

Brading Cats and Dogs

14th August 2004

Brading Town v AFC Aldermaston, Wessex League.

This was a jaunt over to the Isle of Wight as The Wessex league had swallowed the top divisions of the Hampshire league.  Two of the new clubs were Brading Town from the Isle of Wight, and AFC Aldermaston, who were my nearest de facto non-league club when growing up.

Travelling down from Basingstoke, engineering work meant the normal route to Portsmouth was closed, so instead it was via Woking, which was debut mileage for a 444 for me.

In the bay was an SWT ED on Thunderbird duties.

Down to Portsmouth Harbour, then across on the ferry to Ryde, where it was a stroll down the pier to esplanade.  My recently retired dad had joined me, and is seen here waiting for one of the ex- London Underground tube trains to take us onward.  These are used because a tunnel at Ryde kept flooding so they raised the track bed but the lower height meant only tube trains could fit through it.

They originally purchased some redundant 1923 Bakerloo line stock from London Underground.  Once this had rusted through, they then went back and purchased some more modern trains, this time being ex Northern line 1938 stock.  This took us to Smallbrook Junction.  This is notable for a couple of things.

Firstly, it is immediately adjacent to Smallbrook stadium, which was home to fellow Wessex League team Ryde Sports after they moved from the wonderful Partlands.  It was then also home to Wight Wizzards speedway team.  The station is located in the middle of fields and has no official pedestrian access, it exists solely as the interchange for the Isle of Wight steam railway, which was taken to Haven Street.

On to Brading, and the short walk north to the football ground.

Brading Town 1 v AFC Aldermaston 1, Sydenhams Wessex League - Division 2.

Brading Town were formed in 1871, being a founding club of the Isle of Wight league in 1898.  They had success in the league, including eight successive titles in the 1950s.  This led to them joining the Hampshire league, in which they steadily rose through the divisions.  When the Hampshire league merged with the Wessex in 2004, Brading joined division 2.

AFC Aldermaston were formed in 1952 as the works team of AWRE, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, hence their nickname 'the atoms'.  They played in the Reading leagues, before their first foray into non-league in the Hellenic league in 1979.  They stayed there until 1986, when they dropped back to the North Hants league.  By the early 1990s, they had joined the Hampshire league.  By virtue of having floodlights, rather than any footballing merit, they then achieved a number of promotions.  A re-org of the Hampshire to ensure that clubs winning the league had the necessary ground grading to be promoted to the Wessex, saw them moved up four divisions to the premier in 2003.  Then when a merger with the Wessex took place, they moved up to the Wessex in 2004.

Vicarage Lane has been home to Brading Town since 1958.

A new seated stand had been built for Wessex grading requirements.  The Isle of Wight version of Last of the Summer Wine had soon made themselves at home, as well as a slumbering @nonleaguedogs.

The original shelter and dugouts on the opposite touchline.

The shelter was missing its rear and part of its roof, so was more useful for shading from the sun than it would be for any shelter from the rain.

The dugouts offered the most solid construction, resplendent in new paint and quaint hand made signage.

Hard standing had also been installed, with a particularly vigorous kids game going on behind the goal.

At the other end of the ground, the ground bordered the railway.  I'd waited an hour for this shot, then the linesman photo bombed it.

Aldermaston somehow dominated the game, scoring early on. 

The absence of any structural value to the old stand, gave an easy opportunity to get both stands in one photo.

You don't get this at Old Trafford, part 1,346.  Half time saw the away team choose to have their team talk under the shade of one of the giant oak trees at the far end of the ground.

The kids game had also taken over one of the goals.

I went through a very short spell of trying to take artistic views of grounds.  This seemed to be limited to taking a photo at ground level.  The fad lasted until the first game it rained at.  Anyway, here is a Brading player pointing.

Here is the Aldermaston forward looking back forlornly, as Brading equalised with almost the last kick of the game.

The passing of the four car shuttle in the retro livery, signified it was time for my move back to the mainland.

2016 Post Script.

Brading Town gained promotion to the Wessex Premier in 2006.  They stayed there until 2012 when they chose to leave the Wessex, citing travel costs and high league admin fees.  This meant they also forsook the Hampshire league, dropping right back to the Island League, where they remain.

AFC Aldermaston have had a typically eventful yet crap time.  In this season, they finished bottom of the division, so were relegated to a newly formed third division.  However, this was disbanded, but bizarrely resulted in Aldermaston being put in the first division.  This didn't go well as during the 2009–10 season, the club lost 40 consecutive games, breaking the previous record of 39 straight losses held jointly by Stockport United and Poole Town.  A plucky 1-1 draw at Warminster breaking the run at the 41st attempt.  This resulted in relegation back to the Hampshire league, from which they then switched to the Thames Valley Premier League, which is the new name of the Reading Senior league.  Last season, despite a seventh place finish, they were the highest placed team to meet ground grading requirements, and so got promotion to the Hellenic league, where they currently aren't last. 

The Vicarage Lane ground has been renamed the Peter Henry stadium after a long standing servant to the club.  The original shelter now has a complete roof and also cladding at the back and sides.

The ancient tube trains are still running on the Isle of Wight, now coming up to their 80th birthday.  The bus network on the island has been sold to a private operator, and aggressive marketing combined with free travel for OAPs, has decimated rail usage on the line.  Therefore, there is no financial case for new stock, the tunnel at Ryde precludes cascaded national rail stock, and any redundant tube stock is driver only operated, so isn't compatible with the line.  The latest scheme is to convert it to a tram operation, but the wise money is these old trains still being in use in another 12 years time.

At Smallbrook Stadium, Ryde Sports went bust, but have since reformed in the Island league. 

Speedway also stopped for a while after the Wizzards stopped, meaning the only activity at the stadium was the Isle of Wight Chilli festival.  But after a lot of TLC on the track, speedway returned in 2015, with firstly the Islanders, and now the Warriors in the National League.

All Wight Times