Left to my own Devizes

Devizes Town v Corsham Town

Swindon Wildcats v Basingstoke Bisons

Off of a night shift and back on earlies tomorrow, so the day was spent fighting the sleep to get back on days. No trains running and only a Sunday bus service so options were limited, and a day out around Devizes was chosen. First bus of the day was had.

Note to bus drivers. It is very hard to deny the existence of a Wiltshire Day Rover, when it is advertised in large letters on the side of your bus.

Route goes out through Wroughton. Of interest is these large aircraft hangers which house all the unused exhibits from the Science museum. Occasionally you will see something being swapped over and a 1930s London bus heading through the village.

The route parallels the ancient trading route of the Ridgeway, on which the 1838 Hackpen white horse is one of eight in Wiltshire.

First stop off was Avebury, and the stone circle.

Avebury is a much larger henge than it’s famous counterpart. It can also still be freely wandered round.

However, old habits die hard, and it was good to see two of the standing stones were being used by kids as goalposts.

After a walk round the complete circle, it was a quick stop off at the village sports ground. Avebury used to be in the Wiltshire league and the pitch, had a cover on the far side. However, the senior team packed it in after a disastrous season a few years back, and the club is now only a youth set up. The ground is shared with the cricket club and I have played here. It is a slightly surreal location as at one end is a long barrow, and on one side, Silbury Hill, which can be seen to the left of the goal.

Right in the middle of the henge is the Red Lion……

……which although it boasts this unique claim, is more well known for being the only non-wetherspoons pub in Wiltshire, that opens at 8am. This was taken advantage of with an Avebury Well Water, which disappointingly turned out to be a Greene King re-badge.

Back on the bus towards Devizes, and a better view of the prehistoric artificial chalk mound of Silbury Hill.

On to Devizes and in order to comply with my anti-paraletic tactic of having to walk a mile for every pint consumed on a day out, I had a wander to Caen Hill and the flight of 29 locks which raise the Kennet and Avon canal by 237 feet over a two mile stretch. The walk down the towpath encountered considerable numbers of the only group of people in life who are more selfish and self-unaware than cyclists, namely dog walkers. As ever, they seemed quite happy for their dogs to be jumping over people, or wrapping themselves round everyone with their extended leads. Shitheads, the lot of them.

Back into town and a quick visit was made to the Wadworths brewery to see if the visitors centre was open, but not with any success. It is no co-incidence that the three main brewerys in Wiltshire; Wadworths, Arkels and Ushers, are all located on canals, as they seem to just bottle the stagnant water. Wadworths are best known for 6X, which is what a Soda Stream beer would taste like.

Fortunately, Devizes has a new alehouse in the centre, which was open. This is the tap for the Kennet and Avon brewery, and their Pillbox was ad.

Next Guide pub, though not a tick, was the British Lion for a Downton – Honey Blonde.

Wandering to the next pub, this thing pulled up. The driver chucked a woodern block behind the front wheel and headed for the cashpoint. No one seemed to view it as anything out of the ordinary apart from me.

Next pub was the Southgate, a Hop Back tie, for a GFB. Of note is the bridge parapet on the road just beyond the pub. This was the portal for a tunnel that took the railway under the town. When the railway shut, it was taken over by Devizes gun club for use as a rifle range. Their most notorious member was Michael Ryan, who learned to shoot there, before going on his rampage around Savernake and Hungerford.

In my day, these were called scrapyards.

By now it was time for the 1400 kick off. A wander through a housing estate eventually offered a glimpse of the floodlights……

….and a mud track…..

…led to the main event.

The ground is on a very large site, with a lot of wasteland and derelict buildings.

These sentry boxes guard the two entrances.

Devizes Town 1 v Corsham Town 2, Toolstation Western League Division 1.

Devizes have been members of the Western league since the 1960s. In that time they haven’t really done much, though they did win the league in 1973. They struggled in the premier league for a number of years, before being relegated to division one a few years ago, and have continued to struggle since.

I’d seen Corsham in the first week of the season. They are relatively recent converts to the Western League, joining in the late 1990s. They were soon promoted to the premier and won it in 2007, before being relegated a few seasons ago.

Surisingly, the ground was opened as recently as 1965.

The main spectator feature is the main stand, which, despite it’s historic looks, incredibly dates from the mid 1990s! It has recently been refurbed thanks to support from my favourite brewer.

On the opposite side is an amazing collection of condemned buildings.

The most obvious one is this, which houses the local boxing and table tennis clubs, and shows signs of errant shots. One of the seminal books on amateur football is Kerry Miller’s “The History of Non-league Football Grounds”. He describes this as the ugliest building in the whole of non-league.

The PA system, from times when a tannoy really was a tannoy, and could be heard from most of south Wiltshire.

This anonymous building was the smartest on the site, but I was able to tick off ‘rusting barbecue’ from the non-league ever presents, seen on the right.

The other item on the list, rusting agricultural equipment, was very orderly laid out behind the goal, like a Wiltshire grand prix.

This was my favourite. A crossover of turf airer and medieval torture equipment.

A pretty scrappy opening.

But eventually Corsham took the lead.

I headed out of the wind into these grand looking seats in the main stand.

To immediately see Devizes equalise.

There could have been other goals, but the glazed screen ends weren’t the easiest to see through.

Half time came and it was off to the recently refurbished club house.

Inevitably, it was a tie of the town brewery.

Forget what he did two years earlier, this was the highlight of Roger hunt’s career.

Stay classy Devizes.

I had never seen this publication before and I found it propping up the wonky leg of the Christmas tree.

I updated my knowledge on the laundary situation at Brentford….

…and a couple of lawn mower reviews.

On to the fizzy beer and fake Monster Munch.

Corsham scored what proved to be the winner.

Though this didn’t trouble the scoreboard…..

….which had been stickered by the 1887 Green Army. Any guesses? Oh go on then, its Willand Rovers.

Despite these tempting fixtures, it was time to head off.

Second white horse of the day, this being a millennium project on a hillside overlooking Devizes, replacing one that had been lost a couple of hundred years previously.

However, my sporting day was not over, as a change of bus in Swindon, took me to the Link centre….

Swindon Wildcats 0 v 3 Basingstoke Bisons, English Premier League

Swindon have had an ice hockey team since 1986, originally as the wild cats but at various times, the ice lords, chill, phoenix, lynx and now back to wild cats. I was tempted to watch them when I first moved to Swindon, but fell out with them regarding them marketing the Swindon-Bracknell game as the ‘M4 derby’. The press office didn’t take kindly to my correspondence, including maps, showing that Bracknell was actually on the A329(m).

Basingstoke were formed in 1988 when the ice rink there opened. They were originally called the beavers and I went there a few times in my teenage days. They are now named the bisons, to quote Wikipedia “The name change came about due to the name "Beavers" being the butt of many jokes among British hockey fans ('beaver' being a popular sexual euphemism)”. They have had a few seasons in the Elite League, but are now back in the EPL, the second tier of British ice hockey.

So this was my first visit and they had a special seasonal playing kit.

Mascots observing national anthems.

Games are three periods of twenty minutes. In the first break, there was a strange spectator activity whereby you threw pucks from wherever you were in the rink, and tried to get yours nearest to a traffic cone.

I was reminded of the best bit about ice hockey, the large truck that drives round and cleans the loose ice and wets the rink. What a beast, and check them alloys.

The game was of a much higher standard than I could ever remember, but remained 0-0 until late in the second period when Basingstoke scored a scrappy goal. They went on to score two more in the final third.

That was how the game finished, with Swindon having a similar shots to goals ratio to Wayne Rooney. The Sunday bus service finished at 1900 so it was an hour long walk back into town.