Life in the Love Lane

Petersfield Town v Northwood

Bored at work so mobile office evoked. First of all on the 1355 Swindon....

......which was taken to Bath Spa for a Cardiff Portsmouth unit.

These are slightly less convivial for working on but do take in the sights of Westbury white horse....

For those of you who have been missing the railway updates, Westbury is the central yard where large chunks of the Mendip Hills have been dug out and stored here, before heading on to the South East to meet its insatiable hunger for crushed aggregate....

The route has a number of stations which aren’t even a carriage length long, any would be passengers having to get in and out of the guard’s door. This is Dilton Marsh….

Anyway, back to sightseeing. Salisbury Plain....

....and it's Cathedral.....

....the watercress beds of the lower Test valley...

.....Southampton Dock's, with its strong tradition of un-unionised labour that brought the town its 'Scummer' tag....

….St Mary’s stadium….

…..the Med…..

....St Mary's stadium from across the Medway.

Eventually, two hours and twelve stations later, into Fratton, parts of the conglomerate towns of Portsea Island.

From here, it was a short leap on the Uk's oldest mainland rolling stock, a Southern 313...

....Up to Havant for the Robin Hood, which was a Fullers GBG and so memorable, I forgot to get a photo.

Next a South West Trains leap....

.....up to Godalming, which is currently having a new disabled compliant footbridge being built.

Reason for this was that I'd always assumed that Petersfield/Hazelmere/Godalming were one big place, so was doing the two guide pubs in the latter. The first one was the Jack Phillips, which was a Wetherspoons named after the radio operator from the Titanic, and cleared with a Nottingham - Trentsman. Again, I forgot a photo. Next was the Star, which although Greene King, was better than most freehouses, and a Mr Grundy’s - Lord Kitchener was had.

Back to the station, which still has its original station buildings...

....to retrace my steps back to Petersfield....

....a journey of 40 minutes, about 30 longer than I had estimated.

Eventually, we landed, amidst signs of a truncated kick about.

A short walk through town, and after a false alarm with the by-pass street lights, the floodlights were located.

To the right of the main sign is an advert for a bookshop. This is owned by the twat with the bell and the wig at Portsmouth games.

Petersfield Town 1 v Northwood 0, Evo-stick League, Division 1 Central.
There aren't enough programme covers depicting bouncers in club leisure wear.

Petersfield United had been in existence since the turn of the last century, playing in the Hampshire league and then into the Isthmian in the mid-eighties. Petersfield wanted to join the Wessex league, so resigned from the Isthmian, who then got a bit stroppy as they were losing so many clubs to the Southern league leg of the pyramid, so got the FA to veto the switch. So instead, they went bust, only to immediately reform as Petersfield Town, who took the place in the Wessex league earmarked for United. How convenient. However, this didn’t last long as they went through a series of relegations into Hampshire 2. In the last ten years they have risen very quickly, up through the Hampshire league into the Wessex, and after winning dividion 1 and the premier in successive seasons, now find themselves in the Southern league Central division..

Northwood have flirted in and out of existence for the last 120 years, playing under such wonderful nomenclature as Emmanuael Northwood and then Holy Trinity Northwood. They played in the local Harrow leagues before progressing through the Middlesex League to the Hellenic in the 1970s, before switching to the London Spartan and up into the Isthmian in the early 1990s, rising up through the league before transferring across to the Southern in 2010. Northwood are most famous for being the rival school of the inbetweeners, a modern day Rodney Bennett.

First stop was the club house, which opened straight into the players tunnel, and this motivational ‘keep Calm…’ sign. They also have ‘this is our time’ and ‘fuck this, I’ll be a stripper’.

I had been to the ground once before. This was on a bank holiday in the early nineties, and all the stars aligned as it was a midday kick off, before Havant at three and Waterlooville in the evening. Clearing the latter two is now 50% easier.

It hasn't changed much, with the main stand.....

.....opposite the clubhouse and changing rooms.

"Quick, we're still a hundred seat shorts of requirements, and the ground graders are here tomorrow, where can we put them". If there was a stand I would like named after me, it would be this one. Still beats any Arena UK pre-fab

The training area contained not dug outs, but more retirement lets. Seriously, the size of them means they may well be liable for bedroom tax.

For the second night in a row, there were no @keepers_towels in either goal.

I am praying for rain for the now heady heights of 10 followers.

Anyway, some people kicked the ball around and Petersfield scored the only goal of the game, which means they are safe from relegation.

I headed back to the station and it's ornate signal box....

.....for a SWT unit to Guildford, for a GWR turbo back to Reading.

Unfortunately I had missed the last train back to Swindon, so it was rail-replacement bus action back to the metropolis.