Cirencester Town v Swindon Supermarine
The two days off at Christmas was taken advantage of by sorting out my flat in Swindon. Christmas day itself being spent clearing out six bin liners of accumulated junk was my way of celebrating the birth of christ. A similar level of productivity on boxing day morning meant the afternoon was spare to get a festive game in. However, the railway was out of action, with Network Rail using the break to their advantage as various intriguing bits of on-track plant passed my bedroom window.
Though there was exactly the same number of electrification pylons evident as there had been before the break.
So it was down to the bus station, with today's two options side by side. Two local derbys; Cirencester Town v Swindon Supermarine, or Wootton Bassett v Highworth Town. I had wanted to do Bradford Town v Melksham but a paucity of bus options would have seen an all day move to get there, including a three hour walk down the canal.
Cirencester won out, so it was off down the A319 dual carriage way, which ends in a field near Cheltenham.
It dropped into Cricklade. At work, the meeting room has been renamed the 'innovation hub', apparently with no sense of irony. I am now increasingly aware of other pointless uses of the word 'hub' in appalling contexts. This was provided by the 'first town on the Thames'.
Into Cirencester, and passing the rather nondescript Smiths Field. Except this was previously Smithsfield, home of Cirencester Town FC until 2008. But more of that later.
The bus to Cirencester is very frustrating in that it goes almost to the centre of the town without stopping, then does a tour of all the housing estates on the southern fringes. After ten minutes, I'd had enough so got out.
This took me to Four Acres Park, which you may be very surprised was a Hellenic League venue in the current decade. Cirencester United are the only team I know of to have been set up by a visiting Australian Buddhist who was a curate at the local church whilst on a gap year from studying Indian religions. He formed them in 1969 as a youth team under the name The Herd, which also sounds like an indie band, and they progressed through the Cirencester and Cheltenham Leagues, before joining the Hellenic in the mid 1980s. Meanwhile, the Aussie curate had gone on to become chaplain to the queen at the chapel royal, and wrote a book called The Art of Mindful Walking. Nothing in non-league is ordinary. To try and progress, the football club renamed themselves Cirencester United, but were hampered by facilities, especially when the changing room block was burnt down in 2008. So they moved to a pitch way outside the town, rather strangely located within an airfield at South Cerney. Originally an open bit of grassland, it did gain railings, but its remoteness and lack of facilities meant interest in the club drifted off and they disbanded in 2009.
So it was off into the woods.
Which took me to the next location on the tour of Cirencester's historic sporting venues, though this one was an 8,000 person venue from 1800 years ago.
Cirencester was an ancient roman settlement, and with it came the obligatory amphitheatre, though disappointingly the main past time in this one was the rather timid bull bating, rather than feeding stroppy Australians to lions as they did in Rome.
As detailed below, the venue had stone upper sections with lower timber bleachers, like Roman era Atcost flat packs.
Growing up in a village south of Reading, we'd have informal games of football against kids from other villages but who went to our school. We could never be arsed to cycle to Tadley so we used to meet halfway, the venue being the very convenient abandoned roman ampitheatre at Silchester. This made an excellent football pitch, and many a heated game took place there. It was only later that English Heritage took any interest in it and it is now off limits as apparently it is such a wonderfull example of a Roman artefact. Anyway, the one here was getting similar use, with families on boxing day walks using it for running races.
Some more wonderfully vague information about the site.
Cirencester's origins as a roman town means it has always been the centre of a large scale road network, and these days is still about 60% dual carriage way. This one is on the course of the old railway in from Kemble.
Cirencester is a very historic, being established by the Romans who built a fort where the Fosse Way crossed the river Churn. This developed into Corinium Dobunnorum, second-largest city in Roman Britain after Londinium. The withdrawal of the Romans saw the town remain as a regional centre, specifically for the local agriculture, wool being an important commodity, and therefore retains its important marketplace.
The football ground is way out of town, which involved negotiating abandoned white vans and unexplained large blue rabbits.
Across the inevitable dual carriage way.
Until I left the town.
And a festive B-road grass verge walk of shame move.
Where the monogrammed gates from the old Smithsfield ground had been re-assembled, but not of any use.
This being the more corporate entrance.
With a more forthright confirmation of the identity of the owners.
Cirencester Town 4 v Swindon Supermarine 2, Evo-Stik Southern League South West Division
Cirencester Town were formed in 1889 and played in the Cheltenham, Gloucester North and then the Gloucester County Leagues, before joining the Hellenic in the 1960s. They stayed there until the mid 1990s, when a league title win saw promotion to the Southern League, where they have reached the premier division. They developed a sizeable accademy structure, which led to an offshoot club replacing them in the Hellenic league for five seasons from 1997. Their development side are currently in the Hellenic league, having progressed from the reserves section.
Like many sides Supermarine's origins are from the war, but for once, not because they were set up by returning soldiers. Instead, they were the works team of the vickers factory where were set up in the South Marston area of Swindon, in the late 1930s. This was done to take advantage of the huge skilled workforce at the Great Western works in the town. Wartime meant production of Spitfires became the priority and so the efforts of the Supermarine company in Southampton were brought in, hence the name. The football side carried on after the war, competing in the Swindon and then Wiltshire league, before joining the Hellenic in the early 1980s. During this time, Penhill, a large council estate in North Swindon, were very much a force in local football, winning the Wiltshire league and stepping up to the Hellenic in the mid-eighties, with a name change to Swindon Athletic. Whilst they had a good side, their ground was a municipal rec, and with Supermarine struggling, it made sense to merge the playing side of Athletic, with the works ground of Supermarine, and hence in 1992 Swindon Supermarine were born. The 1990s saw strong finishes in the Hellenic, and a league title in 2001 saw promotion to the Southern league, where they have had stints in the premier and also forays into the FA cup, reaching the second round in 2011. For ground cranks out there, they have moved pitches within their complex, originally playing on what is now the rugby ground but in the mid 1990s moving across to what was their training ground.
Cirencester Town played for most of their existence at Smithsfield which was out of the town on the Tetbury road. It was a fairly basic but typical Hellenic standard ground, with a cover at one end and then a seating stand was added for Southern league requirements. However, Cirencester then got very much into the academy concept, wanting to become a large set up of junior and youth sides. Whilst Smithsfield was fine for southern league standards, it wasn't that convenient to develop a football complex around it. This led to the club relocating to the current site, which was open farmland some way out of town, although a number of housing estates have since been built that makes it slightly less remote.
The new stadium itself is not very different to the old ground in terms of spectator facilities. The stand that was at the old ground travelled with them, as despite it looks, is still under twenty years old. I don't think architectural fees would have been too great a drain on funds.
Behind the goal, a cantilever cover is in place, its supports being outside the ground.
The stadium is listed as having cover for 1250 with 550 seats, so 700 should fit in here. Good luck with that.
The near touchline is the part of the ground that doesn't mirror Smithsfield, being a large complex of social club/offices/changing rooms.
To the front a cover has been attached which is half seating/half standing.
The far end is hard standing.
The centurions entered the modern day coliseum.
The game got underway and almost immediately Supermarine took the lead.
Then from this free kick...
...Cirencester got a stunning equaliser.
Of note is the substitute warming up above. He has had an interesting career to date, none more so than being the first player to leave Dynamo Bucharest to join Smethwick Rangers.
I'm surprised that more of the East European migrant population doesn't seem to have made its way into non-league, as it would seem to be at the right sort of age level. Playing in goal for Cirencester is one of the few examples, Mateusz Wieczorek. He is the only player I have seen at Zagłębie Sosnowiec U19s and then at Bishops Cleeve.
The travelling Supermarine faithful braved the unrelenting rain at the open end.
But instead it was the home side who took the lead just before half time.
The pitch had been converted to 4G over the summer, though it appeared to still have a series of odd slopes that the installers usually look to flatten out.
The second half started with Supermarine getting an almost immediate equaliser.
It was then quite an open game, but it was Cirencester who scored next.
And added to it with a long range shot.
The game finishing 4-2 to the home team.
By now it was throwing it down, which made for a rather unnerving dusk B-road grass verge walk of shame.
With the floodlights still burning bright from the ground behind me.
Crossing, yes, you've guessed it, another dual carriageway, instead of heading back into the centre, it was quicker to walk to a village outside the town, to get the bus from there.
By now I would have been grateful for a grass verge, as it was now just a B-road walk of shame in the pitch black.
I don't know what you were up to at five o'clock in the afternoon on boxing day, but this was my view, in the absolute biting rain.
Eventually the very extravagantly illuminated village church was able to guide me to relative sanctuary.
With the village post office being almost as tastefully lit.
I had a twenty minute wait for my bus. There was no shelter so instead I took refuge in the one on the opposite side, further down the road.
By now I was soaking wet and absolutely freezing. In my whole life, I have never been so grateful for a bus arriving, though my hands were so numb, I couldn't get the ticket out of my wallet and the driver had to do it for me. Despite the bus probably only being luke warm, to me it felt like I was on the surface of the sun as we meandered back to Swindon for a christmas kebab.
As a postscript, the next morning I awoke to find that there was snow everywhere. I was heading back north on the train. Adjacent to my flat is the NR electrification depot for the route.
However, unbeknown to me, the line into Paddington was shut, so it was an unexpected bonus of clearing a bit of new track for me. The diversion meant we turned left at Didcot, around behind the Thames valley signalling centre, which will eventually control all the railway from Paddington to Penzance.
Up to Oxford where a new crossing has been installed for engineering vehicles to access the line. I only mention this as these rubber panels are made in the Rosehill Polymers factory that is next door to me in Sowerby.
Through Oxford, but instead of heading up to Banbury to reverse, instead it was turning right onto the Bicester branch.
This being the new bit of track, a chord which connects the Bicester branch with the Chiltern main line into Marylebone. It was built by Chiltern Railways as they want to run Marylebone-Oxford services, which also take in the very lucrative traffic to the Bicester Village shopping outlet.
No comments:
Post a Comment