Ilfracombe As You Are

14^th December 2013

Ilfracombe Town v Bristol Manor Farm, Toolstation Western League

With news that Ilfracombe were wavering financially, I decided that a revisit to the lovely ground they have was in order.  I had been there previously when at university in Plymouth in the early nineties.  A plan was devised.

Normal train off Swindon, the 0830 Penzance service, was also late as normal.  This meant the branch connection was missed at Exeter St Davids, so it was a bonus couple of pints at Exeter Students Union, before jumping on the 1127 Barnstaple service.  Then up to Ilfracombe on the bus for the Ship and Pilot guide pub in town, which was cleared with something from Blue Monkey, I didn’t record what though.

Ilfracombe was established around its natural harbour.  This made it an important trading post from South Wales, and also a starting point for voyages over to Ireland.  The arrival of the railway made it an important tourist centre.  More recently, it was the home of TDK, who made tapes for making distorted copies of Now compilations.

Although the main town at Ilfracombe is on the sea front, a lot of the residential area is atop the daunting hill that abuts the seafront.  Sure enough this is where the football ground was, and what looked on the map to be a pleasant 10 minute stroll, was an oxygen requiring 30 minute ascent from base camp. 

But we arrived at the ground.  I was obviously still suffering enough to not be able to raise the camera enough to get all the sign in, but did include my thumb.

As the ground is still on a hill, the social club is split level.  The entrance being here, but the upper, slate clad, floor being at pitch level.  The stairs on the right take you up to the game.

Ilfracombe Town 1 v Bristol Manor Farm 0, Western League.

Ilfracombe were founded in 1902, though the Town suffix wasn't added for another 20 years.  They played in the north and east Devon leagues before moving up to the Western league in 1948.  Despite rising up to the top division of the Western, by 1959 they had dropped back down to the North Devon League.  There they stayed for another 25 years, rejoining the Western in 1984, where they have been in division 1 ever since.

Bristol Manor Farm were only formed in 1960, but were in the Western league by the mid seventies. Since then they have almost always been in the premier, and in this century, mostly at the top end of the league.

After playing on a selection of local pitches, the club moved to Marlborough Park in 1923. 

This is a very famous non-league view.  The colourful stand, the stone wall, and hen the picturesque chapel on the mound behind. 

It is one of the pictures that makes up the front cover of The History of Non-league Football Grounds, Kerry Miller's masterpiece and perhaps the number one book that anyone who follows non-league should have.

Adjacent to this is a small seated stand, an obvious token nod to seating capacity requirements.

Rather than any architectural similarities, it was named after a café sponsor in town.

There is a small area of standing cover outside the clubhouse, where predictably most supporters were huddled.

Behind the far goal was a large mound, offering some protection from the wind whipping in of the channel.

It offered the best view of the ground...

...and also westward out to sea.

The stand behind the goal had an extremely narrow pathway in front of it.

Halftime and into the clubhouse, which also doubled up as an indoor workout area.  Do you get twice as fit for using an exercise bike on a treadmill?

The clubhouse pictures were all from the clubs 1981/82 glory season.  The illustrious team...

....the manager....

....the clubhouse opening...

...and a charity darts evening.

There was also this most horrific kit.

As well as an old one they sent to Africa.  Somewhere in Ouagadougou is a small corner that will forever be North Devon.

In contrast to previous seasons, Manor Farm were struggling near the foot of the table, with Ilfracombe a few places above them.  It was the away side who took the lead.

There was also a lofty position behind the near goal, giving a distinctive view of the away keepers fluorescent kit.

Ground clutter was housed in a primitive corrugated metal shed behind the goal.

The game finished 0-1.  I nipped off with a few seconds remaining.  A last look back down from the stone wall, before a bus back to Barnstaple and the return train move back to Swindon.

2016 Postscript.

Ilfracombe Town hung on in the Western League until the end of the campaign, before resigning pre-season in July 2014 after the joint chairmen resigned.  They dropped back down to the North Devon league, where they remain today.  The ground is substantially the same, if a bit down at heel, not least the floodlights which are no longer required so do not function anymore.  This is a rather cryptic Wikipedia take of the situation.

Bristol Manor Farm have continued in the Western League, with some very strong 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishes.  They also reached the FA Vase quarter final in 2016.

A Spot of Bovey

2012 Tour of Britain

Bovey Tracey v Welton Rovers

Plan for the day was train to Totnes, visit to County Cheeses, bus to Buckast for the Abbey, then bus on to Bovey via Ashburton (2 required guide pubs).

First part of the day was successfully achieved, Train, cheese and bus to Buckfast. At Buckfast, interest in the abbey was somewhat overshadowed by the Monastic Produce Shop.

This basically sold home brewed concoctions that would normally only be used to power world record attempts across the Arizona Salt flats. In the end, I went to the lower end of the scale, some 15% fortified wine and bottles of imported Konig Ludwig Weissbier.

With purchases made, I went and got the service bus from the stop in the monastery car park. The car park has a separate exit onto the main road for the buses and this is when the fun started. When we turned onto the main road, we were greeted with this.

The road lined with people on each side and a motorcycle policeman frantically flagging us down. What had happened was that we had inadvertently gate crashed the tour of Briatin. The police had closed off all the turnings onto the main road, but were unaware of this slip road. By now the gate had come across behind the bus, so it couldn’t reverse, so we were sat straddling half the road. At this point also, there was lots of shouting and a couple of cars with bikes on their roofs shot by; the race was just about to descend on us. 



There was no option but to leave the bus where it was and it became an unexpected chicane to the riders. The bus driver took it all in his stride. He turned off the engine, rolled up a fag, opened up the doors and watched the race sat on the front step having a smoke. Ceasing an opportunity, I joined him, swigging from my recently acquired bottle of Buckie. As you can see, this gave a cracking view.

Not so lucky were the spectators who had been in situ for four hours in their own vantage point, only to have their view completely blocked by a Stagecoach Scania.

Once all the riders had passed, we were allowed to continue, by now 45 mins late and me well into the Buckfast.  I jumped off at the Dartmoor Lodge, then flagged down the South Devon Railway routemaster for a lift onto Ashburton.

Where it was on to the Exeter in for the local brew, before you could get it in Tesco.

It was another bus on to Bovey Tracey.  The football ground is on the edge of the town, adjacent to the old station, which was on the Moretonhampstead branch.  The goods shed still remains. 

The ground is situated within the town's Mill Marsh Park.

Bovey Tracey 3 v Welton Rovers 0, FA Vase Second Qualifying Round

Bovey Tracey were formed in 1950, playing in the South Devon Football League of which they were champions in 2008, earning promotion to the South West Peninsula League Division, gaining promotion to the Premier Division in their first season.

Welton is a housing estate in Midsomer Norton, in the former North Somerset coalfield.  Welton Rovers Football Club were founded in 1887 and have played in the Western League for over a hundred years, winning it on five occasions. Their West Clewes ground houses these wonderful stands.

The relatively recent rise through the leagues means the ground is still mostly undeveloped.

These two prefabs are the token spectator facilities.

The dugouts are of a more bespoke design.

Though it seemed quite a relaxed atmosphere around them.

The ball boys were equally attended for.

The Buckfast had kicked in and I arrived at the ground absolutely hammered  I headed to the seclusion of the far end, where the unexpected luxury of the local petanque club gave me somewhere to violently vomit, and bury the evidence.

The game finished 3-0 to Bovey.

Suitably refreshed, I did another bus move, this time to the Claycutters at Chudleigh Knighton.  It was then on the bus back to Newton Abbott, where a quick stop off at Tuckers Maltings, preceded a doze on HST back to Swindon.

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.