One Man Hopped to Ram Meadow

Hopperational details

Tuesday 23 November at Ram Meadow, Bury Town 2 Canvey Island 1 in the Isthmian Premier League (step 3).  I am here because it is my nearest step 3 chance for a midweek hop.

This match in one sentence

Bury Town led 2-0 at the break after a scintillating display, but Canvey improved after the break and got an 89th minute consolation goal after a niggly second half.

So what?

Bury Town are up to 2nd place in their first season in step 3 after their Southern D1 Midlands Championship win last year.  Their 102 points left a team with 100 points to the playoffs, and it’s best not to mention this around the Hitchin area.  Canvey Island sit in mid-table.

Who caught the eye on the pitch?

The first half was as good as I have seen anywhere this season.  Canvey’s keeper James Russell was a busy man and were it not for him and the woodwork, Bury could have had four or five before the break.  Bury played fast one- and two-touch football with good linkup play between midfield and attack.  “Big name” signing James Scowcroft was always willing to receive the ball.  He hardly ever gave it away, and it was interesting to watch a mid-30s player adapting to life at this level.  Sam Reed took the first goal well. Canvey gave a better account of themselves in the second half, but it was much less entertaining with referee and assistants taking abuse from both sets of fans.  There was a dismissal from the Canvey bench triggered by an assistant, and Matt Game picked up a late second yellow card.  Bury goalkeeper Marcus Garnham also had to make one late excellent save and the visitors will have gone home thinking, “If only”.

This match had the same effect on my pulse rate as …

… directing an amateur production of The Three Musketeers and having to explain the difference between pathos and bathos to Athos.

A snippet from the programme

“The news on the new stadium is that the architects and the council are currently tying up some loose end and then the plans will be submitted for planning permission. There will then be a wait of around three months while the planning department at St Edmundsbury Borough Council study the plans.”    Groundhoppers everywhere take note, then.

What I learned today

It is possible to buy one tonne (1000kg) bags of sugar from British Sugar, which operates the factory that dominates the skyline near the ground.  Standard granulated sugar has a particle size of around 500 micrometers (or half a millimetre) within a range of 450-600, but smaller and more consistent particle sizes of around a quarter of a millimetre are needed in biscuit manufacture.  Sweet, as they say in the vernacular.

What Next?

A tangent on Wednesday afternoon.