Truro Wrassling with Administration

Truro Cathedral from the club car park

 

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	15 September 2012 at Treyew Road
Result	Truro City 0 Bromley 1
Competition	Conference South (Step 2)
Hopping	I am here because it is the only venue in England that I need to complete “The 160”, that is every ground down to step 2.  At the moment however there are only 159 grounds on the list because Gloucester City are temporary tenants at Cheltenham Town.  My list is about the venues rather than the teams – for example my visit to Hillsborough was for a Euro ’96 international match rather than a Sheffield Wednesday home game.  My visit to Bath City was technically for their "away" game against their tenants at the time, Team Bath.  My list also has 24 "old" grounds that have been vacated or demolished since I started hopping - in all cases I have since revisited their new place to keep up to date.
Pre-match preparation
Two weeks ago there was some doubt whether this fixture would take place.  “Playing for Free” was the headline, as the club was about to enter administration.  A winding-up order has now been deferred.  Their former chairman, Kevin Heaney, is bankrupt and their ground has been sold.  There are questions being asked about the propriety of the club’s financial dealings with a third party, and I am being careful here not to make or repeat any allegations.  All of this comes after a meteoric rise through the levels, with five promotions in the last six seasons and Heaney in the chair, but with planning disputes disrupting a vision of a new stadium and training complex.  They have taken a ten-point penalty which sends them to the bottom of the table and lost 8-0 at Maidenhead last weekend with a much-changed team.  The players have agreed to a wage deferral until October but these are definitely troubled times for the club.  Oh, and they are playing Bromley today.  They have won their last two.
This match in one sentence
Bromley did enough.
So what?
Bromley climb to 10th place and Truro are in effect seven points adrift after their deduction.
The drama unfolds
Truro lined up in the white shirts.  Here's an early scene-setter clip - it is still goalless with nothing much to report after 15 minutes.  I am seated in one of the two "temporary" stands that allowed Truro to keep up with ground grading as they shot up the pyramid. Bromley were looking the more likely to score and their pace and movement up front kept the home defence busy.  The next clip captures the 23rd minute - as you may know, 23 is the most important number of the week for this blog.  Nothing happened.  The game continued in the same pattern - good contest, Bromley looking to have more cutting edge, but Truro showing life and spirit. Here's the game's only goal after 39 minutes, a glancing header from Pierre Joseph-Dubois.  0-1 Truro were unlucky not to equalise seconds before half-time when Ben Williams' header hit the bar from a comer taken by the industrious Les Afful.  0-1 at half-time My next clip is after an hour's play - and not a lot is happening.  Can you tell I don't work in advertising?  The scenery is nice. As we entered the phase of substitutions, it seemed likely that the visitors had a stronger and more experienced bench and so I expected them to take a firmer hold on the game.  Nothing happened in the 68th minute (the 23rd minute of the second half).  I have two short clips to finish.  I was confused that Truro kept three men back for an 80th set piece when Bromley had everyone behind the ball. With five minutes to go, Bromley sub Albert Jarrett was gifted the ball in a midfield mix-up - he rounded the advancing keeper but smacked his shot against the crossbar.  The last clip is a Truro corner in the closing seconds - but nothing came of it and Bromley held on for three points and a clean sheet on the road.  Final score 0-1 There seems to be plenty of life in this club and its fans.  Fund raising is well under way and they have a FA Cup tie next weekend that has pitched them at home against AFC Totton.  Their last meeting may well have been at Wembley when Truro won the FA Vase as a step 6 club in 2007.  As the announcer said, hopefully, "We had 15,000 last time we played them!"  On the drive home, I paid attention to what I could see at J23 of the M5.  A giant Morrisons distribution centre.  That could be significant for next weekend, we'll see.  If that confuses you, please see previous blogpost.  You will still be confused, but part of a support group.
The programme
Something random
On arrival in Truro I stumbled across some “Cornish Wrassling” taking place on the Cathedral Green.  I think the clipboard-and-walking-stick look should be adopted by officials in more sports.  Possibly starting with those extra ones that hang around the goal-line in UEFA Europa League games.  They could perhaps do a Sudoku or something instead of standing there doing nothing.  This is gripping, and so are they.
Hopping for Moorfields Update
Not a lucrative day with only one goal and nothing else “special” added, but these things will even out over the season.
What Next?
The search for 23ness continues so that I can decide where I must go next weekend to see an FA Cup tie.  In the medium term, I have 15 grounds remaining at step 3 and hope to get them all in during this season, together with a late October hop to the land of Lego and pastries.

The Study of Defensive Methods

The Avenue, from Maiden Castle

Hopperational details

Saturday 6 November 2010 at The Avenue, Dorchester Town 0  Bishop’s Stortford 0 in the step 2 Conference South.  I am here because Phil Brown (former Hull manager) chose Red Sauce in the Sausage Sandwich Game on the Danny Baker show on Radio 5 Live.  The BBC called me while I was sitting at Fleet Services on the M3 waiting for the outcome and I had a brief on-air chat about random groundhopping with the guest presenter, the legendary Suggs (of Madness, of course).  There was a moment of real panic just before I came on – you have to turn the car radio off to avoid a delayed feedback loop and I missed the key answer while the researcher was lining me up!  That’s why I had to ask what sauce had been chosen.  This week’s method is a tribute to Danny Baker, an inspired radio presenter who is absent at the moment for chemotherapy.  Get well soon, Danny.  “You are The Sausage Sandwich Man”, said Suggs, and that is good enough for me.

This match in one sentence

After a dull and even first half, Dorchester Town tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to score a goal in a livelier second half.

So what?

Dorchester are on a six-match (four wins and two draws) unbeaten run in the league.  These two teams remain level on points in mid-table but Bishop’s Stortford are lower on goal difference. I reach a ‘hopping grand total of 349 and have now visited all of the current Conference South grounds.  I have three more Northern step 2 grounds to visit (Harrogate Town, Stalybridge Celtic and Workington) to meet my main target for the season.

Who caught the eye on the pitch?

For the first half, no-one in particular.  There was relatively little goalmouth action.  In the second half, Bishop’s Stortford goalkeeper Ross Kitteridge has to be picked out as the man who influenced the result more than anyone else.  He had a much busier half, making several decent saves and punches, and putting himself where it hurts in an 85th minute goal-line melée.  I was well placed to see that the ball definitely did not cross the line.  Whatever it is that players of this level get these days, he earned it. Paolo Vernazza lined up for the visitors.  He is one of the few professional footballers that I have met face-to-face.  As an Arsenal youngster (around 2000 I think) he came with Ashley Cole (who had just scored his first league goal) and Liam Brady to present a Variety Club minibus for Beaumont School in St Albans, where I was headteacher at the time.  He went on to make over 100 appearances for Watford.

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

… trying to replicate the famous Madness “One Step Beyond” synchronised walk with six partially inebriated students, which is not something I would ever have done on a croquet lawn in Cambridge, oh no, and if you have heard differently it must be some sort of misunderstanding.

A snippet from the programme

Terry the Dorchester stadium announcer is a groundhopper!  On his “Tannoy Talk” page he tells the story of the previous (half-term) week, in which he has been to Leeds U 4 Cardiff C 0, Ashton Town 3 Atherton Collieries 1, Eccleshill United 5 Staveley Miners Welfare 1, Southport 2 Kidderminster Harriers 2 and Stourport Swifts 3 Wimborne Town 1.  He notes that all bar one of these games had four goals, which is the kind of geek-like attention that gets my respect. He writes, “I have just watched a programme about Twitchers on BBC4.  I can see some similarities in behaviour between groundhoppers and twitchers although new grounds and fixtures are perhaps a little more predictable than the location of rare migrating birds.”  Perhaps my twitcher brother Martyn aka @BlurredBirding has the tougher obsession after all.  Should we blame mum, dad or both for these genes?

What I learned today

Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, is an Iron Age hill fort dating from about 600BC to the time of the Roman occupation in the first century AD.  I climbed it for a pre-match walk in bright autumn sunshine.  It looks very impressive in aerial photographs and was well worth the effort, with views over the town to the north and Dorset farmland to the south.  Highly recommended as a good way to walk off or work up an appetite for any variant of sausage sandwiches – it is a five-minute drive from the ground on the southern outskirts.

What Next?

While walking, I took the opportunity to make the decision about Tuesday’s forthcoming hop.  Regular readers will understand that I take distance into account for midweek jaunts.  As it turns out the nearest games on Tuesday are as follows: Step 3 – Hendon v Bury Town (Isthmian Premier) Step 4 – Marlow v Arlesey Town (Southern Div One Central) Step 5 – Haverhill Rovers v CRC (Eastern Counties Premier) Here’s how it works …