Pica Pica Pecking Order Established in Dorset

Eurasian Magpie (pica pica)

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Tuesday 14 Uagust 2018 at The Cuthbury Ground
Result	Wimborne Town 2 Dorchester Town 4
Competition	Southern League Premier Division South (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground 649 on the lifetime list.  I am here randomishly because of overnight events in the Ecuadorian Primera A League.  José Quinteros of LDU Quito scored in the 26th minute to cancel out an early lead for Aubas.  With no further scoring, the match finished in a draw, bringing me here.  A home win would have sent me to Dorking Wanderers, and an away win to Hartley Wintney.  The evidence is on Twitter.
Context
Second game of the season for both sides.  Both lost on the opening day of the season.  Wimborne went down at Farnborough and Dorchester lost at home to Met Police.
In one sentence
One-sided demolition job by the visitors in the first half, a modicum of respectability added by the home side in the second, and all at the other end from where I was standing.
So what?
Still too early for league tables in my opinion, but Wimborne fans might well be concerned about two defeats.
Match Report
Both teams are known as the Magpies so I am calling this game El Picapico for reasons that birdwatchers will understand.  Wimborne as the home side lined up in black-and-white but it was Dorchester, lining up in a colour that I call Radioactive Bile, who took a first-minute lead through Cameron Murray.  It was to turn out that all six goals were up at the other end, so expect vagueness in this particular match report! I can confirm that the second goal was the pick of the six.  A piledriver of a shot from the edge of the box, flying just inside the left-hand post, put Luke Winsper’s name on the scoresheet.  He got his second soon after, scoring after a superb double save by purple-clad home keeper Gerard Benfield.  Three down after 25 minutes, so this was not his night. Dorchester added a fourth just before the break, Billy Lowes scoring after the ball had been pinging around in the box.  I cannot recall many more one-sided halves of football.   Wimborne heads had not dropped, it’s just that nothing that they were doing was having any impact. When, very early in the second half, Sam Davidson scored for the hosts, there was a flicker of hope, especially when Dorchester then missed two good chances of their own in quick succession.  The second half was a more even affair, but Wimborne contrived to waste an indirect free kick in the opposing penalty area and the game rather petered out until Toby Holmes got a second goal in the final minute of normal time.
Pix
Wimborne in the black & white stripes.  This is a great old-school stadium with plenty of character and a playing surface of slants and slopes that would have made Euclid of Alexandria go, “You’re having a laugh mate!” but in Greek.  Well worth an awayday or a hopper visit but choose daylight so you can appreciate the fabulous Dorset setting.
Pre-Match Entertainment
I had time for a brief walk around the town, which makes a very good first impression.  Here’s the Minster and a pile of flowers (or whatever the technical term is…).
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
New this season – a pre-match prediction based only on keeper top colours as a preliminary test of the data.  Proper statistical significance test to follow in due course.  Table now based on 150 results. Today, Purple loses heavily to Green and drops several places.  Green hangs on to the current league position. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 4 of 5 (80%) Based on conventional 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, but also -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Colours ranked on a points per game (PPG) basis. For new readers the odd .5 was caused by a shocking half-and-half shirt and the .1 was due to a substitute goalkeeper in a different colour.  The Fire Cracker colour was confirmed with the help of the social media team at Dulux UK.  All of this arises from a comment attributed to Petr Cech that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box.  It may not be statistically significant as yet, but football coverage ignores this point as a matter of routine. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 10.0 5.0 1.0 4.0 11.0 3.0 20.0 2.000 Blue 38.1 16.0 7.0 15.1 54.0 14.0 71.0 1.864 Grey 46.5 22.0 10.0 14.5 73.5 13.0 67.5 1.452 Green 79.0 39.0 10.0 30.0 132.0 20.0 95.0 1.203 Fire Cracker 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 6.0 1.0 2.0 0.667 Maroon 5.0 2.0 1.0 2.0 9.0 1.0 3.0 0.600 Orange 33.5 11.0 7.0 15.5 55.5 6.0 14.5 0.433 Purple 15.0 6.0 3.0 6.0 35.0 4.0 6.0 0.400 Radioactive Bile 16.0 7.0 0.0 9.0 34.0 2.0 -3.0 -0.188 Yellow 31.0 8.0 7.0 16.0 65.0 5.0 -9.0 -0.290 Pink 16.0 5.0 5.0 6.0 31.0 1.0 -6.0 -0.375 Black 5.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 14.0 0.0 -8.0 -1.600 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter!  I have three or four choices for another Step 3 tick on Saturday.  With seven to go to reach the landmark, I may yet be able to get them all done to complete “The 248” before Tottenham Hotspur move into their new stadium and simultaneously mess up my 92, my 116, my 160 and of course my 248.

Magpie Photo Credit

Photographer: Pierre-Salim

Eurasian Magpie (pica pica)

Wikipedia

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Martyrs Will Survive Unless it's Dorchester Flash in the Pan

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Saturday 25 September 2017 at Loadlok Stadium (Penydarren Park)
Result	Merthyr Town 1 Dorchester Town 1
Competition	Southern League Premier Division (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground 627 on the lifetime list.  I am here from a shortlist of three because there were more shots on goal (26) in the SECOND period of last night’s NHL ice hockey game between Anaheim Ducks and Winnipeg Jets.  The first and third periods had been linked to Athersley and Whitby.  It’s random-ish.  See previous post for details of my niche.
Context
Dorchester are in the lower half of the table but will have noted that Merthyr (aka The Martyrs) lost 13-1 at Chesham last week, as did everyone else in football.  The development side fulfilled the fixture after a turbulent week off the pitch.  Since then there have been boardroom resignations from this fan-owned club, the creation of an interim board, a huge and well-supported financial appeal, and a week of exhortations to the locals to #packthepark.  Local papers, Argus and Echo, gave some reasonable coverage to the financial issues and the public support of Cardiff and Newport managers (Neil Warnock and Michael Flynn), alongside the pages and pages of rugby.  The All Blacks are in Cardiff and that clash kicks off just after this match ends.
In one sentence
Dorchester coped well with the occasion and a draw was probably a fair result.
So what?
The clubs lie 14th and 20th.  First signs are that Merthyr will have enough backing, and enough character on the pitch, to survive as a club and even hold on to their Step 3 place.  They probably need about another 18 points or so, with plenty of games left.  Dorchester may feel that today was two points dropped but near the bottom an away draw is usually not to be turned down.
Match Report
Members of last week’s development team were introduced to the crowd before kickoff and received a heroes’ welcome.  Once the whistle went, Ian Traylor could have given Merthyr a dream start with a good turn in the box but his shot was over the bar.  Dorchester weathered that early storm and the first half-hour was pretty ordinary but earnest fare in the sunshine.  The visitors had a half-chance of their own from a fluffed clearance.  After the half-hour mark, the game settled into a more open and adventurous phase with Merthyr threatening to take the lead.  The exact opposite happened after 37 minutes with a classic away team counterpunch.  Dorchester poured forward when the ball bounced for them on the left flank.  A dangerous cross was duly volleyed in by Blake Davies.  Good goal, and they saw out the rest of the half. Merthyr’s equaliser came fairly early in the second half.  A through ball found Adam Davies in an advanced position and he set himself well for a good, calm finish as the keeper came out.  Game on. The home side showed visible belief that a win could be had.  Kerry Morgan shot just wide and then a deflected Traylor volley hit the post.  Dorchester’s Twitter feed suggests that it hit both posts, but I was unsighted.  The two sides continued to slug it out, mainly in midfield and with defences on top, keeping up a reasonable level of entertainment for this passing neutral in the encouraging crowd of 923.  We were somewhat entertained too by the ever-increasing number of detailed announcements about cars and vans to be moved from the vicinity. At the end of the day, Dorchester did enough as the away side to earn their point and Merthyr certainly did not deserve to lose.
Ground Pix
Lots of them today.  This place is a good example of why I have become a daylight groundhopper in the last couple of years.  Lots of character and an interesting setting.
Match Pix
Merthyr are in the white-and-black.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats
Green drew with Orange today which has no effect on the standings. Results so far: Based on conventional 3pts for a win, 1pt for a draw, but also -1pt for a goal conceded (GC) and +5pts for a clean sheet (CS).  Colours ranked on a points per game (PPG) basis. For new readers the odd .5 was caused by a shocking half-and-half shirt and the .1 was due to a substitute goalkeeper in a different colour.  The Fire Cracker colour was confirmed with the help of the social media team at Dulux UK, and it deserves to be last, trust me.  All of this arises from a comment attributed to Petr Cech that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. P W D L GC CS Pts PPG Red 9.0 4.0 1.0 4.0 9.0 3.0 19.0 2.111 Maroon 4.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 6.0 1.0 6.0 1.500 Blue 30.1 12.0 6.0 12.1 47.0 10.0 45.0 1.495 Grey 41.5 20.0 9.0 12.5 68.5 11.0 55.5 1.337 Green 68.0 34.0 9.0 25.0 115.0 17.0 81.0 1.191 Orange 27.5 9.0 5.0 13.5 45.5 5.0 11.5 0.418 Purple 11.0 5.0 2.0 4.0 25.0 2.0 2.0 0.182 Yellow 27.0 7.0 6.0 14.0 57.0 5.0 -5.0 -0.185 Pink 14.0 4.0 4.0 6.0 29.0 1.0 -8.0 -0.571 Radioactive Bile 12.0 5.0 0.0 7.0 26.0 1.0 -6.0 -0.500 Black 5.0 1.0 3.0 1.0 14.0 0.0 -8.0 -1.600 White 1.9 0.0 0.0 1.9 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -2.105 Fire Cracker 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -4.000
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  Always difficult to plan ahead at this time of year but my four “priority” Step 3 grounds to complete “The 232” landmark are: Ashton United, Tiverton Town, Whitby Town and Athersley Recreation (Shaw Lane’s landlords).  In the event of bad weather it will probably be somewhere closer to home.  Coverage of the Varsity Match (rugby union) will also follow in early December.