Wimborne to be Wild after Late Farnham Equaliser

 

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 23rd August 2025 at The Memorial Ground
Result	Farnham Town 1 Wimborne Town 1
Competition	Southern League Premier Division South (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground #803 on the lifetime list. I’m in the area this bank holiday weekend and this ground was on my priorities list.
Context
Farnham are new in Step 3 this season and have started well with two wins and a draw. Wimborne have one win, one draw and one defeat.
Match Report
It looked early on that we could expect goals today. A heavy touch from the Farnham keeper Zaki Qualah almost led to a chance for Wimborne to score from distance, and then the Wimborne keeper Cam Plain made one of the best saves I've seen for ages with a one-handed save. Farnham's Ben Purcell also needed to make a superb defensive intervention, so it was a bit of a surprise that we waited as long as 27 minutes for the opening goal. Wimborne took the lead as Max Bustamante poked in a rebound after his side had caused chaos with two corners in quick succession. Farnham missed their first chance to equalise with Bobby-Joe Taylor's skied penalty miss just before the interval after Jack Dean had been tripped. A decent game so far with plenty of goalmouth action, and I managed to suppress my need to straighten some wonky team pictures in the clubhouse during the break. The teams traded chances again in the second half. Plain saved well with his feet and then his team hit the post. Farnham, having made five changes, were still very much in the game. It took a goal-line clearance by Drew Ecott-Young on 77 minutes to protect the visiting lead. The hosts had two more chances in the closing minutes and Wimborne defenders were frequently getting their bodies in the way. The Farnham joy had to wait until several minutes of added time had passed. Brandon Mason, who had often been involved in foraging down the spaces on the left flank, was brought down on the byline. This time Great Evans did the honours from the spot and kept the Farnham unbeaten run going with the last meaningful kick of the game. Definitely a good hopping day out in the sunshine for this passing neutral.
So What?
The teams will complete their weekend double-headers on Monday as follows: Farnham travel to Dorchester and Wimborne host Weymouth.
Pre-match Entertainment
A stroll around the very attractive streets and alleyways of Farnham town centre, with lots of historical and architectural interest, then walking to the ground via the churchyard and along the edge of Bishop’s Meadow. If you are making a day of it, be prepared for car parking to cost as much as your match ticket!
Pix
Farnham in claret and blue.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
The background to this, and the latest keeper top colour league table, is here on this dedicated page. Today Yellow played Green. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Away Win Was the prediction correct? No % of correct predictions so far 48% (90 from 188)
What Next?
This tick leaves me with Everton (Premier League) and Worcester City (Southern League Premier Central) to restore my coverage of “everywhere in England down to Step 3”. In the meantime, as I am in Portsmouth for the weekend, I plan to make the short journey to AFC Portchester on Monday.

 

When Herts Refuse to Be Beaten

 

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 6 November 2021 at New Cuthbury
Result	Wimborne Town 3 Kings Langley 3
Competition	Southern League Premier Division South (Step 3)
Hopstats	Ground 734 on the lifetime list. Wimborne’s new ground is the only one currently left for me at this level, and this is the first fixture here since I completed the new Step 2 grounds at York, Gloucester and Bolton earlier this season. So this isn’t random, but it completes “The 243” which is all the grounds in the first seven tiers in England. There are 245 teams in those divisions but two (Cray Wanderers & Kingstonian) are currently groundsharing with grounds already counted in that total. Another three (Hendon, Truro City and Rushden & Diamonds) share with clubs who operate in a lower tier.
Context
The clubs occupy the bottom two places in the division with six points each, although Wimborne do have two games in hand.
In One Sentence
A very entertaining game for the passing neutral, and a red card didn’t stop the visitors from grabbing a point with a very late equaliser.
So What?
Both on seven points, closing the gap by one to Merthyr Town who lost today.
Match Report
I’d only just finished tweeting the #keepertopcolourstats prediction when Wimborne had the lead. The ball was turned in from close range by Lewis Beale. Kings Langley had the ball in the net themselves within a minute but there was an offside call. After this crazy start the game settled, and the visitors started probing, enjoying the major share of possession. However, they wasted a couple of set pieces from good positions and when Beale scored again after 18 minutes it looked as if Kings Langley were going to be all style and no substance. The incident was on the far side of the ground from me (a regular occurrence this season) but Wimborne’s Charlie Gunson was perhaps slightly fortunate that the ref waved yellow rather than red after a moment of retaliation. The home side then had a good chance for a third before the visitors got on the scoresheet to make a game of it. It was a good finish across the goalkeeper to the top corner (pictured) by Harrison Crawford, leaving debutant Ryan Hall with no chance to save. Half-time arrived with the result still in doubt, just the way that us neutrals like it. After the break, Kings Langley continued with their policy of playing out from the back, with the ball on the deck for the most part. With only 50 minutes on the clock, Crawford slotted home his second and the equaliser from a very neat move, triangles everywhere. However, in less than a minute, Wimborne had the lead again. There was a push in the penalty area and Beale completed a hat-trick by converting the spot-kick. Kings Langley were not yet beaten. Hall had to be alert to smother the ball at the feet of Crawford, who could then have had his own hat-trick. His header, from another neat passing move down the left, went just wide. As we entered the final quarter, Wimborne exerted some pressure of their own, presumably having decided that three might not be enough. Then came the red card for Crawford, adjudged to have made a dangerous challenge. Wimborne pushed again for their fourth but Kings Langley did just enough to hold on, and we had reached stoppage time before another lovely flowing move down the left ended up with two subs queuing up at the far post to score. It was Will Hoskins with the final touch, whose name will be familiar to quite a few EFL supporters from his earlier career exploits. Even that wasn’t the end of the action, and just before the final whistle it took a sharp save from keeper Alfie Marriott at the other end to protect the hard-won point. I think both sides will feel they could and should have won, it was that sort of occasion.
Match Pix
Wimborne in white and black.
Ground Pix
Very well-appointed new build as you would expect. Grass pitch with an adjacent artificial surface for training.
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 235 matches is here, on this separate page. This week, two shades of blue share a draw and there is no change in the positions, a result which also brings the prediction success rate back to 50%. Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Draw Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 50% (45 from 90) 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. The odd decimal places were caused either by undeniable half-and-half tops or lower league sub keepers 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 (and supported by anonymous scientists of some description) that orange is the best colour for a goalkeeper because it changes the behaviour of other players around the box. It is supposedly because of an innate primeval human reaction to the colour and the colour “spreads” more in the vision of a striker at the key moment of decision. Genius or garbage? The evidence is gathering here, and is leaning towards the latter.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! There are now 15 Step 4 grounds on my priority list which would complete the ninth tier. We are moving into the season of potential weather disruption, though, so there may have to be late, pragmatic decisions if I am to get through them all this season. Random or randomish decisions will be back whenever possible.

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

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