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Here we are again
Yes, I'm mad. It's official.
Confusion rains, and rains, and rains
Concord have only got two balls
Keep on googlin'
Lost in the fog of Kent (or was it Kentish fog?)
Stuck on the wrong side of town
Star-Spangled Soccer
So I was wrong. What a surprise.
39 players, no title

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December 2010

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Route 66 - Peter Butcher's Blog

Friday, 3 December 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Here we are again

It's been a long time. What with one thing and another, personal writing seems to have taken a serious back seat over the past few months. The book is still stuck at chapter 61 and probably never will see the light of day now, which is a shame. But you never know. Meanwhile, much of my creative energy has been taken up by editing the Hornchurch programme, a new task this year. It's been more than 20 years since I last did a programme and the advance in technology seems to have made it harder work, rather than easier. And the latest effort will never see the light of day either, since tomorrow's game was called off in time to stop the print run. Grrrr...

I haven't been directly involved with a club for more than 20 years, either, so that's been interesting. I've been going to all the Hornchurch home games (including reserves) and quite a few aways. There have been some ups and downs, the oddest up being the 8-2 FA Cup win after which the opposing goalkeeper was chosen as the FA's man of the round.

So I won't be visiting all 66 Ryman clubs this year (though the count so far is 23) and, although that's a bit disappointing, I admit that I don't miss the regular cross-London journeys through nightmarish traffic.

This sudden return to blogging action(and, as ever, I hope to be more regular in future) was provoked by a couple of emails telling me that some bloke calling himself James had spammed one of my earlier offerings with some rubbish about places to stay in Brazil. If this blog is important enough for this pillock to advertise on it, I'd better get it moving again. And, James, I will advertise almost anything you like in return for some consideration, in cash or kind. Aren't Jaguars great cars (ahem, you listening, Mr Jaguar)?

So, the World Cup doesn't come to England in 2018 (and therefore, probably, not again in my lifetime). Did anyone seriously believe that it would? But we've had it before, so have Spain, and Holland/Belgium have had it next door on numerous occasions. So, in footballing terms (let's not consider politics or the voting system), Russia was the right choice.

Qatar, though. Blimey. Again, Japan, Korea and the US have had it recently, so it was Qatar v Australia. No contest, you'd think. I suspect the hand of the big TV companies, making it clear that they would pay a lot less for a World Cup kicking off at such unsocial (European hours). Of course, Qatar are filthy rich and I'm sure it'll give you a warm feeling to know that you'll be paying for 2022 as you cough up £1.25 for a litre of petrol by next month (probably) and heaven knows how much by 2022.

Talking of Australia, tee hee. Better laugh now because who knows what the next few hours will bring. That first over last night was funnier than Fawlty Towers ever was. I watched an hour or so, went to bed, got up about 5, watched a bit of Hussey and Haddin, then went back to bed at the start of the over where Swann took two wickets. Can't win them all. Am I getting old (well, yes, I am, obviously), or did anyone else feel uncomfortable about the cavorting that followed Ponting's departure? Respect, please, gents.

Two Ryman League games left tomorrow at time of writing. Do Wealdstone really believe their pitch will be fit or did they not get the email allowing clubs to call off games today (it was sent out first thing this morning, but didn't reach me until 6 o'clock tonight for some electronic reason)? It looks like a Saturday afternoon at home. Ugh.

posted by Anonymous at 9:26 pm 6 Comments

Thursday, 22 April 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Yes, I'm mad. It's official.

Here we are again. It has been 20 days since my last confession. That was on the evening of Good Friday and that was the last evening I spent at home. Since then, between the heavy Ryman League catch-up programme and the early-season speedway fixtures, I've been at a football match or a speedway meeting every night except two Sundays, and on them we were out till late visiting friends. Perhaps those two Sundays prove that I'm not totally sad, though the esteemed league vice-chairman Nick Robinson, finding out that I was at Ashford v Worthing last night, texted me the succinct message "You're mad". He may have a point.

The news you've been waiting for is that yes, I did complete my tour of the 66 Ryman League clubs at Fleet on Easter Saturday. With a 0-0 draw. Despite that, it's been great fun.

Nagging at the back of my mind, though, was the thought that I'd only seen League Cup games at Ashford and Thamesmead, and the match I saw at Harlow was abandoned after 20 minutes. So, to keep it pure, I had to revisit those three for league, or complete, games (hence last night's 'madness', which completed the revisits).

I also, if you recall from the last blog but one, conceived the idea that I could watch 100 league games by the end of the season. At the time I reckoned I could manage 102 (which, again, would keep it pure, allowing for two abandoned matches). As it turned out, despite further problems with postponements, I'll also reach that target. Tonight, in fact, when Horsham have pulled a flanker by arranging to play Aveley at Crawley. Now I've convinced myself that I can't miss a ground where a Ryman League match has been played, so it's off to Broadfield. Mind you, with Aveley chasing a play-off place, I'd have gone anyway. Why Crawley? Because, believe it or not, Horsham's ground (well, Horsham YMCA's ground) is booked for a blood donor session. Don't know where I'll be on Saturday but it should make a grand total of 103 Ryman League matches. Is that a record?

After that and the play-offs things should start calming down on the football front, though local Essex Olympian League side Harold Wood Athletic still have 11 (yes, 11) league games to play. I suspect I might venture to one or two of them.

I notice, however, that if there are no play-off games on Monday, Lakeside Hammers are at Belle Vue. No, not even I, in my current state of exhaustion, would do a day trip to Manchester on a weekday just for 15 heats of speedway. On the other hand, I see Buxton have a meeting on Sunday and I've never been there. I wonder what Premier Inn and Travelodge have to offer? Oh, stop it.

Talking of speedway, my friend Jeff Scott is publishing another of his eccentric 'annuals' covering the 2009 season. I know this because he has kindly sent me some quotes from me he is including so I can vet them. Don't I say some dumb things when I'm having a friendly chat? I must remember that anything I say to Jeff may be written down and used in evidence. Still, I did say more or less what he says I said, so fair enough, however embarrassed I might be to read them. I have, however, asked him to remove one comment which was (honestly) funny at the time and in context but looks quite horrible in cold print eight months later and even worse if it happens, by sheer accident, to be true.

As for my own book, I admit to have been afflicted by a sudden lack of confidence. I'm prepared to take a chance that no-one buys it, but, assuming some people do, will they actually like it or is it a waste of 250 pages? As a result I've got rather stuck around chapter 58 of the 66. Is that what they call writer's block? Dunno. Anyway, I'm sure I'll get it together. Maybe when I have a free evening. I suppose penning this piece is a good sign, though I'm already sure it isn't worth reading. I hope for your sake I'm wrong, though if I'm right you probably won't have got this far anyway. Onwards and upwards!

Labels: Jeff Scott, Lakeside Hammers, Ryman League

posted by Anonymous at 10:08 am 0 Comments

Friday, 2 April 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Confusion rains, and rains, and rains

Well, the best-laid plans and all that . . .

I know it's been a while; a few off-field complications, all sorted now.

But a couple of people have asked what's happened to the blog and, as it's nice to know someone cares, here we are again. Anyway, I have some unexpected spare time after a disastrous sporting day.

It was a speedway double-header between Lakeside and Eastbourne, up here at lunchtime, down in Sussex tonight. I decided to skip the home half in order to stick with the Ryman League and the day's only game, at Whyteleafe, conveniently placed for a run down the A22 to Eastbourne afterwards. And no sooner had I arrived in the area than it tipped it down.

So, for the second time this week, I had a lengthy journey (Ashford, Kent, on Monday) only to find the game called off just as I got there. I didn't miss much at Lakeside, where the action was abandoned after two races, and I was told of flooded roads in Sussex so I reckoned the evening outing was a write-off. So here I am in front of my keyboard while, down at Eastbourne, it's 30-30 with five races to go; seemingly a cracking finish in store. Curses!

This horrible, horrible weather is also causing problems on Route 66. Not serious ones; I've done 65 of the 66 grounds now, only Fleet Town to go. It will be my third attempt to get there tomorrow; I have a nasty feeling I won't make it again. Luckily they have lots of home games left.

Hello, 37-41 at Eastbourne. We could win this. All we need is for the mysteriously out-of-form Jonas Davidsson to come good in heat 14 and we'll be almost there.

Back to the football. Apparently this isn't the worst season ever for Ryman League postponements; that, I think was 2000-01 when a few matches were left unplayed. I don't have the exact figures but if we lose a substantial chunk of the Easter programme, and, judging by the weather forecast, we might, it could well be a new record. At least tomorrow there should be something to watch if Fleet is off.

It's ironic, in a way,that Fleet will mark the end of the 66-club trail. Apart from Worthing where I went when I was little because my granny lived there, it was the first current Ryman League ground I visited. It was for an Athenian League match against Woodford Town in 1979. I had some hope of seeing Jimmy Greaves in action but it turned out that he had played his last game for Woodford - and for anybody - a couple of weeks earlier, at Dorking. Annoyingly, I could have been there but didn't spot the fixture until 2.30. I believe the little fat fellow, as he was then, scored a couple in a 4-3 win.

The other fat fellow, a very large fat fellow in this case, was still in the Woodford line-up. That was an aging Joe Kinnear. Mobile he wasn't. Woodford also had three Americans, which was pretty progressive for those days. They won 2-0 and I think current Brentwood manager Les Whitton scored one of them.

What's going on with that Davidsson? He blew out again, Kasprzak lost his maximum to Zagar in heat 15 and it finished 45-45. Better than losing, but very frustrating.

Meanwhile, I can announce that the Route 66 blog has hit the jackpot. I had an email from the US of A this week, from a Dr Kirkis no less, advising me that "Route 66 was not even a shadow of its former self" in an area of New Mexico.

Truth be told, Route 66 (yes it was the way to Amarillo) was wiped off the official map about 25 years ago. Maybe I should call this blog Interstate 40, but that wouldn't make any sense.

posted by Anonymous at 8:17 pm 0 Comments

Friday, 26 February 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Concord have only got two balls

IT'S been a funny old fortnight on Route 66. Since last we met just two grounds have been added to the list, Canvey and VCD Athletic, taking the tally to 55. I enjoyed VCD, a ground I had never previously visited. It turned out to be unexpectedly pretty.

That was on Saturday as Romford won 1-0 despite taking something of a battering. Then, as games fell by the wayside on Tuesday, I found myself dashing to VCD again, this time as they faced Leyton. The programme for the game was originally issued for the postponed match on December 29 and there was an up-to-date insert. Keeper Elliott Justham was the only player in Leyton's original 1-11 who appeared in the updated one, and not one of the players on that updated list actually lined up. That made 31 players in all, since the final starting 11 included Danny Francis who had been in the Dec 27 team. I suppose that's what happens when you reach your fourth manager of the season.

Leyton also took a battering but they were sharp up front and led 3-1 at half-time before going down 4-3. They had a chatty and cheerful Lithuanian goalkeeper called, they thought, Alvudas Ceponis. He wasn't very good, to be honest, but pulled off one blinding save to deny Aaron Firth a hat-trick. I was glad to see Firth acknowledge his opponent with the traditional sporting slap on the bum, and hoped the gesture means the same in Lithuania.

Canvey had also been enjoyable; a 4-1 away win for Aveley who had been worried a week earlier when they were only one point above the relegation zone and were now pretty much terrified to be only five points off the play-offs. Intriguing feature of this game was a penalty conceded by Tony Russell, one of my daughter's Facebook connections. I was standing next to the Aveley bench at the time and we all agreed that it was an obvious penalty. Strangely enough, Canvey and Aveley folk on the opposite side of the pitch thought it was a comic decision. That's angles for you. Who'd be a ref?

While Route 66 progress was otherwise frustrated, there were still matches to watch. On the Monday after the Canvey game I saw their neighbours Concord steal a last-kick 2-1 win at Ilford, a game remarkable for an incident in which, to the entire approval of the ref, two Concord players burst through on the left to threaten the Ilford goal. The odd aspect of this was that they each had a ball at their feet. One eventually pulled up, bemused, the other was tackled, but there was no whistle. Could they have scored two goals at once?

The following night, with almost everything rained off, I managed to find some action at Boreham Wood where an own goal gave the hosts a 2-1 win over Hendon in remarkably good conditions.

All that was left on Wednesday was a trip to the distinctly chilly East London Stadium, where senior football newcomers Bethnal Green United beat Barkingside 2-1 in the Essex Senior League Cup. A young acquaintance of mine in the BGU squad was delighted to have been 'borrowed' by Concord for a recent League Cup tie against Billericay, which they won, and was hoping to get the call for the next round. I had to break the news to him that he, and a couple of others, had not been properly registered and there would be no next round.

Thursday took me to Sittingbourne after the pitch passed a 4pm inspection, but constant rain after that halted proceedings in the 16th minute.

On Monday and Wednesday of this week the rain beat me, though I had a rare Wednesday night ice hockey fixture at Romford for consolation, and last night I spent three miserable hours on the North Circular expecting them to be wasted, only to find Kingstonian's pitch in immaculate condition. The 3-3 draw with Wealdstone was as good a game as I have seen all season.

Once again, for the third time this season, I have timetabled the rest of my Route 66 visits. No doubt, as it has done on the two previous occasions I've made my plans, that will trigger another fortnight of postponements.

I know other people have done all 66 clubs in a season; I wonder, though, whether anybody has seen 100 Ryman League games in a season. At the moment I reckon I could do 102 if I set my mind to it, and there are bound to be more games on so-far free dates. I think I may be going mad.

Labels: Concord Rangers, Ryman League, VCD Athletic

posted by Anonymous at 9:58 pm 0 Comments

Thursday, 11 February 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Keep on googlin'

I googled myself today (a sort of musical reference, as is the headline which pays tribute to God's favourite band, which is in turn another one). Go on, you've all done it.

I am accustomed to being the British Ambassador to Turkmenistan and I am disappointed to have received no gifts on MySchool Australia. My education, whether Australian or not, is not greatly improved by discovering that my name was originally given to a person who worked as a butcher. I am an accupuncturist in Newport but an acupuncturist in Cardiff. I am also a blind acupuncturist, apparently, but that sounds as if it might be inacurate. I've received a Queen's Award, which is pleasing. Perhaps that was for my work as a senior safety consultant in Angola for the past three years, which I managed to squeeze into the closing period of my 30 years as a Scottish fireman while acting as a consultant to local government and an estate agent. It would seem that I am also involved with a church whose motto is, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Hmm. And that's just in the first few pages. Less probably, it claims that I am sports editor of the Romford Recorder. Oh, and on page 4 it tells me that I write a blog called Route 66. So I'd better.

When last we met, on Tuesday, I was planning a trip to Margate. And to Margate I went for a quick spot of sea air (I drove round the seafront with the car window slightly open, in other words. No way was I getting out in that wind). The later business, ground no.53, was a Premier Division game against Wealdstone. It finished 1-1 though Margate could have won by a cricket score had they made the most of their second-half possession. Interesting contrast in the dug-outs: Mark Butler was managing Margate, rather noisily, for the 15th time, Gordon Bartlett was managing Wealdstone for the 1,001st. It was also, as it turned out, Butler's last game, leaving him no doubt to regret his decision to leave Ashford (Middx), where he had been for many years, earlier this season for the lure of a theoretically bigger club. They could both depart from the Premier Division in May, but in opposite directions.

At the end of a very chilly night I was not feeling too happy about a 75-mile drive home in dodgy conditions. That was until the Sky vidiprinter tapped out TRURO 3 HEMEL HEMPSTEAD 1. Now that's a long journey home. As it happened, despite a closed stretch of motorway and a nasty flurry of snow, I was home in time to see my daughter. "You said you wouldn't be home till midnight," she snapped, and went to bed.

Wednesday was a short trip to Ilford to watch the battle between Waltham Forest and Thamesmead, both sides having suffered three-goal home defeats by Romford in the previous eight days. That didn't bode well, but Thamesmead had shaken off their disappointment and poor old Forest suffered a second successive 4-1 tonking. A massive crowd of 34 paid to get in and someone swore they had seen other people, or perhaps the same people, paying to get out. It was a good game, though, made all the better that it was played on a snow-covered pitch, something you rarely see these days. The Ryman League's official yellow winter ball is presumably designed for occasions such as this but it didn't help, perhaps because of Cricklefield's horrible street-lamp orange floodlights.

I've ducked out of the cross-London trip to Carshalton tonight but, with Canvey on Saturday followed by Ilford, Ramsgate, Concord Rangers and Boreham Wood on Monday to Thursday next week, I won't be soccer-starved (it the snow goes away). If all goes well, three of those games will be added to the Route 66 left and it'll be ten to go. Must start finding out about printers.

Labels: Margate, Ryman League, Thamesmead Town, Waltham Forest, Wealdstone

posted by Anonymous at 2:24 pm 0 Comments

Tuesday, 9 February 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Lost in the fog of Kent (or was it Kentish fog?)

Well, it's Tuesday. Today's plan is a nice trip to Margate. Pity I can't get away early enough for some quality sunbathing (for my overseas fans, that's one of those English weather jokes for which we are so famous).

A few more games since last we met; Sittingbourne on Saturday. So you go through these massive gates and see this gigantic modern stadium in front of you, then turn left and go down a rough track to the back pitch where they have to play now. Must be heartbreaking for them.

Super people, though, as at so many clubs. It promised to be a cracker: S'bourne (15 goals in four games) v Horsham YM (22 goals in six games). You can guess the rest. Tony Di Barnado (Doc, presumably), YM's Canadian goalkeeper, was brilliant. It was foggy when I left: actually took three wrong turnings getting out of the car park, a personal best. 52 down, 14 to go on Route 66.

Managed to squeeze in basketball (Leopards at Brentwood) and ice hockey (Chelmsford) on Sunday just to prove my life doesn't revolve around football.

Then it was Aveley last night: a 1-0 win for the mighty Millers (OK, Craig?) over Billericay. Tuohy scored. But it was cold, cold, cold. Thanks to Steve for letting me huddle up to the heater in the club shop wiv me Bovril.

Two successive clean sheets for the Millers thanks, I reckon, to new boy Tony Russell. Afraid I dissed him on principle when they signed him from Ilford, but he turns out to be pretty good. Anyway, after dissing him I discovered that he was one of my daughter's Facebook people. They were at school together. So now he's a hero.

And off to Margate tonight. 53/66, weather permitting. Have planned the rest, cleverly finishing at likely champions Dartford. Last time I made a plan it snowed for three weeks. Could be the same again.

This is a deeply dull posting but I'm in a bit of a rush and I really want to keep this reasonably up to date this year. I'll be back to my usual sizzling style (hey, the old postings are here if you don't believe me...) next time, all being well.

posted by Anonymous at 1:27 pm 0 Comments

Wednesday, 3 February 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Stuck on the wrong side of town

Well, hi again Craig, David, Gavin, Kev, Dwight, Colin, Tony, Richard, Steve, Mark and anyone else who happens to come across these words of wisdom. I'm trying to make it more regular this year so I hope you're enjoying it. If so, please recruit some more fans!

All the talk this week has been about whether a married man who bonks his mate's wife is fit to lead his country. But enough about Prince Charles: on with the show.

Route 66, for any newcomers, is the probable title of my probable book on my probable visits to all 66 Ryman League clubs this season. Alas, spanners continue to drop into the works. My second attempt to visit Godalming (it would have been no.52) on Saturday ended with the dreaded 'it's off' phone call at about 12.15, by which time I was in Richmond. Plenty of time to find another ground, I thought. But a quick check of the fixtures revealed that the only home clubs I hadn't visited were Canvey and Ramsgate, neither of which was much of an option from deep in south-west London.

So it was Sutton v Aveley, another Millers game with plenty of goals and ending in a 3-2 defeat. They're slipping dangerously close to the relegation zone but having lots of fun along the way.

Sunday brought another chance to watch poor old Romford Raiders. Shorn of half their imports, our ice-hockey heroes went down 10-1 at home to Guildford. Interesting thing about it was that all ten goals (well, all 11, I suppose) were scored by different players. Has that ever happened in football.

Aveley again on Monday, a Championship Manager League Cup tie against Hornchurch. It was supposed to be getting, according to our climate change experts, so of course it dropped below freezing and of course there was a late goal (by Sos Yao of Hornchurch) to force extra time.

Millers ended their worrying winless streak with two extra-time goals and we all went home to thaw out. Talking point was a booking for Aveley striker Martin Tuohy for diving. Looked a pretty clear penalty from where I was standing (which was about as close as you could get without copping a banning order). Gavin will no doubt surprise me with a picture showing it wasn't a pen at all. GAV EDIT: Can't give you that one as the ref was standing right in front of it from my viewpoint so will have to make do with a couple of other 'non-pens' from the same game...

Tuesday's plan was Thamesmead v Romford. Thamesmead had already featured on Route 66 but it was a CM Cup tie and I'd like to do a league match everywhere. Half an hour on the Purfleet roundabout put paid to that. Strangely, traffic seemed to be flowing across the Dartford Bridge but getting to it was out of the question, especially with one lorry after another trundling slowly down from the M25 to block all four lanes of the box junction.

A hazardous slalom between the parked juggernauts eventually enabled me to escape eastwards and I made it to East Thurrock just in time for their kick-off against Northwood. Another entertaining 3-2 home win, most of which I spent in amicable disagreement with Essex FA chief executive Phil Sammons.

Now Phil is smarter than your average blazer; he did, after all, play around 600 games for Grays while acting as secretary of another Isthmian club, so he knows his stuff from the bottom up. Then there's me, a humble follower of the game but a quasi-insider with around 4,000 games behind me. Yet we still come to almost every question from radically different viewpoints.

A familiar-looking figure wandered past us at the end of the game. I can never recognise players with their clothes on but as he stopped to chat to Phil I realised that it was the previous night's diver (allegedly). "It was a definite penalty," Tuohy said. "But I admit I went down in instalments."

Now there's the thing. Is it any wonder that players dive when they know that if they try to stay on their feet they won't get the penalty and if they fall over late they'll probably get booked as well? I can't remember the last time I saw a penalty given when the player didn't go down after the foul.

Onwards and upwards: Ilford v Brentwood tonight, if it don't rain, before returning to Route 66 properly next week. No.52 on Saturday is now scheduled to be Sittingbourne, where I can take my punishment for absentmindedly calling them Sittingbourne Town in the league bulletin this week. People adding 'Town' to teams who don't have are among my pet hates, right up there with the greengrocers' apostrophe, so it will be an embarrassed blogger who creeps into the clubhouse.

Kent again next Tuesday, according to present plans, and a first-ever trip to Margate. Then 54 Canvey, 55 Ramsgate (eeps! Kent coast again) and 56 VCD (another maiden visit), with sundry Monday and Wednesday games in amongst them. I'll keep you posted.

Labels: Prince Charles, Romford Raiders, Ryman League

posted by Anonymous at 1:20 pm 1 Comments

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

Star-Spangled Soccer

Another one! I think I'm finally getting this blog together (famous last words?).

For anyone puzzled by the reference in the last one, all my blogs suddenly became dated December 9, a glitch which star man Gavin has now resolved.

Northwood last night, then; the 51st Ryman League club I've visited so far this season, just 15 to go.

Good game against Great Wakering, 3-3 (0-1 after 44 minutes, 2-2 at half-time). The officials took much stick from the benches, not much of it justified (if, indeed, you can justify any abuse of the officials). One manager was giving the poor old ref a real haranguing as they walked off at half-time. His opposite number added, "Ref, to be fair, he's spot on." Still, if the FA won't stop Fergie, Wenger and that lot blaming the officials every time they drop a point, Ryman managers are hardly likely to be any different, are they?

For all that, it was an entertaining game on a very chilly night.

Northwood's first goal came from Leon Osei - "Osei can you see?" as I called him in the book when he scored at Wingate a few weeks back (Route 66, available some time in the summer). Pathetically, while in this anthemic mood I failed to notice that another scorer was Chris Seeby. So if Northwood would only sign Kanu (presumably they can pay him more than Portsmouth do), they could have a goalscoring line of Osei Kanu Seeby which should be good for some American sponsorship. Maybe the Glazers would take them over: lucky, lucky Northwood!

While in this ridiculous mood, let's carry on. I'm struggling with 'the dawn' but we have any number of Searles (let's say Mark who used to play for Worthing) and Lees (pick one), and I'm sure there used to be a Light (Danny?) somewhere. Then Steve Watts...

So, so far, our Star-Spangled Soccer Banner goes:

OSEI KANU SEE-

BY the dawn' S EARLE LEE LIGHT

WATT So proudly we hailed....

Any advance, devoted reader (or even readers)?

For the record, by the way, I discovered yesterday that it's pronounced OSS-EYE not O-SAY. But that would spoil the fun.

As Gav would say, I'll get my coat.

posted by Anonymous at 11:43 am 0 Comments

Tuesday, 26 January 2010 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

So I was wrong. What a surprise.

I see all my blogs are now dated December 9, presumably an effort to kick me into writing something by making me feel guilty that I've done nothing since such a productive day.

Well, it worked, and anyway it was pointed out to me last night that I'd said on a previous entry that I didn't expect to see any 'first-class' football this season. It was pleasing to know that I not only have a reader but one who remembers what I said.

This conversation occurred in the press box at Charlton. So out of touch am I with the 'big time' that I didn't even realise that the O's were playing there until I read the paper on Monday morning. I had a vague plan to do Barkingside v Barking that evening but that was almost certain to be off - and it was.

Over the river, then, to watch the Orient for the first time almost three years. Since much of my loss of interest in the club was down to the fact that I no longer recognised any of the players, such was the Brisbane Road turnover, it was nice that the goal was from an old face, Scott McGleish, whom I last saw score for the O's in 1997 and, before that, for Edgware at Aveley in 1994 (gratuitous Ryman League plug).

So here were the O's, desperate for points, one up against one of the division's top teams. What bothered me was how little it bothered me that Charlton might equalise. Something in my heart has definitely gone missing (which is odd, because a surgeon added some bits a few years back).

Charlton are now offering five-year season tickets. Imagine buying one of them, sitting down at of the next season and discovering that the bloke next to you also has a five-year season ticket ... and a drum.

Lloyd Sam was on the left wing for Charlton. I wondered if "SAM 11" used less material (or whatever it is) than any other shirt in the league. My old friend Gary Haines, now part of the team producing the super Charlton programme, immediately came up with former Brentford player Charlie Ide. I've had to check that one, but it was "IDE 25" so Sam probably beats him. But what the guy who just left man City? JO 14, wasn't he? This stuff's important, you know.

I could see the Sky pictures from where I was sitting. They were some seven seconds behind the live action. If you have HD at home, have you ever noticed that the picture there is far enough behind the 'regular' one that you can switch channels and still arrive before you left, as it were?

Anyway, I thought it was about time that this blog got going again, especially as Gavin was at the game and will no doubt slot in a super picture very shortly. Thanks, Gav.

Before I have to press on, though, a quick update on Route 66. The weather has caused a hold-up, of course, but progress is steady. Northwood should be no.51 tonight. The remaining 15 (people do ask me) are Billericay, Bognor, Canvey, Dartford, Horsham and Margate in the Premier, Cheshunt, Concord, Maldon and VCD in 1 North, Chatham, Fleet, Godalming, Ramsgate and Sittingbourne in 1 South. With luck I can save the seaside trips for sunnier days.

Labels: Charlton, Leyton Orient, Ryman League

posted by Anonymous at 12:16 pm 1 Comments

Wednesday, 9 December 2009 | | | << Route 66 Home | << TGSPHOTO Home

39 players, no title

Club no.42 on Saturday: Carshalton. It's a place where I have seen many weird happenings. Worthing once went 2-0 down in four minutes there and ended up wining 4-3 with all four goals from the incomparable Micky Edmonds. On another occasion Worthing were only one down after half an hour and lost 13-0. It's also where I saw a goalkeeper sent off for refusing point-blank to take a goal-kick from inside the six-yard box. I never worked that one out.

On this occasion Carshalton lost 3-0 to Aveley, who needed it. Carshalton themselves started the season as championship favourites. So far they've used 39 players, which helps to explain why they're not any more. It was a funny day in the Ryman Premier. Six of the top eight played and collected two points between them (one of them in injury time), five of the bottom eight played and collected 13 points.

Tuesday took me to East Thurrock (not no.43: a repeat visit), where Heybridge had the better of things for 27 minutes, failed to score and found themselves 4-0 down after 34. Not surprisingly, a Heybridge dignatory begged me for a cigarette after that. "It's the first one I've had since I saw you last," he said.

Tonight, with luck, Aveley will get in their Essex Senior Cup game against Billericay at the third time of asking. It's either that or Waltham Forest. It's been a nice warm sunny day but it's clouding over now. I'm not hopeful.

Meanwhile, if you have the remotest interest in films, may I direct you to the http://greercn.wordpress.com/ blog?

Later in the day: Aveley did play, they beat Billericay 4-2, and it was all most enjoyable. Competitive goals scored this season on the four grounds shared by two Ryman League clubs: Ilford 54, Ashford 55, Horsham YMCA 82, Aveley . . . 113!

Labels: Aveley, East Thurrock United, Heybridge Swifts, Ryman League

posted by Anonymous at 1:39 pm 0 Comments

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