Route 66 Previous Posts
Star-Spangled Soccer
So I was wrong. What a surprise.
39 players, no title
Handball hysteria? I'd rather have fun
Of headers, rooftop finishes and beaches
21 down, 45 to go
Surprise surprise, another F1 scandal
Eight men hit for six
Sunny, but no seashells
Better luck this time
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Route 66 - Peter Butcher's Blog
Wednesday, 3 February 2010 | |
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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!
posted by Anonymous at
1:20 pm
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
1 Comments:
Off to recruit some more followers forthwith!
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