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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 18, 2019 12:08:07 GMT
Here's a village football club on the move. It's Bow AAC of the Devon and Exeter League. As the signpost in the centre of the village indicates Bow is very much at the centre of things: Until recently the club has played on the village recreation ground just a few hundred yards away from that signpost. Turn off at the village hall and walk through the car park. If you've reached the congregational church you've gone too far. "The Rec" is an expanse of grass with swings and playthings along one touchline; a tin hut for changing and serving refreshments along the other. As for spectators they didn't have far to walk from home: To the best of my knowledge there was no pressure on the football club to move because of a housing development or anything like that. It was simply that the Bow Recreation Group believed a better option existed. Recent press reporting is limited - local news of this type reaches the news websites much less now - but I discovered the original intention was announced in 2014 with plans for a new ground to be up and running by 2017. When I walked across the recreation ground earlier this year I assumed the idea had stalled or been abandoned. Then a few weeks ago, travelling the road to North Tawton, I noticed a brand new football pitch opposite the garden centre at the far end of Bow. Last week I returned to have a look. The gates were open and I wandered in. Changing rooms in the corner, spruce wooden dugouts and a wide expanse of level ground - rare for this part of the country - for the pitch. The set-up could allow the club to climb the leagues should they so wish. I guess Bow could put a rail around the pitch, assemble a little stand and install floodlights. That would all be very well but they'd probably need to bring in players from far and wide to achieve that level of football. Maybe that's the aim, perhaps not. But, even at the second tier of the Devon and Exeter League - and Bow aren't doing too well so far - I'm not sure where Bow's players live. It's not a big place and, like so many communities in that part of Devon, the population would be relatively old. Perhaps the new football ground is purely intended as a place for local people to play football as opposed to necessarily enabling the local club to climb the leagues. If that's the case, it's not a bad idea.
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Post by CC on Dec 18, 2019 15:53:56 GMT
Here's a village football club on the move. It's Bow AAC of the Devon and Exeter League. As the signpost in the centre of the village indicates Bow is very much at the centre of things: Until recently the club has played on the village recreation ground just a few hundred yards away from that signpost. Turn off at the village hall and walk through the car park. If you've reached the congregational church you've gone too far. "The Rec" is an expanse of grass with swings and playthings along one touchline; a tin hut for changing and serving refreshments along the other. As for spectators they didn't have far to walk from home: To the best of my knowledge there was no pressure on the football club to move because of a housing development or anything like that. It was simply that the Bow Recreation Group believed a better option existed. Recent press reporting is limited - local news of this type reaches the news websites much less now - but I discovered the original intention was announced in 2014 with plans for a new ground to be up and running by 2017. When I walked across the recreation ground earlier this year I assumed the idea had stalled or been abandoned. Then a few weeks ago, travelling the road to North Tawton, I noticed a brand new football pitch opposite the garden centre at the far end of Bow. Last week I returned to have a look. The gates were open and I wandered in. Changing rooms in the corner, spruce wooden dugouts and a wide expanse of level ground - rare for this part of the country - for the pitch. The set-up could allow the club to climb the leagues should they so wish. I guess Bow could put a rail around the pitch, assemble a little stand and install floodlights. That would all be very well but they'd probably need to bring in players from far and wide to achieve that level of football. Maybe that's the aim, perhaps not. But, even at the second tier of the Devon and Exeter League - and Bow aren't doing too well so far - I'm not sure where Bow's players live. It's not a big place and, like so many communities in that part of Devon, the population would be relatively old. Perhaps the new football ground is purely intended as a place for local people to play football as opposed to necessarily enabling the local club to climb the leagues. If that's the case, it's not a bad idea. Apparently Bow (which I confess is a place I have never heard of) has a population of just over 1,000 and is an overspill from the old village of Nymet Tracey, which no longer exists. Its football club is so wee that it doesn't even merit a mention on Wikipedia, which I thought would have covered all the teams in the Devon & Exeter League. I bet local derbies against Zeal Monachorum (which I have heard of before) are feisty affairs. Crediton 8 Exeter 15 sounds like a rugby score from the 1950s, but Bow's ground is clearly very modern and indeed looks to be made entirely of wood like the proposed new stadium for Forest Green Rovers, although it's good to know that unlike FGR Bow AAC are not planning to sell their old ground for housing. What does AAC stand for, DS? Is it a tribute to former Scottish League stalwarts Third Lanark AC?
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 18, 2019 20:38:01 GMT
Apparently Bow (which I confess is a place I have never heard of) has a population of just over 1,000 and is an overspill from the old village of Nymet Tracey, which no longer exists. Its football club is so wee that it doesn't even merit a mention on Wikipedia, which I thought would have covered all the teams in the Devon & Exeter League. I bet local derbies against Zeal Monachorum (which I have heard of before) are feisty affairs. Pretty certain it's Bow Amateur Athletic Club. There's been one or two other AACs in the north of Devon over the years. The local derby this year would be Crediton Reserves. Hatherleigh Town and Lapford are in the division above; North Tawton and Winkleigh two below. Bow isn't particularly well-known even within Devon. Not much in the way of tourist attractions and beauty spots around there; plenty of large villages that haven't quite grown into towns. Much of the land is poor (but not in the immediate vicinity of Bow); economic historians would tell you the area started to stagnate in late medieval times and has experienced modest rates of development ever since. It's plateau country with wide views from Dartmoor to Exmoor. I like it. Ted Hughes liked it too. He lived at North Tawton.
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Post by Polly Tunnel on Dec 18, 2019 21:34:51 GMT
Ted Hughes came from Yorkshire originally. Poetry was his second love behind killing animals. Tawton probably experienced a glut of dead family pets while he was living there.
He wasn't very kind to Sylvia Plath either! He probably never bought anyone a pint while he was living in Devon.
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Post by CC on Dec 18, 2019 22:29:48 GMT
Ted Hughes came from Yorkshire originally. Poetry was his second love behind killing animals. Tawton probably experienced a glut of dead family pets while he was living there. He wasn't very kind to Sylvia Plath either! He probably never bought anyone a pint while he was living in Devon. Indeed so. Ted Hughes was born in Mytholmroyd in the Calder Valley but grew up in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. His wife Sylvia Plath and his lover Assia Wevill both killed themselves through depression, as did his & Sylvia's son Nicholas, so he was either very unlucky or an unusually unpleasant person, or perhaps a combination of the two. Sylvia is buried in Heptonstall, near Hebden Bridge. Her gravestone has been attacked several times in an attempt to remove the name Hughes, because of allegations that her husband's mental and physical abuse led to her suicide.
Back to fitba, meanwhile, I knew someone at University who came from Mytholmroyd and whose uncle, Keith Coombs, was the chairman of Birmingham City. She was fond of Uncle Keith, who was a millionaire, but Birmingham's fans were definitely not, and used to demonstrate against him at matches. I think he probably took the blame for the transfer of Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest for £1 million.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 19, 2019 10:59:42 GMT
I don't know too much about Ted Hughes although I suspect he divides opinion. I believe the words "dark" and "gloomy" are often used with respect to his work. I hope that’s not too simplistic nor clichéd a description to repeat. Be that as it may but it is very dark in that part of Devon at night. It experiences relatively low levels of light pollution and must be one of least-populated parts of southern England. There's no name in everyday usage for the area between Dartmoor and Exmoor although Natural England, in its division of England into 159 National Character Areas, calls it The Culm (with Bow just making it into the Devon Redlands). I'm usually heading home on the 5A bus before night falls. To live there might make me, well, dark and gloomy. I have found a Ted Hughes poem about football. Whether he ever watched North Tawton FC or stood in the Arthur Bale is another matter.
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Post by Polly Tunnel on Dec 19, 2019 11:09:46 GMT
Who was Arthur Bale? I bet he wasn't as dark or gloomy as Ted Hughes. Is he Gareth's father or a more famous Devon poet?
My stay in North Tawton Was only a short 'un
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Post by CC on Dec 19, 2019 11:32:02 GMT
Arthur's poem is a fake, and was more probably written by Yorkshireman Hughes. In Devon, as in Scotland, the "r" in "short 'un" would be sounded and consequently it disnae rhyme with "Tawton." Near Edinburgh there is a place, with a prison, called Saughton and that doesn't rhyme with Tawton either.
I was taken to task by a Devonian a few weeks ago for trying to rhyme "bull" with "gull." Apparently there are parts of the world where these two words are pronounced differently from each other.
I hope Drew is going to give us Ted Hughes' football poem. As a youth from Mytholmroyd he should have supported Halifax Town, which might have accounted for his melancholy.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 19, 2019 12:18:22 GMT
I don’t think Arthur was a relative of Gareth’s although another Arthur Bale once ran a fishing tackle shop in Cardiff. This Arthur lived in a bungalow and apparently owned the land on which the club plays. The club has now purchased the ground from Arthur’s estate. If Ted Hughes watched home games might he have gone on away trips and led the singing? WINKLEIGH
“Everywhere we go, everywhere we go, North Tawton boys making all the noise, everywhere we go”
LAPFORD
“We will follow North Tawton over land and sea – and Lapford! – we will follow North Tawton on to victory!”MORCHARD BISHOP “North Tawton boys we are here Whoa! Whoa! North Tawton boys we are here Whoa! Whoa! North Tawton boys we are here to....”
Football at Slack by Ted Hughes:
Between plunging valleys, on a bareback of hill
Men in bunting colours Bounced, and their blown ball bounced.
The blown ball jumped, and the merry-coloured men Spouted like water to head it. The ball blew away downwind –
The rubbery men bounced after it. The ball jumped up and out and hung in the wind Over a gulf of treetops. Then they all shouted together, and the blown ball blew back.
Winds from fiery holes in heaven Piled the hills darkening around them To awe them. The glare light Mixed its mad oils and threw glooms. Then the rain lowered a steel press.
Hair plastered, they all just trod water To puddle glitter. And their shouts bobbed up Coming fine and thin, washed and happy
While the humped world sank foundering And the valleys blued unthinkable Under the depth of Atlantic depression –
But the wingers leapt, they bicycled in air And the goalie flew horizontal
And once again a golden holocaust Lifted the cloud’s edge, to watch them.
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Post by CC on Dec 20, 2019 10:26:43 GMT
Lowland League life isn't always easy for Dalbeattie Star but it's something they intend to hold on to and, as they did last season, the club are battling to stay up again this time around. Star are an eccentric team who occasionally pull off surprising wins only to make up for it by suffering an even more shocking defeat the following week. This season they went to Gretna for an important relegation D&G derby and hit five goals, only to lose at home to Vale of Leithen the following week. Since the Vale had suffered the enormous humiliation of losing 5-0 to Fort William in the SFA Cup in their previous game, Star can consider this result as their lowest point of the season so far. It provided Vale of Leithen with 75% of their points total so far. Just like Stair Park, Dalbeattie's wee ground is reached by crossing past swings and roundabouts, which is very appropriate given the team's results. They wear red and black stripes, like AC Milan (insert witty comment here.) Star are 4th bottom of the Lowland League table but relegation fears are eased by the incompetence of the 3 sides below them. One day in the not-too-distant future the elastic binding the club to the LL will snap, but it probably won't happen this season whilst Vale, Gretna and Edinburgh University are providing that soft and comfy cushion.
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Post by CC on Dec 20, 2019 16:48:03 GMT
Having spoken with Chalder about this before I'm still struggling with just how little football is to be watched - or played - within Stranraer itself or the county of Wigtownshire. It's also remarkable that what does take place is either in the Scottish League itself or in the South of Scotland League, the sixth level of football in Scotland. Isn't there any other Saturday afternoon football in the vicinity? Has there been more in the past? In 2010 a match report appeared on Pie & Bovril, referring to a game played between Glenluce Spartans and Portpatrick at Stranraer Road, Glenluce. It was explained that the teams had agreed to meet home and away and that both were hoping to qualify for the South of Scotland League and, after that, for the Scottish FA Cup. A few enthusiasts became excited by the news but it turned out to be an April Fool's Day joke. This was a particular pity for Portpatrick who were reported to have won the match 3-2.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 22, 2019 9:23:40 GMT
St George claim to be Bristol's oldest surviving football club with a history dating back to 1882. They were certainly pre-eminent enough to be a founder member in 1892 of what was to become the Western League. Early opponents, as the club briefly embraced professionalism, included Reading, Southampton and Swindon together with the forerunners of Bristol City and Bristol Rovers. Thereafter it never really got going for St George and they ticked along switching from league to league. The highlights were the famed FA Amateur Cup runs of the 1950s and 1960s. Back in those days the club played in St George, a suburb of terraced houses in industrial east Bristol. At times the club was known as plain St George; at others Bristol St George. Much later a merger occurred and it's now Roman Glass St George. Moreover, to keep its place in the pyramid, the first team plays at the Gloucestershire FA headquarters close to the M4/M5 interchange. And that's where I was yesterday watching St George play Keynsham Town in the Western League Cup. I'd only ever been to Oaklands Park for an FA Vase tie between Almondsbury Picksons and Trowbridge Town. That was nearly thirty years ago and the place has changed utterly with its extra building, small stand, artificial surface and the general “profile” of being home to a county association. The traffic on the M5 and A38, of course, remains as incessant as on my last visit. I'd planned the visit a fortnight ago as part of round of second looks at places before I cut back on the travel next season. As it happens the weather was so lousy I might have gone to Oaklands Park on the spur of the moment anyway. The first half was dire; the second half suddenly pepped into life. Keynsham went two goals up; St George pulled it back to 2-2 and won on penalties. David Bauckham tells the story of St George in considerable detail at dbauckham.exposure.co/glass-works and makes the point that it's actually been the old Roman Glass people who have kept the club going since the merger. He also provides a copious array of pictures. Just the two from me along with one of a viewpoint a few hundred yards from the ground. Look carefully and you can see both Severn bridges.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 23, 2019 23:07:29 GMT
In my brother's Kenneth Wolstenholme's Book of the 1966 World Cup, an article supposedly written by Ray Wilson mentioned that England were unbeaten against the Germans not only in football but also in two other conflicts far removed from the football field. I'd have thought that the USSR, who also took part in the competition, might have had something to say about that. And here's a picture taken at Galmpton United which would have been old Ken's nearest football pitch during the final years of his life. If you know the road between Paignton and Brixham - or have taken the steam railway to Kingswear - you'd have been right past it. Tough times recently for Galmpton for whom it all went wrong meaning they had to step back from playing in a county-wide league to one of the lower divisions in the South Devon League. Did Ken ever see a game here? We may never know.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Dec 23, 2019 23:29:29 GMT
I was in Chulmleigh today which I'd just about call North Devon. Certainly the local authority boundaries place it in North Devon rather than Mid Devon. It's remote Devon; few people go there unless they have the need. it's none the worse for that. It's a struggle associating Chulmleigh with football although today, purely coincidentally, Sky Sports has named its Championship team of the decade. One of the players is practically a Chulmleigh boy. Which one? Chulmleigh has had a football team of its own over the years but, sadly, it's currently inactive. When I visited a few months ago the sports field still had a homespun-looking sign at the entrance. Today it appeared to have gone and to be replaced by a spruce, metallic sign saying "Chulmleigh Pavilion".
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Post by CC on Dec 24, 2019 8:50:58 GMT
I was in Chulmleigh today which I'd just about call North Devon. Certainly the local authority boundaries place it in North Devon rather than Mid Devon. It's remote Devon; few people go there unless they have the need. it's none the worse for that. It's a struggle associating Chulmleigh with football although today, purely coincidentally, Sky Sports has named its Championship team of the decade. One of the players is practically a Chulmleigh boy. Which one? Dunk sounds like a West Country name to me, but I'll go for Charlie Austin as my man from near Chulmleigh. I shall then have a lie down while trying to understand why Sky's XI fails to include Billy Sharp, Jack O'Connell or Mark Duffy. Incidentally, I dunno about the guy from Manchester's evening paper but Kenneth Wolstenholme flew missions over Germany during World War 2. Like Basil Fawlty he never mentioned you know what, but Ken did like to mock the West German side for "rolling in agony" which they did quite a lot of in '66.
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