KC Royal I've been meaning to ask, what Kent grounds have you been to?
Sorry KCR - took a while to get round to answering this:
...having 'growed up in farvest Fannit' - surprisingly few whilst I lived there - even though I went to 'Ramsgit' faithfully for a few years.
Didn't tend to travel away much back then, that I can remember; other than for our fairly regular whupping at Hartsdown; that's on the few occasions we were in the same division as that mob from the other side of the 'Isle' - or for the odd 'Kent Messenger Trophy' tie. (was over 40 years ago!
)Since then done most of the N.Kent coast 'Senior sides' except Chatham - but they've dropped down to the 'Kent league' (tagged the Southern Counties East league)
...at that level (STEP05) I've still got about a 1/3 left to do but managed a fair few inside the M25 - and with considerably more to visit in the lower division .
So in the upper levels (STEPS 1-4) done Margate, Ramsgate (obviously), Bromley, Welling (for 'those' Cup replays
), Dartford, VCD, Herne Bay, Whitstable, Faversham, Ashford Town AND subsequently United - (though probably only away) & Ebbsfleet. I went back when they were still Gravesend & Northfleet I've still not managed to get down as far as Dover or Folkestone yet nor Sevenoaks but I did do Deal - albeit probably in the mid 60s!
.Had pondered Phoenix Sports yesterday - they play about a long-throw's distance from VCD's ground - but decided against the M25 that far round - wish we'd decided against it full-stop (see below
)- Not been to Sittingbourne, who are still 'lodging' a few miles south of the town, at the home of the former Kent club Woodstock Sports - who folded themselves about 3-4 years ago, leaving 'The Brickies' with vacant possession, as it were.
I did see a game at their former home @ Bourne Park which they shared for a while with Maidstone.
- This was adjacent to the far grander Central Park stadium @ Murston, which they had to vacate due to excessive debt, I think is only used for Greyhound/Speedway (Kent Kings) & Monster Trucks now?
From Berks any journey in that direction is fraught with M'way problems - so we tend to choose the clockwise options on the Orbital to Essex/E.Anglia for any long trips eastwards. We'll get there ... eventually......
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here's the round-up of yesterday's NL that survived the deluge - seemed worse in the SW
Fixtures 181215
FA Trophy R1
14 Wingate & Finchley 2-0 Dulwich Hamlet
15 Biggleswade Town 2-1 Wealdstone
16 Maidenhead United A-A Oxford City att 1,000 abandoned 76’ (0-1) re-match Tue 18th
17 Hereford 2-1 Billericay Town
18 Aldershot Town 3-3 Bedford Town
19 Carshalton Athletic 1-0 Dorking Wanderers
20 Hemel Hempstead Town 2-1 Eastleigh
21 Dover Athletic 2-2 Havant & Waterlooville
22 Woking 1-1 Maidstone United
23 Ebbsfleet United 0-1 Dagenham & Redbridge
24 Barnet 3-2 Bath City
25 Bromley 2-1 Sutton United
26 Truro City 4-0 Weston super Mare
27 Salisbury P-P Braintree Town
28 Boreham Wood 3-1 Torquay United aet FT 1-1
29 Leyton Orient 4-0 Beaconsfield Town
30 Brackley Town 4-2 Hayes & Yeading United
31 Weymouth P-P Needham Market
32 Eastbourne Borough 0-4 Dorchester Town
IL1-SC
Ashford Town (Middx) 2-0 Chalfont St Peter
Bedfont Sports 4-1 Egham Town
Marlow 1-3 Waltham Abbey – league leaders ‘Blues’ humbled by 3rd placed Abbey – Hayes & Yeading will go top if they avoid defeat at Chalfont St P. this Tuesday – and would still have two games in hand.
Northwood 2-2 Hanwell Town
Uxbridge 0-2 Cheshunt
Ware {SEVEN} 7-2 Bracknell Town -
4-1 at HT. Robins drop to 4th having not won now, in their last 6.Westfield 1-1 South Park
SLP-C
Banbury United 4-1 Kettering Town
SLP-S
Frome Town 2-0 Staines Town
Hartley Wintney 3-1 Taunton Town – HW get a good win over the leaders. 2nd placed Merthyr surprisingly well-beaten too, 0-3 at Harrow
Kings Langley 5-1 Farnborough
Poole Town P-P Chesham United
Swindon Supermarine 5-2 Basingstoke Town
Walton Casuals 5-1 Hendon
SL1-C
Aylesbury United 2-4 Berkhamsted
Barton Rovers 2-3 Kidlington – Kiddy out of the bottom two
Didcot Town 3-2 Corby Town
Thame United 4-2 Welwyn Garden City – hat-trick for West
Yaxley 6-2 North Leigh – Nor Lye now bottom
SL1-S
Larkhall Athletic 3-1 Fleet Town
Paulton Rovers 2-2 Highworth Town – home side levelled on 93’
Winchester City 2-2 Bideford
CCLP
Abbey Rangers 2-0 Southall
Banstead Athletic 3-2 Balham
Camberley Town 5-1 Guildford City
Chertsey Town 6-0 Walton & Hersham
Cobham {SEVEN} 7-0 CB Hounslow United
Colliers Wood United 6-2 Badshot Lea
Horley Town 2-5 Sutton Common Rovers
Knaphill 0-3 Hanworth Villa
Redhill 2-2 AFC Hayes
Spelthorne Sports 3-0 Raynes Park Vale
- Poor weather brought out the goals in this division : 51 in 10 games and at least they all played to a finish
CCL1
Ash United A-A Godalming Town
Bagshot 1-3 Fleet Spurs
Bedfont & Feltham 2-1 Eversley & California
Chessington & Hook United 3-1 Dorking Wanderers Res
Farnham Town A-A Cove abandoned around the hour mark - sadly for rock-bottom Cove they were leading 2-1!
Kensington Borough 0-3 Sheerwater
Sandhurst Town P-P British Airways
Tooting Bec P-P FC Deportivo Galicia
HELLP
Abingdon United 0-0 Holmer Green
Ascot United 1-0 Bishops Cleeve - Ascot re-take top spot with Saints game being abandoned - though the former leaders were trailing 0-3 in the swamp at Lydney
Lydney Town A-A Brackley Town Saints
Reading City P-P Shrivenham
Tuffley Rovers 1-3 Royal Wootton Bassett Town
Wantage Town 4-1 Fairford Town
Windsor 1-3 Brimscombe & Thrupp - reportedly was Windsor’s first home league game for 46 days and first at home on a Sat for 70?
- B&T consolidate 3rd place
HELL1E
AFC Aldermaston P-P Abingdon Town
Chinnor A-A Penn & Tylers Green
Holyport A-A Woodley United
Thame Rangers P-P Chalvey Sports
Reading Senior
Wallingford Town P-P Virginia Water
- completing the wipe-out in this division - though not actually sure when the match at Thame was re-arranged as it was obviously not off due to the weather – visitors were tweeting no game for them on Friday so more than likely an oversight by someone at Thame. The Firsts (United) were scheduled to be at home ?
- must have got increasingly bad locally around 16:00 onwards as all bar two of the Thames Valley Premier games were abandoned - the two easterly grounds survived: (Wraysbury and Richings Pk - up beyond Sluff)
WESS1
Petersfield Town 3-4 Hythe & Dibden
…all other Wessex league games were postponed (apart from a game at Hamworthy nr Poole)
We headed, for a change, anti-clockwise round the M25 - departure much delayed by missus chatting too long before coming home to let me have her car
- eldest had 'pinched' mine to go down nr Alton (Bellringing) . This ruled out most of our options for any new grounds, so we decided to aim for one of two still in range: Lingfield 3-1 Broadbridge Heath in the Southern Combination Premier League (ex-Sussex) - though the home side are actually based in Surrey 
We could also have opted for Alfold v Midhurst in the division below and gone via Guildford thus avoiding later the M'way travails - in hindsight a doubly poor decision perhaps, as the score there was 10-0.
Lots of traffic around Bracknell and then Chertsey but we arrived just about on KO.
Was pi$$ing it down for most of the game - the club had a close-circuit feed of the game from inside the bar - which is where my mate sat for the duration. Was a fairly ok tussle in terrible condition with the hosts running out 3-1 winners.
left the ground - about 6-7 miles S of jn6 of M25 and headed home at about 16:55.
Approaching the Gatwick turn - signs appearing of 'Serious Accident Long Delays' etc - not a peep from local radio - indeed no Travel news at all on the stations we tried - AND I had that normally fairly annoying feature set, to interrupt broadcasts with local Beeb Travel bulletins.
- Whilst increasingly in a stationary condition, I carefully managed to check the Net on my phone (ssh) and discovered news of 3 of 4 lanes closed and vehicle fire following an accident at 16:30 nr Leatherhead.
The M'way Camera site was reporting 'normal conditions' expected as initially 21:30 then 23:45 then 03:45 !
Eventually got to Cobham Services beyond the site of the incident at about 21:40. I have been stuck in similar delays before but not quite that drastic and seen plenty more on the other carriageway - whilst thinking how lucky I am not to get stuck.
- At least we finally got home (about 22:40) with nothing more than a bout of seriously strained bladders - not good at our age.
Someone may not have got out of that at all - by the time we'd got past they'd removed most of the debris - only two relatively unscathed sporty-looking black (not blackened ) BMW's slewed across lanes 1&2 - can only hope they weren't anything to do with the cause and that other innocents didn't suffered as a result of carelessness (too easy to assume that of course ) - there were at least half-a doz. ambulances, heading back the other way for the duration of the queue.
