Clarence Park and Brick Field

Here's one for you Brett:

Did you go to St Albans last season? If you did you would have visited one of the most scenically located grounds we could ever wish to play at.

Clarence Park is incorporated within a city centre facility of the same name laid out in Victorian times and opened by the Duke of Cambridge. The excellent football ground that St Albans City use is self contained these days and a fine example of just how the seafront "Rec" should be maintained in Torquay. For many years a protected Elm tree located on the terracing behind the goal prevented the club from taking their place at the very top of non league football!

It's pretty much in the Victorian/Edwardian era still save for the addition of 1960's style floodlight pylons down either side of the excellent and expansive playing surface - so good that Scotland used to use it to train on prior to their visits to Wembley.

Adjoining is the delightful Victorian cricket pavilion that looks out over a pristine cricket/bowls/hockey/tennis and croquet (phew!) arena and is in use by Hertfordshire for Minor Counties fixtures. The pavilion features a small spired bell tower atop a gabled roof frontage featuring a clock with a pretty seating deck at the front adorned by dog toothed roof fascia. There are beautiful floral gardens and children's play areas there too.

I was fortunate enough to have a few hours to kill in St Albans on Friday whilst working on the TV show "It's Me Or The Dog" as Victoria Stilwell's driver, and naturally made for the park where I happily consumed the picnic I had collected from a delightful Italian bakery and grocery store just down the road.

Kev's excellent pictures of Sittingbourne show the main stadium in the background which these days feature just greyhound racing but not so long ago was the home to the football club who unfortunately had to fore go the facility owing to the immense overheads of playing there. They had Football League aspirations at the time and now look at them playing on their former training ground - although I note they have now built a small seating stand since I was there.