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Post by chrish on Feb 27, 2011 22:18:09 GMT
On Saturday I paid my second visit to Wheatsheaf Park in Staines. Home of Staines Town, who ply their trade in the Blue Square Conference South. I needed a cheap match to watch nearby as I wanted to watch the rugby afterwards. But one by one all local matches were cancelled, first Wealdstone V Cray Wanderers (the third oldest English club), then Hendon V Tonbridge Angels where the match sponsors were a group of Birmingham City fans coming down to Wembley for today's excellent Carling Cup final. A nice touch I thought. So off to Staines I went via the Heathrow flight path. They've improved the ground since I was last there. The very impressive main stand, which also houses a massive gym and other corporate facilities, has been augmented by a new covered terrace on the opposite side of the ground. It reminded a lot of the all metal stand behind the goal at Histon but done a far greater expense as it has the sturdiest looking crush barriers I've ever seen. The new stand runs virtually the full length of the pitch but has extra crush barriers for extra standing capacity when the roof ends. There's not much scope for extra improvements though. Both ends are very narrow but the official capacity of 3,009 with 300 seats and 800 terraced place covered coped fine with Saturday's attendance of 378 with about 20 from visitors Basingstoke Town. Some photos    Frank Gray has a pre-match laugh   As I said. Not much behind the goals.  D-Day beach defences and Tolberone houses.     |
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Post by stuartB on Feb 27, 2011 22:25:19 GMT
great pics Chris, especially the black and white ones of the toblerone houses.
last time I went to Staines my mates TV was nicked fro the back of my Capri in the car park. some jobsworth in the repair shop would not let us leave it there while we shopped. followed back to the car park by a couple of shady individuals and later it was gone
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Feb 27, 2011 22:27:22 GMT
Great pictures Chris, is the figure of near 400 watching games the norn for that division? It does seem if that was the case the clubs would have to hope to get bigger gates if they did get promoted to the BSP league.
Its only two leagues below us and if that figure was the norn, it does not bear thinking about, how low are gates might have got if we had gone down ever further.
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Post by chrish on Feb 27, 2011 22:57:57 GMT
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Feb 27, 2011 23:05:12 GMT
Interesting reading and looking at the figures the highest and lowest gates for Dartford and Ebbsfleet seem miles apart. Was this due to a cup match, or another team bringing a good number of away supporters?
I wonder how Ebbsfleet and Lewes gates compare now to when they were in the BSP.
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Post by chrish on Feb 27, 2011 23:06:34 GMT
great pics Chris, especially the black and white ones of the toblerone houses. last time I went to Staines my mates TV was nicked fro the back of my Capri in the car park. some jobsworth in the repair shop would not let us leave it there while we shopped. followed back to the car park by a couple of shady individuals and later it was gone Well as long as the Capri was ok. Which one did you have? I always wanted a Capri. |
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Post by chrish on Feb 27, 2011 23:22:12 GMT
Interesting reading and looking at the figures the highest and lowest gates for Dartford and Ebbsfleet seem miles apart. Was this due to a cup match, or another team bringing a good number of away supporters? I wonder how Ebbsfleet and Lewes gates compare now to when they were in the BSP. The massive gate for Dartford was against Ebbsfleet and I guess vice versa. The interesting reading comes from reading the attendances figures for the Blue Square Premier and the two divisions below the Conference South, the Isthmian Premier and the Zameretto Premier. Considering that these are 7th Division clubs the attendances are pretty good. The bigger attendances are due to local derbys (Sutton V Carshalton or Lowestoft V Bury Town). My local team Wealdstone have a pretty consistent average and they are averaging more than Hayes and Yeading two divisions above them. As far as our attendances are concerned we're on a par with quite a few of the bigger conference clubs but we're not far off Dagenham and Hartlepool in the division above. Add a thousand (or 500) onto our gate and we're in a much more sturdy position. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2011 9:42:31 GMT
The massive gate for Dartford was against Ebbsfleet and I guess vice versa. Considering that these are 7th Division clubs the attendances are pretty good. The bigger attendances are due to local derbys (Sutton V Carshalton or Lowestoft V Bury Town). My local team Wealdstone have a pretty consistent average and they are averaging more than Hayes and Yeading two divisions above them. There's a marvellous tradition of local derbies attracting big crowds at that level. Dorchester v Weymouth is another example. Dartford and Gravesend (Ebbsfleet) are but a few miles apart and, of course, we've played at both grounds in fairly recent memory. It was strange tale of how the Dartford/Maidstone groundshare at Watling Street preceded the demise of both clubs. Dartford, with their new ground, have emerged as the stronger club of the two. Just as in the Conference's national division, there is quite a gap between the scale and size of clubs within both Conference South and Conference South. You're getting down to the clubs ranked between 120th and 160th in the country so it's hardly surprising some of them only get gates of between 250 and 400. In a way there's not enough clubs of a sufficient size to justify the structure of the leagues. |
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seventyseven
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Prediction League Champion Season Five 2011/2012
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Post by seventyseven on Feb 28, 2011 13:56:03 GMT
It was strange tale of how the Dartford/Maidstone groundshare at Watling Street preceded the demise of both clubs. Dartford, with their new ground, have emerged as the stronger club of the two. Dartford's new ground (Princes Park) is a very decent ground for BSQ South Level... however, Maidstone currently ply their trade in the Ryman Premier League. Currently playing at Ashford Town's Homelands - where they haven't had a single 'home' win all season... Next season they will return to Sittinghbourne's 'ground' for a season before returning, finally, to the town of Maidstone (providing the elusive ground gets built!). |
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Post by stuartB on Feb 28, 2011 20:42:28 GMT
great pics Chris, especially the black and white ones of the toblerone houses. last time I went to Staines my mates TV was nicked fro the back of my Capri in the car park. some jobsworth in the repair shop would not let us leave it there while we shopped. followed back to the car park by a couple of shady individuals and later it was gone Well as long as the Capri was ok. Which one did you have? I always wanted a Capri. 2.0 litre GL metallic gold. love it  |
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Post by chrish on Feb 28, 2011 23:00:07 GMT
It was strange tale of how the Dartford/Maidstone groundshare at Watling Street preceded the demise of both clubs. Dartford, with their new ground, have emerged as the stronger club of the two. Dartford's new ground (Princes Park) is a very decent ground for BSQ South Level... however, Maidstone currently ply their trade in the Ryman Premier League. Currently playing at Ashford Town's Homelands - where they haven't had a single 'home' win all season... Next season they will return to Sittinghbourne's 'ground' for a season before returning, finally, to the town of Maidstone (providing the elusive ground gets built!). Dartford's new ground is certainly one I want to visit before the end of the season. It's a strange place for football is Kent. Loads of smallish Non League teams but only one (Gillingham) in the football team. Dover Athletic seem to be on the up these days but most others seem to be struggling in one way or another. An artist's impression of the new Maidstone ground can be seen here. www.bringthestoneshome.co.uk/stadium/artistsimpressions.htmSittingbourne currently play on one of the side pitches at the moment don't they? I think they've stopped playing in the main stadium. |
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Post by chrish on Feb 28, 2011 23:13:06 GMT
Well as long as the Capri was ok. Which one did you have? I always wanted a Capri. 2.0 litre GL metallic gold. love it Very nice indeed. My late father had a two tone Mk 2. The first car we had with a rev counter! A great car until he drove it back drunk from the Keyberry one friday night, used the wall at the Priory to steer the car in the direction of Abbotskerswell and we had to sell it a few weeks later. The next car was a god awful Chrysler Alpine and the rev counter was replaced by a fuel warning light which my mother watched like a hawk. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2011 10:19:07 GMT
It's a strange place for football is Kent. Loads of smallish Non League teams but only one (Gillingham) in the football team. Dover Athletic seem to be on the up these days but most others seem to be struggling in one way or another. Kent is certainly a populous county - over 1.6m people (rather more than Devon) - spread over a large number of relatively sizeable towns. A few places which could have feasibly established league football many years ago but never came close to doing so. Maybe it's classic "non league" territory with support draining towards Charlton (which has always had Kentish credentials), Millwall (because of overspill) and other London clubs. Maidstone could have been a "goer" but became a mess and lost opportunity. Becoming quiet on the "new" grounds front for me these days. It's an eclectic tally this season: Andover, Annan, Bolton, Chesterfield, Havant & Waterlooville and Morecambe. |
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Post by chrish on Mar 2, 2011 20:11:21 GMT
It's a strange place for football is Kent. Loads of smallish Non League teams but only one (Gillingham) in the football team. Dover Athletic seem to be on the up these days but most others seem to be struggling in one way or another. Kent is certainly a populous county - over 1.6m people (rather more than Devon) - spread over a large number of relatively sizeable towns. A few places which could have feasibly established league football many years ago but never came close to doing so. Maybe it's classic "non league" territory with support draining towards Charlton (which has always had Kentish credentials), Millwall (because of overspill) and other London clubs. Maidstone could have been a "goer" but became a mess and lost opportunity. Becoming quiet on the "new" grounds front for me these days. It's an eclectic tally this season: Andover, Annan, Bolton, Chesterfield, Havant & Waterlooville and Morecambe. Perhaps it's more to do with the geography of the area. Small but vibrant little towns each with their own patch but none of them big enough to really support a decent league club. Dover, Folkestone, Ramsgate, Ashford, Margate, Whitstable, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Chatham, Faversham, Sittingbourne and Whitstable all have decent sized non league clubs. Interesting to note than Canterbury doesn't have a decent sized team. |
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seventyseven
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Post by seventyseven on Mar 10, 2011 16:01:03 GMT
Dover, Folkestone, Ramsgate, Ashford, Margate, Whitstable, Tonbridge, Maidstone, Chatham, Faversham, Sittingbourne and Whitstable all have decent sized non league clubs. One for the Quiz.... what's the current connection between Tonbridge Angels and Torquay United?? |
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