JamesB
TFF member
Posts: 1,526
|
Post by JamesB on Sept 20, 2012 17:10:44 GMT
I downloaded an update yesterday for a certain football management computer game (covering last season) which unlocks the 7th and 8th tiers of English football - the Ryman and two Evo-Stik leagues, in marketing speak. The game has always come with playable leagues down to Blue Square North and South, but with a stack of inactive non-league teams further down the pyramid that you can only play in friendlies. This download groups some of those into their actual leagues and adds cup competitions and tidies up the FA Cup and Trophy qualification
Having also downloaded an expansion of the Welsh system down to the 4th tier (including glamour clubs like AFC Llwydcoed and Treowen Stars, as well as fallen giants like Inter Cardiff, Grange Quins and Briton Ferry Llansawel), I've been left with a stack of non-league teams to choose from, most of which have spent their existence in obscurity until photographed by Barton Downs or Dave on their travels. I'm no non-league expert - I know many of the names of the clubs down as far as tier 10 (where Buckland used to play). However, names are rather meaningless without a context
So, my question is which are your favourite non-league clubs, or clubs that you have a particular affinity to? I know we have members here who follow Buckland and some of the other local clubs. But are their others our exiled members have links with?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2012 20:23:23 GMT
My reply to the thread marking Dave's visit to Taunton Town will indicate the amount of football I've seen at Wordsworth Drive over the years. On top of that I've probably seen Taunton on at least thirty grounds between Cornwall and London and over to the Isle of Wight. I would have loved to see more of those FA Vase games but was usually busy watching Torquay United. I did, however, make it to the 1994 semi-final at Boston Town and the 2001 final at Villa Park.
I first got interested in non-league in the late 1970s when I watched a few games when I lived in Hastings. Later, in the 1980s, I occasionally saw Chorley when I was in Lancashire.
My interest broadened when I moved to Somerset and I watched many Peninsula League games when in Exeter. I was sorry about Dawlish folding because that was Western League football. And, between 2008 and 2012, I saw most of the midweek games at Buckland Athletic. I've not kept a tally but I'd guess 25-30 visits and a couple of Throgmorton finals and one of the pre-season charity games.
Around here, I may settle into a pattern of watching midweek games at Stocksbridge, Sheffield and Hallam; the beauty of which is that they play in different leagues. I may also go to Worksop from time-to-time.
I've never watched South Devon League football save for Herald and Belli semi-finals and finals. I doubt I would watch - or even seek the scores - of comparable leagues elsewhere. For it to register as a game, I need to pay money to watch and have access to a hot drink and a programme. That, of course, usually means a fence or wall around the actual playing surface. Somewhere such as Sidmouth was about as basic as it got last season.
|
|
|
|
Post by gullone on Sept 21, 2012 10:29:23 GMT
Interesting question posed there by James. Im not welsh but i have always kept one eye on the fortunes of Newport County. Its been well documented how they have fought back through the pyramid system and now are now just one more good season away from getting back in the football league. I can remember boxing day 78 and as a spotty faced 15 year old jumping on the train to Newport in the sun and grabbing a 1 1 draw in what seemed like a packed Somerton park. Went up there for the F A Trophy game at the athletics stadium in Jan 08 and won 2 1 in front of their friendly fans ! I see they are playing at Rodney Parade the rugby ground as an experiment this season which looks good and seems to have gone down well with the fans. There are a few more stories involving us and Newport over the years but for now i certainly dont begrudge County their incredible fightback.
|
|
Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
|
Post by Dave on Sept 22, 2012 9:11:02 GMT
You would think growing up as a young boy being a part of Newton Abbot Spurs that would be my second club. I do have very fond memories of my childhood time spent at the old Rec and I’m so glad I had family who were part of the club as well. Looking back to those days, I realise just how things have changed in this world we live in and how every male is seem these days as a potential threat to children.
After each home game I would jump naked into what seemed to me a giant stone bath, all innocent and all perfectly acceptable on those days. No one every questioned it and as far as I’m aware, no one thought I was in any danger or there was any chance I would be groomed etc.
I loved the smell of some stuff the players would rub on their legs (what is it called?) and as I was the club mascot, I loved wearing the team kit during the matches. But in later years and reasons I can’t go into on the TFF, I lost my love of that club, all I will say is they put the integrity of someone I know to the test and for the wrong reasons.
Yes I would now consider Buckland to be my second club, what a great story that clubs progress is, I so remember watching them play on a local park at the bottom of Buckland Estate. For me the feeling I get when at Homers Heath, is the same one I got as a child at the Rec. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s like the whole club and all those who are a part of it, are just one big family. Each and everyone working for the good of the club and all loving the club and the reason they give so much of their own spare time for free.
I can understand where Barton Downs is coming from, when he says we wants to pay an entrance fee, have a programme, a cup of tea and a wall to lean against. It does give you a sense you are in a proper football ground and I wonder if then there is an expectation, the quality of the football is going to be better.
I on the other hand enjoy watching football at any level and am more than happy to stand in an open field breaking my neck for a wee as there are no facilities what so ever. Watching football at its very grass roots is in some ways romantic as far as I’m concerned.
In the days I once had a son, I enjoyed so much being a part in some way of the clubs he played for. Being in the dressing room for the team talks, the halftime team talks and the ones at the end of the match. I loved listening to the players talk about their own performances and what always came over very strongly, was the team sprit and the real togetherness.
I guess I love football at this level as its not effected by money, these players have to pay to play and the only rewards they are ever going to get, is success out on the pitch. They turn up and play in the wet and rain and on some pitches that border on being dangerous, but turn up they do as they love playing the game of football.
I have seen goals scored on a local park, that would grace any best goals programme on the TV, I have seem tears of joy and tears of heartbreak as these park players won or lost an important game.
Football at its rawest and purest, not spoiled by the things that have ruined in my opinion, the football that sits on top of this level of football,
|
|
