Camberley Town FC
Krooner Park
Wilton Road
Camberley
Surrey
GU15 2QW
Ground: 90
Date: Saturday 28th September 2019
Camberley Town 0-0 Southall
Combined Counties League Premier Division
Attendance: 40
Camberley Town - History
Camberley Town were founded in 1895 as St. Michael's and initially joined the East & West Surrey League in 1898. In 1901, the club merged with Camberley Magpies and changed name to Camberley & Yorktown. This was followed by the club dropping into the Aldershot Combination League in 1902, before switching to the Ascot & District League a year later. After three consecutive title wins, the club returned to the East & West Surrey League (which was now known as the West Surrey League) in 1910, winning the title in the following season.
In 1922, the club became founder members of the Surrey Senior League, winning successive titles in the 1930/31, 1931/32 and 1932/33 seasons and also finishing as runners-up in the 1938/39 season. After World War 2, the club changed name to Camberley and again finished as runners-up in the 1946/47 and 1961/62 seasons. In 1967, the club merged with Camberley Wanderers and adopted its current name.
In 1973, the club joined the Spartan League, but left after two seasons to join Division 2 of the Athenian League. In 1977, they transferred to Division 2 of the Isthmian League, winning promotion to Division 1 at the end of the 1978/79 season. They lasted two seasons at this level before being relegated back to Division 2, before transferring back to the Athenian League after a single season.
When the Athenian League disbanded in 1984, the club were placed in Division 2 South of the Isthmian League, remaining at this level until being placed in Division 3 in 1991 after restructuring. Camberley remained in the Isthmian League until the 2005/06 season, when they finished third-from-bottom and were relegated to the Combined Counties League Premier Division. This is where the club have remained ever since, finishing in the top half in all but the 2012/13 and 2018/19 seasons (and finishing as runners-up in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons).
The club reached the 1st Round of the FA Cup in the 1998/99 season, beating Wokingham Town, Arundel, Ringmer, Braintree Town and St Blazey before losing to Brentford. The club competed in the FA Trophy for three seasons (1979/80, 1980/81 and 1981/82) but lost all three of their matches without scoring a single goal. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the Quarter Finals, most recently in the 2015/16 season when they beat Lancing, Newhaven, Ascot United, FC Romania and Newton Aycliffe before losing to Hereford.
My Visit
My planning for my early groundhops back at University this year has been rather sporadic, not least because I've been thinking about it for almost a month now. In that period, I've changed my mind on my first two groundhops (i.e. this week and next week) several times and, as I'll discuss later, there's set to be more changes to come.
Initially, my hope for these first two groundhops was to head to a ground that would cost me £5-10 on the train in one week, followed by one that would cost me less than £5 on the train in the other. This meant that, as recently as Monday, I was going to head to Colliers Wood United yesterday as the £5-10 ground, followed by Badshot Lea next Saturday as the sub-£5 ground.
However, after buying some books for my course on Wednesday, I realised that I would have to make changes to ensure I could still afford my planned destination of East Grinstead on the 12th. This meant looking at sub-£5 options for yesterday as well, with this match ultimately coming out on top by virtue of the fact that I can't get to Southall's ground on public transport and see them otherwise (and even if I could get there, they groundshare so I'd go for the team whose ground they share). However, with it being on-off with rain during the week in Guildford, I had an extensive list of back-ups prepared.
On the day of the game, the weather turned out not to be an issue as no rain was forecast until the evening, so I was able to get my train tickets booked and head out. The only issue was that, for whatever reason, my confirmation email from South Western Railway wasn't coming through (and didn't end up doing so until around 7:30pm), so I had to take a couple of photos of the confirmation page on their website so I could actually collect my tickets.
With all that sorted, I had an early lunch before leaving the house at around 12:45pm, heading through the town centre and towards the train station for the first time at the new house. Even with it being busier than normal (due to it being move-in weekend for this year's Freshers), I was still able to get to the train station within 20 minutes, collect my tickets and get on the train with fifteen minutes to spare.
The journey towards Camberley first saw me head to Aldershot, where I had to change to get on a direct train to Camberley. Despite a small delay, the train arrived in Camberley at around 2:20pm and I briskly walked to the ground, arriving just over twenty minutes later and paying £7 for admission. I then did my usual circuit of photos and got a photo of the team sheet on the clubhouse wall before taking a seat in the main stand. At half-time, I left the stand to buy a cheeseburger for £3.50 (this was one of the better parts of the day) before taking my seat in the stand again.
Considering the table and the recent form of the two sides, a close contest did seem likely, but with neither team seeming to draw very often I was hoping that enough would happen to make this an exciting contest.
Here's my match report on what proved to be a truly terrible game (or, rather, my report on the one noteworthy incident of the entire match):
The only notable incident in the entire 90 minutes came in the 13th minute when Southall had a goal disallowed for handball, though only after the referee spoke to his linesman (having initially allowed the goal to stand): Jack Mills' initial shot was blocked by a defender and hit his hand, before dropping down for him to volley into the net. After it was disallowed, Southall's Peter Dean was sin-binned for his complaints.
In all honesty, this was a pretty disappointing day out simply because of how boring the match was and because of the realisation that I haven't seen a genuinely entertaining game since August Bank Holiday Monday. That's no fault of the club though, and as I said before the cheeseburger I had at half-time was excellent.
The journey back was simple enough: another brisk walk back to Camberley station, a twenty-minute wait for my train to arrive at 5:40pm, a change at Aldershot after a ten-minute wait and then back in Guildford around 6:30pm, before getting back into the house twenty minutes later.
As for what's next, I honestly don't know for definite at this stage. To decide on next Saturday's destination, I put a couple of polls up on Twitter last night (you can find them on my profile page if you scroll down a little bit) which will narrow down to two options (one of Badshot Lea or Molesey against one of Bicester United or Henley Town or Roffey). I'll then put those against each other in a brief poll on Friday night to decide on Saturday's destination. That may change my plans for the 12th, as it's starting to look likely that I won't be able to afford to go to East Grinstead that weekend. However, I won't be able to definitively confirm that until that poll on Friday, I imagine.
The Ground
Krooner Park is a decent ground at Step 5 level and probably one of the better ones in the Combined Counties League Premier Division this season. The location of the ground makes it slightly inconvenient to find - with it being right at the back of an industrial estate - but there's little to complain about otherwise (the ground did look a little worse for wear than I've seen in other hoppers' photos, but not to an awful degree)
The ground has cover on two sides, with a large covered terrace behind the near goal (similar to the one at Ash United, but larger in scale). On the near side there is some cover provided by an overhang in front of the clubhouse and next to this is the main stand, which provides seating for 196 people. That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing.
The official record attendance at the ground is 2,066 for a game against Aldershot Town in 1992, though there are reports of an attendance in the region of 3,100 for a friendly against Crystal Palace in 1974. The ground is also shared by Step 6 side Bagshot.
Photos
When the Athenian League disbanded in 1984, the club were placed in Division 2 South of the Isthmian League, remaining at this level until being placed in Division 3 in 1991 after restructuring. Camberley remained in the Isthmian League until the 2005/06 season, when they finished third-from-bottom and were relegated to the Combined Counties League Premier Division. This is where the club have remained ever since, finishing in the top half in all but the 2012/13 and 2018/19 seasons (and finishing as runners-up in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons).
The club reached the 1st Round of the FA Cup in the 1998/99 season, beating Wokingham Town, Arundel, Ringmer, Braintree Town and St Blazey before losing to Brentford. The club competed in the FA Trophy for three seasons (1979/80, 1980/81 and 1981/82) but lost all three of their matches without scoring a single goal. As for the FA Vase, the club have twice progressed as far as the Quarter Finals, most recently in the 2015/16 season when they beat Lancing, Newhaven, Ascot United, FC Romania and Newton Aycliffe before losing to Hereford.
My Visit
My planning for my early groundhops back at University this year has been rather sporadic, not least because I've been thinking about it for almost a month now. In that period, I've changed my mind on my first two groundhops (i.e. this week and next week) several times and, as I'll discuss later, there's set to be more changes to come.
Initially, my hope for these first two groundhops was to head to a ground that would cost me £5-10 on the train in one week, followed by one that would cost me less than £5 on the train in the other. This meant that, as recently as Monday, I was going to head to Colliers Wood United yesterday as the £5-10 ground, followed by Badshot Lea next Saturday as the sub-£5 ground.
However, after buying some books for my course on Wednesday, I realised that I would have to make changes to ensure I could still afford my planned destination of East Grinstead on the 12th. This meant looking at sub-£5 options for yesterday as well, with this match ultimately coming out on top by virtue of the fact that I can't get to Southall's ground on public transport and see them otherwise (and even if I could get there, they groundshare so I'd go for the team whose ground they share). However, with it being on-off with rain during the week in Guildford, I had an extensive list of back-ups prepared.
On the day of the game, the weather turned out not to be an issue as no rain was forecast until the evening, so I was able to get my train tickets booked and head out. The only issue was that, for whatever reason, my confirmation email from South Western Railway wasn't coming through (and didn't end up doing so until around 7:30pm), so I had to take a couple of photos of the confirmation page on their website so I could actually collect my tickets.
With all that sorted, I had an early lunch before leaving the house at around 12:45pm, heading through the town centre and towards the train station for the first time at the new house. Even with it being busier than normal (due to it being move-in weekend for this year's Freshers), I was still able to get to the train station within 20 minutes, collect my tickets and get on the train with fifteen minutes to spare.
The journey towards Camberley first saw me head to Aldershot, where I had to change to get on a direct train to Camberley. Despite a small delay, the train arrived in Camberley at around 2:20pm and I briskly walked to the ground, arriving just over twenty minutes later and paying £7 for admission. I then did my usual circuit of photos and got a photo of the team sheet on the clubhouse wall before taking a seat in the main stand. At half-time, I left the stand to buy a cheeseburger for £3.50 (this was one of the better parts of the day) before taking my seat in the stand again.
Considering the table and the recent form of the two sides, a close contest did seem likely, but with neither team seeming to draw very often I was hoping that enough would happen to make this an exciting contest.
Here's my match report on what proved to be a truly terrible game (or, rather, my report on the one noteworthy incident of the entire match):
The only notable incident in the entire 90 minutes came in the 13th minute when Southall had a goal disallowed for handball, though only after the referee spoke to his linesman (having initially allowed the goal to stand): Jack Mills' initial shot was blocked by a defender and hit his hand, before dropping down for him to volley into the net. After it was disallowed, Southall's Peter Dean was sin-binned for his complaints.
In all honesty, this was a pretty disappointing day out simply because of how boring the match was and because of the realisation that I haven't seen a genuinely entertaining game since August Bank Holiday Monday. That's no fault of the club though, and as I said before the cheeseburger I had at half-time was excellent.
The journey back was simple enough: another brisk walk back to Camberley station, a twenty-minute wait for my train to arrive at 5:40pm, a change at Aldershot after a ten-minute wait and then back in Guildford around 6:30pm, before getting back into the house twenty minutes later.
As for what's next, I honestly don't know for definite at this stage. To decide on next Saturday's destination, I put a couple of polls up on Twitter last night (you can find them on my profile page if you scroll down a little bit) which will narrow down to two options (one of Badshot Lea or Molesey against one of Bicester United or Henley Town or Roffey). I'll then put those against each other in a brief poll on Friday night to decide on Saturday's destination. That may change my plans for the 12th, as it's starting to look likely that I won't be able to afford to go to East Grinstead that weekend. However, I won't be able to definitively confirm that until that poll on Friday, I imagine.
The Ground
Krooner Park is a decent ground at Step 5 level and probably one of the better ones in the Combined Counties League Premier Division this season. The location of the ground makes it slightly inconvenient to find - with it being right at the back of an industrial estate - but there's little to complain about otherwise (the ground did look a little worse for wear than I've seen in other hoppers' photos, but not to an awful degree)
The ground has cover on two sides, with a large covered terrace behind the near goal (similar to the one at Ash United, but larger in scale). On the near side there is some cover provided by an overhang in front of the clubhouse and next to this is the main stand, which provides seating for 196 people. That aside, the rest of the ground is open hard standing.
The official record attendance at the ground is 2,066 for a game against Aldershot Town in 1992, though there are reports of an attendance in the region of 3,100 for a friendly against Crystal Palace in 1974. The ground is also shared by Step 6 side Bagshot.
Photos
