Ipswich Wanderers - Humber Doucy Lane

Ipswich Wanderers FC
Humber Doucy Lane
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP4 3NR

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Ground: 146
Date: Saturday 6th August 2022
Ipswich Wanderers 1-0 Yaxley
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
Attendance: 98 (official)

Ipswich Wanderers - History

Ipswich Wanderers were founded in 1980 as an under-14s team in the village of Bramford, three miles west of Ipswich itself. They joined the bottom division of the Ipswich Sunday League two years later, before becoming founder members of Division 1 of the Eastern Counties League in 1988. 1988 also saw the club become Loadwell Ipswich due to sponsorship, but they changed name to Ipswich Wanderers a year later.

After a decade in Division 1, they won the title in the 1997/98 season to earn promotion to the Premier Division for the first time. They finished second-from-bottom in their first season at this level, but they remained in the Premier Division until suffering relegation at the end of the 2007/08 season. Six years later, they finished 3rd in Division 1 to secure promotion back to the Premier Division, twelve months after winning the Suffolk Senior Cup for the first time.

That spell in the Premier Division lasted just four seasons, with the club relegated to Division 1 North at the end of the 2017/18 season. After three seasons in this league - two of which were curtailed due to the covid-19 pandemic - they were laterally transferred to Division 1 South for the 2021/22 season and went on to win the league title to secure promotion to the Premier Division once more. They also won their second Suffolk Senior Cup at the end of the season.

FA Cup success has been limited to three runs to the 2nd Qualifying Round, the most recent of which came in the 2015/16 season when they beat Debenham LC, Barkingside and Canvey Island before losing to Enfield Town. As for the FA Vase, they have twice progressed as far as the 5th Round: in the 2006/07 season, they beat Norwich United, Long Melford, Soham Town Rangers, Brimsdown Rovers, Oxhey Jets and Lowestoft Town before losing to AFC Totton; in the 2015/16 season, they beat London Bari, Clapton, Hoddesdon Town, Cricklewood Wanderers, Edgware Town and Bodmin Town before losing to Bowers & Pitsea in a replay.

My Visit

It was fun to get in four groundhops in pre-season, but it's safe to say that pre-season games lack the energy and excitement of competitive football. So I was very much looking forward to August signalling the return of competitive football, even if Yaxley's pre-season schedule really wasn't filling me with optimism for our first competitive game against Ipswich Wanderers.

Still, with a supporters' coach being put on for the game, I wasn't going to miss it and would travel in the hope of a positive result to start our season with. Hell, even if there hadn't been a supporters' coach, I'd have taken the train and then a bus from the station to the ground even though that would cost clost to £25. Either way, I booked my seat on the supporters' coach on Sunday before finding some time on Friday (in between trying to sort something out for a job application) to write up the club's history for this entry.

Yesterday morning, the coach was set to leave at 11am, but I had to get ready to leave the house just after 10am so my sister and her boyfriend could be dropped off at the train station first. This meant I arrived at our ground by around 10:45am, only to find that the place was practically deserted with just one player, our club photographer and the coaching staff present.

The coach ended up arriving just before 11am, and after taking several minutes to manoeuvre into the car park we found out that the coach was actually not leaving until 11:15am. This gave time for a few more players, supporters and the manager to arrive, but we still looked light on numbers. However, it transpired that several players would be making their own way to the game, particularly the London-based members of our squad (for whom it was easier to take the train to Ipswich rather than coming to Yaxley first).

In any case, it took just over two hours to get to Ipswich, and I passed my time on the coach by playing more Pokemon and having an early lunch. As we got off the coach at 1:30pm, one of our London-based players also arrived, having apparently walked for an hour to the ground from Ipswich station. A couple other players arrived by car moments later, and the final few from London arrived about fifteen minutes later.

Us supporters and club officials then headed into the ground and were welcomed by the Ipswich Wanderers officials present. Normally, I would head straight into doing my circuit of photos, but I instead spent a good hour chatting to our photographer and a father of one of the players. I eventually did my circuit of photos with about fifteen minutes to spare before kick-off, though this was another case where the ground layout did not allow for a complete circuit. I also made sure to buy a programme for £2 before kick-off, and I was impressed by the quality of it: an excellent publication from Chenery Creative.

During the first half, I stood behind the near goal as Yaxley were shooting in that direction, before moving beyond the stands on the near side to stand near the far goal in the second half. At half-time, we headed into the boardroom for a cup of tea and some snacks (sandwiches, party-sized sausage rolls, a few small cakes etc.) before heading back out for the second half.

Lewis Baughan had a fantastic chance to give Yaxley the lead in the first couple of minutes, smashing a close-range shot over the bar after Liam Hook crossed across the face of goal. He hit another effort over the bar a few minutes later on the volley.

Ipswich Wanderers were proving a threat from set pieces and with quick balls over the top, eventually taking the lead in the 32nd minute when Charlie Howlett headed in a cross at the far post. It should have been 1-1 a few minutes as Liam Hook charged into the box and hit a low cross to Emmanuel Osilaja, but the striker somehow scuffed a shot wide of the post with the goal at his mercy.

It was very nearly 2-0 early in the second half as a cross eluded everyone and flew across the face of goal, but Matt Blake couldn't reach the ball for the tap-in. Moments later, Dan Cotton spotted Ipswich Wanderers keeper Glyn Dixon off his line and took a shot from just beyond the halfway line, but it landed on top of the net. Ipswich Wanderers then hit the woodwork twice in quick succession as a cross across the face of goal was poked into the crossbar and a Blake shot rattled the post.

As the second half wore on, Ipswich used every trick in the book to frustrate Yaxley and run the clock down, but the away side had a late flurry of chances as they tried to take the tie to a replay: Cotton shot wide a couple of times, Frazer Garner hit a header over the bar and Edgar Silva-Morais had a couple of good chances with some strong solo work down the wings and through the middle. However, Ipswich Wanderers were able to hold on and condemn Yaxley to another early exit from the FA Cup.

Rather counterintuitively, this game made me slightly less pessimistic about Yaxley's prospects for the league season. While we did lose to lower-league opposition (for the third, maybe fourth year running in the FA Cup), it was at least somewhat down to poor finishing and was otherwise a decent performance. In particular, new signing Edgar Silva-Morais impressed me from the bench with his trickery and powerful runs, while Jake Battersby's pace caused plenty of problems on the left wing.

Furthermore, the way Ipswich Wanderers played is not too dissimilar to the way quite a few of the teams in our league play (constant long balls over the top), so in that sense this game served as good preparation for our league campaign. Still much to do to better handle that approach, but we're not as far off the pace as pre-season had led me to fear.

As usual with when we take the coach to away games, we had to wait for the players to get changed and have post-match food before we could leave. This gave us plenty of time to chat about the game while we waited, and myself and club photographer Graham were offered one of the burgers made for the players as they had made too many. During this time, I also heard an Ipswich Wanderers official announce that the official attendance was 98, which seemed quite low to me: it looked to me more like there were around 120 people in the crowd.

Eventually, the coach ended up leaving at around 5:45pm and made it back to Yaxley just over two hours later. I used that time to write up my match report and sort out most of my photos (i.e. the ones that were on my camera and not on my phone) before playing some more Pokemon until my laptop's battery was almost dead. In the end, I was home by 8pm and went for a shower before sorting out the final few photos and making a few tweaks to the Yaxley programme (having successfully identified some of the new signings' photos).

With Yaxley away at Sutton Coldfield next week, I'll be fitting in another new groundhop instead of making that revisit so soon. I'm thinking of asking for a lift to FC Parson Drove, my nearest unvisited Step 6 ground, but we'll see.

The Ground

Humber Doucy Lane is a characterful ground with cover on three sides. There are three different stands on the near side, two of which contain seats while the nearest is a covered standing area. Behind the near goal is another covered terrace which extends most of the length of the pitch, while there is a smaller covered structure between the dugouts on the far side. I'm not entirely sure how you access that last stand though, as space constraints mean you cannot go beyond the dugouts on the far side. Each of these stands are painted in the club's blue and white to give them some added character.

The only side of the ground that lacks cover is the far side, which is also closed off to spectators for whatever reason despite having hard standing. Club banners cover the fencing on that side to separate the ground from the nearby trees. Elsewhere, there are some club buildings positioned behind the near goal next to that covered terrace, with the clubhouse (which is currently undergoing redevelopment works) positioned adjacent to these. The boardroom is positioned behind the covered terrace on the near side and the tea hut is directly next to it.

Though there is an additional pitch behind the main one, the ground is otherwise tightly hemmed in on all sides with very limited space for expansion. The record attendance at the ground is 550 for a Suffolk Premier Cup semi-final against an Ipswich Town XI in 2007.

Photos

Pinchbeck United - Glebe Field

Pinchbeck United FC
Glebe Field
Knight Street
Pinchbeck
Spalding
Lincolnshire
PE11 3RB

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Ground: 145
Date: Saturday 23rd July 2022
Pinchbeck United 6-2 Huntingdon Town
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 64

Pinchbeck United - History

Pinchbeck United were founded in 1935 and joined the Peterborough & District League in 1958. They won their first Premier Division title in 1990 and repeated the feat twelve months later. Their next title win came in the 2011/12 season, a season which also saw the club win the Peterborough Senior Cup. After finishing as Premier Division runners-up in the 2016/17 season, they moved into a groundshare with Spalding United to earn promotion to Division 1 of the United Counties League.

The club won the Division 1 title at the first attempt to earn promotion to the Premier Division, which is where they have remained ever since (moving into the North division when it split into Premier Divisions North and South). They finished an impressive 4th in their first season at Step 5, but finished second-from-bottom last season. Despite this, they were spared from relegation back to Step 6.

Since promotion from Step 7, the club have competed in the FA Vase five times and the FA Cup four times, but they are yet to win a game in either competition.

My Visit

Prior to fitting in a groundhop last week and prior to Yaxley's FA Cup draw, I had planned to groundhop both yesterday and next Saturday. I also had not planned to get a lift anywhere and was instead looking at options on the train, including a potential double as part of next weekend's UCL groundhop. However, after last week's groundhop and an eBay sale that I had to refund, my budget for the rest of the month was a little tighter and so a rethink was required. The news of yet more train strikes next week also added to my need to rethink by pretty much ruling out a groundhop next week.

With my budget restricted by an impending pre-order (it's releasing some point in August, but as I'm not sure which half of the month I have to be careful), trying to find options I could afford to do without stopping me from being able to afford Ipswich Wanderers in a few weeks was very tricky. I very quickly decided that I would have to ask for a lift somewhere, but having already done so once this month I was a little reluctant to do so again.

Regardless, after some extensive searching I found three options that I could potentially ask for a lift to: this, Wellingborough Whitworth and Crowland Town. From those three, it was honestly easy for me to decide which was my first choice, as Pinchbeck's first team only play at their traditional home during pre-season and I figured ticking it off for the first team would be more interesting than doing so for a Reserves game. By contrast, Whitworth and Crowland were playing at their usual home grounds and there would be many more opportunities to tick those off in future.

After enduring the truly oppressive heat of Monday and Tuesday's heatwave, I asked my mum about a lift to Pinchbeck and was pleasantly surprised that she was okay with it despite already having taken me to Cottesmore this month. With that being the case, I went to double-check Pinchbeck's Twitter to confirm that the game was still going ahead (as many clubs have had friendlies cancelled or changed this pre-season) and saw that it was going to be a 2pm kick-off. I then researched their history on Friday as usual so as to save some time yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning, I used the free time I had to play some Pokémon before we left the house at around 1pm. It took just over forty minutes to reach Pinchbeck and this meant I was dropped off with fifteen minutes to spare before kick-off. Just enough time to finish taking my photos and post on social media, at least, before finding somewhere to stand on the far side for the duration of the game. I was also tempted by the food they had on offer in the clubhouse as I heard glowing praise for it from several people. However, that was not an option as I was set to have a barbecue for dinner after the game.

Huntingdon were awarded a penalty within 48 seconds of kick-off after their 10 went on a run down the right wing and was carelessly brought down inside the box. 9 stepped up and opened the scoring for the away side. Pinchbeck came close to equalising eight minutes later when their 7 hit a free kick into the post, but Huntingdon doubled their lead in the 16th minute when their 11 took a free kick from 30 yards and overhit it enough to go over the keeper's head and in.

Pinchbeck pulled one back seven minutes later after some nice interplay on the right wing culminated in their 10 tapping in from a cross across the face of goal. It was 2-2 five minutes later as a shot from Pinchbeck's 9 was saved by the Huntingdon keeper, only to fall straight to 7 for a tap-in.

The turnaround was complete in the 44th minute as Pinchbeck scored their third after some fine work from their 11 on the left wing gave him space to cross to 7 for another tap-in. From the kick-off, the home side were quick to regain possession and made it 4-2 with a low shot from their 12.

The second half was never likely to live up to such an entertaining first half, but Pinchbeck kept going and scored their fifth in the 59th minute when their 10 charged down the right wing before shooting across the keeper and in. 10 then completed his hat-trick three minutes later after showing some great skill to bring an aerial ball down and turn past a defender before placing his shot in the bottom corner. The intensity quickly dropped off after this, but both sides had a few half-chances in the final twenty-five minutes.

This was probably the most entertaining game I've watched this pre-season, with Huntingdon making a fantastic start only for Pinchbeck to emphatically turn it around and claim a dominant 6-2 win. Pinchbeck were constantly able to exploit space on the wing and Huntingdon simply could not handle it. Best of luck to both teams for the season ahead.

The referee blew for full-time a minute early and I made my way out of the ground while posting my thoughts about the game on Twitter. As it turned out, my mum had just parked in the library car park nearby as I came out of the ground and this meant we were able to quickly start the journey home. As usual, I took the time to write up my match report and had more than enough time to get it done.

On the way back home, we stopped off at Tesco to pick up some rolls for the barbecue. This brief diversion meant it was nearly 5pm by the time we got home, giving me an hour to sort out my photos before we had our dinner.

And that was my last groundhop of both July and pre-season, as my next one will be in two weeks when Yaxley head to Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup. The outcome of that and the release date of my impending pre-order will then determine my plans for the rest of August as I get ever closer to having visited 150 grounds.

The Ground

Glebe Field is a standard Step 7 set-up which, by the look of it, has little prospect of being upgraded to meet Step 6 ground grading criteria. The pitch is roped off on two sides, with brick-built dugouts on the near side. These have seats next to them in the open, presumably from when social distancing restrictions were in place. Next to the corner flag closest to the clubhouse on this side is a corrugated iron shed, which I would presume is used to store pitch maintenance equipment.

The clubhouse is positioned behind the near goal and provides some cover in the form of a covered overhang, though this is some distance from the pitch. In front of this cover - which is where hot food and drinks can be bought - is some uncovered seating in the form of various benches. There is also a gazebo positioned in front of the clubhouse and there is some additional uncovered seating in front of this. A children's play area is also positioned next to the clubhouse.

The close proximity of residential properties means that there is little chance of the club being able to upgrade the ground to meet Step 6 and above ground grading criteria, forcing the first team to play their competitive games at Spalding United. However, they do play pre-season games here and their Reserves play competitive games here in Division 1 of the Peterborough & District League.

Photos

Southwell City - Centenary Sports Ground

Southwell City FC
Centenary Sports Ground
Fiskerton Road
Brinkley
Southwell
Nottinghamshire
NG25 0TP

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Ground: 144
Date: Saturday 16th July 2022
Southwell City 0-3 Staveley Miners Welfare
Pre-Season Friendly
Attendance: 50

Southwell City - History

Southwell City were founded in 1893 and originally played on a ground in the shadow of Southwell Minister Cathedral. This is why they chose to call themselves "City" even though the market town of Southwell has never been granted city status. Records of the club's early history are sporadic at best, but it is known that they initially competed in the Newark & District League and won its Challenge Cup in 1911.

In 1957, the club joined the Nottinghamshire Alliance League and spent almost fifty years here before joining the Central Midlands League in 2003. In that time, they dropped into its Division 1 at some point before returning to the Senior Division after a runners-up finish in the 1994/95 season. They then finished as Senior Division runners-up in the 1998/99 season before winning the title two seasons later. They finished as runners-up in the following season and then finished 3rd in the 2002/03 season before moving to the Central Midlands League.

Their first season in the Central Midlands League saw the club finish as Premier Division runners-up to earn promotion to the Supreme Division. This was where they remained until the Supreme Division was split into North and South Divisions for the 2011/12 season, at which point they were placed in the South Division.

After six years in this division, the club opted to move over to the Nottinghamshire Senior League for the 2017/18 season, remaining here until they won the Premier Division title in the 2021/22 season to earn promotion to Step 6 for the first time. The 2022/23 season will see the club play in Division 1 of the United Counties League and will be their first full season in their new ground after moving midway through the 2021/22 season.

My Visit

Originally, I had no plans to be groundhopping this weekend as I expected we would be going out for a meal in the evening to celebrate my mum's birthday. Plus, with Yaxley playing at home on Friday night, I thought that would satisfy my football fix for the week and leave me to groundhop on each of the next two Saturdays. However, with Yaxley set to visit Ipswich Wanderers in the FA Cup on the first Saturday of August, I figured I would have to rethink for budget reasons.

While asking my mum for a lift to and from that Yaxley game on Friday, I also asked about if there were any plans in place for a meal out yesterday and found out that nothing had been decided on at that point. With that being the case, I figured that I could look for early kick-offs on the Saturday, so as to allow me to get a game in and get back early enough to not disrupt any potential plans for an evening meal.

After searching for options on Futbology and then cross-referencing with Twitter to ensure that the listed matches were actually going ahead (as pre-season matches are constantly changing at short notice this season), two options stood out from the rest: this (a 1pm kick-off) and St Albans City (initially a 2pm kick-off, but changed to 1pm on Thursday). Being a Step 2 ground, St Albans was my initial preference, but it was more expensive and would also likely be stricter on stuff like taking photos or bringing drinks in and I was not really in the mood for inconveniences like that.

So this pushed Southwell up to first choice, but there were also a few issues with this option: firstly, the fact that they had just been promoted to Step 6 meant that their ground would in all likelihood be a work-in-progress (I usually prefer to wait a while before visiting newly-promoted Step 6 teams for this reason); second, and the more important of the two, was the fact that the first train I could get back from the nearby Fiskerton train station would leave an hour and a half after full-time. However, there was an easy solution to that latter issue which made my decision easy: I could just stick around in the bar after the game for a while before heading back to the station.

Before I ordered my train tickets, I double-checked with my mum if there were any other plans for Saturday and, with that still not yet being the case, I told her my plans and then ordered my train tickets on Friday for around £14. After doing a job interview in the morning and then getting those tickets sorted, I researched Southwell's history in the afternoon before packing my bag in preparation for an early Saturday start (as I would have to leave the house before 10am to get to the train station).

Yesterday morning, my train left Peterborough at around 10:20am and arrived in Newark Northgate around twenty-five minutes later. From there, I had to walk across town to Newark Castle station and then wait half an hour for the train to Fiskerton. As I walked between the two stations and past the castle, I took a mental note to visit the castle next time I find myself in the area and to visit some pubs as well (sadly, the main one that caught my eye - the Vaults - seems to be closed down).

It took just short of ten minutes to reach Fiskerton from Newark Castle station and I was immediately surprised by just how rural a location it appeared to be. The limitations of my research were further exposed when, upon leaving the station, I was surprised to find that there was no footpath along the road to the ground at all. This called for a cautious approach as I headed towards the ground, but as it was only a half-mile away it only ended up taking fifteen minutes.

This saw me arrive at the ground at midday and I went straight onto my circuit of photos before heading into the bar to get out of the sun and get a can of Kopparberg. I also ordered a Pukka Pie, but had to wait until just before kick-off for that to be ready (as it needed time to be warmed up). While waiting for that and kick-off, I sat in the bar watching coverage of the Women's Euros matches from Friday night (I thought it was live, having not been keeping up with the tournament at all).

Just before kick-off, my pie was ready and I also bought a pin badge when I went up to the bar to collect it. I then headed outside to the benches in front of the clubhouse to eat my pie and apply some suntan lotion to avoid getting sunburnt again; the only cover at the ground was closed off to spectators for whatever reason, so I would be directly exposed to the sun for the full 90 minutes. I moved along to the side of the pitch once I finished eating, before heading back into the bar at half-time to get out of the sun for a bit and order an ice cream. I then reapplied some suntan lotion at the start of the second half, just to make absolutely sure I wouldn't get burnt.

After weathering a strong start from Staveley, Southwell had an excellent chance to take the lead in the 34th minute when a free kick from deep was headed onto the crossbar. However, it was Staveley who took the lead on the stroke of half-time, their 11 tapping into an empty net after the Southwell keeper came out for the ball and missed it.

It took until the 72nd minute for the away side to double their lead: their 17 turned onto a loose ball in midfield before hitting a perfect shot over the keeper and in from 25 yards out. It was then 0-3 ten minutes later as Staveley capitalised on Southwell cheaply conceding possession by setting their 11 free in the box for an easy finish beneath the Southwell keeper.

Given that Staveley Miners Welfare clearly had quite a young squad for this fixture, I was surprised that it was as one-sided as it ended up being: besides that header onto the crossbar I mentioned, I don't recall Southwell giving the Staveley keeper much to do. Staveley seemed to be quicker in both pace and thought across the park and constantly looked a threat on the attack, while Southwell seemed to run out of ideas fairly quickly and had a hard time breaking through effectively. Certainly much for them to think about ahead of their debut season at Step 6, and I wish both them and Staveley luck for the coming season.

Even with stoppage time being played in both halves, it wasn't even 3pm when the full-time whistle blew and so I had a long wait ahead of me before it would be worth heading back to the station. To pass the time, I ordered another Kopparberg from the bar and drank it while writing my match report and continuing to read the late stages of Dracula. I stayed in the bar for around forty minutes before deciding to walk back to the station, giving me a twenty-minute wait for my train back to Newark Castle to arrive.

By 5pm, I was back at Newark Northgate and had a twenty-minute wait for my final train of the day. I initially headed into the waiting room to get out of direct sunlight, but that was a big mistake as it was incredibly hot in there. Fortunately, I was able to find a shaded spot on the platform to wait for the train in. Though it ended up arriving a few minutes late, it still arrived in Peterborough more or less when I expected it to and that gave me enough time to finish Dracula too.

When I was picked up a few minutes later, I was told we would be stopping off in Yaxley first to pick up a Chinese takeaway we had ordered, and doing this meant we weren't back home until around 6:30pm. We had dinner straight away, so I had to wait a while before uploading my photos to Facebook and then relaxing for the evening.

I'm planning to do one more groundhop this month before the competitive season gets underway, but I'm not currently sure if that will be on Saturday the 23rd or Saturday the 30th. I'll probably ask for a lift somewhere either way, but I'll see how things go in the coming days and what options there are for me.

The Ground

Southwell City only moved into the Centenary Sports Ground in November (though their junior section will remain at their former Memorial Ground home) and so it is still very much a work-in-progress. As it stands, the only cover at the ground is a small area of covered standing on the dugout side of the ground which was closed off to spectators on my visit. The pitch is fully railed and has hard standing on two sides: the dugout side and behind the near goal. The ground currently lacks floodlights, but no doubt these will soon be in situ.

Currently, the only seating at the ground is in the form of some benches in front of the clubhouse, though a seated stand will at some point need to be added to meet Step 6 ground grading. The clubhouse contains a bar which sells a range of drinks (alcoholic or otherwise), hot food (Pukka Pies and sausage rolls), snacks and club merchandise.

As far as I can tell, the ground is sufficiently enclosed for Step 6, so with the addition of floodlights and seats it will be more than good enough for Step 6.

Photos