The scores were: Halcrow 0 The Elgin 5, Fisher 1 Cambridge City 1, Bournemouth 2 Abingdon Town 0, Littledown 1 Kinson Conservatives 4 aet, Bournemouth 6 Bridport 1 (Youth), Bashley 4 Bournemouth 2 (Reserves), Poole 1 Dorchester 1 – Poole won 3-2 on pens (Youth) and England 3 Russia 0.
That’s 48 games in the current season and 5,380 altogether.
I had four days down in Bournemouth and the sun came out on cue as I stepped off the train late on Saturday morning. I hadn’t seen the original Bournemouth FC, i.e. the Wessex League club formed in 1875 and not AFC Bournemouth, for a few years – but was about to see their first team, U18 youth team and reserve team on consecutive days.
Bournemouth were a goal up after four minutes of their FA Vase First Qualifying Round tie with Hellenic League Abingdon Town at Victoria Park. Then the visitors were on top for 20 minutes or so, forcing several corners, before "Poppies" were awarded a penalty. The 'keeper's saves from both the spot-kick (pictured below) and the follow-up shot were outstanding.
Poppies broke away to net a clinching second goal near the end and I walked back to the hotel, arriving moments after the half-time whistle at England v Israel on the telly. It turned out to be a good day all round: wins for Poppies and England and finding out that Poppies Youth were playing on Sunday afternoon and the Reserves on Monday evening. Those were two fixtures I hadn’t anticipated.
At one point during the Littledown-Kinson game in King's Park on Sunday morning the referee politely asked ten or so supporters to move back from the touchline because it was becoming impossible for the linesman to patrol his half of the pitch. Nobody moved a muscle. What a shame their team lost.
Poppies Youth were 3-0 ahead after six minutes. Three attacks – three goals. Bridport more or less held their own for the rest of the half, which finished 4-1, and then conceded two more in the second half. A girl sitting two seats to my left looked like a young Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian actress who was big (in more than one sense) in the ‘60s. Somehow I doubt that anyone else was making the comparison.
Near the end of the game this girl’s mum was kind enough to offer me a sweet.
On another hot day I’d walked at least ten miles to see two games. On Monday I watched Poppies Reserves go down 4-2 at Bashley in a Wessex Combination Cup thriller. Bashley is a little village in the New Forest and the walk back to New Milton Station afterwards was quite hazardous. There were no streetlights for long stretches, so I had to wait for passing cars to illuminate the road and let me proceed without falling down a ditch.
The woods on either side were full of countryside sounds. I heard foxes and owls – and there were probably badgers around too, but I’m not sure what sound they make. Poole won the Dorset derby with Dorchester in The FA Youth Cup on penalties on Tuesday and I travelled back to London the following morning to be able to see the England game at Wembley.