I’ve been doing "Bournemouth weekends" since the 1970s and this one began with a League One fixture at the Fitness First Stadium on Friday evening, AFC Bournemouth having brought forward their game with Doncaster Rovers to avoid a clash with England’s World Cup qualifier. The home side scored twice in the last eight minutes to win 2-1 and there were a lot of beaming faces as the crowd surged out of the ground at the end.

I’d only been to the town of Weymouth once before. That was 23 years ago to see them play Enfield on a Sunday afternoon at their old ground, which I think was just called "The Rec".

I know it was 1982 because the visiting fans were chanting "We’re going to Wembley – you’re not!" and Enfield played in The FA Trophy Final that year. Weymouth won a thriller 4-3 but I hadn’t realised it was the second leg and wondered why the home fans were so subdued. (Enfield had won on aggregate.)

The facilities at the Wessex Stadium are outstanding for that level, with cover on all four sides and plenty of food outlets. I was reading the excellent programme on the hour-long train journey back to Bournemouth and still hadn’t finished it by the time we arrived. And that’s not because I have the reading ability of a six-year-old.

Weymouth’s ground, like so many of the newer ones, is on the outskirts of the town. I decided to walk from the station, as it looked like just a couple of miles on the map, but the roads taking me towards the ground were all motorways. It was particularly hair-raising on the way back after the game, with the rain lashing down and huge lorries speeding past me barely inches away. I got back to the station in drowned rat mode to see the one-an-hour train moving out as I approached the platform…

The following morning, warm and sunny, could hardly have been more different and I was one of seven people watching JP Morgan play London Tavern in a Bournemouth Sunday League Division 8 fixture in King’s Park. There were actually seven games going on simultaneously in this massive park close to AFC Bournemouth’s ground but I chose that one because there was some shade behind one goal.

At one point in the second half a JP Morgan defender, who’d been complaining to his midfielders that they "weren’t getting back", announced that he’d "had enough" and removed his shirt before leaving the field. Within seconds he’d been persuaded by his team-mates to return to the fray – but things seemed to go from bad to worse after that, "Tavern" rattling in three goals in five minutes to finish 8-1 winners.