The superfan was out in the cold at the weekend to watch an AFA Senior Cup tie at Fairlop and a Sunday League game in Regent's Park - but in the warm to attend Middlesex Wanderers' Annual Dinner with more than 200 other people at the Cafe Royal.
I’ve seen some very entertaining games in the AFA (Amateur Football Alliance) Senior Cup in the last few years and Saturday’s Third Round tie between Leyton County Old Boys and Old Challoners was one of the best. An AFA player, by the way, is 'one who does not accept payment or inducement directly or indirectly for playing football.'
Leyton’s home ground is Fairlop Oak Playing Field, a walk of about 600 yards from Fairlop tube on the Central line. With the potential for extra time and penalties, the game had a 1.30 kick-off. There were eight games being played simultaneously in that big sports ground, so the trick was finding out which was 'the big one'.
It turned out to be on the pitch furthest away from the entrance in Forest Road and the giveaway was the fact that it was the only game with a referee and proper assistants. I became one of a crowd of four as Old Challoners from Buckinghamshire dominated the first few minutes, the ball barely leaving Leyton’s half.
Then the home side, playing in an England strip, turned the game on its head by going 2-0 up with goals after eight and ten minutes. Normal service resumed after that and OCs drew level at 2-2 as the light deteriorated. Leyton’s centre-half and captain hit a left-footer against the angle of post and bar with the last kick of the 90 minutes and the referee immediately announced that extra time would be ten minutes each way.
On 105 minutes, with spot-kicks looming, Leyton’s No.10 thumped in the winner. By now it was so cold that I’d lost all feeling in my feet.
In the evening, I attended the Middlesex Wanderers function as a guest of Mike Greenwood, the former Bishop Auckland wing-half who played for England Amateurs and the Great Britain Olympic Team about half a century ago. Going up to the sixth floor at the Cafe Royal, we shared a lift with Peter McGillicuddy, who scored one of Leatherhead’s goals in their famous FA Cup Fourth Round tie at Leicester in 1975.
I set off for Regent’s Park on Sunday morning, unconvinced that there’d be any action on their ten or so pitches. There’d been a lot of rain and there were huge puddles along Old Marylebone Road. But all the games were on and I chose the one that kicked-off first, i.e. at 10.29 – probably the first Sunday morning fixture that I’d ever seen start early.
With the pitches so close to Regent’s Park Zoo it shouldn’t have been a surprise to find that there was a team called 'Zoo FC'. Their ‘keeper explained that it was a 'London Weekend League' game and the opposition was UCL Bloomsbury, whose players were so polite that they apologised after fouling you. There were some spits of rain at the start and the drizzle got heavier and heavier. There was a cold wind too.
Zoo won 5-2 and I have to say that, in my 5,587th match, the UCL goalie made one of the most spectacular saves I’ve ever seen. It happened on the half-hour after his hard-pressed defence had already blocked two goal-bound efforts virtually on the line. The ball rolled out to a Zoo player in space just inside the box in a central position.
He blasted in a shot that had 'goal' written all over it. But this heroic ‘keeper, wearing a Brazil shirt with 'PELE 10' on the back, made a flying leap that had something of the 'double twist with pike from the diving board' about it and managed to push the ball one-handed over the bar. It was better than Banks. The attendance at this game? Just under two.