All hands on deck

I thought the new Coalition Government would have made it a priority to sort this weather out, but I have to say it was truly appalling on Saturday.

One isn’t exactly spoilt for choice in the last three days of the official season, with most leagues having finished weeks ago, but I was happy to take in a Middlesex County League Premier Division fixture at a new ground. Marsh Rangers were playing Hayes Gate at Rosedale College’s 3G artificial surface in Hayes.

Marsh Rangers were formed in 1980 by QPR supporters. The ‘Marsh’ comes from Rodney Marsh, the Rangers legend who is Club President. They spent the first 20 years of their existence as a Sunday side, playing mostly in the North Hillingdon Sunday League, and have now completed their sixth season at ‘Intermediate’ level.

Watching the first few minutes of Saturday’s game along the touchline was like standing on a ship’s deck in a storm, the raging wind rendering all umbrellas useless. Very quickly there was a special moment, Marsh scoring with the best free-kick I’ve seen all season. There seemed to be no passage of time at all between the player kicking the ball and it stretching the back of the Hayes Gate net.

The sodden crowd – 28 spectators and three enormous dogs – went absolutely barking.

The conditions became so unbearable that many of us retreated to the relative sanctuary of a substantial tree in front of the dressing room area, watching the rest of the half from under its branches. The second half was calmer and the sun even came out for about ten seconds. Marsh (fifth) beat Gate (second) 4-1, though I gather the latter didn’t have their strongest side out.

As far as bangs and whimpers go, my season ended yesterday with a serious whimper. I’d planned to attend the last MCFL ‘groundhopper’ fixture of the campaign between Copland and Interwood at Northwick Park. There were no tubes to Northwick Park itself, the Metropolitan line being closed due to engineering work, but a Bakerloo line train to South Kenton was a perfectly acceptable alternative.

I arrived on the platform at Paddington to find that southbound trains were suspended due to a defective train and that southbound trains were immediately becoming ‘northbound’. I was relaxed about this, until I sat in one of these ‘northbound’ trains for 15 minutes without moving. Then we were told there was a fire in a tunnel, the fire brigade was being called and we all had to get off.

A few minutes later, as I waited for news, a member of staff told me to leave the station altogether. I spent the next frenzied hour travelling to Osterley, via a mainline service to Southall, for Hounslow Wanderers’ ‘home’ game with Hayes Gate (yes, them again). When I got to the ground after a two-mile walk, I discovered the game had just finished.