Perfect pitch

It’s still July and we’ve only had three weekends of pre-season friendlies – but the superfan has already been to a Final. It was the ‘Geoff Harvey Memorial Vase Final’, played at Corinthian-Casuals’ Tolworth home yesterday (Sunday) and featuring the Casuals and Staines Town.

This was a four-team tournament over two days, the losing semi-finalists being Kingstonian and Tooting & Mitcham United. Casuals officials and supporters were remembering Geoff Harvey, a club stalwart who was particularly helpful when this famous old club was in danger of folding in the 1980s.

Over the years I’ve seen Casuals play when they were sharing the grounds of Tooting, Dulwich and Molesey. King George’s Field in Tolworth has been their permanent ground since 1988 and I reached it via a tube to Wimbledon and train to Tolworth, the latter just a 12-minute journey. There were probably less than a hundred spectators yesterday, quite a contrast to the 80,000 who watched their FA Amateur Cup Final with Bishop Auckland at Wembley in 1956.

The club has recently won two awards for the quality of the pitch – one for the best playing surface in the three divisions of the Isthmian League and also The FA national award for the best pitch at Steps 3 and 4. I sat on a kind of sofa at the back of the stand and there was a minute’s silence for Geoff before the kick-off. I heard the man next to me tell a friend on his mobile: “We’re just having a minute’s silence.” Well, not that silent obviously.

Staines, two levels higher than Casuals, won 3-0 on another warm afternoon. I would estimate there were even more fouls than the Final in Johannesburg but there were no yellow cards this time.

My Saturday match was a pre-season friendly between Banstead Athletic and Lingfield, Combined Counties League v Sussex County League, and it wasn’t played at Banstead’s Merland Rise ground. Fortunately it was literally next door, on a pitch that had dug-outs, a little bit of standing cover and floodlights. Admission was free for a fixture that attracted 32 spectators.

It was Banstead’s first run-out, Lingfield’s third, and I understand they were missing seven players with first-team potential. They were floundering in the first few minutes, the visitors taking an early lead, but eventually started to put a few good moves together down the right and equalised following a corner close to half-time. I thought I heard a vuvuzela but it turned out to be someone blowing his nose.

Banstead had several chances to win it but it finished 1-1. I’ve seen four pretty entertaining matches so far this pre-season, taking me up to 5,855 all told, with a definite sense of players trying to impress the coaches. It’s been quite feisty at times.