Essex County Cricket Ground

Match - Essex Eagles 104 All Out lost to Surrey Lions 165 All Out by 61 Runs
Competition - Friends Life T20 Group Stage

On the 31st July (my wedding anniversary) I took my wife along with her dad and nephew to Chelmsford to see the Essex Eagles take on Surrey Lions in the final group game of this years T20 competition, and before you say anything going was my wife's idea so I didn't drag her out to watch cricket rather than take her for a romantic meal somewhere.

This game was a winner takes all affair with a guaranteed place in the quarter finals up for grabs.

The ECG is a small but very atmospheric ground situated next to the River Chelmer in the centre of Chelmsford, which is made up of a number of stands. pics below.

The Lions won the toss and batted first and put a score of 165 on the board with scores of 54 from Steven Davies and 43 from Wilson.

The Essex reply was quite frankly awful being skittled out for 104 with Dutch international Ten doeschate the only Essex batsmen to get into double figures score a brilliant 60 from 39 including 4 sixes 2 of which almost ended up on balconies of the nearby flats.

Surrey as such were guaranteed a quarter final spot and luckily for Essex other results went there way and they joined the Lions as one of the best 3rd placed finishers.

My next visit will be to another cricket ground, The rose (Ageas) Bowl in Southampton to see the IT20 match between England and Australia. Hopefully I will remember to take my camera so should get some better pictures. After that I will be starting my football groundhopping again and I cant wait.

Arras FA - Stade Michel Brabant

Match - Arras FA 1-0 Wasquehal
Competition - Championnat de France Amateurs 2 Group A
Admission - €6
Attendance - Unknown
Scarf - €5
Food - Ham & Cheese toastie
Ground No. 117
Ground Rating 6/10

Last weekend me, my brother and my Dad travelled to Arras, France for a golfing weekend to celebrate my brothers upcoming wedding. Just as we are about to leave my parents house around 7am on Saturday Morning to make our way to Folkstone to catch the Channel Tunnel my brother says "do we need a passport", so with a quick detour to pick up his passport we were on our way.

As we had nothing planned for the Saturday night when we arrived in Arras I had looked to see if there was any football being played in the local area. Firstly I checked Ligue 1 and 2 but unfortunately the most local teams, Lille in Ligue 1 were away and RC Lens in Ligue 2 were at home but for some reason Ligue 2 football is generally played on Friday nights. I then checked to see if Arras had there own team and found that they did, and even better they had a home game on the Saturday evening kicking off at 18.00 local time.

Arras FA play in the Championnat de France Amateurs 2 Group A, this is the 5th tier of French football. Arras FA were currently sitting 4th in the table with the visitors a few places below.

We arrived in our Arras hotel around 13.00 local time and after having lunch at a cafe in town and a few beers back at the hotel we took the 10min walk to the Stade Michel Brabant.

When we arrived at the ground we bought our tickets from the ticket office just outside the main gate into the ground. On entering I headed to the bar/shop to see if I could get hold of an Arras FA scarf, which I managed after a small amount of pointing and gesturing, my french is awful.

The ground is mainly made up of uncovered terracing that is all raised significantly above pitch level, which gives a decent view of the action. The one stand is located along the near touchline adjacent to the entrance to the ground. This stand like the terracing is raised above pitch level and houses the changing rooms and dugouts. In the far corner of the ground is an electronic scoreboard.

The game itself started slowly with neither team really having any clear cut chances, although the home side maybe could have had a penalty, but was one of those that could have gone either way. The attacker would probably have had more of a chance of winning the decision if he hadn't made the most of the minimal contact from the visitors keeper.

The first half ended with the game goalless and left us hoping for a bit more from the second half.

At half time we headed to the snack bar for something to eat, asking what there was we were told we could have either a ham/cheese toasted sandwich or a ham/cheese baguette. So not the pie or burger that I'm used to but the toasted sandwich was decent enough, better than that pasty I had at Ilford a couple weeks back.

The second half was a bit more lively than the first with more chances created by both sides. The deadlock was finally broken on the hour when Arras won a penalty which was converted easily by the attacker who sent the keeper the wrong way.

One thing that I noticed while watching the game that disappointed me was the amount of diving and playacting that took place. Now I know we think we have a problem in England, but honestly that's nothing compared to what I witnessed watching this game. Players would literally throw themselves a foot in air then roll 6 times all while screaming as though they had been shot, I had never seen anything like it, even Suarez would be embarrassed.

The game ended up finishing 1-0 to the home side although Wasquehal should have equalised in injury time when there forward put a free header over the bar from 5 yards out.

After watching the game I reckon that the quality of football at this level closely matches that of the Ryman/Southern/Northern premier league rather than the conference national that is step 5 in England, and although the football wasn't great I still enjoyed my first experience of football outside of the UK, and would recommend visiting Arras FA for a game if your ever close by.

Now that really is my season over I will be back in August.

Ilford FC - Cricklefields Stadium

Match - Ilford FC 0-2 Grays Athletic
Competition - Isthmian League Division 1North
Admission - £8
Attendance - 125
Scarf - N/A
Food - Cornish Pasty 3/10
Ground No. 116
Ground Rating 2/10

On Saturday I went to tick another of the Ryman League division 1 North grounds off of my to do list and went to Ilford FC's Cricklefields Stadium to watch their game against table toppers Grays Athletic, I last saw a Grays Athletic game when I was Assistant Referee for a game they played against Salisbury City back when they were plying their trade in the Blue Square Bet Premier League, but due to financial troubles they have had to leave their Recreation Ground home and have subsequently dropped down 3 divisions and are in the process of starting again.

Before Saturdays game Grays were on a winning run of 14 straight league games whereas the home side have only won one of their last 10 and were sitting second bottom in the league table. As I have had two      0-0 draws in my last two games I was hopping for a bag full in this one.

I arrived at the ground around 30 Min's prior to Kick off and entered the stadium which is an Athletics stadium therefore having a running track around the pitch. Simply put I don't like running tracks around football pitches especially at grounds this small.

On entering I looked around to find someone selling programmes with no luck and then as is customary when me and my dad go to football we went to find the snack bar, there wasn't one but when we went up to the bar for a drink we found they were selling food, where you had the choice of either a pasty or a sausage roll heated up in a microwave, that was it, we passed. Although I did go back at half time for a pasty as I was starving, although I wish I hadn't bothered.

My first impressions of the ground then were pretty poor, but at least the weather was good and I was optimistic of watching a decent game of football.

The ground then as I have already mentioned is an Athletics ground, on both sides of the ground there is open terracing, with a small covered stand at the halfway line on each side. The stand on the far side is covered terracing, this side of the ground is also home to the team dugouts. The stand on the nearside houses around 200 blue plastic flip seats. To one side of this stand is the club house building which houses the changing rooms and the bar mentioned earlier. The bar has large windows that face out onto the ground and a number of fans decided to stay in there to watch the game. 

Grays started the game brightly and took the lead within the first ten minutes when they poked the ball into an empty net after a goalmouth scramble. Some awful defending by Ilford then allowed Grays a couple of further chances which were kept out well by their keeper. Grays thought they had scored again though when the Ilford keeper looked to have stepped behind the goal line with ball in hand following an effort created by one of the visitors dangerous corner kicks but the officials waved away the appeals.The rest of the half was quite dismal to watch with both teams playing punt and run football with the rock solid pitch not helping matters.

The second half didn't improve much although Grays still looked as though they would score every time they had a set piece around Ilfords penalty area. It was from a corner kick when they did finally double their lead when more terrible Ilford defending allowed the ball to bounce in a central position 2 yards out. The Grays attacker with his back to goal managed to pull off an overhead kick that left the keeper little chance to react.

After going 2-0 down Ilford made 3 changes in quick succession which gave them more going forward and they should have got an undeserved goal on the hour when one of there substitutes was played through one on one with the keeper who made a comfortable save from the shot, the first thing he had had to do all game, the ball rebounded off of him though into the path of another attacker who managed to hit the ball straight back at the keeper who was lying on the ground. This summed up Ilfords day and showed why they are sitting second bottom in the league standings. They really did look poor.

So with neither team putting in what could be considered as decent performances the game ended 2-0 to the visitors and extended there winning run to 15 consecutive games.

A poor ground then and a dreadful game of football but I'm glad I have ticked another off the list, don't expect to see me going to another Ilford FC home game anytime soon though.

This is probably my last game for this season, so if I don't update again before the season is out have a great summer and I will speak to you all again for the 2013/14 season.