the wind cries rodney

I’ll come clean. Yesterday, I committed football adultery.

I also blew a hole in my stated intention of not seeing any non-non-league football this season. In my defence, I didn’t have to pay for the ticket, so at least I can claim that I’ve not helped finance the monster – beyond the half-time Mars Bar.

I’d already decided I couldn’t make it to Thatcham as we had M’s old friend, Sally, visiting for the weekend, but I hadn’t bargained on my mate Russ offering me his Reading season ticket for the day. As it happened, M and Sally were planning on spending the afternoon in Reading in any case, and seemed annoyingly keen to get rid of me for a couple of hours. So we were all happy — at first. I later became consumed with guilt about depriving Thatcham of a few quid. Read more »

What is it about an all-white strip that seems so classic? It should be a boring cliché, but it never is. If it worked for Real Madrid and hey-day Leeds, why not for Yate Town? It’s hard to envisage Real Madrid being quite so visibly sponsored by Scrumpy Jack, mind.

Fortunately for Thatcham, Yate didn’t quite match the finesse of Real, though they made a full contribution to a fast-paced, highly competitive game that I greatly enjoyed.

Here’s my confession: I nearly didn’t go. After the Reading Town game on Saturday, I found myself wondering if the charms of non-league could really be greater than a televised Celtic v Arsenal Champions League qualifier. Should I bother going…? But then I reviewed my vehement rejection of the money-guzzling head of this football beast, and my commitment to investigate the less glamorous end — and whatever it might churn out. So it was partly with a sense of reluctant duty that I turned up at Waterside Park, for Thatcham’s first home league game of the season. Read more »

Amid the fireworks and marching bands that marked the start of the new Premier League season, you’d be forgiven for missing another footballing landmark. Slipping unnoticed into the calendar came the very first stage of this season’s FA Cup. But if seeing a Premier League game this weekend was tantamount to attending a glitzy premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, a visit to Reading Town for the Extra Qualifying Round against Melksham, was more like seeing the latest Ken Loach at the Rex in Dewsbury on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. Read more »

First day of the Football League season today, and a great opportunity to spend a pleasant enough afternoon admiring the topiary at Hinton Ampner.

Next Saturday is the start of the real thing, of course. Yes, the first competitive Saturday of the Zamaretto Southern League, which sees Thatcham pitched against Bridgwater Town. A tough away fixture against the side finishing one place below us last season. Read more »

Sometimes, match reports don’t have that much to do with the match. This was the case yesterday, when I finally seized the chance to see Thatcham Town in action, against the Railwaymen of Didcot Town (or the Diddy Boys, to give them their less macho nickname), last year’s play-off winners in this division. Just a pre-season friendly, but I don’t need the carrot of fierce competition at this stage of the feast. I’m still setting the table, and will happily wait for the anxiety and elation courses.

Thatcham seems to be the centre of the universe, judging by its accessibility. Gazing at Google Maps (and I’ve done a lot of that over recent weeks, while researching the undiscovered country of non-league football), shows me a number of traffic arteries into this West Berkshire town. The most direct means of access would seem to be canal boat, or kayak, as the ground sits alongside the Kennet & Avon. The towpath addes the possibility of bike or foot, though living 10 miles away, that’s probably at the far end of what I’d willingly do (though a bike ride and train home could work well). Read more »

My eye sockets are sore from the pressure of the binoculars pressed against them, but my patience is rewarded at last. On the horizon I finally see the four white puffs of smoke, and I can relax. They tell me that Thatcham last night triumphed 4-0 away at Highworth, who may not have the most appropriate of names.

The Thatcham website tells me that a hat-trick from Jemel “JJ” Johnson, the side’s star striker, did the most damage. Read more »

Maybe the close season wasn’t the ideal time to start reporting on the thrill of becoming a Thatcham Town fan. News has been hard to find, so yesterday’s double helping of excitement was almost too much to comprehend.

Thatcham’s first pre-season friendly was away at Milton United of the Hellenic League Premier Division. This makes tham a level 9 club, against Thatcham’s lofty level 8. So it was a game that we (did I really just say “we”?) might be expected to win. And we did. 4-1. I wasn’t able to get to the game, deciding that a pre-season friendly, away from home, in midweek, was probably beyond the call of duty at this point in my Thatcham career. The match was actually on Tuesday evening, but I found no practical way of learning the result until yesterday, when a brief report appeared on the Thatcham site. Read more »

Full analysis to come, but here, hot off the press, is the skeleton of the coming season:

A Bridgwater Town Sat 15 August 2009
H Yate Town Tue 18 August 2009
H Bedfont Green Sat 22 August 2009
A Frome Town Wed 26 August 2009
H Cinderford Town Sat 05 September 2009
A Andover Sat 19 September 2009
A VT FC Sat 26 September 2009 Read more »

I had a text message from an exciteable 13-year-old nephew this evening. It read: “hi andy jake here.Wen u hav tim wil u go on fantasy.premierleague.com and make a team…”

It was a tough duty, but I decided I should come clean, even to an impressionable adolescent. Indeed, especially to an impressionable adolescent. I texted back: “I’m sorry Jake, but I’ve disowned big league football. One day you will understand.”

Perhaps he can be saved, but I doubt it. He’s at that unquestioning, circus-loving age. Read more »

It didn’t take me long to draw up a shortlist of who I should be supporting through the 2009/10 football season. I devised some criteria, and spent one Saturday in May 2009 assessing the candidates.

The main requirements were that they should be fairly local, and play in a recognised league not too far below Conference level. I need a bit of structure, and something beyond park football. Preference was for a team west of me, rather than towards London. Read more »