With the Brixton Buzz crew neither fancying a six hour round trip to see Peckham Town at Minster or being rammed into Champion Hill for Hamlet vs Billericay, we elected to visit a new south London ground and watch Raynes Park Vale take on Hanworth Villa last weekend.
A half hour away from Loughborough Junction by train, the ground at Prince George’s Playing Fields is a mix of knackered old stands with some attractive new builds in the form of a snack bar and some soon-to-be-completed new toilets.
It was a lovely Easter afternoon.
The handshakey bit. Both clubs play in the Isthmian League – South Central Division.
The crowd for today was 285 – well up on their home average of 242.
The rather splendid new snack bar, with large wooden decking area. Shame the veggie choices were a bit thin on the ground.
This is what non league football is all about!
Makeshift stands constructed out of scaffolding, grounds with loads of spare room and a massively sloping pitch. Love it!
The game wasn’t the greatest spectacle with the physical encounter producing no goals and very few chances, although Hanworth were the stronger team.
The main stand complete with grumpy old bloke who starts shouting at you if you pause for 0.01 seconds when walking past.
Great to see a resurrected George Michael on the pitch. Well, it was Easter.
The ground affords views over the sprawling suburbia of Raynes Park.
Trees and pitch.
There’s a decent clubhouse a short walk from the pitch.
T’Committee Area.
Taking a leak.
The lads from a Bunch of Amateurs were in attendance, with multiple cameras around the ground.
I got chatting to a friend of Rayne Park’s number 6, Jerry O’Sullivan, who had an excellent game.
I had a lovely chat with this fella too, who does the photos for the club.
Hanworth hit the crossbar.
The highlight of the afternoon – if we can call it that – was when a Hanworth player hit the ground howling and screaming from an apparent near-fatal foul. It was pure theatre.
Once he realised that the ref hadn’t been taken in by his ludicrous antics, he staged an immediate miraculous recovery, with no need for the physio to attend.
The crowd laughed loudly.
Raynes Park came close to snatching a winner at the death, but their number 10 stumbled in front of an open goal.
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