The Sports Ground
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Date: 25.09.2018 Ground: 44 Match: 11 (68) Venue: The Sports Ground Teams: Lye Town V Highgate United Competition: Worcestershire Senior Urn 1st Round Admission: £7 Final Score: 1-1 (3-5 Penalties) Referee: Not Known Attendance: 79 (Head Count) Mileage to venue and return: 54.2 Miles Programme: £1 Introduction This was the first game I had attended in three weeks, my last ground hop being an enjoyable first visit to Walshes Meadow, home of Stourport Swifts. Since my last visit on, 4th September, I had intended to make a trip to Lye Town before now, but for one reason or another this did not prove to be possible. As I scrolled through the fixtures last weekend, looking for a mid-week game I saw that Lye Town were at home this evening. Now, Tuesday’s just lately are proving to be a great day to go and do a bit of ground hopping. The Channel 4 Television Programme, Bake Off is currently airing for a few weeks every Tuesday and as may soon to be Wife, Jodie enjoys a bit of Bake Off, then Tuesday’s work out very well for the both of us indeed. Jodie collected me from my place of work in, Atcham, Nr Shrewsbury and we made our way home to my football travels base camp in Brookhampton, South Shropshire. After grabbing a bit of cash from home I was on the road for 6:40pm. The drive to Lye is quite a straight forward route, after navigating the various lanes close to home I headed to Bridgnorth. After Bridgnorth I passed through the quiet village of Enville, just over the Shropshire/Staffordshire Border. Whenever I drive through Enville it always brings back pleasant memories of a game I attended back in May of this year between, Enville Athletic and Castle Vale. One cannot fail to see the home ground of Enville Athletic as they play on the grounds of The Enville Hall estate in the Village. After a bit of reminiscing I headed towards Stourbridge, before ending up at The Sports Ground, home of Lye Town FC. Lye Lye or, The Lye, is a suburban area of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, situated in The West Midlands. Lye was formerly a village within the Parish of, Oldswinford and historically situated in the County of Worcestershire. The area was always well known for the manufacturing of – Nails, Anvils, Vices, Chain, Crucibles and Firebricks. An area known as – Lye Waste, adjacent to the original village of Lye, was an area of uncultivated common land. It was however, settled upon by people who, by constructing houses, which included a fireplace within 24 hours and by using materials such as mud and clay, saw these new inhabitants acquiring freehold rights because of the passing of the enclosure acts from 1604 onwards. The area eventually became widely built upon. The village of, Careless Green, now part of Lye but once a separate area to the South-East of Lye was historically noted for, Insurance Clubs. These were called Stewpony Societies and The Stewpony Allotments Society. These clubs were developed to try and improve the conditions for the labouring class. The Lye and Wollescote Cemetery opened in 1879 and is home too, two chapels which are also Grade II listed buildings. Lye was the birthplace of, Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (1893-1964). Sir Cedric was an English stage and film actor, who’s career spanned for a period of nearly fifty years. His most notable theatre work were performances in the productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw. Sir Cedric attended Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire, he first trained to be a doctor (his father was a doctor) but failed to pass the exams. He soon turned to theatre and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Sir Cedric appeared in many films, some of which included: The Hunchback of Notre Dame The Ghost of Frankenstein Les Miserables He also has a motion pictures star and a TV star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Lye Town FC The following is a brief history of Lye Town FC, I have extracted the words from the matchday programme I obtained during my visit to the club. Lye Town are one of the longest established clubs in the West Midlands region, having been founded in 1930. From the end of the Second World War until 2013/2014 they were members of the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division. From 1976-1981, Lye Town were runners-up in four out of five seasons, twice on goal average. The League Cup was won in 1975/76 beating Dudley Town in the final. Lye Town have also been finalists on 5 other occasions. In 1997/98 season, Lye Town won the championship as well as being league cup finalists. However, they were refused promotion to the Alliance, due to not meeting ground regulations. Runner-up Stourport Swifts were promoted in their place. 2011 saw a change in Chairmanship and first team management. 2010/11 season saw Lye Town first team win the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Cup and their youth team win The Midland Floodlit Youth League Central Division. In 2011/12 this was followed up by the first team winning the Smedley Crooke Memorial Challenge Cup. 2012/13 saw the first team finish runners up in the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division missing out on promotion by only one point, and winning for the 2nd time in 3 seasons the Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Cup. 2013/14 season saw further progress with the first team achieving a league and cup double, winning the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division and the Worcestershire FA Senior Urn. Following promotion to step 5 the 2014/15 season saw a new challenge in the newly formed Midland Football League Premier Division. This challenge was met, finishing 6th in this new league and finishing 8th in the following season and improving to 4th in 2016/17. The 2017/18 season was disappointing finishing 16th. The first team Manager is Andy Wytton with Kevin Ashley as his assistant, Grant Joshua as coach. The Sports Ground I had heard a lot of good reports from fellow Ground Hoppers with regards to this venue. I have to say that I totally agree with them and I can honestly say that this ground is a must see for any ground hopping enthusiast. I arrived at the ground at around 7:20pm, there didn’t appear to be any spaces left on the club car park. This wasn’t a problem as there is plenty of on street parking close by. After parking my car, I made a short walk back to the ground, taking some pictures of the boards outside the ground itself. I walked through some big blue gates and made my way to the pay box which is where I obtained my matchday programme. The pay box is just outside the large, supporters club/function room, this is where the toilet facilities can be found for the ground too. As I got into the ground I enjoyed a short conversation with a committee member from Lye Town who incidentally was selling some raffle tickets, I paid a £1 for a strip of tickets. The next thing I noticed was a unique looking covered terraced area behind the goal closest to the entrance. The roof is what I would describe as barrel roofed, and I cannot say that I have seen anything quite like this before. It really is a beautiful thing to look at, what I also liked about this area was that there were a few wooden benches for people to sit on if they so desired. Moving on around the ground and turning left by the corner flag you will find the ground’s snack bar which was selling all the usual fair. Also, on this side of the ground and running down to the next corner of the pitch is a covered stand with the centre area having seats available. The dugouts are in front of this area, and opposite the cricket pitch which is on the same site as the football ground. The goal opposite the one with the barrel roofed stand has a raised grass bank area. I took the opportunity to take some pictures from the bank before the game started. The following pictures are what I took of the ground before the game started. Team Line Up’s and Match Statistics Lye Town Highgate United 1. Reece Francis 1. Catlow 2. Joe Colley 2. Edwards 3. Lewis Probert 3. Wilcock 4. Jack Pearlman 4. Currithers 5. Leigh Pardoe 5. Oji 6. Joe Lawley 6. Bryan 7. Lewis Worsey 7. Revan 8. Jason Wood. 8. Curry 9. Jack Till 9. Addaggio 10. Ben Billingham 10. Manning 11. Adam Skeldon 11. Batchelor 12. Josh McMenzie 12. L.Brown 14. Drenz Bala 14. Seabourne 15. Reece Shilvock 15. Deards 16. Arron Bishop 17. Lewis Clarke Goal Log: Goal Log: Colley, 54 Curry, 25 Pen Goal Attempts: 16 Goal Attempts: 11 Corners: 9 Corners: 2 Offsides: 1 Offsides: 2 Yellow Card: 2 Yellow Card: 3 Red Card: 0 Red Card: 0 Penalties Penalties 1. Colley (Goal) 1. Curry (Goal) 2. Skeldon (Miss) 2. Seabourne (Goal) 3. Lawley (Goal) 3. Wilcock (Goal) 4. Bala (Goal) 4. Revan (Goal) 5. Addaggio (Goal) Match Report This proved to be a very entertaining cup tie – Highgate bossed the first half and deservedly went into the interval leading 1-0. Lye Town came out of the blocks very strongly in the second period and deserved to take the game too penalty kicks.