Carthusian cheer

Before the weekend ‘The Barber’ saw Bethnal Green United v Barking (1-2), England v Belarus (3-0) and Katanga v London Tigers (1-2). Imagine his joy at turning up at the South Bank University Sports Ground at 2 o’clock on Saturday and finding that TWO ties in the AFA Senior Cup First Round were going to be played there.

The first of those, featuring Old Belgravians and Latymer Old Boys, was about to start on the pitch nearest to the clubhouse. I sat on a bench behind one goal, swelling the crowd to five, and saw a first half in which Latymer did more of the attacking and looked the better side. But goals win matches and they were bafflingly 3-0 down at the break.

When they pulled two goals back in the first few minutes of the second half, it was tempting to stay with that match. But the tie I had originally come to watch, South Bank Cuaco v Old Carthusians with a 3pm start, was kicking-off on ‘Pitch 1’ and I decided to go over to that one instead. As I walked to a spot behind the nearside goal, I met Malcolm Bailey, the author of an excellent history of Charterhouse football.

South Bank bossed the first 20 minutes on a grey afternoon with spots of rain in the breeze, with OCs making little headway in attack. But OCs were solid at the back and weathered the storm before taking a surprise lead. Then it quickly became 2-0 and the complexion of a match witnessed by eleven spectators and one small dog had completely changed.

SBC lost some of their discipline in the second period and OCs, now full of confidence, added two more goals and might have had more. Then it was into the clubhouse for a cup of tea and the football results on the telly. I met a chap who said he had scored a hat-trick for Old Salesians in the AFA Senior Cup Final of 1967. It was all very jolly – OCs had played very well and must be an outside bet to win this season’s competition.

Old Carthusians? They won The FA Cup once!

My Sunday morning match in Regent’s Park was Ernst & Young v KPMG in the London Accountancy League. One of the website guys at The FA, who sits two desks away from me in our big office at Wembley, was playing at No.9 for ‘EY’ as they are known. The match finished 1-1, but there were all sorts of mayhem on an adjoining pitch.

There was one team for whom the ‘Laws of the Game’ seemed to be an irrelevance. It was no surprise at all when the referee decided to abandon the match midway through the second half, apparently after the goalkeeper had been sent off but refused to walk. At various points during the match I’d seen pure contempt for the official from players and spectators alike.

As I passed another pitch on the way back to Baker Street tube, the ref was addressing a group of players with something like: “I really have two options here. Either I abandon the match or I start handing out cards all over the place”. There seemed to be anarchy everywhere, with officials having to stand there and take the abuse.

On Sunday afternoon I saw Cray Wanderers v Burgess Hill Town in The FA Trophy (1-2).