A dry weekend with no postponements. It must be what it’s like living in Chad.
It started for me at Saturday lunchtime with Arsenal v Everton on the box. After watching the first half (1-1) I left the Paddington hotel where I’ve lived as a permanent resident for 14 years, setting off for the HSBC ground in Beckenham for an AFA Senior Cup semi-final featuring Winchmore Hill and Old Suttonians.
This ground is literally ten yards from New Beckenham station, a 24-minute journey from Charing Cross. It was a brilliantly sunny afternoon and there was football and rugby going on simultaneously with balls flying everywhere. Winchmore Hill, currently propping up the Southern Amateur League’s Senior Division 1 but with games in hand, have proved themselves to be a real ‘Cup side’ this season.
Winchmore Hill v Old Suttonians
Hill had already booked their place in the AFA Middlesex/Essex Senior Cup Final, where they will meet Albanian at Old Chigwellians on 22 March, and on Saturday a crowd of 38 saw the team in purple shirts take the lead after eight minutes with a full-back’s thumping header from a corner.
‘Old Sutts’ of the Amateur Football Combination, second best for most of the half, nearly equalised a minute from the interval. A throw-in from the right was flicked on into the goalmouth and Hill’s ‘keeper spread himself to block a shot from point-blank range. A string of decent Hill chances in the second half went flying over the bar and into the car park until a second goal clinched the win and their place in the Final at Old Parkonians, very close to Fairlop tube station, on 12 April.
My regular reader knows that I have a personal stylist whose sole job is to ensure that my anorak is always suitably crumpled and covered in bird droppings. I really didn’t need it on Sunday morning, when the temperature in Regent’s Park rivalled that in Athens. I watched a genuine ‘double header’, Zoo FC winning both games (2-0, 3-2), and then walked back to the hotel for the Hull City v Sunderland Cup tie on the telly and the draw afterwards.
I will donate that anorak to medical science at the end of the season.
I plan to go to the Sunday Semi-Final and it’ll be my 446th FA Cup game. I’ve been to 41 Finals and my favourite is still Sunderland-Leeds in 1973. I was standing with the Sunderland fans, behind the goal and right at the back with my friend from Finland.
Games this season = 141
Games in total = 6,606
Twitter: @thebarberfan
