TT No.141: Andy Molden - Wed 10th April 2012; Long Wittenham v AFC Wallingford; in North Berks League Premier; Result: 3-4; Programme: No

Matchday images (11) https://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/LongWhittenhamFC

On Wednesday I went to Long Wittenham (v AFC Wallingford) in the North Berks League. It was a revisit but it turned out to be a cracking game. Wallingford needed the points to draw away from the bottom two while Wittenham were in 5th more or less with nothing to play for.

I had been before 20 or so years ago. Wittenham is a nice Village 3 miles from Didcot so you could see the now defunct cooling towers of the Power Station. The village is also the home to the Pendon Museum which is a railway based and has a model railway depicting a scene in the Vale of the White Horse from the 1930's. In the distance from the ground you can see Wittenham Clumps one of which is an old Iron Aged Hill Fort, it has been dug by Time Team. One mile away in Clifton Hampden is the Barley Mow pub where Jerome K Jerome wrote quite a bit of Three Men in a Boat. Clifton Hampden is the village Dara O'Brien said in the series of that name that he did not know such places still existed.
 
The game was first class. Wittenham 2-0 went up then Wallingford got back to 2-2 at half-time. The second half was even better with Wallingford edging it 4-3. The game ended under lights. Wittenham have 4 or 5 good standard training lights on one side of the pitch and these were turned on for the last 15 minutes. Quite a few players in the game had played in the Hellenic  League but now prefer the more relaxed (and less travelling) North Berks League.
 
The ground should be on the North Berks Hops next season. There is a small clubhouse on ground and on a Saturday the club run a full tea bar.

contributed on 13/04/13