Matchday images (13) https://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/YarntonFC

Only my fourth visit to Yarnton in 23 years. I have actually been in the Turnpike Pub which is at the end of the lane in which the ground is in more times, though this could be to do with the fact my cousin only leaves 200 yards away and she organises family meals there.
 
The ground is as good or better than when the club were in the Hellenic League. Railed and roped, enclosed with a largish dressing room and clubroom complex.
 
The game was not great. Second bottom Yarnton were always in control and could have won by more. In fact I had seen far better standard games in more local leagues in the area. The Yarnton centre forward missed a hatful of chances; sometimes it looked more easy to score than miss. The match referee Mr Siret of Eynsham is more well known in these parts for writing letters to the local paper on various matters, mostly with a more left of centre view than many folk. In fact he lives in the same road as my 90 year old Uncle! Eynsham to Yarnton is all of 4 or 5 miles.
 
Such is the traffic around Oxford midweek that to get to the ground I had to do double the normal mileage to avoid two roundabouts with long tailbacks. For the second week running I went via a location much used in Midsomer Murders, the bridge over the River Ray in Islip. In one episode a body is thrown in the river from the bridge and the next morning it is fished out of a completely different river 30 or 40 miles away in a different county! Going home it took a matter of minutes.
 
The train buffs amongst you would get rather waylaid at Yarnton as the Oxford to Birmingham line runs very close to one goal. In fact there is a level crossing only 25 yards from the entrance to the ground. Whilst the game was in progress many trains passed included many EWS freight trains.