TT No.54: Keith Aslan - Sat January 17th January 2015; Bungary Town v University of East Anglia;                 Anglian Comb League Div 2; Kick-Off: 14.08; Result: 2-1; Admn/Programme: £2; Att: 38 (36 home, 0 away & 2 neutral) 


Like all groundhoppers I have a "to do" list. Clubs languish on this for years and I never seem to get round to some of them (so many grounds so little time). Bungay have been a prominent feature on this list since the last century and finally today it is accompanied with that all important tick.
 
Diss is the place for this one with the bus from the bottom of the station approach taking about 40 minutes with a somewhat sporadic service fitting in nicely with kick off times. There are also buses to railheads at Norwich and Beccles. On arrival at Diss it was snowing, and not in a good way. This wasn't the pretty fluffy stuff you see on Christmas cards, and the bus shelter proved to be a welcome haven. The blizzard abated during the ride and on the approach to my destination there was a sign which read "Welcome to Bungay a fine old English town" which just about sums the place up.
 
The ground is a 17 minute walk from the town centre with an array of pitches and a clubhouse in the middle. Hot drinks and bacon rolls were available while a big screen showed the lunchtime football with Stuart Pearce staving off a visit to the Job Centre for another week. A very informative programme, with no lack of contributers, said that the club had already spent £7,000 on repairs and renovations this season and another £3,000 is required to fix the water treatment plant. All this on top of the day to day running expenses of the team which not for the first time left me wondering where the money comes from to keep these clubs afloat. Certainly not from the £2 programme or the 50p scratchcards they were hawking around.
 
Bungay are top of the league and this was astonishingly their tenth consecutive win while in truth they weren't very good and the work dodgers (or students as some people call them) from UEA can count themselves very unfortunate not to get something out of this game. This was apparently not a one off as the programme presciently put it "the lads are not playing at their best but still picking up points". Teams that play badly and still get three points are teams that win things. It was played on a freezing afternoon and if I had a quid for every time I heard someone complain about the cold I'd nearly have enough money to buy a ticket for a catergory A game at Chelsea. Cold weather in January, 'Who'd have thought it'?
 
The referee was a disciple of the rule book and controlled the match according to the letter of the law. Nothing wrong with that, but (and regular readers might have a good idea whats coming next) he didn't, or ever have any intention of, starting the game at the advertised kick off time. This is the second match in succession I have been to that's kicked off 8 minutes late. My bus was at 16.12 and if I had turned up 8 minutes late for it I would have been stuck in Bungay for an hour and a half after the game as bus drivers have a far more advanced concept of punctuality than referees have. Come on Mr. Nunn how about showing a bit of respect for the spectators. As you are such a stickler for the rules, I'm sure you will be putting the late start in your report and the reason for it. No, I didn't think so!
 
Bungay are not using their main pitch this season, and this game was played on the pitch the opposite side of the clubhouse. Their regular ground has a fairly large stand running along the halfway line and the dug outs will look good when they are finished. Their temporary abode, although in a nice setting, is just roped off. The purists will be going back next season to do their usual ground. I am not a purist.

 

contributed on 18/01/15