TT No.60: Mike Latham - Sat 7 February 2015: Gwynedd League: Menai Bridge Tigers 4-1 Waunfawr;            Attendance: 25 (h/c); No admission or programme

 

 

Matchday images (20) https://picasaweb.google.com/footballgroundsinfocus/MenaiBridgeTigersFC

 

Frost-free Anglesey was yet again the bolthole after a week of sub-zero temperatures elsewhere; the key also was that that the last few days had been dry. Menai Bridge Tigers’ ground, named King George’s Field in the centre of the small town behind the library is notoriously prone to water-logging, and this was, so locals told me, their first home game for two months.

 

Meniai Bridge is a small town, overlooking the Menai Strait and has the simply wonderful suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thomas Telford, as a backdrop. It’s a town of contrasts with huge Mercedes, Range Rovers and BMWs from many second or third homers on the island parking cheek by jowl alongside the more modest cars of the locals on the car park near the Tigers’ ground.

 

The nearby Waitrose was until recently, so the legend goes the convenience store of royalty when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge lived on the island until the summer of 2013 and there’s a splendidly appointed cricket and rugby club nearby.

 

The football club’s surroundings are more modest, located on a small field, hemmed in on two sides by bankings of woodlands and on a third side by housing. I’d seen the site recently, after a postponement and a trip in vain and the site looked rather forlorn. But with the neatly-maintained perimeter roping and other ornaments of a football club, including Perspex dug-outs that sadly had been recently vandalised, the ground had a nice, compact feel.

 

Sure the pitch was still heavy and the grass long, the touchlines very close to the spectators, housing and bankings, but I enjoyed my visit here. There are no spectator facilities as such and it costs a pound to park on the car-park next to the ground. There’s a small changing block behind one goal and no attempt is made to defray the referee’s expenses with a raffle or programme and no refreshments on sale.

 

The visitors, attired in a rather fetching grey strip, had the better of the first-half but fell behind just before half-time. The Tigers went on to claim a convincing victory, their attacking line led by an experienced forward who looked as though he had played further up the pyramid in times past.

 

It’s an unusual, town centre ground with an enclosed feel and the standard of football on display was more than acceptable. I like the Gwynedd League, level 5 of the game in Wales, and would heartily recommend groundhoppers who have not yet delved into this league giving it a try.

 

contributed on 07/02/15