TT No.247: Paul Roth - Wednesday 7th April 2008; Kent County League Division 2 West;               Chislehurst FC vs. Cray Wanderers & New Bromleians; Res: 4-2; Att: 15; Programme/Entry: You must be joking! Weather: Warm and sunny.

View matchday images  01 02 03 04 05 06 07   About three Christmases ago we were given a 3000 piece jigsaw, and during the storms of last week we peeled off the cellophane from the box and started slowly to affix the jumble of pieces together. It's entitled...'The Corn Field'!   By about 7pm last night I was beginning to wish I'd stayed at home and tried to figure out where more of the puzzles' pieces fitted, as Chislehurst FC's opponents, Cray Wanderers and New Bromleians FC had still to arrive at the grandiosely named Chislehurst Sports and Country Club. Located up the hill from Elmstead Woods railway station, I got the feeling this is a venue that had seen better times. Okay, there is a good clubhouse, with a pleasant terrace, that sold beer and the such forth on the evening, but the dying remnants of a cricket square and a delve back into the club's history reveal a more salubrious past.   The first fifteen minutes of action also boded poorly, and that jigsaw puzzle sorely beckoned, as the lush (and I'm being very generous here) pitch stifled anything remotely resembling flowing, attractive football. The surface here is difficult, to say the least!   But, BANG! Three quick goals....a sharp shot, and audacious over-head scissor kick and a glorious curling snap-shot had the homesters 3 up. Visions of CW&NB being overrun followed. Chislehurst added a fourth soon after the break, but from thereon in the visitors clawed their way back into preceding, and duly scored the final two goals of the night, thereby regaining some degree of respectability.    Two things now....why on Earth did the visitors have to arrive so late, leaving all assembled on tenterhooks? For heavens sake, it's only two miles from their Oxford Road HQ! And, as the game finished so very late, I would like to offer my apologies to Bob, Roland and Martin for not offering them a lift to the nearest railway station. You're busy folk, I know, and I should have obliged you. I do hope you all got home safely!    In the end, that jigsaw puzzle was justifiably kept on the back burner. JUST!   FGIF 3*

contributed on 08/05/08