NEWS FROM THE WILLOWS

2 February, 2014

Excellent media coverage gave us great exposure for our “donate what you like” as an entrance fee experiment and it has been a difficult one to judge as with so many matches postponed it is hard to decide if the extra people came to watch because of our offer or because lots of local games where called off and they needed their football fix. We would like to thank everyone who attended and it certainly is an experiment that we will do again. The pitch had three inspections before being passed fit at 11.00 am and many thanks to the people who came and forked and put sand on it, it may not have been like Wembley by 3.00 pm but it was perfectly playable and took many older supporters back to how pitches used to be. For our younger readers even teams in the top professional divisions (todays Premiership) played on pitches that had very little grass on them after Christmas and mud possibly over your ankles during a wet spell, check out an old video of the Baseball ground Derby County. The Chairman apparently spoke to “Bob the Ploughman” from Capel on Saturday morning and would suggest a tethered raft might be the answer to stop his chickens floating away from his flooded back garden and certainly a soakaway will be of little use, our Chairman is obviously an expert on water issues (he needs to know about something). The “A” team travelled to Ufford Sports and came away with a hard fought 3-1 victory, the goals coming from Rust, Leeks and Bryant with a delicate chip over the goalkeeper. Manager Russell reported a very good team effort and a good home side with excellent facilities. Back at base the 1st team played Wivenhoe Town and a foul on Clarke after 20 minutes resulted in Andrew Cusack putting the penalty away for a 1-0 lead. A flowing move from deep inside our own half resulted in Chris McLaughlin sliding home for a very good finish and a 2-0 interval lead. The second half ebbed and flowed before two late goals secured a 4-0 victory. Tom Agricole scored a screamer from outside the box and Andrew Wood a tap in from an Agricole pass to complete the win. Did anyone notice the deliberate mistake in last weeks report when 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats added up to 10 home games and a total of 8 points. I know for a fact the chairman bought a calculator from Poundland last week and it had two 4s on it and no 7s so someone must have borrowed it.  The news that CRC are to disband at the end of the season is a blow to the league as it is always a special day when local players get to play at stadiums like the Abbey, the Walks or the Glassworld stadiums, all grounds no longer visited. Having just had a look at the Green Un website I would suggest you get on there and read the East Bergholt club notes, if you are a player it should make you think and if you are on a club committee you will totally agree, well said Sir.