Football is my favorite game
I love to watch them play –
Those tightly muscled butts and legs
On an awesome autumn day;
How fluidly and gracefully
They dance across the green –
Such elegant contenders play
The best I’ve ever seen;
Some people think I’m crazy
The way I love the game –
But I’d rather be watching football
Than anything I can name;
Of course I may be prejudiced
I love my maise and blue –
That BIG 10 team that rules the league………….
You rock the Big House – BLUE! ! !
by Linda Ori
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Saturday 1st October 2022
North West Counties League Premier Division
Burscough 2
Mosopeoluwo Awe 29, Edward Servuts 90+2 (pen),
Irlam 3
John J.A. Main 40, 69 (pen), Luke Nicholls 72,
Referee: Sam Orritt. Official Attendance:- 50
Admission: OMGDS £4.00 (£6). Programme: £2.00
Five previous visits, all to Victoria Park in the golden days of The Lancashire Combination and The Cheshire League. This new arena is featureless and soulless, one seated stand down the side of a 3G pitch. Minimal facilities and little beyond coffee and crisps for sustenance. Helpful and pleasant stewards, one of whom made a special point of obtaining a teamsheet for me. On the pitch, the hosts are struggling in the relegation spots with eleven defeats from thirteen matches played. They took a first half lead, but it was cancelled out before half time and a further two goals were shipped before a late penalty gave the score line a more respectable appearance!
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Monday 3rd October 2022
Hertfordshire Senior Cup 1st Round
Hitchin Town 1
Ashley Hay 13,
Welwyn Garden City 0
Referee:- S Bryan. Attendance:- 231
Admission: OMGDS £5.00 (£8). Programme:- £2.00
Top Field is the place to be on a mild, balmy, autumnal evening, with the leaves turning bronze behind the home goal. There was little at stake in a low key county cup tie, but both teams fielded pretty strong sides and this was a contest of determination and will power and not a little skill. The only goal came midway through the first half, an excellent header from the edge of the box and the hosts just about deserved to progress!
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Tuesday 4th October 2022
Eastern Counties League Challenge Cup 1st Round
Stanway Pegasus 1
Reece Keating 77,
Burnham Ramblers 0
Referee: Matt Rowling. Attendance: 99
Admission: OMGDS £3.00 (£5). Programme:- £2.00
Newcomers to the Eastern League and fresh from an unbeaten season in The Essex & Suffolk Border League and managed by Rosie Webb who not only became the only female coach to take a team unbeaten through her league, but also played for the unbeaten Stanway Pegasus Women’s team, too! Tonight, it was second placed Pegasus against first placed Ramblers in a dour struggle which yielded a single strike a scant ten minutes from time. With John Main.
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Wednesday 5th October 2022
Spartan South Midlands League Division 1
Eaton Socon 5
Jake Anderson 5, Callan Irvine 10, Andre Reece-Brown 52,Ryan Baxter 64, Dean Parratt 88,
Langford 2
Frankie Adio 47, Owen Dixon (og) 87,
Referee:- Neil Angus. Official Attendance: 137
Admission: OMGDS £3.00 (£5). Programme: £1.00
Seven years since my last visit to River Road and in that time, the pitch has been moved through 90 degrees and, this evening, for the first time in their 155 year history, the hosts had floodlights switched on for an evening match. There was a good gathering of hoppers amongst the much higher than usual turnout (seven years ago, the attendance was 36). Unbeaten and riding high, the hosts eventually prevailed after Langford staged a comeback from their two goal half-time deficit. The final score was probably a fair reflection of the evening’s encounter! With John Main.
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Friday 7th October 2022
Southern Counties East Premier Division
Punjab United 1
Paul Vines 70,
Stansfield 1
Lee Friend 68,
Referee:- Kehinde Agboola. Attendance: 347
Admission: £8.00. Programme: £2.00
The Steve Cook Stadium ( named after a former groundsman, who died aged only 58 in 2020), was heaving with hoppers this evening for the inaugural SCEL hop’s first match. It would have been difficult to tell which team sat proudly in third place and which team lay next to bottom of the league from the performance on the pitch. It could be argued that all the excitement was condensed into two minutes around the beginning of the last quarter of the game. Firstly, the visitors scored and within a minute, the hosts were level from a vicious Paul Vines volley! Thereafter, the hosts made most of the running, but a draw was probably a fair result. There were posters of Sidhu Moose Wala (1993-2022), The Indian Rapper, who was recently shot dead in Punjab. He was a famous rapper who had turned (unsuccessfully) to politics. Many of his lyrics were in a social context, but it was also said that his songs challenged religious establishments and promoted gun culture. It was said that after he lost the election, his bodyguards were withdrawn and he went out without his own two bodyguards.
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Saturday 8th October 2022
Southern Counties East League Division 1
Staplehurst Monarchs 1
John Osagie 73,
Rochester United 0
Referee:- David Lambert. Attendance: 331
Admission: £8.00. Programme:- £2.00
Not far from Maidstone on a lovely and bright, sunny morning, these two teams contrived to bore a healthy audience with a plethora of back passes to the home goalkeeper (well over sixty in the match) and some pretty innocuous passing until, at last, the deadlock was broken by substitute, John Osagie, who had been on the pitch for less than seven minutes. It was the only bright moment in a very average match!
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Saturday 8th October 2022
Southern Counties East League Premier Division
Bearsted 2
Ollie Freeman 18, 58,
Fisher 1
Allí Adawumni 57,
Referee: Samuel Hall. Attendance:- 229
Admission:- £8.00. Programme: £2.00
The tiny village of Bearsted supports a team in Kent football’s premier division – maybe struggling a little, but nowhere near as badly as the visitors, who prop up the table. This was a fine match of flow and counter flow and the visitors were in no way overawed. The hosts enjoyed a single goal advantage at the interval, but this was cancelled out ten minutes after the re-start. A bare minute later, the hosts re-took the lead and despite some strong assaults by the visitors, held on for a narrow victory!
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Saturday 8th October 2022 k.o. 5.00pm
Southern Counties East League Division 1
Larkfield & New Hythe 2
Luke Burdon 13, Stuart West (c) 30,
Greenways 1
Oscar Saxton 48,
Referee:- Stephen Gorman. Attendance: 243
Admission: £5.00. Programme: £2.00
Two teams in the higher echelons of mid-table, with the hosts in fifth place and the visitors in eighth, took part in a vigorous and at times petulant contest, not helped by a fussy official. Two first half strikes put the hosts firmly in the driving seat, but after the interval, the visitors pulled a goal back and nearly had a second following a defender’s exquisite header which needed an agile touch from the home keeper to put it over the bar. A beautiful red sunset accompanied the final moments of the match.
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Tuesday 11th October 2022
East Riding Senior Cup 1st Round
Beverley Town 1
Craig Muirhead 89,
Cherry Burton 0
Referee: Matthew Wright. Attendance:- 227
Admission: £3.50. Programme:- £1.50
Newcomers to the NCEL, Beverley Town have floodlights, a small 56 seater stand and standing down half of each side and behind one goal (a lot to do with sharing with the local cricket club!). There was a healthy turnout for this local derby, not least because, in a former incarnation, Cherry Burton were the academy team of Beverley Town! This was a match of pride, whigh neither side wanted to lose and it took a goal in the 89th minute to decide the contest, perhaps a little fortuitously, in favour of the hosts.
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Wednesday 12th October 2022
Midland League Division 1
Ingles 2
Ben Minshull 75, Josh warren 89,
Wednesfield 2
Kevin Nickles 6, Ashley Bellingham 84,
Referee: James Henderson. Attendance:- 115
Admission: OMGDS£3.00 (£5). Programme: £1.00
Having spent the last couple of seasons at Shepshed, Ingles have moved to Thringstone and made some improvements. Tarmac around three sides of the ground, sturdy fencing and seating in the stand, cover behind one goal and, tonight, was their first league match,at this venue, under floodlights. There was a goodly cheer of hoppers for this match, which was played on a pitch with plenty of bare patches. Neither side was setting the league alight and for much of this rumbustious tussle, the visitors held the upper hand. They led at the interval, regained the lead with a scant five minutes left, but the hosts scored with one minute of normal time remaining and we had to endure ten inexplicable minutes of added time.
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Saturday 15th October 2022
Isthmian League Division 1 South Central
Basingstoke Town 0
Northwood 1
Sydney Ibie 50 (pen)
Referee: Steve Hawkes. Attendance: 470
Admission: OMGDS £7.00 (£10). Programme: £2.00
The last time I saw the hosts playing a home match, it was at lovely Camrose, “stolen”, by a heartless owner. In 2019, the club was forced to re-locate to the ground of Winchester City, as former Chairman Rafi Razzak attempted to sell The Camrose ground for development. It should be illegal to divide a football club from its home ground! Now they play at the featureless HQ of the Hampshire FA at Winklebury Park, a 3G cage with some redeeming points in a fine stand and very helpful stewards – plus free team sheets and a tour of the ground beforehand, because the train (and bus) got me there early! They moved to Winklebury Sports Complex in October 2020. Both these teams occupy top four spots in the division, but the hosts were defeated rather more easily than the score might suggest.
Vestigia Nulla Restrorsum – Never a backward step!
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Monday 17th October 2022
Birmingham County FA Midweek Floodlit Cup 1st Round
Chelmsley Town 1
Dudley Athletic 0
Referee: Julia Kings. Attendance:- 51
Admission: OMGDS £3.00 (£5). Programme: £1.00
On an increasingly chilly evening at Coleshill on the 3G surface, these two evenly matched sides officiated by a very competent female referee, slugged it out for almost the entire match and just as we were getting ready for penalties, right at the death, the hosts scored and took the tie, perhaps a little fortuitously. With John Main and Lee West.
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Julia Kings, tonight’s very efficient referee!
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Tuesday 18th October 2022
EFL Papa John Trophy Southern Group D
Stevenage 1
Tottenham Hotspur U21 0
Referee: Samuel Barrott. Attendance:- 1,449 (140)
Admission: OMGDS £10.00 (£12). Programme: NONE
Grandson, Freddie (12) is on half-term holiday and keen to increase his haul of League grounds visited (this was his 34th). Two sides of The Lamex were empty with 140 Spurs supporters occupying the area behind one goal. The bulk of the crowd filled the fourth side quite comfortably! I do NOT like seeing U21 sides in this tournament. It is obviously a premier League subterfuge for the benefit of their players and real spectators are ignored! Stevenage lead the table and Spurs bring up the rear. But they shouldn’t even be in it!
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Wednesday 19th October 2022
Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division
Glenfield United 3
Desford & Caterpillar 2
Referee: Martyn Jarvis. Attendance: 34
Admission: F.O.C. Programme: NONE
Not a lot to say about this 3G pitch inside a cage at South Charnwood School with viewing down one side only. The game was pretty ordinary, too, the only mystery being how the visitors contrived to lose the encounter having squandered so many gilt edged chances! On a very cold and blustery evening, there was a cheer of hoppers in attendance, swelling the meagre crowd. With John Main, Lee West and Jack Warner.
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Jack Warner, Lee West and John Main
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Thursday 20th October 2022
FA Premier League
Leicester City 2
Leeds United 0
Referee:- Peter Bankes. Attendance: 30,814
Admission: £37.50. Programme:- £3.50
First visit of the season to The King Power Stadium and, (67 matches in), my first visit to a premier league match this season! There were plenty of empty seats as Leicester started tentatively against their Yorkshire opponents. A Leeds own goal after 17 minutes helped to calm the nerves and a second ten minutes before the break put Leicester on top. The match ended with Leicester winning 2-0 despite having only one shot on target!
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ITALY
I did promise Freddie that I would take him to The San Siro for his birthday this year and so, early this morning (Saturday 22nd October), Freddie and his Dad, Mike, and I caught the Turin flight from Stansted. This was really the earliest we could go because Mike had been in school until late last night. We got there and took a bus down into the city of Turin (passing several “shanty towns” en route) and at Porto Nuova station, we caught the Milan train, travelling at speeds up to 300kph (190 mph), it took us barely an hour to get there and my sister Maggie was waiting for us when we arrived!. She quickly whisked us off for lunch at a restaurant called “The Fish’, where Freddie had a burger and Mike a steak and I had fish and mushrooms and potatoes boiled in oil. We met up with Luigi, Maggie’s partner and enjoyed the meal, but, for me, there was no alcohol, which Maggie found hard to understand. “Why don’t you just have the weekend off? Nobody would know!” Aaah ………. but I would! We saw The Duomo, which impressed Freddie and Mike and then caught the Metro on the red line to Lotto from Duomo and walked from there to The San Siro, which, we understand is being pulled down and replaced with a brand spanking new stadium in around five years …… what a waste!
Saturday 22nd October 2022
Serie A
AC Milan 4
Brahim Diaz 16, 40, Divock Origi 65, Rafael Leao 84,
AC Monza 1
Filippo Rannocchia 70,
Admission: €50.00. Programme : NONE
Referee:- Livio Marinelli Attendance:- 72,938
The San Siro was heaving with noise and flags for my 4th visit. Servio Berlusconi, the former Milan – and Italian – President, and now hoping to raise Monza from obscurity, was here with his team. The hosts, strangely, chose to play in Khaki – shirts, shorts and socks, with matching yellow additions to front and back. The match was a good one and, eventually, the hosts stuffed Monza, but it might have been very different if the visitors had taken a gift of a free header into an empty net midway through the opening period. Divock Origi, powerfully built and very quick, scored the third, the ex-Liverpool player lashing it into the top corner from the edge of the area. Good matvh but what happened to the smoke and the flares! With son Mike and grand son Freddie.
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Dad, Mike and son, Freddie outside The San Siro Stadium!
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Mike gets a beer from a passing seller … it cost him €10.00
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Grand dad, Ed, grand son, Freddie and son, Mike!
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The Rossonari lit their telephones at half time and an eerie light descended on the stadium!
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After the game, Mike and Freddie soaked in the last dregs of atmosphere.
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The Duomo, the cathedral of Milan.
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Freddie with great Aunt, Maggie and dad, Mike. Behind them, the block of flats with trees growing out of it!
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Atalanta, second in Serie A at the time of our visit, play in the beautiful medieval city of Bergamo, about an hour and a half by train from Milan. There is a funicular railway which transports people 85 metres up to the top of the town, which was heavily fortified, besieged and sacked during Medieval times, with France and Venice the main culprits! There is evidence on the lovely walk down from the top of the strength of the city defences. We dined in a cafe at the top. It was very busy all across the town and we were lucky to get a table. I have to say that Italian food does not agree with me. I don’t like the idea of melting cheese and then smearing it on the hard Italian bread (I am not a pizza man!). I don’t think either Mike or Freddie were too impressed, either. However, each morning, we had a superb breakfast of scrambled (or poached) egg on toast and coffee (or orange juice, in Freddie’s case!) at a cafe near where Maggie lived on Via Piero Calvi (2109, Milano). On the walk down from the top of the city, we could see the football ground!
Sunday 23rd October 2022
Italy Serie A
Atalanta BC 0
Luis Muriel s/o 90 (2 x yellow cards)
SS Lazio 2
Mattia Zaccagni 10, Felipe Anderson 52,
Referee: Rosario Abissa. Attendance: 18,988
Admission:- €35.00. Programme: NONE
What a magnificent city Bergamo is! An hour by train from Milan, it has its own funicular railway for getting from bottom to top of the town, magnificent views all around – including of The Stadio Atleti Azurri d’Italia (now named, commercially, as The Gewiss Stadium). The ground may have been smaller than yesterday, but Atalanta, in second place in Serie A were hosting fourth placed, Lazio. Sadly for them, they were well beaten. The never got going and found themselves penned in their own half for long stretches. A goal in each half for the confident visitors sent their “ultras” home in raptures of delight. Lazio steal above them into third place and Atalanta drop to fourth after their first league defeat of the season. With son, Mike and grand son, Freddie.
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A view of the Atalanta Stadium on our way down from the top of the city.
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Son, Freddie and Dad, Mike.
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The funicular railway in Bergamo. It rises 85 metres and takes around three minutes to make the ascent.
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Initially, we were unimpressed with Cremona, for all that it is the home of the violin and some of the world’s greatest Stradivarii are housed there. The Museum was closed today and after a one and a half hour train journey from Milan, we did not find the city very prepossessing, until we wandered into the interior after a coffee at a wine bar where we met a woman from, believe it or not … Corby! Once in the centre of Cremona, there were piazzas and palazzos and a pretty impressive cathedral. After the match, the last train back to Milan was due to leave at 9.30pm, so we had roughly an hour to walk the mile and a bit back to the station … and then the train was late!
Monday 24th August 2022
Italy Serie A
Cremonese 0
Sampdoria 1
Omar Colley 78,
Referee: Fabio Maresca. Attendance: 13,021
Admission: OMGDS €35.00 (€50). Programme: F.O.C.
Sadly the Museum of Violins was closed today, but the cathedral was open and a fine example of Renaissance murder was on display there! The tickets for the game were poor. They would have been described as restricted view in England (see below). Then, I was surrounded by fifty or sixty screaming primary school children who couldn’t sit still! Yet for all that, this game was a cracker. Both sets of supporters contributed with non-stop singing, flares, sonic booms and boisterous flag waving. Bottom placed Sampdoria swapped places with Cremonese with this victory and the hosts, for all their opportunities – including a penalty – went home empty handed in their first season back in the top flight this century. With son, Mike and grandson, Freddie.
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The impressive gateway to Cremonese’s stadium
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The cathedral of Cremona
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This murderous painting adorns one of the walls of the cathedral.
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Saturday 29th October 2022
Isthmian League South Eastern Division
Chatham Town 6
Emmanuel Oloyede 5, Dan Bradshaw 24, 62, Jack Evans 35, Daniel Thompson 73, Callum Peck 87,
Hythe Town 1
Jovan Caney-Bryan 48,
Referee:- Michael Scott. Attendance: 717
Admission: OMGDS £6.00 (£10). Programme: £2.00
Lovely ground with substantial covered standing behind one goal, a seated stand down both sides … but on the far side, the seats were useless because you couldn’t see much of the game from them. Fine club house and free team sheets, but my heart sank when I saw that it was a 3G pitch! Tables and chairs at pitch side for your drinks and eats during the match! With this thumping victory, the hosts claimed top spot in the league and on this display it will be hard to dislodge them. Three goals in each half and there should have been more. The visitors were comprehensively dismantled!
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Sunday 30th October 2022
On a dull, overcast morning in East Carlton, the hall dominates the skyline – originally built in 1778 and modified to a French chateau design some 90 years later – it is now uninhabited, but surrounded by the luscious colours of Autumn. Out of the grounds, a village pump with evidence of Hallowe’en in the background and, higher up, a very modern detached residence looks out across the Welland Valley. Through narrow trails and sheep filled fields and a long downward stretch to the C13 Cottingham Parish church of St Mary Magdalene. Even higher, the tiny building that Charlotte always envied as a painter’s loft! Alpacas at rest and still further, is The Wesleyan (Methodist) Chapel, built in 1878 to host 200 worshippers and now mostly derelict. A yellow bench adorns the wall of the stables in Middleton and an interesting example of a sheep upon entering the park once more, on the leaf carpeted path with fruit bushes lining the route. The cows – and the reindeer – looked to be settling in for wet weather as the circuit is completed back in the park. No stiles and 3.48 miles.
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Monday 31st October 2022
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun,
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
The fruit that round the thatch-eves run.”
John Keats had a way with words and his opening lines reflect this morning’s amble. Perhaps, had he been born two hundred years later, he might have commented further on the lead up to Remembrance Sunday as part of his ode. The solitary street lamp at the top of Station Road, the curtain of poppies at The War Memorial, the individually knitted poppies adorning street rails, the bough of poppies at the church gate ….. all lain in remembrance of thousands whose lives were lost on our behalf. Onwards down Church Gap, over the railway line, through the hidden bridge, by the sluggish River Welland, underneath the old railway line and bypassing Thorpe-by-Water to Lyddington, with the stubby spire of St Andrews Church, a horse gently nuzzles the grass in the farmyard, whilst much further on across the fields, a group of frisky cows took an unwanted interest, before reaching Caldecott and the church of St John the Evangelist, where the proud mushroom grows in the graveyard and the proud fallen are commemorated in the church (though not an officer in sight!). Across more fields, where only a mound now remains of the former Rugby to Peterborough railway and scum covers the overflow stream from the River Welland. At Gretton Weir, the water level is low. At the bottom of Station Road, another poppy reminds the traveller whilst posters in windows announce the events of Remembrance Sunday itself. Keats, I feel, would have had something to say! Nine stiles and 9.04 miles.
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The War Memorial in Gretton
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St James’ Church, Gretton.
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The hidden bridge and (right) The River Welland
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Thorpe-by-Water from The Lyddington Road.
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Lyddington (St Andrew’s Church in background).
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The frisky cows at the end of the fields on the way to Caldecott.
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The Parish Church of St John The Evangelist in Caldecott.
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Other Matches
Monday 10th October 2022
FA U-21 Premier League 2 Division 1
Leicester City u21 0 Fulham u21 7 attendance: 260
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Monday 31st October 2022
Midland League Division 1
Hinckley AFC 1 Shawbury United 2 attendance: 138
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