And I must say what a delightful little club! (And I'm not just saying that because we thrashed then 7-0!) The conversation on the train back to London wasn't just about the superb victory, but on what a nice club Crowborough Athletic was. The general concensus was that we hope they finish above the bottom two relegation spots.
It's often said that the further you go down the pyramid the friendlier the welcome is. This was a prime example of that theory. Although this club have moved up they have no lost any of their hospitality. The locals were genuinely welcoming, no-one had a bad word to say,even in heavy defeat.
It was only seven quid to get in, the programme was free too! You couldn't but not buy some raffle tickets after that! A small ground, as you'd expect, but more than adequate. It may be a half hour walk from the station, and only one train an hour, but it's downhill on the way back, & the chipshop just past the station kills the time until it arrives! This club should be a model of how all progressive county league clubs should be run.
If Carlsberg could make non-league football it would probably be like this! ;-)
Maybe you paid for the sign by the letter! ;-)
The main club board.
They like their signs here! Presumably their lower teams use the outer fields, managed by the National Playing Fields Association.
From the entrance, this time with a Football Foundation sign, we look up to the stadium.
But before we go in that direction there is the clubhouse on our right.
The pool table area 'doubles up' as the boardroom! Which is actually a shame really, as I didn't want to enter that area as a result, and would have like to have a peek at the photos on the wall in that corner. Sitting just outside it are our Club Chairman Jack Payne, on the left, & one of our oldest supporters, Bill Kirby on the right. Bill can recall seeing the Hamlet lift the FA Amateur Cup in 1937!
We now walk up towards the ground, with the turnstiles at the end of these new buildings, which include the changing rooms, and a tea bar & tea room inside.
This is the way in.
Raffle tickets!
Some of our fans arrive.
From the entrance we're going to stroll around the ground before kick off in a clockwise direction. Note the tannoy. As the teams ran out some sort of old fashioned instrumental tune was blaring out. Very wuaint and old fashioned. One of our committee men happened to walking past me and quipped: " It's like we're going camping! Where's Sid James!"
Here we see the cover behind the goal, with the players tunnel at this end of it.
Teams helpfully witten up on a board. Why every club does not do this is beyond me. (We certainly don't do this at Champion Hill)
From here we look down the side with three small stands, two with seats. We will see them close up later.
The other touchline is open to the elements.
Nice flag.
As we move along you can see the facilities for supporters' built in. A tea bar with a hatch onto the ground, plus in the bar area, where they sell not just food & hot & cold drinks, but beer in poured into plastic glasses from tins in a fridge. How civil to treat fans as adults! And that is only said half in jest!
Here is the drinks area, with some club photos & posters around, which shows how proud eveyone is of their club.
And they obviously have the support of the local council too.
So simple, but what a great memento of the opening of their re-developed stadium.
You can imagine what a special day it must have been when all their hard work came to fruition for the visit of Charles Hendry, MP.
And how's this for a supurb fixture poster?
Here's the hatch for the tea bar, from the terrace. They did very good value burgers, egg & bacon rolls, andso on. In fact it's one of the best, if not the best, tea bars I've ever seen at a non-league ground!
Another sign. But hey, their grant did help pay for the place!
Now we look back along the covered terrace, and it time-"At last" I hear you cry-around the rest of the ground.
From the corner flag we look across to the main stand.
Tucked in the corner, I bet they wish they'd put this up outside the Dulwich changing room, with the benefit of hindsight!
Open hard standing the length of this touchline.
And a look back behind the goal.
Dugouts on the halfway line.
Across the middle, to the stands.
We now continue towards the corner, and behind the far goal.
But not before a glance backwards, from where we've come.
This advertising hoarding from the local paper caught my eye, behind the goal.
Not one of the best of my favoured 'corner flag' shots....I like the flag fluttering! ;-)
As we move behind the goal it's more of the same, open standing.
And from almost directly behind the net we see the three stands on the far side.
Turning the corner it's more open standing up to the first one.
Clearly a quite recent construction.
I quickly sneak under the pitch barrier to get some better shots.
This is obviously the older stand. Presumably the only one that dates back to their long Sussex County League era.
I don't know who Barry Sykes is, and didn't think to ask. I would guess this stand was put up to comply with minimum seating ground grading requirements.
Moveing on past the stands there is this small railed off triangle area. I'm not sure why, but my guess is it's to preserve the sightlines of those in the seats.
As we move further along you can see it's more open hard standing.
And finally back to the corner where the turnstiles are, from where we began our tour of the Crowborough Community Stadium. A fitting title for a true community club.
One last shot. The teams enter the field here from behind the goal, which led to the unusual site of the pointless pre-match ritual of the handshakes being on the edge of the penalty area, rather than in the middle of the pitch, in front of the main stand.
