This is the club pavilion, approached from the road, it is both the clubhouse & changing rooms. The ground is set in a public park, & not fully enclosed.
As we enter, by the club building, & are in the ground, there is a nice tea bar area to our right. But we are going to head in the opposite direction going clockwise round the ground.
Note the chap in the blue shirt, standing. he was selling the excellent Southall programme, which put many I've seen on my travels with The Hamlet to shame.
This is the area outside the bar, which is on the halfway line area. most of the crowd will watch the game from here.
The match kicks off, with the dugouts clearly in view opposite.
Past the club building is open standing, an area cleared just behind it, but I'm not sure what is to be built here. In the background you can see the rear of the main stand at Bedfont Football Club next door.
Looking back down the touchline we see a number of spectators ignoring the 'no alcohol outside the clubhouse' rule, but good luck to them!
Towards the corner we look down the hardstanding back to the pavilion.
From here we see behind the goal for the first time, with a small bit of cover behind the goal.
More hardstanding, that cover looks more like a dugout than a 'shed'!
Or maybe a disused bus shelter! close up we see it has a bench in it. Is this the smallest stand in non-league football? ;-)
A bit of goalmouth action, with the pavilion as a backdrop.
From the corner flag we look across, with the area behind the goal in full view.
And very nice, personalised corner flags they are too!
Moving round it's more open hard standing along the far side, with the only structures being the dugouts.
This is a public park, & the ground isn't secure when there are no matches. A gentle reminder for the locals to respect the pitch.
From the side we look back behind the goal, with a passing plane, of which we will see wuite a few!
From the halfway line, in between the dugouts, we look over to the popular pavilion side.
This is as good a 'close up' I can get with my 'antique, digital box brownie!'
Further along two local spectators relax in the sunshine, having cycled to the match.
Moving on to the next corner we see the open hard standing behind the far goal. Note the footpath behind the hard standing. This is part of the public walkway in the park.
From here we look across the pitch again, for no other reason than to catch an areoplane in shot once more.
Here are the dugouts again, note what appears to be a step behind them. This is in fact the front of the dugouts which are bolted up after matches, presumably to keep local youths from doing 'undesirable things' in them! ;-)
Here we have a close up of the dugouts.
Looking across the pitch once more, both plane & Bedfont FC in view.
My favourite of all the plane snaps. This is NOT an optical illusion, they really were that low!
Now we're behind the goal...right behind the goal!
Moving towards the last corner now, the gates past the barrier are for the public park, not the actual ground. Look carefully & you will see a very low plane landing behind the trees.
Another snap over the pitch, no other reason to take it than another 'big bird' landing!
This is our last 'full frontal' look at the pavilion.
We head down the 'popular' side, back towards the building.
And to the area in front of the clubhouse where we started out.
The weather vane & club sign (Shame the clock wasn't oeprational!) gives it a lovely personalised touch.
The 'Disused Bus Shelter' behind the goal are
ReplyDeletethe old Hampton & Richmond Borough dugouts!!!!