FC Rouen

FC Rouen currently play at the stade Robert-Diochon, & play in CFA, which is the fourth level of French football. Diochon was a co-founder of the club, & was club chairman for 47 years.
It wasn't a ground I'd planned to look at, I had been to Dieppe the day before, back in May 2007, to watch Red Star, with a couple of fellow Dulwich Hamlet fans.
We were going to a local level six game, & beforehand we were looking for the cemetery where a Dulwich Hamlet player was laid to rest after dying for his country in the First World War. The FC Rouen ground ,by coincindence, happened to be right next door to the cemetery!



This is the ground from outside, as we approached it. At this stage we had no idea if we would be able to get inside.



We walked up to the other end & found a gate open. Marvellous! This is the corner we entered the ground.



Behind the goal at this end is a 'temporary' style open bank of seats.



The town emblem is on the side of the stand.



Back outside here are the ticket booths.



I was well pleased to see this Red Star sticker!



And another!



Here I've walked along to the other corner behind the goal.



This is the superb main stand. you have to remember this is a regional fourth division ground!



A shot looking up at the open seats.



This is the stand on the other side.



From behind the goal, through the net, we look through the goal to the far end. Unfortunately, for whatever reason I don't know, I didn't bother to walk down towards the other goal. Sorry about that!



Another picture of the main stand. modern, but with real character.



So impressed, I even went for this attempt of an 'arty-farty' shot!



This is a fellow Hamlet fan Paul Griffin, taking his own snaps. Well he WAS a fan back then. Now he's 'sold his soul' & gone over to the committee! Last night at horsham YMCA some of our fans were using some of our 'traditional,choice' language. One of their committee passed us, and said he was going to complain to our officials. First one round was...Griff! Telling the 'Rabble' to behave! Oh how he has changed! ;-)



Just outside the ground is the second pitch, a railed off one.



This is a general shot of the St. Sever Cemetery, just beyond the second pitch.



And here is the headstone for Tommy Rose. The scarf won't have stayed long, as I don't think they allow things like that, it was just our little gesture. In the soil by the headstone we each took a moment to bury a Dulwich Hamlet enamel badge, so he will always be remembered. Even though the First World War was a very long time ago, it was a very moving moment, where we could pay tribute & remember one of our own. Tommy Rose rest in peace.

Mole Valley SCR-River Lane, Leatherhead

I've not seen a match here, but decided to have a look at the ground as it's on the outskirts of Leatherhead, on Easter Monday last season, as I'd been to watch the Hamlet play at Leatherhead that afternoon.
This was the home of Mole Valley SCR but in the close season 2009 they were forced out by the local council, for reasons I'm not sure of, & the ground is now apparently leased to Leatherhead FC, for their academy set up.
Which is a same, as it's clear from looking around, that Mole Valley SCR were slowly but surely improving their set up here, and are a small, but ambitious club. They compete at step six, in the Combined Counties League Division One.



The ground itself is on River Lane, which is a narrow turning, not the easiest to spot. The cat gave me directions! ;-)



This is the entrance to the ground. Luckily I found a gap, and squeezed in.



The clubhouse looks recent and smart.



Behind it is a bit of old seating, presumably for 'future use' at the time.



In the ground itself, from by the clubhouse, is this hut, which is where you pay to get in. I must confess that there was a box of old programmes in there, & I did 'arf inch a few! A basic area of scaffold cover is just past it, as you can see. The work appears to be an attempt at taking the club up to a higher level.



As you can see...work in progress!



From here you can see it is open behind the goal.



Supporters aren't supposed to go behind this goal at all.



But as there's not a game on...I ignored that! ;-) Here we look back at the covered area.



Moving on to the far corner we look back over to the main side.



Along the far side is a path, which is railed off.



This is one of the dugouts.



Adjacent is a second pitch, as you can see on the left.



Here we're down at the far corner, & you can see how close the two pitches are. from the two corner flags!



At the far end now, more railed off hard standing, and some pitch equipment!



Very open, as you can see.



Behind this end are a couple of footbridges, over a small stream, presumably the 'river' in River Lane, which leads to more pitches.



Here is the wooden one. looking over to them.



moving on round the ground now, we're looking toward the clubhouse/changing room building. I have no idea what that ugly huge pipe is.



In front of the building some very basic seating has been knocked up on some scaffolding planks.



Here is a view of them, pitchside.



They don't actually look that bad from this angle.



Time to go now, this is the exit, from where we started our tour. I sincerely hope this ground one day has senior non league club as it's tenant. It's simplt 'wasted' on another local non league academy base.

West of Scotland C.C.; Glasgow, Scotland

I feature this cricket ground for history purposes only. For the West of Scotland Cricket Club grounds was the actual venue for the very first Scotland versus England international way back on the 30th November 1872, a 0-0 draw, in front of 4,000 spectators.

I was surprised not been able to spot any sort of plaque commemorating this historic occasion. I took the opportunity to take photos of this venue when I was in Glasgow in June 2009.



The entrance to the ground.



The view across the pitch as you walk in.



This is the boundary, to our right.



To the left is the pavilion, with seating outside. we are going to continue around the boundary in this direction.



We we look back from the benches at the front of the pavilion.



The seats are very higgledy-piggledy, to say the least!



Some slight grass banking past this.



You can almost imagine snoozing away on one of those benches on a hot summers day, with a good book in one hand, the cricket an incidental backdrop!



It's a nice little set up, with plenty of benches.



The scoreboard, couldn't snap a cricket ground without a photo of that!



Now we're looking down the far boundary, just a lone bench here.



From the bottom corner we look over to the pavilion.



On the last side is just the wall of neighbouring properties, & the boundary rope.



though there is this old, weather beaten bench in the corner.



And here back on the side where we entered the ground, up by the pavilion.