Beckenham Town

I took these pictures of Kent League Premier Division side Beckenham Town pre-season, in July 2009. It is basic, and long way short of Isthmian standard, if ever they were to finish high enough up the table to be considered for promotion, but it's more than adequate for their needs.
What it lacks in character I've always found has been made up in friendliness, and have always felt welcomed here on my previous visits; probably a dozen or so times over the years. And as an added bonus, it's also just a few minutes walk from Eden Park Station. not just that but two buses go past that run right by my street, a couple of miles away. I really should pop down here more often...





The ground is set back from the road, an access road doubling up as a car park.



Here are the turnstiles.



Once through them, to the left, and set back from the pitch, is the club house, and changing rooms.



This is the entrance to the changing rooms.



There are some tables outside the bar area, it was summer when I took these after all! Behind them you can see the railed off path for the players to the pitch, which is to the right.



There is hard standing around the pitch,and the ground is fenced in, as you can see, on the left.



This is the view down the pitch from the 'tunnel'.



Basic concrete hard standing, the goal resting on the fence, due to renovation work on the pitch.



Before we move on round the ground, we see the board from the current League sponsors.



And one of the former ones...



As was this newspaper company.



An unusual shot of the goal!



Moving along the side now, again just open hard standing, with the dugouts further along. Note the fence behind the training goal, on the left. On the other side is a second pitch, with no facilities around it whatsoever, which is often used by the Beckenham Town first team for pre-season matches.



There is this larger flat area of concrete hard standing. I have no idea why it's there. My guess is that they once planned to build some sort of new stand, but either ran out of money, or just changed their mind.



Now we have reached the dugouts...with a television gantry behind! not as strange as it seems. At the end of the '08/09 season they had staged a charity game, which was filmed by the Sky cameras.



We're now standing in front of the dugouts, looking back to the changing rooms end.



Looking across the pitch we are opposite the small main stand.



Continuing our stroll round the pitch we see the rest of the hard standing that goes to the next corner.



Dumped by the perimeter fence is an old roller.



Now behind the far goal it's hard standing as well, the only 'overhang' being from the trees outside.



From this end we glance all the back down the dugouts side.



There's a good vantage point just outside the ground, from this tree house!



Now we're at the next corner, the only thing missing from this picture is a corner flag!



We're on the last stetch now, more open hard standing, leading up to the stand.



And here we are! Granted it's not much, but it is lovingly painted in the club colours.



Here is a shot of it from the pitch.



No seats as such, just 'wooden benches'.



Beyond this is more of the hard standing, leading back to the entrance.



At the corner you can see how far back the entrance, & club buildings, are.



One last look over the pitch...



Passing the turnstiles as we leave.

R.U. Auderghem; Brussels, Belgium.

RU Auderghem is a Belgian club based in the south eastern corner of Brussels. I discovered their ground through the excellent Football Grounds of Brussels' group on Facebook.

This is what the man behind that group,Stephanw Lievens , tells us about the ground:

"AUDERGHEM, Stade Communal
Chaussée de Wavre 1854, 1160 Auderghem

Current club : Royal Union Auderghem (3rd Provincial division)

Stadium of RU Auderghem, product of the merger between the commune's two clubs a few years ago, Union Sportive Auderghem and Association Sportive Auderghem. The ground near the Brussels-Liège motorway has a nice Fifties stand."

I visited this ground in June 2009.



This is the entrance into the ground, the sign above, is next to it. But I had to walk a few hundred yards along to find a gap in the chain link fencing that surrounded their multi-pitch site.


The main road is to the left of these trees, and this pitch is the farthest away, where I gained access. It is not the main one, and is simply railed off, with these old concrete posts.



Further along there are some benches.



Beyond that pitch is this all-weather one, still not the main stadium though.



Here we are still walking along from the previous pitch, trees by the road to the left, and ahead you can see some club buildings, which is where the entrance gate is, also on the left.



This all-weather pitch is fully railed, with hard standing all the way round.



And here we are now at 'Le Chalet', which is their clubhouse.



From in front of it we look over the all-weather pitch once more, over to the dugouts.



This is just inside the gates we saw earlier. Presumably where they take the admission money from.



Walking along past the clubhouse we go up a few steps..and here we are, looking over to the main side of First Team enclosure.



We're going to look at that part of the ground last, so we're going to walk round anti-clockwise. Here we see it is open standing behind the goal, the all-weather pitch is the other side of the grass banking.



There are a few benches at the top.



From directly behind the goal we look over to the side with the stands.



Down the far side it is just railed off, with trees behind, but no hard standing.



Here are the dugouts.



From the halfway line we look over the pitch.



Beyond the dugouts, & past the halfway line it's more of the same, just the rail.



Now we're at the far end, and once more, looking over to the built up side.



Behind this goal is yet another pitch, the last one on the complex. This is the dugout by the side of it.



It is actually floodlit, as you can see on the far side, and is partially surrounded by old concrete posts.



Back on the main part of the grounds, we are heading up the built up side, you can see some open terracing immediately ahead.



Again a couple of benches just above the steps.



And now we reach the main stand, with the club initials at the rear.



Some graffiti is on the side...is the football that bad that even this spectator looks away from the pitch? ;-)



Here we see the initials at the back of the stand.



And from the back row of the benches we look over to the open side.



Behind is this building, which I think are changing rooms, which are a bit further along.



Past the main stand is this covered enclosure, with more benches on the concrete.



Here is the main stand from on the pitch.



With the other one just past it.



Back on the spectator side, we look along the second stand, where we see some more terracing beyond it.



Once more with benches on top.



From the top of the terrace at the end we look back down the seated side.



Still along the side, at the end of the terrace, is this 'tunnel' for the players.



And we finish the tour on the main pitch side of 'Le Chalet'. This is certainly a ground I'd like to see a match at one day.