Today I'm going back to this time just one year ago to the Hellenic League Premier Division game between Royal Wootton Bassett Town (no I didn't hear anyone trying to begin a chant with "Give us an R...") and Corsham Town. A Wiltshire derby no less and, with an unusual noon on Sunday kick off time, one of several games that weekend comprising the Hellenic League Ground Hop. As a result of being a star attraction for hoppers, the attendance at the game was much higher than normal with 341 passing through the turnstiles at the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground. I would imagine that special permission was required to move the kick-off for this game because it was the last game of the season for both clubs and, normally, the final round of fixtures always kick-off simultaneously to avoid an advantage being given to a promotion or relegation contender who might "know what they have to do" if they were to kick off after everybody else. In this case there was nothing significant riding on the result of the game so Sunday at noon it was!
For the uninitiated, a Ground Hopper is somebody who collects visits to different football grounds and, in recognition of the phenomenon, Group Hop weekends have sprung up to provide an opportunity to attend perhaps ten or so games across a single weekend at obscure football locations of interest to Hoppers. Ground Hop weekends are organised around the ability of perhaps a couple of hundred Hoppers to get from one ground to another (many by a specially laid on coach) within a short space of time and so kick off times are staggered to enable this to happen. The reason why clubs put themselves out for a bunch of tourists who may well never ever visit them again is that they bring a huge financial boost at the gate and in the club house. Programmes at such events are more or less mandatory although they can occasionally be difficult to get hold of if not reserved in advance but I had no problem on this occasion and RWBT's effort was rather lovely in my opinion.
Wootton Bassett only gained its Royal prefix as recently as 2011 when Royal patronage was conferred on the town in recognition of its role in the repatriation of deceased military personnel and it became only the third town to be permitted to use that Royal prefix after Royal Leamington Spa and Royal Tunbridge Wells. It was the first town to receive such an honour in over a hundred years.
The video (attached to my blog) showing the highlights of the match comes courtesy of "Corsham Town TV" and is a highly professional presentation apparently done in the style of one of those fly on the wall documentaries that seem to be all the rage just now. Amusingly the show comes with a health warning that the video contains strong language and that viewer discretion is advised. I'm not sure what they were worried about but I think you're safe to view it without unnecessary blushes. In the 29th minute Corsham took the lead thanks to something of a messy goal scored by Nathan Davis whose shot through a crowd of players seemed to miss everybody and found itself nestling in the back of the net with the Wootton Bassett keeper having been thoroughly wrong-footed. Then, shortly before half-time, Corsham were rightly awarded a penalty and up stepped Davis again to confidently send the keeper the wrong way and roll the ball into the net for 0-2 at the break. There was to be no further scoring in the match and the clearly superior Corsham never seemed to be overly troubled by their opponents.
Corsham Town ended the season in 5th place in the 20 team Hellenic Premier (operating at the 9th tier of the English football pyramid), some 20 points behind champions Bishop's Cleeve and 12 behind the also promoted runners-up Westbury United. RWBT finished in a comfortable 12th place, well clear of the two relegation positions which were occupied by Calne Town and Hallen respectively.
CRB Match No. 2486
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