Newquay AFC
Mount Wise Stadium
Clevedon Road
Newquay
Cornwall
TR7 2BU
01637 872935
Ground Number: 1108
Wednesday 14th September 2022
Newquay 1-0 Sticker
South West Peninsula West
NEWQUAY AFC - A BRIEF HISTORY
The club was established in 1890 but would only play friendly matches for the first six years of their history. It took even longer for them to join a league but they went through various guises during that time, being known as Newquay One And All and Newquay Rovers at various times in their history. During these times they played in local leagues such as the Plymouth and District League and the Cornwall Senior League, winning the latter in 1935. They disbanded between 1912 and 1920 and then from 1937 until 1950 when the current incarnation of the club came into being. The club were eague a year later and they stayed there for many years. They won the title seven times and were runners-up four times, never finishing lower than 14th. In 2007, they became founder members of the South West Peninsula League after the South Western League disbanded. By 2012, they had won Division 1 West, earning promotion to the Premier Division. This has since been regionalised into East and West Divisions to cut down on travelling costs, the highest the club has managed so far is a couple of 11th-placed finishes.
Newquay have not competed in the FA Cup for a number of years, but they have reached the 2nd Qualifying Round on six occasions. Their best FA Vase run came during the 1990-91 season when they beat Ottery St Mary 5-0, Torrington 2-1 and Bournemouth 2-1 before winning 2-0 at Hungerford Town. They drew Saffron Walden Town in the 4th Round but lost 1-0 in Essex following a 2-2 draw in the original game. Locally, they've won the South Western League Cup twice, the Cornwall Senior Cup five times and the Cornwall Charity Cup 14 times. Their record attendance of 3,500 came for a friendly game against Manchester City on 14th July 1998. The fallen giant, playing in the third tier for the only time in their history cantered to a 6-0 win. The most famous player to play for the club is goalkeeper Kevin Miller who came through the club's youth team before having a good career in the Football League.
Newquay is a town on the north coast of Cornwall with a population of just over 20,000. The main source of income is tourism and the population can increase fivefold during the summer months due to a large amount of accommodation in the area. Other prominent industries in the area include fishing and aerospace. Famous people associated with Newquay include Phillip Schofield who went to school in the area. The Beatles filmed part of the Magical Mystery Tour film in Newquay. Scenes were filmed at the Atlantic Hotel and Towan Beach. The Headland Hotel, next to Fistral Beach, has been used in several films, most notably the 1990 movie adaption of Roald Dahl's book The Witches. The town is twinned with Dinard in Brittany, France. Other teams in the town include Godolphin Atlantic who play in the same Division as Newquay and contest a local derby. Cricket and surfing are also prominent in the town.
MY VISIT
I'd wanted to visit Newquay for some while after seeing some pictures of the area and also the vast array of pubs that were good for real cider. I took that opportunity on this Wednesday, although it could have worked out better. Firstly, I left it late to book, meaning that the price had gone up around a tenner from the cheapest rate. Or maybe I booked too soon because of the fiasco that saw my coach to Manchester not turn up, National Express had gifted me a pair of vouchers that I could use for future trips of any value. This meant, that effectively, I could get a return for than the £43 that I ended up paying. This was not bad value in itself, costing about £60 once getting to London was factored in compared to around £120 in car costs or a whole lot more than that on the train. There was also the drawback of having to sleep on the overnight coach home, which had not gone well on my last couple of trips. I could have done with less time before and more time after to have some drink to send me to sleep. In fact, I could have done with a few days off the booze having overindulged recently, but beggars can't be choosers. Nevertheless, it was a compromise that I was willing to take, having spaffed a load of money on new tech and a trip to Belgium in recent times.
Since arriving back from a good weekend, I'd had quite a lot of things to do. There has been frustration at my parcels being delayed as I could have done with my new tablet for this trip. In any case, I still kept myself occupied during the day with various things before the usual pre-match routine before Wycombe Wanderers v Accrington Stanley in the evening. That was a bit of a farce in itself. After getting a Chinese, I'd opted to use the shuttle bus to the ground, only it didn't turn up. I ended up sharing a minibus to the ground with other stranded passengers and luckily some guy paid the fare for the lot of us. As for the game, it was not the prettiest but Wycombe came through in the end, winning 1-0. Accrington had plenty of possession and had they had someone who could finish, it would have been a different story.
I had a pretty lousy night's sleep, but even so, I was raring to go when my alarm went off at 5.45. After freshening up and getting dressed, I was away by 6 and drove to Cumberland Close in Little Chalfont before leaving my car there. I was well ahead of my planned schedule but with a fixed coach time, I preferred to leave a margin for error. I stopped at Tesco on the way, a Hoisin Duck Wrap, dairy milk and a Ribena light making a good value breakfast at £3. I was then at the station for the 6.30 train, a quite busy but comfortable Chiltern Line one. I checked ahead to see how busy my coach was and was dismayed to see that the one home was full, meaning the chance of sleep would be minimal. This was however better than the option of paying to stay overnight and getting the 06.50 coach home. The coach out had some space though and I was hoping for a double seat to myself. I was at the coach station just under an hour before the coach departed and would get my wish just about. It was comfortable at Victoria but a load of people piled on at Heathrow and luckily the seat next to me was one of the ones that stayed vacant as I was using it for storage. We made slow but steady progress on the mammoth trip, stopping at services somewhere which didn't really interest me and then at various points once we reached Plymouth. We got 20 minutes break at Plymouth so I popped to a shop for a drink. By the time we left, the coach had emptied and there were only 8 people making the trip down to Cornwall.
I'd been in two minds about what to do pre-match. Initially, I thought that I'd take a walk up to Godolphin Atlantic. However, I decided that I'd save that for when I actually visited for a game as I had a feeling I'd want to return to Newquay sometime. We were there at 4.15 with me quite peckish. I walked towards the Fistral Stable, stopping for a look in the Red Lion. There was nothing decent there so I went to the Fistral Stable. That was a disappointment too, they'd scaled back the Cider range to 20 and I'd had all of them. However, I still contented myself with a pint of their own Rapscallion. This was enough for me, I'd rather have a pint of something I've already had in the club bar and let them have the money. I headed to Sawai Thai Takeaway, a little takeaway van unit in a car park. I opted for Jungle Curry and chill rice. It was decent and from there I stopped at Sainsbury's to stock up on stuff. From there, I headed to the bar at the ground and got talking to a friendly Kidderminster fan who was also had also come down for the game. I then went in, paying £6 for entry. I got a superb pork and apple sausage roll for £3.50. This had come recommended and it was an excellent tip-off, being locally made with love.
Both sides were sitting in mid-table, both on seven points. Newquay were above their opponents by virtue of a superior goal difference. Since losing 5-0 in the FA Vase at Bovey Tracey at the end of August, the hosts had won three straight games, winning 4-1 at St Denis, beating Bodmin Town 5-0 and defeating Mullion 3-0 in the Walter Parson Cup. The visitors meanwhile had also suffered a heavy defeat, losing 5-0 at St Blazey in recent times. This had been followed up with three 2-2 draws against Launceston & St Austell and also at Penzance. Newquay had the better of the opening exchanges and also the first half but they didn't really create much in the way of clear-cut chances. Their domination continued into the second period. I'd gone 58 games without a 0-0 before my one on Sunday but it looked as if I might get two in three games. However, Cam Turner came to the rescue with a great free kick on 63 minutes. They had a couple more chances after that as the game opened up and Sticker had a late flurry of chances but all to no avail.
It had been a healthy-looking attendance with a number of hoppers, although the game had not been the best. From the ground, I wanted a couple of drinks to try and send me to sleep and so I headed to the local Wetherspoons, the Towan Blystra. This was better than the app had suggested earlier, which is why I had given it the swerve pre-match. I had pints of Old Rosie and Cheddar Valley and this helped me chill a bit. I was at the coach stop 15 minutes ahead of departure. There were twelve people waiting at the stop, eleven of them with suitcases off on holiday and one sad git who had made a 28-hour round trip to watch a team he didn't even support. That's groundhopping for you and typically, I got barely any sleep meaning I'd get a couple of hours when I got in. I had a double seat to myself until Plymouth and then for the rest of the journey it was cramped and uncomfortable. We arrived back in London ahead of time and following a prompt trip on the underground, a walk and driving home, I was back in before 8.30. I'd intended to sleep for a couple of hours as I had quite a bit to do, but in the end, I woke up at nearly 3PM and did my blog later in the afternoon.
THE GROUND
MOUNT WISE is a classic football ground and well worth a visit. There are two main areas of cover. On the side where you come in is a bench at the back with standing in front, probably capable of holding 200 at a push. On the other side is a stand with bench seating, holding around the same. The rest of the ground is open. Both the tea bar and clubhouse are decent and the sausage rolls are well worth a try. The town has lots of nice places to visit and is well connected,transport-wise. There is a decent amount of car parking too.
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