Nailsea United - Grove Sports Centre

Nailsea United FC

The Grove Sports Centre

St Mary's Grove

Nailsea

Bristol 

Somerset

BS48 4NQ

Official Website

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Ground Number: 1142
Saturday 24th December 2022
Nailsea United 0-1 Fry Club
Somerset County Premier

NAILSEA UNITED FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 1897 at the Royal Oak pub in the town. I can find very little about the club's early history, but they must have played in local leagues for nearly the first 100 years of their history. Around the start of the 1980s, Nailsea United joined the Somerset County League. They won Division 1 in 1985 but struggled at the higher level. The knock-on effect meant that they suffered a double relegation. A recovery of sorts saw them finish as runners-up to Stockwood Green in 1988 to win promotion back out of Division 2. They stabilised before a 5th place finish in 1991 was good enough for promotion to the Premier Division, however, they only remained there for a single season. They were Division 1 champions in 1996 and this time they stuck around. They have remained in the Premier Division to this day, winning the title five times. Their most successful period was between  2012 & 2014 when they won the title three times in succession.

The slightly better-known side in the town is Nailsea & Tickenham who play in the Western League Division 1, a tier above. Below them are Nailsea Town, AFC Nailsea and Selkirk United. However, they have only come to prominence in the last few years. Nailsea is a town in north Somerset, 8 miles southwest of Bristol. Nailsea had a population of just under 16,000. The town was an industrial centre based on coal mining and glass manufacturing, which have now been replaced by service industries. The Land Yeo river flows to the east of the town. One of Nailsea's best-known celebrities was Adge Cutler, the Somerset folk singer, whose backing band was The Wurzels. He worked at the Coates cider factory which was part of the town for around 50 years. The Wurzels' album Live at the Royal Oak was recorded at The Royal Oak, a public house on the High Street. Cutler is buried in Christ Church graveyard.

MY VISIT

This trip was planned around ten days in advance, thanks to the double issue of the Football Traveller. There were very few leagues playing on Christmas Eve, perhaps understandably. I'd only seen one game on this day and initially, my first choice, spotted months ago, was Willand Rovers v Tavistock. This was an anomaly, with it being the only game being played in the Southern League. Another local league, the Somerset County League had a far more abundant choice of games and it was even possible to do a double. That was my initial preference with Nailsea United playing at 12 and Nailsea and Tickenham Reserves playing at 2. The grounds were just four minutes apart by car. With it being in the Bristol area, it would also represent a chance to potentially pick up some local cider for Christmas.

I was still pretty sceptical that the games would go ahead. It would be totally understandable if players and volunteers wanted to spend Christmas Eve with their families. The fragility of fixtures was highlighted on Wednesday night. I was supposed to be going for a revisit to Stratford Town's ground for FC Stratford v Long Crendon, only for the game to be called off a couple of hours before kickoff. I didn't think there would be a postponement due to a waterlogged pitch looking at the weather, but that's what happened. Perhaps understandable given that two teams play on it, but the communication wasn't the greatest. Nothing on the FC Stratford or Long Crendon Twitter accounts, nor was the status updated on the dreadful FA Full-Time site. It was only by sheer chance that I had Tweetdeck fired up and was looking at the screen when Stratford Town announced it off, thankfully avoiding a wasted journey. All part and parcel of following football where the crowds rarely get into three figures, I guess.

I finished at 4 on Friday, having dodged all conversations with my managers unless they asked me to work extra. But it was the start of four days off which I celebrated with a bottle of Ross-On Wye Raison D'Etre 2020 which was brilliant. That said, there was disappointing news on the game front with my second game at Nailsea & Tickenham Reserves being called off. It was a blow, but I can't begrudge players and volunteers' time with their families at this time after a torrid year. It did ruin my double though. There was also disappointment that publicity-seeking charlatans Ladbaby got Christmas number one for the 5th year in a row, all in the name of so-called charity. It's disgusting that we need food banks in this country, but surely if you want to donate, do so directly. In any case, I had a couple more drinks and a reasonably early night. As things stood, my backup options were:

Willand Rovers v Tavistock (13:00) 3-1

Chilcompton Sports v Keynsham Town Res (12:30) 4-1

Clutton v Clevedon United (12:00) 0-3

Staplegrove v Minehead (13:00) 3-1

I woke up naturally at 7 am and watched TV for a bit. After breakfast and a shower, I left for Anwar at 9. By the time I got to him at 9, we had already lost one of our backups at Worle. It was a good journey west and happily, on the way, Nailsea tweeted that it was game on and it was great to hear and see a club communicate well. We were in Nailsea at 11.20, stopping at Tesco where I picked up a meal deal. 20 minutes later we were at the ground and were given a nice warm welcome. It was a lovely day for watching football and you have to wonder why so few leagues were playing. The attendance built gradually, eventually reaching around 100 people who just didn't want to waste a Saturday with the nonsense and piffle of Christmas. It was insanity that more games were not played on Christmas Eve and many agreed.

It was a real mid-table clash between the two sides. Nailsea United were in mixed form. They'd lost their last game, 4-3 to Stockwood Wanderers, also 2-1 to Chard and 2-0 at Clutton. However, they'd won 3-1 at Stockwood Green, beaten Keynsham Town Reserves 2-0 and won 1-0 at Worle. Fry Club were based near Keynsham and had travelled around 15 miles to get to the game. They'd drawn their last game 3-3 at home to Keynsham Town Reserves and also 1-1 against Stockwood Wanderers. They'd won 3-1 at Stockwood Green and 3-1 at Watchet Town. However, they'd lost 5-1 at Worle and 1-0 to Clutton. It was a real end-to-end game with both sides having chances. There were two great saves by the Fry Club keeper around 25 minutes with Nailsea having the better of the play. A visiting man took out a home player, yet he wasn't even booked. However, he sin-binned another man for dissent. Sammy Hewitt gave the visitors the lead on 50 minutes, a close-range shot in off the post. Nailsea United laid siege to the visitors' goal and the keeper pulled off another couple of great saves. However, Fry Club held on for the 1-0 win.

The referee had a variable performance, a bit whistle happy and he wanted someone thrown out of the ground if they blew their air horn again. Even so, a Nailsea official came around with a collection box for him and I chucked in a couple of quid in as he had given up his Christmas Eve to make mine an enjoyable one. I had gotten a nice pint of Rib Tickler cider in the clubhouse at half-time. I don't usually have one when driving but this was a new tick and a sensible strength at 5%. I revisited the clubhouse to use the toilet again before we left around 2.10. It was a short drive to a brilliantly named off-license called Aimee's Wine House where I picked up 3 bottles of local cider for £6 which was great value from their decent range. It was then time to head home and it was another good journey home aside from thinking I might have gone a bit too fast through the bonkers 40MPH zone on the M32, although time will tell. I dropped Anwar off at 4.45 and got home half an hour later. The rest of Christmas Eve was spent typing this blog up and having a few ciders.

THE GROUND

THE GROVE is a great ground for the level. The pitch is railed on three sides with the far end out of bounds to spectators. There's a nice stand on one side, this holds around 100 standing. There is also a further area of cover on the other side with some seats and more cover. There's plenty of parking. The social club is excellent with a great range of drinks. Food is restricted to snacks and hot drinks. The club was looking to install floodlights a few years back to get up to step 6. However, a spiteful local resident blocked the plans and the club remains at step 7.