Alcester Town - Stratford Road

Alcester Town FC

Stratford Road

Alcester

Warwickshire

B49 6LN

Official Website

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Ground Number: 1300
Tuesday 23rd April 2024
Alcester Town 0-1 AFC Coventry Rangers

Midland D2

ALCESTER TOWN FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established after the First World War as Alcester Old Boys,  a team for former pupils of Alcester Grammar School. In 1927 they joined the Stratford League and were renamed Alcester Juniors. In the 1950s the club adopted their current name. They joined the Eastern Division of the Warwickshire Combination in 1962, where they played for three seasons before transferring to the Worcestershire Combination in 1965. The league was renamed the Midland Combination three years later. In 1972 they finished as Division Two runners-up behind Highgate United Reserves. In 1983, the division was renamed Division 1 but in 1989 they were relegated to a new Division 2. Alcester bounced back straight away, finishing as runners-up to Pershore Town. They followed that up with the Division 1 title the following season, earning them promotion to the Premier Division. They spent a couple of years here before folding due to being unable to bring their ground up to standard. It would take them until 2007 to reform and start playing in the Stratford Alliance. Starting in Division 3, they won the title in 2009 and progressed up the leagues, winning the Premier Division in 2012. Following this, they joined the Midland Combination Division 2. In 2014, this was absorbed into the Midland League with Alcester placed in Division 3. They won the title in 2019 and have been in the step 7 Division 2 ever since.

Alcester Town entered the FA Vase a couple of times in the mid-70s but lost both ties. Alcester is a market town in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire. It is 8 miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditch. The town dates back to the times of Roman Britain and is located at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow. It has a population of around 6,000. Alcester was founded by the Romans in around AD 47 as a walled fort. The walled town, possibly named Alauna developed from the military camp. It was sited on Icknield Street, a Roman road that ran the length of Roman Britain from southwest England to south Yorkshire. The River Alne and Arrow, which join on the outskirts of Alcester, have occasionally flooded and on a few occasions engulfed part of the town. The last occurrences were in 1956, 10 April 1998 (Maunday Thursday) and on 21 July 2007 when 200 homes were left uninhabitable.[21] In response to the severe flooding of 2007, the Alcester flood scheme completed an underground storage tank with a 3.25 million litre capacity in June 2011, costing just over £1 million.

MY VISIT

This game was decided upon on Saturday night. I was in Basingstoke, between trains and looking for something decent to mark ground number 1300. I already knew I would be without Colin who had opted to go with Richard to Great Wakering Rovers on Tuesday. I messaged Anwar to see if he fancied doing Alcester Town v AFC Coventry Rangers. Happily, he accepted, meaning that I would have some company and help with the fuel costs. It had been a delightful Saturday and would be another busy week. As with last week, Sunday was easy to get through a nine-hour shift with me in a good mood. It was still nice when we got to 4 PM though and I could listen to the football. It was an epic game with Manchester United racing into a 3-0 lead before Coventry City come back to 3-3 in the last 20 minutes in an FA Cup classic. Coventry were desperately unlucky not to win the game, eventually going out on penalties. It was quite a day for football with the Nottingham Forest Twitter admin having a meltdown after decisions went against them. There was also the sad situation of Gateshead being denied the opportunity to compete in the playoffs because they lacked a ten-year tenancy on their ground. Funnily enough, the EFL didn't object to Coventry sharing at Northampton for a season, nor Rotherham or Brighton's temporary homes and they have come back a lot stronger thankfully.

Monday was a busy day at work and I volunteered to stay on for a couple of hours. Certainly not for the company but for my managers who are decent and don't deserve to be left in the lurch. Either way, I was glad of some time off. I had a fairly decent night's sleep It was my usual walk down Wycombe and I ended up buying so much, I got the bus home. After relaxing at home, I left at 3.45. The journey over to Anwar in Aylesbury and the resulting journey to Alcester were both decent and we were there at 5.45. The High Street looked great all done up for St George's Day but the parking was very busy. We went around the corner to Waitrose to park before I headed to China Town takeaway and Anwar went to the chippy. I ordered salt & pepper beef and chips which was £6.50. The chips part was superb though the batter on the beef took away the flavour of the meat. Still great value though and cheaper than the tenner Anwar paid for his fish and chips. It was only a few minutes to the ground where there was plenty of parking.

Alcester Town were 5th whilst AFC Coventry Rangers were 4th.The hosts were unbeaten in ten games, on Saturday they had won 3-2 at Fairfield Villa.The visitors had played a game less and had an outside chance of the title. They were unbeaten in eight league games and had won 2-0 at Earlswood Town on Saturday. The game started with AFC Coventry Rangers on top and they took the lead on four minutes through a deflected shot after a defender sliced the ball to him. Alcester got better but despite a lung-busting run down the right by #2, no one helped him out by making themselves available. Shortly after, a home player went in the book for a wild challenge. The injured player required a fair few minutes of treatment. Both sides had chances before halftime and Alcester really should have been level. After a ten-minute half-time break, play resumed but both teams were quite wasteful with the ball. Both sides were putting in some strong tackles too. In the end, Coventry's physical superiority saw them see the game out, despite Alcester coming close a couple of times. The visitors even hit the post with a free kick, the chance of the game.

THE GROUND 

STRATFORD ROAD is a great setup for the level. Situated around a mile from the pleasant market town, parking is plentiful. The pitch is fully railed and has some hard standing. There is a big area of cover behind one goal. This has food and drink facilities with the bar having an interesting choice of drinks. Food is burgers, bacon rolls and snacks.