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Adderbury Park FC
Lucy Plackett Playing Field
Round Close Road
Adderbury
Banbury
Oxfordshire
OX17 3EE
Ground Number: 1309
Wednesday 15th May 2024
Wednesday 15th May 2024
Adderbury Park 5-4 Launton Sports
Oxfordshire Senior League Premier Division
ADDERBURY PARK FC - A BRIEF HISTORY
Though football had been played for many years in Adderbury, the current club was established in 1995 as a result of a merger between Adderbury and Adderbury Park Sports & Social. Taking a shortened version of the latter's name, they continued in the Banbury & District League where the previous clubs had left off. In 2002, Adderbury Park joined the Hellenic League Division 1 West and enjoyed the best season in the club's history, finishing 11th. They soon started to struggle though and on-field matters caught up with them before ground grading could. They finished bottom of the table in 2005 and were relegated to the Oxfordshire Senior League. After some unremarkable seasons in the Premier Division, they won the title in 2009. Aside from the 2013/14 season, they never finished outside of the top 5 and won the title again in 2017. In 2018, they joined the adjacent Hellenic League Division 2 North and enjoyed four decent seasons. They transferred back to the Oxfordshire Senior League last season, capturing a third title win and remaining undefeated.
MY VISIT
This game was initially decided upon around a week in advance. Games were starting to dry up by now and it was really the only choice that was viable if I took both Anwar & Colin. It was rather basic but they were two decent clubs that kept people up to date on social media. I'd have preferred to go to Corinthian FC in Essex but thanks to Colin's brain-dead arsehole of a boss, this was no longer possible. He used to finish at 3, which would give us a fighting chance. But the manager had decided to keep his branch of a popular but mediocre bakery chain open until 7 PM. Why he thinks that people would want to eat a reheated sausage roll for their main evening meal is a mystery and hopefully the miserable failure that it deserves to be. As a result, Colin now had to work until 4 PM. This meant that even to get this trip done, I would need a ten-mile detour to pick him up from work as he could no longer get the bus to a convenient pickup point near me. As someone who has come with me regularly for a while, I didn't want to let him down, despite the inconvenience to me.
I was in for disappointment with my Tuesday game. I originally opted to go for a game at Westmill in the Herts Senior League. This was not even in the top division, so the fixture was not on Futbology. However, with them already promised from Division 1, I would almost certainly need to visit them to complete the Premier Division, something I was aiming to do next season. and in the future, every club in the Hertfordshire League. I'd been to some nice places, some decent clubs and seen some decent games. My only reservation was that the administration was sometimes a bit slipshod with me being bitten by the FA full-time not being updated with postponements and venue changes. With neither club being especially active on Twitter, no backups and disappointing takeaway options nearby, I decided against it. Work on Monday was a slog and it gave me plenty of time to think. In the end, I decided to go to Hayes & Hillingdon v Larkspur Rovers and did all the research concerning the journey and host club history. This turned out to be a waste of time (at least for now) as Larkspur Rovers pulled out of a game for the second week in succession. I'll cover this more in a later blog but it was disappointing, with the lack of games, I decided to spend the night in.
Since my last blog on Saturday, it had been a seamless journey home from Wiltshire and I'd enjoyed a nice Ukrainian cherry beer randomly purchased from Londis in Basingstoke. I was home by 9 and it was pretty uneventful from there. It was an easier Sunday than usual but a harder Monday. After the disappointing news on Monday evening, it was an irritatingly rainy start to my day off on Tuesday but I eventually got my walk down Wycombe and got all that I needed plus more. I considered going to Slough Town JFC in the evening, as they were an excellent club on Twitter and were playing at Slough's main ground. In the end though with a later kickoff and an early start, I decided to stay in. Both accounts concerning my original choice of game were saying nothing but Westmill won 4-2. For me, it was an early night although I still felt drowsy the next morning. It was a harder day than expected at work and I finished at 1.30. I had a rest at home for a couple of hours before heading out at 3.50. It was a horrible journey, firstly battling through the Amersham traffic with me picking Colin up at 4.15. He was asleep before we got out of Amersham. I stopped for petrol on the way to Anwar, we eventually got away at 5.15. It was a slow journey down small roads. With parking tight near the ground, we were there at 6.20. I grabbed some pictures but soon it was time for kickoff.
Adderbury Park were in 4th place and could finish as high as 2nd if they won their games in hand. Of the matches that had actually been played, they had not won in three league games, the last a 2-1 defeat to Halse United. Launton were travelling 15 miles to today's game. The clash at their place saw them forfeit the match despite being the hosts. It was the second match of the season that they had not been able or willing to play and last Wednesday saw Brill United pull the same trick on them. When they played, they'd not won in eight but had confirmed safety recently. Their last game was an entertaining 4-4 draw against Summertown Stars. Adderbury Park had already come close a couple of times before they took the lead on 12 minutes. A good ball and a low shot from ten yards. It was 2-0 from a similar move on 15 minutes. The game was pretty much wrapped up on 20 minutes, an excellent goal by #10 from wide on the right that flew in the top corner. Launton pulled one back on 40 minutes, seizing on a defensive error and slotting past the stranded keeper. They nearly had another back on 52 minutes but the looping header was ruled out for offside. On the hour, Launton were presented with a golden chance but it was blasted over from just inside the area. They finally had a goal back on 73 minutes, a beautiful strike by #19 that flew in the top corner. No sooner than hopes of a sensational comeback been realised, they were extinguished on the break, a low shot from the edge of the area made it 4-2. But a crazy game was pegged back to 4-3 on 76 minutes, a scrambled goal after a less-than-convincing goalkeeping performance. On 79 minutes, it was 5-3, a low shot from just inside the area after Launton failed to clear their lines. Slack defending and a low shot allowed Launton to make it 5-4 with a few minutes to go.
The goalscorers were given as follows. Joe Thornton (2), Dee Livous, Jack Welch and Jimmy Hunt with AP's goals. For Launton: C Bateman x2, D Savin & M Dann. It had been an excellent game, even if the quality was variable at times. In the second half, Launton could have won it but they'd been outclassed in the first half. It was a far better journey on the way home, albeit via the same small roads. I was back at Anwar's by 9.10 and Colin's by 9.40. It was nice to get some respite from his constant talking and I was home 15 minutes later. I got my blog done before I went to sleep and had also been hoping to transfer to a new mobile network. However, when I inserted my Spusu sim there was no service whatsoever. I decided to cut my losses and put my old sim back in for now.
THE GROUND
THE LUCY PLACKETT PLAYING FIELD is a basic but pleasant venue. Parking is tight and the narrow streets are not the best for street parking. It's also out of the way but decent for public transport, albeit irregular. Other than that, it's very pleasant. A clubhouse does basic drinks and snacks and has lots of club photos. The scenery is lovely and it was a very relaxing place to watch a game after a long journey.
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