Ashridge Park Women - Cantley Park

Ashridge Park WFC

Cantley Park

Twyford Road

Wokingham 

Berkshire

RG40 5QG

Official Website

Twitter

Ground Number: 1472

Sunday 7th September 2025

Ashridge Park 10-0 Highworth Town
Women's FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round

ASHRIDGE PARK WFC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was formed in as a youth side in 1991 following a discussion at a family BBQ by Peter Edwards as Chairman, David Lindsay as Treasurer and Ian Neilson as Club Secretary. They quickly expanded to several teams, playing out of St Crispins School in Wokingham. The Club went on a number of tours from 1995 onwards, the first was a trip to Germany, playing on some sort of chalk pitches. Ashridge Park represented Wokingham vs. our twin town, Erfstadt. In future years, there were to be trips to Bournemouth for tournaments, and we also represented Wokingham in a Twinning Tournament held in France, in which they won all of their games. The Trophy is on display to this day at the Town Hall. In 1999, a men's team was added, playing in the Bracknell Sunday League. In 2007, the club earned FA Chartered status and seven years later, FA Charter Community Status, the highest level for a grassroots football club. Today, they have 25 junior teams and three adult teams. The women's team that I was going to see joined the Thames Valley Women's League Division 1 in 2023, which is at the 7th level of women's football in England. They have finished 3rd and 5th so far.

MY VISIT

A few weeks ago, I was looking through the FA Women's Cup fixtures, having enjoyed the opportunity to visit Prudhoe Town and Barton United in the early rounds in the last couple of seasons. It was a good opportunity to see teams and grounds that are not often used in the men's game. In this case, it was more of an opportunity to visit the ground that Wargrave were using in the Thames Valley Premier League. They had previously used one near Twyford, which had to have dog mess cleared off of the pitch mid-game when I visited. Disappointing that they can't play in their own village, which looked like a nice place. It leaves me with just Burghfield to complete that league. For my research, the Ashridge Park website was well presented and had some useful information.

From our visit to Eccleshall, it was a decent journey home. I was pleased that Wycombe had beaten Mansfield Town 2-0 at home, but had no regrets about going elsewhere. The first hour of the journey saw us listening to BBC Three Counties and their happy summation of the Chairboys' afternoon. A contrast to the trepidation of the pre-match preview. The second hour was the second half of England beating Andorra 2-0, which produced the usual comments; people were surprised that the small nation made life difficult. I dropped Colin off at 7.30 and made my way home. Blogs up, YouTube watched and two pints of cider and two shots of rum. Time ran away with itself, and it was the usual Saturday evening lament about Sunday morning coming far too quickly.

I woke just before my alarm after four and a half hours' sleep. I was slightly drowsy, but I was always going to put my own enjoyment over the whims of some corporate overlord. It was a fairly good day at work; the first 4.5 hours were customer-free, and I was able to wear my earbuds. As the day wore on, however, it became increasingly busy and more like a creche, with families enjoying a day out. I had a nice lunch of pulled pork before leaving at 1. It was a reasonable journey across, albeit cross-country. There was quite a decent crowd, including a few dogs. Hunter was a lovely, friendly boy who lapped up attention from players and supporters alike. There were around 70 in attendance, including a few hoppers and some friendly people from both teams.

No league games had been played yet, but last season, Ashridge Park finished 5th in the Thames Valley Women's League. In the Women's FA Cup, they were given a home walkover against Banbury United before a 5-2 defeat at Newport Pagnell Town in the 2nd Qualifying Round. Highworth Town had not entered last season but they played in the Wiltshire Senior League Ladies Premier. This sat at the same level as Ashridge Park and finished 3rd last season. The hosts were well on top and they took the lead on ten minutes when Lauren Broadhurst blasted home at the back post. The lead was doubled two minutes later with a low shot again by Broadhurst. It was all one-way traffic, but it wasn't until 32 minutes that the hosts made it 3-0 with a low shot by Megan Lawrence. It was 4-0 after 39 minutes, a ball wide on the right was put home by Georgia Boonham. It was 5-0 on the hour, a well-worked move saw Broadhurst finish with a low shot for her hat-trick. It was 6-0 with an own goal on 65 minutes; the Highworth defender initially blocked the shot but hooked the ball back over the line with her leg. The seventh came a couple of minutes later, after a goalkeeper parry was followed up, again by Broadhurst. The eighth was poked over right on the line from Broadhurst. The ninth was a good shot from just inside the area by Ellie Messitt. The tenth was from a similar range past the stranded keeper, Messitt, with her second.

 

THE GROUND

CANTLEY PARK is a fairly basic 3G cage which at least has a decent-sized viewing area on each side, albeit the far side was locked up. There is no access behind the goals, though. There is no cover either, although it does have floodlights. The facilities are on a raised bank, with the main food being served being paninis and toasties, which looked tasty. Snacks, soft and hot drinks were also on sale. The ground is a bit isolated, but it does have plenty of parking. It's used for lots of other sports too, though there is talk of the Berks & Bucks FA taking over the site.