St Margaretsbury - The Recreation Ground

St Margaretsbury FC

The Recreation Ground
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Stanstead Abbots
Hertfordshire
SG12 8EH

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Ground Number: 385
Tuesday 22nd July 2014
St Margaretsbury 3-1 Cheshunt
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ST MARGARETSBURY - A BRIEF HISTORY

St Margaretsbury FC were formed in 1894 as Stanstead Abbots (the name of the village in which the club is located), changing their name to their present monicker in 1962. They joined the East Herts League, later transferring to the Hertford & District League. In 1921 the club entered the North & East Division of the Hertfordshire Senior County League. In 1923 the league was reduced to a single division, and in 1925 it was disbanded. The club then returned to the district leagues, including the Waltham & District League, before rejoining the Hertfordshire Senior County League in 1947, becoming members of Division 2 which they won in 1949. Up until 1970, they remained in Division 1 but that year, a runners-up spot was good enough for promotion to the Premier Division.  The next 22 years were spent alternating between the top two divisions with their best finish of 4th coming in 1987. In 1991, the club was admitted to the Spartan League with St Margaretsbury being crowned Premier Division champions in 1996, their highest finish to date. In 1997, the league merged with the South Midlands League to become the Spartan South Midlands League. The club remained there until 2018, their best finish of 3rd coming in 2004. From 2018 until 2022 they played in the Essex Senior League but were relegated in 2022. They've played in the Eastern Counties Division 1 South ever since.

St Margaretsbury have had two runs to the FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round, losing 3-0 to Stafford Rangers in 2001 and 2-0 at Kettering Town in 2003. The first game attracted their record crowd of 450. They also reached the 3rd Round of the FA Vase in 1986 and 2017. In terms of local cups, the club won the Herts Senior Centenary Trophy in 1993 and the Herts Charity Shield in 1998. Stanstead Abbotts is a village in East Hertfordshire with a population of just under 2,000. The manor of Stanstead Abbotts was granted to Anne Boleyn and remained with the crown after her execution. In 1559 Queen Elizabeth granted it to Edward Baeshe and it remained in the Bashe family for several generations.

MY ST MARGARETSBURY VISIT

My pre-season was continuing apace, as I was well into double figures, less than 20 days since the start of my season at Lincoln. The Spartan South Midlands League was one that I was getting close to completing and with the weather being hot and the game being pretty local, it seemed like a good choice. I spent the day relaxing at home as it was my day off. I had plenty of time to spare but didn't feel like doing anything, but I did at least make a start on tonight's blog before I left home at 5pm. After getting to Anwar's at 5.30, we were on our way. Even with a 20-minute delay on the severely flawed M25, we were still there at 6.45, a full hour before kick-off. The gates weren't even open, so we waited outside in the sun until they did. Eventually, the gate opened just after 7.15 and we were given a friendly welcome after paying our £5 entry. Sadly there were no programmes though, so I started making one on my iPad as I have started to do with all games that don't issue. After that, I checked Facebook and took a seat in the stand for kick-off.

St Margaretsbury who had finished 4th in their league the last 2 seasons in succession started brightly against their opponents who were a division above. They got their reward 10 minutes in when the home side opened the scoring with a cracking 30-yard thunderbolt that went in off the bar. They had the ball in the net again after 20 minutes, but the effort was ruled off for offside. Cheshunt had to make do with the occasional counter-attack but that didn't stop one of their fans from shouting out instructions every 5 seconds, which started to grate after a while as he was sat just behind me. In fact, there were a fair number of fans from there making a bit of noise, although it was a bit one-sided as I didn't see anyone cheering for the home side. In the end, I moved out of the stand and stood further along the grass bank. The visitors soon started to get back into it, and on the half-hour mark, they got a cracking equaliser. St Margaretsbury had a penalty claim, and I found out they did have some vocal support when a fan raised the claim with the tubby linesman. The official replied by telling him to shut up, and when heckled again, told the fan he was boring. I tried to get some chips at halftime, but they didn't have any in stock. Instead, I had some grapes that I had bought earlier while checking what games were on at the weekend. The second half was a lot more restricted in terms of chances, but St Margaretsbury did have another strong penalty claim though, which was turned down flat by the referee. As the game wore on, it looked as if my pre-match prediction of 1-1 would be correct. The linesman copped some more stick and the Cheshunt keeper made a couple of great saves late on to deny the hosts a winner. They were not to be denied, however, and right at the death, they scored two quick goals. First the number 9 rounded the keeper to give St Margaretsbury a deserved lead, and then the same player had an easy tap-in after Cheshunt failed to cut out a low cross, much to the fury of their keeper. It had been a good game and an enjoyable evening, with a deserved victory for the hosts. The only downer was getting flashed by a speed camera on the way home, on the M25. I will have my fingers crossed that nothing will come through the post in the next few weeks, as I want to keep a clean licence.

MY HERTFORD HEATH VISIT

A revisit to St Margaretsbury had been on the cards for a while. I had not been in a decade and in those days, I had not quite got my blog as it is today in terms of club history. But more importantly, fellow hopper Colin had this ground on his priority list as it got him close to completing both the Eastern Counties Division 1 and the Herts Senior County Premier. Seeing as he comes with me regularly and pays half of my car costs, I was minded to help him out. This was confirmed on Sunday evening with him paying me for petrol well in advance. This would be for a Hertford Heath game. It was a surprise to see them move from their home which I visited a couple of summers ago as it was a nice venue. The day of the game came and I had work for the first time in two weeks. I spent the afternoon catching up with various things before having dinner and leaving at 6.10. It was a decent journey, picking up Colin en route. We were there at 7.20, paying £5 to get in. The ground had barely changed since my last visit. II did visit the tea bar, having the huge 'Bury Burger' 2x 6oz patties, bacon, cheese, and onions in a brioche bun for £6. Pure greed on my part after having dinner, the diet starts tomorrow. Maybe.

Hertford Heath were going well in 3rd place. They'd lost 2-0 to Westmill in their last game but had won the previous three before that. Sandridge Rovers were down in 19th. They'd not won a league game since 7th October and had crashed 4-0 to Hatfield Town in their last game. Hertford Heath were on top but Sandridge Rovers took the lead on 22 minutes. They broke and shot tamely at the home keeper who let the ball through his arms for a soft goal. Hertford Heath equalised after 29 minutes, a shot on the turn from inside the area that ended up in the roof of the net. The Sandridge keeper produced a good save to keep his team in it on 35 minutes. It was 3-1 on the stroke of halftime, from a free kick, the keeper palmed the ball out and a player followed up from around six yards out. With around ten minutes to go, Hertford Heath sealed the win with a header from a right-sided corner. However, there was a sting in the tail as a few minutes later, Sandridge Rovers pulled one back, possibly an own goal, to make it 4-2. There was a bit of verbal between the two managers with the Hertford Heath boss especially enraged. However, his team held on to win with the game ending at 9.45. The goals were scored by Adam Baylis (3) and Mark McElligot for Hertford Heath and Emmanuel Agyeman & James Caseman for Sandridge Rovers.

THE GROUND

THE RECREATION GROUND is a pretty nice venue to watch football. The only area of cover is a combined seat and terrace stand, which probably holds around 300 in total. It is up on a bank, so you get a good view, even though there is a floodlight pylon in the way. I didn't try the tea bar or clubhouse, but both looked pretty smart, and above average for this level. 

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