Saturday 16th March 2024

Spelthorne Sports Club, Ashford TW15 1RY

Spelthorne Sports v. Tooting & Mitcham United

For what seems like the first time in 2024, the sky is not a dull shade of grey and there's a strange orangey coloured thing creating warmth. So, after my two previous attempts to visit Spelthorne this season were both P-P, I am pleased to be ticking off ground 17 of the 18 clubs currently playing in the Combined Counties League South.

Another nice surprise is South Western Railways are running a full train service so I have the luxury option of two trains every hour.

There are nearer stations to Spelthorne Sports Club (Upper Halliford and Sunbury) than my chosen destination of Ashford but they involve going in and out of Clapham Junction but I CBA to do that today.

Google has station to ground as 43 minutes, but today I'm not trying to break any records so it's a leisurely stroll with a Costa stop and it's pretty much two miles walking so my reward is a bacon roll.

Ground is on the dual carriageway A308, overlooked by the Water Treatment Works so a few flies hanging around on the dug out side of the pitch.

Lovely big clubhouse by the carpark/ground entrance which also caters for the cricket club and other sports facilities on site.

An undulating grass pitch with small fence and path around. Two stands each seating around 50-100, one near the changing room end and one at the side, plus a small covered terrace backing onto the A308.

The teams placed 17th and 10th at start of play suggesting an away victory could be in the cards. 

The home side had the better of the first half, leading 1-0 at the break. I counted four balls over onto the dual carriageway - no accidents and all retrieved safely.

In a fairly even second half, the visitors pushed hard but no real clear-cut opportunity despite a succession of corners. The Spelly holding on for the win.

Quick shout out to Tall Paul. Good to say hello at half time, Paul had very kindly been keeping me up to date with weather conditions on my 3 attempts at attending Spelthorne home match , I made it in the end! Good luck to you and to both teams for the rest of the season.

[FInal Score: Sports 1TMU 0]