LAST NIGHT

Hello folks. Thought I'd lighten the mood. Luke won two tickets to the Strokes' low key gig at London's U.L.U last night. After strapping in our borrowed Arnold Schwarzenegger voice activated satellite navigation system - we were off. And, before long in the heart of West London. No queuing up for theses boys - no sir! We strolled to the front, stated our name, got our gold wristbands and hey presto! Once in, we noticed certain luminaries in our close vicinity, there was: Simon Le Bon and John Taylor from Duran Duran (accompanied by former squeeze Amanda De Cadenet - remember The Word, pre Dani Behr), Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, Kelly Jones from Stereophonics (a midget, not as tall as Lee Fielder), Jarvis Cocker, the two from the Mighty Boosh, and as Kev will be pleased to know: Dean Learner from Darkplace. Not to mention Chris Morris (remember The Day Today & 'Jam? He had to keep a low profile after that spoof paedophile episode; I wanted to say I tried to get my Mum too stop buying the Daily Mail after all that, by refrained). But my favourite sighting was my number one tv presenter: Sarah Cawood - get in there. As the band came on stage around ten o'clock, Luke and I noticed we were standing among the critics - busily scribbling on notepads, and Steve Lamacq - undeniably pencil thin. Other than that, I saw Sean Hughes get punched in the face while he was minding his own business talking, and some woman was hounding Luke, asking him what band he was in. Ripper!

Burridge AFC 3-5 Malvern

Saturday 26th November 2005
Venue: Burridge

Winter sunk its teeth into the afternoon in more ways than one as Saturday's cold mud was exposed to a topsy-turvy first forty-five minutes.
Wide grins, and imminent Colgate sponsorship became a distinct possibility as Lee Wood made it 1-0 and Kristian Hewitt 2-0 from the penalty spot. Then, all hell broke loose, as Burridge, pinned back in their area, succumbed to three goals, after Luke Sanderson's drilled half volley was tipped over and Kristian Hewitt's solo dribble tickled wide.

If the first half was judged in terms of films, then it was Chuck Norris going ape shit indiscriminately with an AK in Vietnam. The second half however, would have been slow moving with an unfeasible ending that bared no relation to its past. With five minutes on the ticker, Lee Wood headed the leveler, then, Burridge's stickmaster Hopkins went to gather a miss hit high ball which ended in tragedy. He dropped it. Malvern went berserk. A fifth goal followed as Burridge surged forward, and stand in centre back Mark Sanderson had his pass intercepted . Fiddlesticks!

4-4-2 Dave Hopkins, Jay Schwodler, Ben Wilson (Steve Froud), Paul Dyke, Luke Sanderson, Ross Bryant (Mark Reeves), Mark Sanderson, Rich Allan, Kristian Hewitt (Paul Andrews), Bryn Schwodler, Lee Wood,
unused sub: Dean Wall

BESTIE'S CAREER

BESTIE FACTFILE

1946: Born May 22 in Belfast
1963: Makes debut for Man Utd
1964: Northern Ireland debut
1965: United win the league championship
1968: Voted English and European footballer of the year
1970: Sent off for Northern Ireland for throwing mud at ref
1972: Quits United aged 26

Born: 22 May 1946

Club and country
Manchester United Debut: 1963 361 apps; 136 goals
Northern Ireland Debut: 1964 37 caps; 9 goals

Honours
1965: League title
1967: League title
1968: European Cup

Other clubs
Dunstable,
Stockport,
Cork Celtic,
Fulham,
LA Aztecs,
Fort Lauderdale,
Hibernian,
San Jose,
Bournemouth,
Brisbane Lions

More pictures of 'Gorgeous George, the best thing since sliced bread,' or so my George Best LP says. Good god, if could play in any era in any league, it would be the National American Soccer League of the 1970's: Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Pele, astroturf pitches, sideburns, pom-poms and Bestie. Good bye George.

George Best

Contrary to how you may perceive him as a person; George Best was one heck of a player. At this rate, he might not see the week out. So while we muse on his wonderful talent, I remember that Colin didn't collect the subs on Saturday - or did you Colin? Anyway, enjoy the pictures. The colour shots are of George whilst he was playing in the most glamorous league in the world - The North American Soccer League, (N.A.S.L. for short), he turned out for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the L.A. Aztecs.

Wickham Dynamos 2-0 Burridge AFC

Sunday 20th November 2005
Wickham Rec

This was a game that was largely dominated by Burridge. Wickham scored in each half, when the same player scored, unchallenged after Hopkins had parried free kicks. It could have been different - Paul Andrews struck the bar from point blank range and the referee chose to award a free kick in the penalty area for obstruction, when Paul Dyke clearly appeared to be pushed. But in general, it appeared Burridge were a little short on ideas. Hopkin's day was made all the more frustrating when he was booked for dissent, after being incensed at the referee's inability to spot a clear handball that almost led to a goalscoring opportunity. It is their third defeat on the trot.

3-5-2: Dave Hopkins, Kev Willsher, Ross Bryant, Mark Sanderson, Jay Schwodler, Luke Sanderson, Paul Dyke, Rich Allan, Scott Burnet, Paul Andrews, Bryn Schwodler

Spartans 1 - 1 Burridge AFC

Spartans 1-1 Burridge AFC
Saturday 19th November
Venue: Green Park

The dark grip of last week's defeat was eclipsed at Green Park. Spartans were hurried, chased and kicked - as Burridge foraged for points with the desperation of disorganized squirrel at Autumn time. What may have appeared as corner practice for Spartans almost led to a Burridge goal. Ross Bryant took the ball deep into enemy territory, sending Bryn Schwodler clean through, but his control was heavy, much to the relief of the goalkeeper.

The second half almost became overshadowed by a tale of two hand balls. Bryn Schwodler was adjudged to have handled before rifling home from the edge of the box (he later blasted over from six yards from Lee Wood's head down), then with minutes to go Dave Hopkin's was penalized for carrying the ball outside the area from a drop kick.

The initial victory, by delaying the taking of the kick, was made irrelevant as the ball appeared to clip the wall and bypass Hopkins into the net. Did Spartan's jubilant celebrations suggest that the show was over? Not if their goalkeeper had any say in proceedings. Not to be out done by Hopkins, he came flapping at a cross like a pissed up Ostrich. Lee Wood caught his mess, turned, and scored. Burridge's smash and grab raid was complete.

4-4-2: Dave Hopkins, Jay Schwodler, Paul Dyke, Ben Wilson, Luke Sanderson (Paul Andrews), Ross Bryant, Kristian Hewitt, Mark Sanderson (Dean Wall), Rich Allan, Lee Wood, Bryn Schwodler

Aquaseal 4-3 Burridge AFC

Sunday 13th November
Wicor Rec
Back at the familiar surroundings of Wicor Rec, Jay Schwodler was led to reflect on what had been a fairly miserable weekend. After enduring defeat the previous day at the hands of our local rivals, then discovering he'd had sixty notes pinched, he'd assumed that he'd seen out any further bad luck. But, these things tend to come in threes. After enjoying an evening of casual boozing at the Bugle alongside esteemed colleagues such as Mr Allan, Mr Willsher, Mr & Mr Sanderson and the other Mr Schwodler, (Not to mention Lee Fielder), he went out into the cold night air for a curry. So far so good. In a cab home he realized his keys were missing. No drama there, he could kip down at his old man's house - couldn't he? No, like Mary and Joseph had discovered, there was no room at the inn. Sixty quid lighter, and by this stage aware that he'd lost the cap of his tooth, giving him the look of Peter Beardsley. He trudged from West End back to Grange Park, smashing a window (the vandal) to get a decent night's kip. Only to discover that he'd left the keys at Rossy's gaff all along - what a carry on.

Anyway, I digress. The game itself was like a Richard Keys wet dream, goals a plenty. Despite the fact that two games from the same division were taking place on adjacent pitches, the referee was conspicuous in his absence, leaving Maurice Hewlett to take charge. Rich Allan tucked home his sixth of the season (putting him one behind Bryn, what's happening Brynzil? The goals are drying up), there could have been a few more, but very quickly they'd gone 2-1 down to some long range shooting. Paul Andrews finished a flowing move by walloping home the equalizer, but at half time they were 3-2 down. Again Burridge equalized, when another sweeping move was finished at the second attempt by luckless Jay Schwodler. But, it wasn't to be as Aquaeal avenged their cup defeat, by heading a winner.

3-5-2: Dave Hopkins, Mark Sanderson, Kev Willsher, Ross Bryant, Scott Burnet, Paul Dyke, Jay Schwodler, Rich Allan, Lee Fielder, Paul Andrews, Bryn Schwodler

Burridge AFC 1-3 Burridge Sports

Saturday 12th November
Titchfield Rec


What a game! End to end action. No attempts to break the substitution world record. And, late drama; but enough of the England game. Oh the misery. One-nil? Plenty of time. Two-nil? Well, we'd expect to score three anyway. Three-nil? Shellshocked. On the bright side we won the second half one-nil via Dykey's head. Then after the game, things got worse, when; the running water wasn't running, and; anyone who'd left money about their trousers had it nicked! I hope the dirty rat gets what's coming to him; at the hangman's noose! Bring it back, we'd all love to see public hanging. Hopefully the wondrous England performance will have provided everyone with some consolation after a fairly wretched day. Lastly, has anyone noticed that John Motson is struggling to cope with the excitement these days? After having an argument with himself on Michael Owen's competitive game scoring record, he appeared to reach sexual climax (in the company of Graeme Le Saux) at our winning goal.
Which brings me to his looks. Him and David Pleat could quite easily be brothers, and what with dirty Pleats mid eighties curb crawling antics, well? It's just imagery I've managed to convince myself to be true, they do bad things together.

4-4-2 Dave Hopkins, Ben Wilson, Paul Dyke, Jay Schwodler, Luke Sanderson (Paul Andrews), Ross Bryant, Rich Allan, Mark Sanderson (Mark Reeves), Bryn Schwodler, Kristian Hewitt, Lee Wood (Dean Wall)

HEAD TO HEAD

Let's have a look at the matches over the years with this week's opponents. I'll start with Sunday's opposition; Waterlooville Social Club (previously Waterlooville jubilee) who we've tussled with many times.

Actually Sunday will be our 14th meeting in five years. Here are the stats:

2000/01
October-ish of 2000
Lost 3-5 away in League
Scorers: Bryn, Lee & Scott
Anyone remember? I know the day before I'd spent getting strip searched in Bitterne Cop shop - but that's another story. I know the pitch we played on we haven't played on since. Anyone remember know? Scotty was playing like he was on steroids in our blue and white hoops against their Barcelona style number, he came charging forward to score. This was the season when it rained everyday for 90 days and nights, so because of our cup runs we only played 6 league games, never actually playing the return game!

April 2001
Lost 0-1 away in Divisional Cup
Well this was played at the burger van ground - you know the one next to the stream and railway line. All I can recall here was that their goal came via a Mr Andrews back pass. Who remembers? It was a mid weeker and I was temping at the time and decided to take a day off in order to prepare.

2001/02
October-ish 2001
Won 4-2 home in Dave Blunt Cup
Scorers: Lee 2, Jay, Kev
Oh yes. During the full pomp of the Whitfield days we put that lot to the sword at Burridge. As I recall I was going through a rather petulant stage of my career and kicked out at Ormerod - who went berserk. Result? A booking for him and nowt for me! If memory serves we wore our red whilst they began to wear yellow and red. Mind you there is bad news: in those days we were in the second tier of the Meon Valley, they the first. After several months spent patiently waiting who we'd face after aour cup scalp we noticed they were indeed still in the cup! It turned out old Whitters had made a boob with sighing players on! It was either Stu Newman or Nathan Daniels who were not fair game - and we were slung out of the cup.

2002/03
19/10/03
Lost 1-2 home in league
Scorer: Matt Whitfield
It may have mid October but it was still scorching. I'm sure you'll remember that August 2003 was mental - at least 35 Celsius everyday!And guess who was out of work at the time? You guessed it - me. Anyway I digress, yeah, all I can recall is Meon Valley lady ref, sexpot Debbie was in charge. Once again Ormerod and I got our hand bags out, the start of a long courtship.

06/04/03
Lost 0-2 away in league
Not one that springs to my mind.

2003/04
19/10/03
Drew 2-2 away in league
Scorers: Bryn, Paul Andrews
Who could forget Paul Andrews and his back heel finish? Were did it come from? Of course Rich Allan got his marching orders, as a feud still carries on today was born.

14/12/03
Lost 1-3 away in Pink Cup
Scorers: Kristian
Again not one that had much bite. I was suspended for this, but I remember Kristian's goal being a bit tasty.

April 04
Drew 2-2 home in league
Scorers: Bryn and Mark
A mid weeker at Titchfield Rec, as players make excuses to leave work before getting changed quick sharp. Bryn got a good 'un, then from our second half kick off Jay send a real beauty of athrough ball - TO THEM!
We go 2-1 up via my head, then Kev concedes last gasp penalty. After it's put away, Ormerod runs thirty yards to fgive me friendly slap accross chops - the indignity!

2004/05
November
Lost 2-4 home in league
Scorers: Paul Andrews, Kristian (p)
We were lacking in fight that day, Actually that was my last game in midfield, what an impression I must have made!

10/04/05
Lost 1-2 away in league
Scorer: Rich
Oh yes - the dress rehersal! We played okay if I recall.

24/04/05
Lost 0-2 in Cup Final at Cams Alders
It rained. Lee got sent off. Rich missed a penalty, By some distance!

01/05/05
Lost 1-2 in Cup Final at Cams Alders
Sorry Scott it was an own goal not yours!

2005/06
Drew 2-2 away in league
Scorers: Lee & Bryn
We played some decent stuff didn't we. We went down after about 20 seconds, and if it wasn't for the six seconds rule we might have won.

So
played 13
won 1
drew 3
lost 9
scored 19
conceded 30
That makes the average score about 2-1 to them, isn't about time we beat them? Scott- 9 defeats, it ain't pretty is it?

DERBY GAME THIS SATURDAY 12th

Well, you heard it from Ross (who works with the fixture secretary) that this Saturday's game is against Burridge Sports. We should have a squad of 14, as we're loosing Froudie, but have Mark Reeves and Bryn Schwodler to return. Obviously alot has improved since our 3-0 defeat so I thought I'd begin this post as means to begin the build up so that by match day we'll be chomping on the bit. In the past it has seemed to me that they've been more pumped up for the game than us, but I'm sure you'll all agree that we'll all be extremely motivated for this game.

Gems v Burridge AFC: Game called off: waterlogged

Sunday 6th November
Wicor Rec
Game called off because of warthogs on pitch

After firstly driving to the game, (Greg Baker doing so from Guildford), getting changed, then getting out onto the field of play; the ref in his infinite wisdom decided to postpone the game. Despite the fact that four other games were taking place on adjacent pitchs. Oh well.

Otterbourne 2 - 1 Burridge AFC (Aet)

Saturday 5th November

Venue: Oakwood Avenue

Hampshire Intermediate Cup Round Two


Burridge produced a morale boosting performance, as they lost only after extra time against Wessex League opponents. Somewhat confused at Otterbourne's rather complicated and exhausting warm up routine, they preferred to take the leisurely approach by chatting about last night at the pub, or in Dean's case - rolling fags. Initially it seemed as though Burridge were quite perturbed at the prospect of chasing their opposing numbers for the entirety of an afternoon; but as the game progressed they managed to remain in the contest, despite going a goal down.

Although Otterbourne were sharper in their all round passing play (maybe the warm up is a beneficial factor), Burridge still managed to eek out a few scoring opportunities of their own (then again perhaps not). As in typical Burridge style, they began to play according to the opposition, in this case raising their game. Otterbourne may well have thought that the game should have been over, as their attacks were denied by some heroic defending. But in spite of this Burridge found an equalizer. Ross Bryant found Mark Sanderson on the right flank, whose cross was met by the head of Lee Wood; his downward header was glanced away by the keeper, but only onto the inside of the post, and Paul Andrews - fresh off the bench - wellied into an empty net, silencing the hordes of Otterbourne faithful.

Normally the shrilled whistle of the referee after ninety minutes would have signaled a well earned point for Burridge. But, this is cup football, and they had another thirty minutes to play with the possibility of a penalty shoot - which for people of a certain age instantly brings back painful memories of Italia '90 - still to contend with. The level of commitment did not falter, but inevitably Burridge's collective twenty-two legs began to tire. Otterbourne's winning goal came during the first period of extra time, via a well executed chip. However, Burridge can only draw positives from this game, can they sustain such workmanlike performances?

4-4-2: Dave Hopkins, Jay Schwodler, Ben Wilson, Paul Dyke, Luke Sanderson, Steve Froud (Dean Wall), Rich Allan, Mark Sanderson, Ross Bryant, Kristian Hewitt (Paul Andrews), Lee Wood