Wednesday 9 November 2011

My First Match Report: Havant & Leigh Park v Bridermere

My first match report, aged 7.
At the end of the Havant & Waterlooville v Farnborough article, I mentioned that I'd post my first-ever match report. So, here it is...

It was titled "My Weekend" and was illustrated with an aerial view of a motorbike scrambling circuit in the woods:

On Saturday I went with my dad a football match. Havant and Leigh Park were playing Bridermere. Havant and Leigh Park won 1-0, and yesterday we went to some motor cycle scrambling south of Petersfield. We ate an ice-cream while we were watching.

Front Lawn, Leigh Park, last week.
As you can see, my match reports haven't really improved since the age of seven - well, at least the teacher thought this one was 'Good'. My writing was certainly neater than it is now. (As an aside, elsewhere in this old school book was a piece on New Year's resolutions: my mum's resolution was to diet and lose four or five pounds; same for dad - me and my sister had to watch out for him nibbling cakes; my own was to save up my money so that I would have £8*, and to bite my fingernails less; Peter Shilton's was to "try not to come face to face with Peter Lorimer when he is just going to take a free kick").

The real mystery in the report is the team that Havant & Leigh Park were playing - Bridermere. I can find no trace of them at all. A Google search brings up zero results and asks me if I really meant to type Windermere (no, I didn't! My spelling's not that bad!). They were either so unmemorable that no-one has ever bothered to record their name on the internet before, or - more likely - I may have spelt Bridermere phonetically, having not seen it written down (even at the age of seven, I could see a written word and remember the spelling immediately). Possibly a team from Meon? Any guesses or more solid information gratefully received!

Havant & Leigh Park themselves were the forerunners of Havant Town and played at Front Lawn, not far from where my family lived. There was a match being played there before the Hawks v Farnborough game last week between a team playing in black and yellow halves and a team in white shirts and blue shorts. I wish I'd asked the spectators who they were! Could one of them have been the mysterious Bridermere?

*Never have managed to do that!

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