A trip to the GER ground


Last night I made my first trip to March Town United's GER Ground. Pictured above is their stand with a couple of players. I took my camera but the light was so bad I had to make do with grabbing this one.

The ground was opened in 1923 and is certainly showing its age, although for someone who has visited numerous lower division East European grounds it held a certain amount of charm and the locals were friendly enough, although not that numerous and there seemed to be more people from Ely there.

The stand was wooden and a bit worm eaten and obviously posed a bit of a fire hazard as there were signs advising against smoking within 40 feet of it. Sitting in the stand for a night game was a bit of a weird experience too, as the lighting in the stand seemed to be stronger than the amp-age of the floodlights, which gave you the feeling that you were watching the game on TV in the dark apart from in reverse.

The facilities were also lacking for fans there was a little kiosk selling tea, chocolate and badges, but no club house, which I thought was compulsory at this level. However in the past they had been able to use the social club over the road, but something happened and now they aren't, so that was your lot, but with a threadbare crowd it didn't really matter. There was also only one toilet (women's) and the Ely players may have felt aggrieved that they got locked out of the dressing room at half-time and had to sit it out on the pitch. They did have a turnstile but I think that we were a bit early and instead a guy came round asking for our £4s and giving out the free programmes. So although I have heard several moans about the GER from ground hoppers and er... Gorleston fans, you have to remember it might be a bit rough and ready and have seen better days, but how many Eastern Counties League clubs charge £4 in and throw in a programme?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

shirt history AS Roma

Image
Roma were the club that I followed in Italy and although they are most famous for wearing red and yellow, hence the nickname giallo rosso the club didn't always wear those colours. AS Roma were formed in 1927 by a merger between SS Alba-Audace and Fortitudo-Pro Roma SGS with Italo Foschi being the driving force behind the merger. AS Roma could also trace their lineage back to FBC Roma who were formed in 1901 and who wore red and yellow, but the first shirts they wore took the red, white and blue of Fortitudo-Pro Roma. Roma soon established themselves at the top table of Italian football and in 1931 finished runners up to Juventus and by now had settled on red and yellow as their colours. However, you'll have to take my word for it because the picture below shows Attilio Ferraris in black and white. In 1942 Roma went one better and won their first Scudetto with Amadeo Amadei scoring 18 goals to help them secure the title. Pictured below he is wearing the change shirt with a repl
Read more

Boca Juniors shirt history

Image
The first game that I will be at on Sunday sees Boca Juniors take on Paris Saint Germain. I have always wanted to go and see Boca Juniors and I can't see me getting over to Argentina any time in the near future, so I am going to have to make do with seeing them in North London. On my travels I have met plenty of Boca fans, but funnily enough they have all been Russian or Ukrainian. I am a bit disappointed that Martin Palermo has now retired, but I am still looking forward to it. Obviously to do justice to the club history of Boca Juniors I'd probably have to write a book, so here's a quick history of their kit and colours instead. When Boca were formed in 1905 they originally played in pink, but obviously came round to thinking that this was a bad idea and changed to a light blue colour later in the year. They didn't stick with this shirt for very long either and for the 3rd time in a year decided to change the shirt colour, this time to black and white stripes. The fol
Read more

Sud Tribune, Dortmund

Image
The Sud Tribune at Westfalen is famed for the noise and support that it gives the BVB team. They started up early and carried on until well after the match had finished despite the poor result. At the end the team looked suitably disappointed when they thanked the fans. Nobody apart from the Hannover fans probably expected 96 to win. Hopefully better times for the Sud Tribune are just around the corner.
Read more