football rambles

Tomorrow Cambridge United take on Eastbourne Borough and the early season form has been a bit contrary to how most people expected it to be. Cambridge are at the moment, although it's still early days near the bottom of the Conference and Eastbourne who were expected to struggle have got off to a good start. Eastbourne were formed as late as 1964, so it's probably good to look at their badge rather than their rather short history. The Eastbourne Borough badge might look like a sandcastle but it actually represents a Martello Tower. The Martello Towers are fortifications that were built along the South Coast to repel Napoleon in the 19th Century. Eatbourne Borough were formed as Langney FC in 1964 and changed their name to Langney Sports four years later. The Martello tower in the badge is the one situated at Langney Point. The club didn't have a badge until the 1970s and the Martello Tower was chosen ahead of The Priory, mainly because it was easier to draw. The three waves

This doesn't really refer to the match between Ely City and Stanway Rovers on Saturday, but my own state of mind. I'd been up since Thursday night and travelled back from Dalyan to Ely on the morning of the match. I think that most people were surprised that I had made it back in time for the game. Anyway, the first half offered a lot of niggly tackles, but didn't offer much in the way of goal mouth action. Ely did break the deadlock just before half time though when either Simon Warren or Grant Robbins put the Robins ahead. I say either as Simon Warren had a shot that seemed to spill on to the goal line and Grant Robbins seemed to put it over the line. Most of the debate at half time seemed to think that it was Warren's goal, but the referee gave it to Robbins, however it said that Warren scored the goal in the Cambridge News, so I guess we will never know who really got the goal. There was no doubt about who got the second goal for Ely though as Robbie Mason powered t

The final part in the badges of the clubs taking part in the Eastern Counties Premier Division 2010-2011. Wisbech Town Wivenhoe Town Woodbridge Town Wroxham

The final part in who's who in the Eastern Counties League 2010-2011 Wisbech Town Colours: All red Nickname: The Fenmen Year formed: 1920 Ground: The Tom Wood Fenland Stadium Lynn Road Wisbech Cambs PE14 7AN ( This is the official stadium of Wisbech Town. However, they have been playing at the Nest, Outwell, Cambridgeshire for the last two seasons and I think that they will continue there this season. Wivenhoe Town Colours: Blue shirts with white sleeves / white shorts Nickname: The Dragons Year formed: 1925 Ground: Broad Lane Ground Elmstead Road Wivenhoe Essex CO7 7HA Woodbridge Town Colours: Black and white striped shirts / white shorts Nickname: The woodpeckers Year formed: 1885 Ground: Notcutts Park Fynn Road Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 4DA Wroxham Colours: Blue and white striped shirts / white shorts Nickname: The Yachtsmen Year formed: 1892 Ground: Trafford Park Skinners Lane Wroxham Norfolk NR12 8SJ

Part 3 to go with the focus on teams in the Eastern Counties Premier League 2010-2011 Mildenhall Town Newmarket Town Norwich United Stanway Rovers Walsham-le-Willows

Mildenhall Town Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Hall Year formed: 1898 Ground: Recreation Way Mildenhall Suffolk IP28 7HG Newmarket Town Colours: Yellow and blue striped shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Jockeys Year formed: 1877 Ground: Sherbourn Stadium Town Ground Cricket Field Road Off New Cheveley Road Newmarket Suffolk CB8 8BT Norwich United Colours: Yellow shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Planters Year formed: 1903 Ground: Plantation Park Blofield Norwich Norfolk NR13 4PL Stanway Rovers Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: Rovers Year formed: 1956 Ground: Hawthorns New Farm Road Stanway Colchester Essex CO3 0PG Walsham-le-willows Colours: All blue Nickname: The willows Year formed: 1890 Ground: Walsham Sports Club Ground Summer Road Walsham-le-Willows Suffolk IP31 3AH

Here are the badges for the teams featured in the second part of the review of clubs in the Eastern Counties Premier League for this season. Great Yarmouth Town Hadleigh United Haverhill Rovers Histon Reserves Kirkley and Pakefield Leiston

Great Yarmouth Town Colours: Yellow and black striped shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Bloaters Year formed: 1897 Ground: The Wellesley Sandown Road Great Yarmouth Norfolk NR30 1EY Hadleigh United Colours: White shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Brettsiders Year formed: 1892 Ground: Millfield Tinkers Lane Off Duke Street Hadleigh Suffolk IP7 5NG Haverhill Rovers Colours: All Red Nickname: Rovers Year formed: 1886 Ground: The New Croft Chalkstone Way Haverhill Suffolk CB9 0LD Histon Reserves Colours: Red and black striped shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Stutes Year formed: 1904 Ground: The Glassworld Stadium Bridge Road Impington Cambridge CB4 9PH Kirkley and Pakefield Colours: Blue and Red striped shirts / blue shorts Nickname: The Royals Year formed: 1886 Ground: Kirkley & Pakefield Community Sports & Social Club Walmer Road Lowestoft Suffolk Leiston Colours: Blue shirts / white shorts Nickname: Blues Year formed: 1880 Ground: LTAA Victory Road

Brantham Athletic CRC CRC are a feeder club for Cambridge United and use the same badge Debenham LC Dereham Town Ely City Felixstowe and Walton United FC Clacton

Part one of a look at the teams competing in the Ridgeon's Premier for the 2010-2011 season. Brantham Athletic Colours: All blue Nickname: Brams Year formed: 1887 Ground: Brantham Leisure Centre New Village Brantham Near Manningtree Essex CO11 1RZ CRC (Cambridge Regional College) Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: None Year formed: 2006 Ground: R Costings Abbey Stadium Newmarket Road Cambridge CB5 8LN Debenham LC Colours: Yellow shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Hornets Year formed: 1991 Ground: Debenham Leisure Centre Gracechurch Street Debenham Stowmarket Suffolk IP14 6BL Dereham Town Colours: Black and white striped shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Magpies Year formed: 1884 Ground: Aldiss Park Norwich Road Dereham Norfolk NR20 3AL Ely City Colours: All Red Nickname: The Robins Year formed: 1885 Ground: The Unwin Ground Downham Road Ely Cambs. Felixstowe and Walton United Colours: Red and white striped shirts / black shorts Nickname: The Seas

Last night Ely took on Histon reserves in a game that was always going to be hard to predict. Mor often than not Histon put out a strong team against Ely, as it being a local game it invaribly goes ahead on Tuesday night. But things have changed dramatically at Histon and the old chairman of Histon, who was at the game last night, must be wondering where it all went wrong. Not that the future is that rosy at Ely either, but at least the team are playing well and they came into this game off a 2-0 win away at Harwich and Histon had gone down 6-1 at Dereham. That said I wasn't that optimistic, as my last day had started with me hearing that O'Neill had quit Villa and then progressed to various authors and freelancers throwing huge spanners in the works just before I went on holiday. Anyway, I didn't need to worry. The Histon team looked good enough, but very young, judging by the look of them they were probably having to stay up past their bed time. Ely had an effective enoug

Peterborough get the second half underway. Peterborough attack. Aaron McLean (number 9) tries to recover from his celebration which made it 2-0. He and George Boyd (number 10) celebrated that one for a few minutes!

Yesterday saw the start of the season for the league excluding the Premier league and step 5 and 6 of non-league football. Ely were away, so I went to London Road to see Peterborough take on Bristol Rovers. Last season was a bit of a nightmare for Peterborough with a managerial merry go round and relegation from the Championship looking almost certain as early as Christmas. Posh were relegated back to League 1, but they have managed to keep star players George Boyd and Aaron McLean and added some signings that make the club look stronger than when they played in the Championship. Also with Gary Johnson taking over as the manager they have a very experienced and able leader. That said, it was hard to predict before kick off what the score would be with Bristol Rovers being one of the dark horses of the division. From the start it looked like Bristol Rovers were going to try and contain Peterborough and hit them on the break. The first 20 minutes was quite a turgid affair, but after that

What holiday would be complete without a mixtape. Here's mine. Only two working days to go. Spiritualized – Soul On Fire Primal Scream – Don't Fight It, Feel It New Fast Automatic Daffodils – You Were Lying When You Said You Loved Me Tokyo Police Club – Your English Is Good John Dahlbäck – Mutants Mixtapes The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds The Rakes – That's The Reason Cud – Robinson Crusoe Red Snapper – Dnipro The Telescopes – The Sleepwalk Mexican Institute Of Sound – Cumbia Slowdive – 40 Days The Dilettantes – Ready To Go Film School – Sick Of The Shame Trentemøller – The Mash And The Fury Lindstrøm – Fast & Delirious Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed Johnny Foreigner – Criminals The Lea Shores – Brand New Day The House Of Love – I Don't Know Why I Love You The Blue Aeroplanes – Jacket Hangs Crispy Ambulance – Deaf Happy Mondays – Oasis The Fall – Theme From Sparta F.C. Pavement – Gold Soundz Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea The Leg

When you think of quartered shirts you usually think of Rugby. However, a lot of football clubs also had quartered shirts in the nineteenth century. Strangely though the club that most famously wear this pattern in England, Bristol Rovers, didn't start wearing their distinctive blue and white quarters until 1931. Bristol Rovers started off life as the Black Arabs in 1883 and wore a black shirt with a gold sash. In 1893 the Black Arabs became Eastville Rovers and wore white with black shorts and later a sort of dirty green and yellow halved shirt. In 1897 they became known as Bristol Eastville Rovers and one year later became simply Bristol Rovers. From 1897 to 1900 the club wore blue and white hoops. Bristol Rovers alternated between kits of black and white stripes and blue and white hoops during the first 31 years of the 20th Century and then in 1931 they introduced the blue and white quarters for the first time. The shirt design became that iconic that Bristol Rovers didn't b

Last night Ely took on Soham Town Rangers for the Doug Unwin memorial trophy and what a performance for the Robins it was. They have looked quite impressive in preseason, but this game was the iceing on the cake. Ely started with what is expected to be the starting line up for Saturday's opening game in The Eastern Counties and the only surprise was perhaps that Robbie Mason didn't start and there wasn't a place for Tony Beck, who has also looked pretty sharp in preseason so far. Simon Warren who had missed the previous preseason games that I had been to did start and made an impact early on by heading the Robins ahead on 3 minutes. In fact it was all Ely from start to finish and on 25 minutes Chadwick playing in only his second game of preseason doubled the score. Ely could have finished the game by half time, but it was only 2-0, which set up what might have been a tense second half with Ely's propensity in the past to mess up in defence and Lightning's tendency t

Yesterday saw Ely City take on Stowmarket in another friendly, in what was the fifth game I went to in July. It was the third Ely game and ended in a draw, meaning in July I saw the Robins win one, draw one and lose one. Stowmarket weren't exactly brilliant opposition and when Grant Robbins scored in the opening couple of minutes, it looked like Ely might be in for a big victory. However, things didn't work out like that and on the half hour mark a bad offside call by Lee Dixon let Stowmarket equalise. However, their parity was short lived with Nick Impey making it 2-1 to Ely just before half time. It looked like Ely might be able to extend their lead in the second half, as Stowmarket didn't seem too clever a team, but unfortunately it was Stowmarket who equalised. The introduction of Robbie Mason gave Ely a fresh impetus, but he didn't seem to be comfortable playing with Andy Petit and the game finished 2-2 in what was the poorest of the preseason perforrmances I have