2011 - A VISIT TO GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN

The last non-league games were played midway through March so it's now been over three months with no live local football to watch - We are all missing the game we love but with some team returning to training (with the appropriate social distancing conditions) maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel for a return in maybe September or October - Let's hope so! 

To bring you some football I thought I'd delve into TheColdEnd archives so firstly from 2011 when I visited The Wellesley Ground which is the delightful home of Great Yarmouth Town.   

I've always been a big fan of the Great British seaside and the Norfolk town is certainly one which typifies this phrase. Two piers, 'The Golden Mile' seafront filled with thousands of arcade machines, fish and chip shops and places to eat along with donkey rides on the beach! 

The main stand at The Wellesley is the oldest football Grandstand still in existence and use today. It was opened in June 1892 and is a real piece of footballing heritage and history. It's most definitely one of my favourite places to watch football.  

The Bloaters, as they are nicknamed, entertained Hadleigh United with both teams struggling for form in the Premier Division of then Ridgeons sponsored Eastern Counties League. Going into the game the home side had only won one game of their sixteen league and cup games losing their last two games 2-8 and 0-5. They were in bottom place by virtue of goal difference below Wivenhoe Town.

The visitors from Suffolk were five places above with six wins in seventeen league and cup games. One of the six was an opening day victory over Great Yarmouth Town at Millfield. They had also played Ryman Division One (North) Heybridge Swifts in the FA Cup losing 1-4 at their home ground.

The game, played in front of 59 spectators was a somewhat scrappy (the wind blowing across the pitch didn't help!!) but entertaining affair with all the highlights below


FINAL SCORE
GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN 1 
(Adam Mills PK) 

HADLEIGH UNITED 3 
(Stuart Jopling) 
(Danny Allen)
(Ben Deacon) 

The Bloaters finished rock bottom of the Premier Division in the 2011/12 season winning just two games and conceding 145 goals in 40 games played. They then finished 10th, 8th, 4th and 3rd in Division One allowing them promotion back to the Premier Division where they finished 5th in 16/17 and then 15th and 19th which saw them back down in the now Division One (North) for the 2019/20 season where they were in 10th place when football was stopped in March. The Bloaters had an average attendance of 88 with their lowest crowd being 48 and their highest 122. I would love to see them having a good 2020/21 season and moving back up to Step Five. 

Hadleigh United finished 11th in the 2011/12 season and actually won the title in 2013/14 (by goal difference to Brightlingsea Regent!) but didn't move up to Step Four as many teams have done over the past decade or so - they have since finished in 7th, 7th, 18th, 21st and 16th positions. They were in 19th place when the season was finished in March having won just five of their twenty-seven games played. 

Stuart Jopling, one of the scorers for Hadleigh United that day, is now 46 years old so you'd think his boots had been well and truly hung up by now. You are however wrong! He counts Diss Town, Debenham LC, Mildenall Town, Needham Market and Stowmarket Town as some of his former clubs and he spent the 2019/20 season with Haughley United in the Suffolk and Ipswich League Senior Division where he scored 4 goals in 13 appearances.

ROY CHUBBY BROWN, JOE PASQUALE, JIMMY CARR, CANNON & BALL, THE CHUCKLE BROTHERS AND PAUL ZERDIN ALL PERFORMED AT THE TOWN'S FAMOUS BRITANNIA PIER IN 2011.