Hungerford

Ground: Bulpit Lane

Visits: 1

Date: 7th August 2017

Match: Hungerford - Weston-super-Mare 2-0 (National League South)

Attendance: 370

Monday was moving day for me. At 11.25 my Easyjet flight left Marseille-Provence airport. At 12.15 I was at London Gatwick and my destination was Hungerford in Berkshire. From Gatwick I went by train to Reading, where I changed to a local service bringing me to Hungerford. Hungerford is a historic market town with a population of around 6 000. During my brief visit I have to say the town seemed like a nice and quiet place. The town will unfortunately forever be remembered for the tragic events that took place in August 1987 when a madman killed 16 people before committing suicide. During my stay in Hungerford I stayed at the Bear Hotel which was only a 10-minute walk from the train station. After a day full of travelling it was nice to enter my room. I was soon on the move again though. I decided to make the 20-minute walk to Bulpit Lane, the home of Hungerford Town. I was hoping for the gates to be open, which they were, meaning I could sneak inside to take a few pictures. Bulpit Lane is a mixture of several small stand and the overall capacity is around 2 000. In 2016 the club was promoted to the National League South (level 6) for the first time ever and to comply with ground ratings the club has built a new seated stand as well as new turnstiles. The turnstiles are not in use though! After taking my pictures I went back to my hotel where I had something to eat and drink. Shortly before 6pm my German friend Andreas showed up as well. He will be in the UK for 10 days and the game in Hungerford is the first on his tour. We had a drink before leaving for the ground.

Entrance was £12 and you could then sit/stand wherever you wanted. There was certainly the nice and friendly non-league feeling surrounding Bulpit Lane and Hungerford Town. As kick-off approached a few other groundhoppers showed up as well. Laurence, Robin and Sim have been to plenty of non-league grounds and have met Andreas several times in the past. I also spotted two Norwegian flags inside Bulpit Lane but I guess that is not much of a surprise. The first half was entertaining with Hungerford creating several good chances. In the 15th minute Weston-super-Mare scored an own-goal but after a long deliberation the referee and his assistant decided it was offside. “How can an own-goal be offside?” was then the topic for many discussions. In the 45th minute Hungerford did take the lead, 1-0 from a cracking long-range shot. The second half was not as entertaining as the first but in the 52nd minute Hungerford scored again to make it 2-0. In the final 10-15 minutes Weston-super-Mare pressed on but the nearest they came to a goal was a shot hitting the bar. The game ended 2-0 and most of the 370 inside Bulpit Lane left in a good mood. This was my 100th round visit in England and tomorrow I will take another step towards the 92 as I visit AFC Wimbledon v Brentford in the League Cup.