A sneaky mid-weeker this, my first exposure to the United Counties League, and oh boy did we get exposed to the elements.Classic Fenland, Huntingdon Town's Jubilee Park is on a flat, open expanse with not a lot around except for a howling wind which chilled you to the bone and turned the match into a classroom-esque game of blow football.
Just inside the programme-less turnstile (grrrr) were a set of portacabins which made up the changing rooms and 'Social Club' where I snagged a cup of tea which went from boiling to frozen within three minutes of venturing outside.
I spotted the referee trying to do a few warm-up laps as I circumnavigated the flagstone path around the pitch and suggested to him that he made it 20 minutes each way.
He replied to me something about not being sure why he still did it, but frankly, the wind was so strong I couldn't really hear what he said.
Difficult to get any good snaps in the light coming from the floodlights, my best effort was of the single corrugated stand which offered the only shelter from the extreme conditions.The match was no classic, it never would be under these circumstances, and it was hard for me to get a gauge of the standard of the football, needless to say Whitworths who are top of the league simply had too much for the homesters.
This was one of those ventures when having driven effectively from Fulham to Huntingdon and then back to Braintree in a night you are left asking yourself the question: "Why did I do that?"
