Geordie Al's Groundhopper Scrapbook: Hitchin Town P-P Corby Town, Saturday 3rd January 2015

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Hitchin Town P-P Corby Town, Saturday 3rd January 2015

Match postponed - but you'd have to be outside the ground to know it.

Having decided early on to give Barnsley's cup game against Boro a miss, I looked for a suitable alternative and a new ground to visit. Scanning the other cup games brought me...Blyth Spartans. Too far. Or Stoke on the Sunday. Prohibitively expensive by train. So I looked for a non-league game and came up with Hitchin. I'd read an article in When Saturday Comes recently about how they were struggling to keep hold of their town centre ground and I thought they could do with the extra support/dosh.

A good atmosphere and welcome in the Canary Club

It was an easy journey, half an hour from Kings X, followed by a 15 minute walk to the ground, in the rain. (This bit is crucial in what came later.) There were cars in the car park...and people in the social club, 'The Canary Cafe'. I peered through a gap in the gate to the ground. Inside looked suspiciously empty. With forty minutes to kick-off I'd have expected to see SOMEBODY in there.

A sneaky peek through the gates.

I decamped to the social club, a cosy bar with pool table and three choices of bitter. I had a pint of Stella. £3 - bargain. While I stared at whatever was on the telly, I'm sure I overheard an old bloke tell his wife about a game being off. My suspicions were raised. They were then confirmed when a couple of Corby fans passed by the window and he muttered to himself 'match is off lads.' I drank up, had a walk around 2 sides of the ground and found the only official confirmation the game was off on a sign. Even now, at 7pm, there's no news on their website.

They'll be shut though...

I see elsewhere the game was postponed for a waterlogged pitch. I am now trying not to think that it would be a GOOD thing that they DID lose their stadium. There was hardly enough rain to call off a Sunday morning game, so if Hitchin Town haven't sorted themselves a decent pitch in 100 years (or whatever), then move. Or get one of those modern fandangled plastic pitches. Grrrr!

The unavoidables:
£12.50 train
£3 beer

The Tunes:
Blue Bell Knoll (Cocteau Twins)
Dirty (Sonic Youth)
Mellan Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Smashing Pumpkins)
Loco (Fun Lovin' Criminals)