Post by jonw on Mar 24, 2020 21:01:22 GMT
This article appeared in the programme v Bath City on February 29th 2020
You may not have given it much thought when you got up this morning, but you are witnessing something unique today. This afternoon’s Vanarama National League South fixture with Bath City is our first ever home SCHEDULED game on 29th February!
I emphasise the word scheduled, as back in 1964 we did entertain Coggeshall Town here in the Essex & Suffolk Border League Premier Division. However, that was recorded as a Coggeshall home fixture. We had already played the Seedgrowers earlier in the season at Cressing Road. When it became clear that their ground at The Crops in West Street was waterlogged and the return fixture would be postponed, we offered to stage it at Braintree. Coggeshall won the game 3-2, with Tom Mingay scoring twice for us.
Our first Leap Year game on 29th February was in 1908 in the North Essex League Division One. The short trip to Heybridge was an unsuccessful one, as we lost 4-2.
Midweek games were a rarity, and 29th February seldom fell on a Saturday, so our next game on this date was 28 years later. We travelled to the Suffolk coast to play Lowestoft Town in the Eastern Counties League in 1936. A ‘good’ crowd witnessed the home side win 2-0.
Our first win on this day, and so far, our only one in the league, came 94 years after our formation. In 1992 we travelled to Creasey Park to play Dunstable in the Beazer Homes League Southern Division. A brace (that’s two goals to our younger readers) by Neil Grice, and another from Jimmy Thomas helped us to a 3-1 win. Six months later we memorably won 7-1 at Dunstable in the league. On that occasion Grice scored five!
Colchester United’s old Layer Road ground was a fantastic place to play at, and we were fortunate to play there many times from the 1930’s onwards. Our penultimate visit was for an East Anglian Cup Third Round tie on 29th February 1996 to play Colchester Reserves. In front of 174 a Gary Bennett hat trick against his old club helped us to a 4-3 win. Wade Falana scored the other. We went on to reach the final that year, beating Sudbury Town 3-0 at Cressing Road.
In the intervening 23 years we have had no further games on 29th February. Let’s hope that the weather is kind to us and gives us the opportunity to claim our first home win on this day.
Footnote - as is now known we did win the game, 2-0.
You may not have given it much thought when you got up this morning, but you are witnessing something unique today. This afternoon’s Vanarama National League South fixture with Bath City is our first ever home SCHEDULED game on 29th February!
I emphasise the word scheduled, as back in 1964 we did entertain Coggeshall Town here in the Essex & Suffolk Border League Premier Division. However, that was recorded as a Coggeshall home fixture. We had already played the Seedgrowers earlier in the season at Cressing Road. When it became clear that their ground at The Crops in West Street was waterlogged and the return fixture would be postponed, we offered to stage it at Braintree. Coggeshall won the game 3-2, with Tom Mingay scoring twice for us.
Our first Leap Year game on 29th February was in 1908 in the North Essex League Division One. The short trip to Heybridge was an unsuccessful one, as we lost 4-2.
Midweek games were a rarity, and 29th February seldom fell on a Saturday, so our next game on this date was 28 years later. We travelled to the Suffolk coast to play Lowestoft Town in the Eastern Counties League in 1936. A ‘good’ crowd witnessed the home side win 2-0.
Our first win on this day, and so far, our only one in the league, came 94 years after our formation. In 1992 we travelled to Creasey Park to play Dunstable in the Beazer Homes League Southern Division. A brace (that’s two goals to our younger readers) by Neil Grice, and another from Jimmy Thomas helped us to a 3-1 win. Six months later we memorably won 7-1 at Dunstable in the league. On that occasion Grice scored five!
Colchester United’s old Layer Road ground was a fantastic place to play at, and we were fortunate to play there many times from the 1930’s onwards. Our penultimate visit was for an East Anglian Cup Third Round tie on 29th February 1996 to play Colchester Reserves. In front of 174 a Gary Bennett hat trick against his old club helped us to a 4-3 win. Wade Falana scored the other. We went on to reach the final that year, beating Sudbury Town 3-0 at Cressing Road.
In the intervening 23 years we have had no further games on 29th February. Let’s hope that the weather is kind to us and gives us the opportunity to claim our first home win on this day.
Footnote - as is now known we did win the game, 2-0.
