County v Leamington: Match Thread (24/03/2018)

In the meantime, with the odd obligatory 'Brakes' pun included, here is my updated 'Take Five' piece for COWS:

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TAKE FIVE (2018)… Leamington

By Hatter in Macc

1. Another Saturday at Edgeley Park, another visiting club with a hint of the South!

Yes, indeed. Leamington, who last Summer returned to the National League North, via the Evo-Stik League South play-offs, after a two-year absence, are the second-southernmost club among us, after our most recent (and most recent-but-one!) weekend visitors Brackley. (Last time around, mind, the ‘Brakes’ were only the fourth - although, of course, Gloucester and Oxford City have since moved sideways to ply their National League trade below the Watford Gap.)

2. The Brakes, eh? We shall be going all out to test them…!

Oh, very droll. But as good a cue as any for picking up on our hosts’ unusual nickname, which originates from the Lockheed/Borg and Beck brake manufacturing company works team that began playing in local leagues from 1933 - before being re-named Lockheed Leamington in 1947, and, in 1973, AP Leamington, after Lockheed became the Automotive Products Group.

By that time, the Brakes had… erm, accelerated up through the Birmingham and wider Midlands league network to take their place in the Southern League. And from 1979, they became founder members of, and remained for three seasons in, the Alliance Premier League - the National League, in today’s money. The club has been known simply as Leamington since 1985, and spent the period from 1988 to 2000 in hibernation, albeit technically in existence, after its original Windmill Ground - situated on Tachbrook Road, adjacent to the AP factory (which itself is now a business park) - was sold for housing. The current New Windmill Ground - situated along a country lane near the village of Bishop’s Tachbrook, three miles from Leamington Spa - was constructed on land bought by supporters during the club’s dozen years of footballing inactivity.

3. Right, them’s the Brakes (arf). What’s with the Windmills?

Glad you asked. The original Windmill Ground was adjacent to where a windmill once operated - and, indeed, where it continued to stand until 1968 in the car park of the Windmill pub which is still trading today. The ground was first used by a forerunner club, Leamington Town, which folded for financial reasons in 1937, and was sold off to Coventry City for ‘A’ team matches - although came back into more local use when the Lockheed team purchased it after World War Two.

By contrast, the New Windmill, as well as being named in tribute to its predecessor, happens to be overlooked by the Chesterton Windmill. That mill was last used in 1910, although the
surrounding area still gets its fair share of wind - as Hatters present at the current ground in 2014 to witness Chris Churchman’s breeze-assisted 25-yard swirler of a goal will remember!

4. County and Leamington have trod very different paths until recently. Surely, no-one has played for both clubs?

As a matter of fact, the number of such players has doubled since we played the reverse-fixture at the New Windmill (or the Phillips 66 Community Stadium, as it has been officially called since 2015) only seven months ago!

We already knew back then of Simon Travis,‘The Man Who’ (see what I did there) occasionally played on the right side of County’s midfield - and who is best remembered for contributing a Boxing Day brace towards a three-goal hammering of Port Vale - during our early adventures in today’s equivalent of the Championship between 1997 and 1999. But between November and February this season, a second ex-Hatter, and a loanee at EP last term, Kaine Felix, turned out 15 times on the wing for the Brakes before leaving to find another club closer to home.

5. Any more stuff to ‘pedal’ about the Brakes before we stop?

Well, the club sells a bespoke, and very tasty, bottled real ale - ingeniously named ‘Brakes Fluid’. I have held on to a couple of bottles from our visit there last August - and shall keep them at the ready in the hope of celebrating a hat-trick of mid-to-late March wins for County, come 5pm!

All seconded!

And I hope they beat Spennymoor...

While my heart still thinks the season won't suddenly turn round for the better, my head says this is one of those prime examples where things are in our favour and, with a ruthless mindset, we could make GD count here, not 'just' win.

I think the winner against Boaton was the first occasion we've been out of our seats for several home games. More of that, please!

Half Time: Spennymoor 0-0 Leamington

Would you go to Spennymoor for a Thursday night out ?

(Says the guy who did a round trip to Workington once !)

Aah - we'll always have Workington, Lennie... 

Southend Utd for a Friday night game. Left Stockport at 11am expecting to get to Southend in time for a chippy tea and a couple of beers but had it not been a 7.45 kick off I'd have missed the start, courtesy of the biggest car park in the world aka the M25