Post by sandbachhatter on Jun 11, 2017 21:26:00 GMT
Evening folks.
Slightly later than planned, thanks to son no.2 still being awake at 10.00pm, Mrs Sandy has swapped in so I can bring the penultimate week of CHASM to the masses.
Your host this week, is another_ruined_saturday, so I shall hand you over to the man himself....
Slightly later than planned, thanks to son no.2 still being awake at 10.00pm, Mrs Sandy has swapped in so I can bring the penultimate week of CHASM to the masses.
Your host this week, is another_ruined_saturday, so I shall hand you over to the man himself....
YoungHeart Manawatu (New Zealand)
From New Zealand all the way to the Scottish non-league. Formed three years after County in 1886, Yoker Athletic ply their trade in the West of Scotland Super League First Division. This is the second highest division of the West Region of the Scottish Junior* Football Association. They finished 10th out of 14 clubs in 2015/16, but the division's wiki hasn't been updated for 2016/17 yet!
*The 'Junior' denotes level of football rather than anything age related.
Despite their low level, they still manage to have their own pin badge (above).
They play in all royal blue and are based at Home Park, although theirs is a little more modest than Plymouth Argyle's...
They might have their crest incorporated into their gate:
...but their ground is pretty basic.
Not sure I'd feel confident standing under this structure, particularly in the company of the probable serial killer on the right:
Never heard of them before, but there is something quite pleasing about them rattling along in their lumpy stadium for 131 years. They even have a literary mention; a character in James Kelman's 'A Disaffection' attends a game there. It is not known by wiki if the disaffection has anything to do with Yoker Athletic.
And, lastly, we have....
First up this week are New Zealanders YoungHeart Manawatu. I must confess that they have ruined things by having renamed themselves Manawatu United in 2014, but their nickname is still YoungHeart, so that will do. Oh, for f**k's sake. I read on to discover that they actually dissolved at the end of the 2015 season. You change your name at your peril boys.
They twice finished runners-up in the New Zealand Football Championship, and third once, qualifying them for the end of season play-offs, with the winner of the Grand Final getting a coveted place in the O-League (ok I had to look it up as well. It's the Oceania Champions League). They made it through once, but weren't successful in the tournament.
By way of a diversion, the Oceania Champions League has been won 11 times by New Zealanders and once by a Papua New Guinea side. Australia don't compete in it any more but Aussie sides had won 4 before they ceased competing. After New Zealand, there have been more Vanuatan runners-up than from anywhere else, with sides from Tahiti, Fiji and the Solomon Islands having managed two runners-up spots each. That probably says all you need to know for the quality of competition. A side from New Caledonia has been runner-up once, and I've had to look that up, having never heard of it, and considering it's a 'Special Collectivity' of France, neither the Chesterfield Islands nor Loyalty Islands (which partly make it up) sound very French to me.
YoungHearts appear to be playing at the bottom of a reservoir here:
but on further checking, they just appear to have a speedway track around the perimeter, and a couple of quaint bits to their memorial ground. Imagine if motorbike racing and football were going on simultaneously...
Probably still wouldn't be that exciting.
Yoker Athletic (Scotland)
From New Zealand all the way to the Scottish non-league. Formed three years after County in 1886, Yoker Athletic ply their trade in the West of Scotland Super League First Division. This is the second highest division of the West Region of the Scottish Junior* Football Association. They finished 10th out of 14 clubs in 2015/16, but the division's wiki hasn't been updated for 2016/17 yet!
*The 'Junior' denotes level of football rather than anything age related.
Despite their low level, they still manage to have their own pin badge (above).
They play in all royal blue and are based at Home Park, although theirs is a little more modest than Plymouth Argyle's...
They might have their crest incorporated into their gate:
...but their ground is pretty basic.
Not sure I'd feel confident standing under this structure, particularly in the company of the probable serial killer on the right:
Never heard of them before, but there is something quite pleasing about them rattling along in their lumpy stadium for 131 years. They even have a literary mention; a character in James Kelman's 'A Disaffection' attends a game there. It is not known by wiki if the disaffection has anything to do with Yoker Athletic.
And, lastly, we have....
Young Africans SC (Tanzania)
Based in Dar Es Salaam, I thought they might be another tinpot outfit, but in contrast to the Scots above, this is where they play:
It is shared with another club Simba SC, and is also Tanzania's national stadium, holding 60,000. The club they share the stadium with also happen to be their biggest rivals, with 18 Tanzanian Premier League titles, compared to Young Africans' 22. FIFA sent their congratulations for the most recent:
According to their wiki, their most notable former player is Shabani Nonda, who played for them as a junior, before playing for Zurich, Rennes, Monaco, and making 14 appearances for Roma, before being loaned to Blackburn for 26 appearances in 2006/07 and retiring at Galatasaray.
Could possibly have saved it for a Caption Competition, but I think "No Winners Here" is probably the most appropriate:
For the penultimate time, get voting!
