FA Cup draw produces some great ties
The FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round draw was made at lunchtime today. Games to be played on Saturday 14th Oct. Here are some highlights:
Slough Town v Folkestone Invicta
Maidenhead United v Havant & Waterlooville
Brackley Town v Billericay Town or Hungerford Town
St Albans City v Boreham Wood
South Shields v Hartlepool Utd
Dagenham & Redbridge v Leyton Orient
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A local non league side away in the first round would be nice.
Any idea when the First Round draw is made?
Probably Monday 16th October, but that's a guestimation
fourth round slightly lacking in obscure - wonder where XXX is clubs this year.
Shaw Lane Association a probably the most obscure (Barnsley apparently) and have to say I hadn't picked up that the Northwich football scene already divided between Victoria and Witton had further split with another club 1874 Northwich.
Most exotic of the southern teams - possibly Truro in the 4QR for the very first time. Anyone fancy a trip to the bottom of Cornwall in November.............
Truro is very much mid-Cornwall @DevC. You're almost back in England by that point.
Drove past it a couple of weekends ago - I am section hiking the SW coast path (learning post codes as I go of course). Felt like the bottom end to me. Arguable though I suppose whether it is the bottom of the middle or the top of the bottom.
if it happened, may be furthest ever trip in FA Cup proper?
Many ancestors of mine regard anything east of Penzance with suspicion.
I presume, Floyd, some of them are ancestors several times over......
Any statisticians out there prepared to trawl the records to find longest ever FA Cup proper trip? Middlesbrough?
And as a league club?
@DevC, not the longest in distance but maybe the longest travel time. For the 1896-97 2-1 defeat at Norwich Church of England Young Mens society, the team set off at 8pm on Friday evening. Did they have an overnight stop or did they they sleep on the trains? If anyone has access to 19th Century train timetables, as you do, such as a reprinted Bradshaw's Rail Times from around that date, I would be interested in knowing the possible routes and travel times.
It reminds me of the Amateur Cup games at Evenwood Town and Blyth Spartans in 74-75. Memories are a bit vague but, for both, I remember departing on the Jeffways coach around 9pm on Friday, travelling through the night and, after a very bleary stop at the A1 services in the very early hours, being turned out at a market town, can't remember which, before anything was open.
These were not the comfy coaches of today, seats were hard, engines were noisy. Some photos of Jeffways coaches around that time:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93491398@N06/28124591423/ (some very distinguished fans in this one)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28697428@N07/6865856894/
This is a coach ticket from 1977:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93491398@N06/29734180745/
Lots of later Jeffways Coaches on Flickr, if you search on the site. Here endeth the train/coach fest, never a train or bus spotter myself, just an aircraft spotter.
Hey Steve. I'm absolutely sure, and therefore almost certainly wrong, that the town we stopped at on the way to Blyth was Bishop Auckland. I remember thinking, and discussing (with you probably), that it was odd to go there and not play them
As regular observers will know , I am very sad when it comes to statistics. There was no way i was not going to answer my own question.
Longest trip in the "proper" rounds of the FA cup was indeed Middlesborough
Longest since we have been a league club - well in third place is Halifax , in second a replay at Plymouth (which I was presumably at but have no recollection of) and first - well I'll leave someone else to have a guess/tell us the answer - clue think non-league.
@OakwoodExile, Bishop Auckland sounds familiar, still nearly 50 miles away from Blyth, so must have spent the morning there. Got chased out of Woolies by Blyth fans, they were scary. I also remember the Evenwood fans trying to provoke a fight, they thought we were southern softies, which we were.
@DevC Fleetwood?
I’ll never forget the train trip back from Altrincham for the 1st leg of the trophy semi-final. Marched to and from the station by the police (listen up kiddies), no refreshments on the train, at the ground or on the way back. Broken down trains, track circuit failures, diversions. Eventually rolled back into Wycombe just before 2 I think. Back in the days when every pub shut at 11.
9 bleedin’ hours to get back. Think I did it in 2 (by car) after the next semi-final there
Indeed fleet wood by all of two miles over Plymouth.
Interestingly (well ish) four of the longest six were weekday replays.
Actually those Evenwood and Blyth games were 73-74, just read the reports on the Chairboys archive. The team flew from Heathrow to Teeside on a British Midland Viscount for the Evenwood game. Because of the three day week, they didn't want players to lose two working days. It was claimed that this was the first time an amateur team had flown to a match in this country, although Brian Lee is quoted as saying that they had previously flown from from Jersey to Guernsey. Five coaches went and they left at 11:30pm, quite remarkable.
For the Blyth game, Brian Lee said they would have go by road and stay overnight on Friday, but they ended up flying again, this time Heathrow to Newcastle. Four coaches went this time, another 11:30pm Friday start, returning to Wycombe at 1am on Sunday.
Longest journey - rovers away on the cup at eastville. Hitched there from Exeter where I lived at the time. No probs up, on way back got stuck at Weston. All night. Finally got a lift at 7am, home at 830.
I think my longest journey back was the Boston FA cup replay first season at Adams Park. I was only down the road at Reading but got very pissed celebrating, missed the last bus/train, gave up hitching and (still pissed obviously) crashed out at the hotel at the top of Marlow Hill. Got back about 10 the next day
@bookertease, yes I remember that Alty trip, the BFP said the 400 seater 'dry' train was due to arrive in Wycombe at 9:37, but made it after 1am. 45 minutes lost to a signal failure between Aynho and Princes Risborough, reroute via Oxford, Reading and Greenford but a train had broken down outside Oxford. The 'special' had to push it to Oxford.
Hearts must have sunk when someone in a top hat and a frock coat shouted "Give us an 'N'!"
Why would NCOEYMS be playing in Scotland?
Now you're asking @mooneyman! Very droll.
@Steve_Peart Steve, I'm pretty certain that we stopped at Bishop Auckland en route to Evenwood, which was only about 6 or so miles further on. I remember the long straight High Street in BA, and the coking plant which was visible from the very basic Evenwood ground. For the Blyth game, we again got there very early. I remember having enough time to take a bus trip into Newcastle and have a quick walk up to St James' Park. I believe it was raining quite steadily before kick-off - my main memory of the match was the unfortunate own goal from Keith Mead, and realising we'd never play another Amateur Cup match.
@NewburyWanderer my dad’s been watching Wycombe since the early 60s, and he still counts ‘Meads tragic error’ as his lowest moment.
@DevC I am a keen walker too and have already done a fair bit of sw coastal path (Bude-Perranporth so far).
Its one of our national treasures IMHO, Midlander.
for what its worth I would recommend going back and doing the Devon Border to Bude stretch. Its brutal but one of the best stretches IMHO.
You have some nice stretches ahead of you including Seal Bay (well over 20 when I passed through) around Hayle and the mining country of Cape Cornwall.
Glad to say I have turned the corner and am now at least heading North. Still a long way to go to get back to Plymouth though.
@NewburyWanderer @floyd, that o.g. and our exit from the last ever Amateur Cup was very hard to take at the time, but it shouldn't overshadow a fine nine season career by Keith Mead. The Mead/Phillips central defensive partnership was one of the greats, up there with Creaser/Kerr, Crossley/Evans, McCarthy/Bates (my personal favourite), Williamson/Johnson, Mawson/Pierre and Pierre/Stewart.