Pre-Season Part 1 - Malvern & Chasetown

by Simon Wright

Malvern

Our first pre-season opponents are still wrestling with their “might have/ should have”. Hangover. Two months ago, they were desperately close to promotion.  I saw their step 4 Play Off Final at Evesham and they were far the better of two very nervous teams. Evesham’s keeper Alex Harris kept his club in the game and his team went on to snatch a 1-0 win.  Defeat in those circumstances is hard to take.  Malvern stay as the most Northernly member of the Southern League Division One South. They are committed to return trips to Falmouth and Mousehole.  Despite that, they’ve retained most of last season’s squad though have a new club captain in Joe Tumelty.  They’ve also just made Ryan Brunt player/ director of football which sounds a unique combo.

Malvern are generally on an upward curve with visible progress both on the field and off it.  Community is meaningful here.  Their clubhouse hosts a skittles league, a darts league and pool teams. The ground is surrounded by houses so makes good sense.

Chris Pinder, a 33-year-old who I think is big in IT, is the driving force here. He reacted to grumbles that he was in it for the money by making the club a CIC.  Basically, that means should the club go bump, all the assets (all £12k of them) go to the community not himself.

Curiously all Malvern’s home friendlies on the 4g HDanywhere stadium are against clubs whose name starts with H.  Did their contacts list freeze on the H page and they are just making the best of it? Coming up is Hereford FC which is fair enough plus a village side from East Hampshire in Horndean FC.

The clubhouse is impressively large with an imaginative choice of well-kept beer. Lots of outdoor tables too if weather is kind where you can sup and show off your new Yeltz shirt.

MALVERN'S OUTSIDE BAR

Before that, do visit the Foley Arms Wetherspoons in Malvern which is only a mile or so away. (uphill).  This pub has a spectacular view over the River Severn. You can even stay overnight in one of their hotel rooms if you can’t tear yourself away.

Malvern is a straightforward 45 minutes by road. There is a smallish car park though fear not there is ample easy street parking.  I should warn anyone travelling that the home side play in claret and blue.  Some may need to steel themselves well in advance. If you can’t make it, listen to full commentary on your favourite radio station.

Chasetown

 Second up for pre-season action are Chasetown. The Scholars are familiar opposition in recent years in 3 different competitions with some pretty painful outcomes.   None more so than the play-off defeat that we’d rather not remember.

Common to all those games is their very large goalkeeper Curtis Pond.   He’s 29 now and only played for two clubs despite having many offers to play higher.  He did have one season in Step 2 which proved to be rather mixed.  A dangerously large number of completely unnecessary goals went past him that season and let’s say questions were asked.

Pondy’s issue is that the Chasetown club owner Steve Jones is also his boss during the day. Villa fan Steve owns the transport company where the goalkeeper marshalls the yard, bump starts artics and changes tyres without a jack.  Without breaking confidences, easy to imagine leverage by the owner wanting his keeper back. The Pond was sunk back to a Step 4 club for whom he’s now played around 330 times. A rare number these days. He’s already signed up for 25/26. In fairness, he’s a likeable intelligent guy who has time for everyone. He has many tattoos. The stuff you learn on these podcasts – spoilt you are.

Our visit is on a Tuesday night.  It’s no great distance from the Yeltz and worth the trip.  Since our last visit, the ground’s had a £1.4 million makeover with a 3g pitch, new floodlights and improvements all over, including 6 large screens in the bar.  All the changes mean the 53 teams who wear the club colours can play at the home ground.  That’s 850 kids, enough to make a kitman scream.  All those kids get a free season ticket for first team games.

 Their Scholars name came about because their founder members were from Chase Terrace High School.  If you go with that sane logic, Halesowen ought to be the Buttoners because of the links to the James Grove Button factory. The Albion could be the Boingers or the bouncers as their origin is George Salter Springs.  Make up your own name about the Wesley Chapel Cricket club who were responsible for Vllla. Whole minutes of fun changing names here..

Chasetown remain in the Northern Premier League First Division West this season having failed to get through the 24/25 play-offs.   They finished fourth and were defeated in the most horrible way – on penalties – by Congleton in the Semi-Final.  They’ve had 5 goes at play-offs and only won once.  It’s a modest record though there are worse. Chasetown FC is quite a young club and has been around for less time than our very own Frank Williams.  

Chasetown are cramming in ten friendly fixtures, in fact they are fielding two teams twice, as double headers.  They do have 24 registered players including the well-known Joey Butlin.  I’ve seen him play for 5 different clubs which is everyone he’s played for over the last decade.

Radio Halesowen has your back if you’re working or enjoying a holiday. Live football commentary the way you like it with butter and jam on top.