"Oxhey Jets FC - The Boundary Stadium"

Despite their unusual name Oxhey Jets aren’t situated adjacent to any major airport, instead being located in the rather drab and functional Oxhey ‘suburb’ of Watford, which, itself, is a rather drab and functional town. Unfortunately, Oxhey’s form this season has been anything but jet like and, with 4 games remaining including this one, they found themselves second bottom in the Spartan South Midland League Premier and facing the prospect of relegation, having been a premier club for 12 seasons. Their visitors were Wembley FC, who have their own off field problems to deal with, our own FA doing their best to shut the club down over use of the Wembley logo (so much for supporting grass roots football huh?). Wembley are currently safe in mid-table and as this was, potentially, my last chance to see them home or away, I ventured along to Oxhey’s Boundary Stadium.

Location

The ground itself is in South Oxhey which is about 2 miles south of Watford town centre. It is situated very close to the main west coast rail line (trains can be heard above the noise of the match) and the nearest station to the ground is Carpenders Park which is about a 15 minute walk away. The ground is situated in a residential area but is next to the local Swimming Pool all of which means that parking isn’t a problem. The nearest pub to the ground is the Dick Whittington which is 5 minutes to the west, athough there is also the Partridge which is situated on the eastern side of the railway line near the station. Eating wise there are a few places to grab something near the station.

View

The ground itself is fairly standard for Step 5, although it wouldn’t compare favourably against people like Wembley, Welwyn Garden City (both in this league) or many of the Northern League grounds, all of whom are at this level. It is located at the end of Altham Way and, when looking from their small car park the pitch is below you to the left whilst the clubhouse is to the right. The turnstile / entrance is at the top of a flight of steps which take you down to pitch level and this side of the ground is banked to accommodate the drop in level down to the pitch. Upon entering the main stand (“The Elliott Family stand”) is to the right. This is a run of the mill metal arena type stand consisting of approximately 60 seats with the seating area split in two by steps leading to the changing rooms.
The stand itself straddles the halfway line. To the right of this is a covered area of standing (I won’t say terrace as it is all on the same level) which reminded me a bit of a school bike shed ! At the left hand end of the ground is another small stand containing 24 seats, however – unusually - this is located in the corner rather than behind the goal (I’ve seen this before at Redhill (in the Combined Counties) and Bude (South West Peninsular). The other end and the far side of the pitch have no stands, just a simple path for spectators.

Facilities

Toilets are in the clubhouse (which means going ‘out’ of the ground) and there is no club shop (very few at this level do have one anyway), although pens, badges and key rings are available at the bar. The programme for this match was very disappointing – just four sides of A5 paper, no photos, although I was able to get a teamsheet.

Food & Drink

Food-wise, there is a snack kiosk next to the turnstile which sold, burgers, hot dogs, chips etc (burger was £3.50) and hot drinks (tea £1 but Bovril £1.50 – why?). Also there is the bar which is open to all attending the match.

Atmosphere

Bearing in mind this was pretty much a derby match (there are only about 10 miles between the teams), the crowd was less than 50. At least half of these were Wembley supporters who did make more noise than the home fans, who seemed pretty subdued (but that could be due to the team’s position). All in all it seemed to be more the thing to catch up with your mates than cheer on your team.

Write your own review of Boundary Stadium

Have you been to Boundary Stadium? Write a review!