"Walsham-le-Willows FC"

Visited here as the Friday night fixture in the Eastern Counties League 'Groundhopper' event on 4/3/2016 - a local derby against rivals Thetford Town, with both sides hovering in the relegation zone from the ECL Premier. Walsham-le-Willows is a small village and the team are probably the 'minnows' in the Premier, up against teams from bigger towns like Newmarket, Saffren Walden, Hadleigh etc

Location

Let's face it - W-L-W is miles from anywhere really (and I'm an Ipswich Supporter!). The nearest train station is in Diss, and the village is about 10 miles NE of Bury St Edmunds and 20 miles NW of Ipswich. Not really visitable by public transport, unless you've got all day !. There is parking at the ground and, for this occassion as a big crowd was expected, at the sports centre over the road. There is at least 1 pub in the village, just to the south of the ground.

View

There is one seated grandstand with 100+ seats. This is a fairly new construction and very smart. There are no pillars to obstruct the view. The only other covered accomodation is a 'shed' type affair behind the far goal. The rest of the pitch is surrounded by a hard path. The far side is a cricket pitch and when the ball goes out of play the players have to go and retireve it !

Facilities

Toilets in the clubhouse. No club shop in evidence, but at the groundhopper event they were selling club mugs, coasters and pin badges. I noticed some people wearing club hats so presumably they sell stuff behind the bar?

Food & Drink

The bar is in the clubhouse and can be used. For this game there was also a stall outside selling burgers, chips etc. Hot drinks were being sold from a stand in the clubhouse.

Police & Stewards

Not for this league !

Atmosphere

As this was a local derby and a groundhopper event there was a big crowd - must have been over 200 people here. Lots of kids in evidence and the locals are always friendly round here anyway. Lots of noise from the crowd, with Thetford supporters contributing also. Not so sure the atmosphere is always like this at ECL games

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