"Torpoint Athletic - The Mill Ground"

My drive down to Cornwall had been spent regularly checking Torpoint’s twitter feed, knowing that their match the previous Saturday had been called off due to a waterlogged pitch. Fortunately this time the match survived (the heavens opened 12 hours later, destroying my plans to visit the match at Camelford 24 hrs later). I'm glad this match survived the weather as it turned out to be a cracking 3-2 victory for the home side over visitors Newquay. Everyone involved with the club was extremely friendly and the ground, although only level 6, was well worth the visit.

Location

Torpoint is a small village on the west side of the Tamar estuary (opposite Devonport, to which it is connected by ferry). Getting to the village by road from Plymouth involves a long a long drive, but unfortunately the nearest railway station is Devonport which means a walk to the ferry, then across the river a walk to the ground. The ground is situation just a few yards from the sea (there’s a private boatyard at the end of Mill Lane). The nearest pub to the ground is the Carbeile Inn which is about 200 yards walk. There are other pubs and places to eat in the centre of Torpoint which is about 10 minutes walk from the ground.
The ground itself has a car park which has room for approx. 30 cars, but there is plenty of street parking in the vicinity.

View

The first building you come to at the ground is the clubhouse and the turnstile into the ground is to the right of this. Once through the turnstile there is a wooden fence dividing you from the pitch making it impossible to see from the car park. Entry into the pitch area is behind a goal and there are three ‘stands’ to chose from – two on one side and the third opposite. The Main Stand (the Les Cardew Stand) contains around 80 seats in four rows, whilst its next door neighbour is a more modest affair, being more of a covered terrace, with one row of seats). The larger stand is on the far side of th e pitch and this runs for approximately half its length, but at the moment this is covered standing only.

Facilities

Toilets are in the clubhouse building, one set in the bar and another outside, in the same block. There is no club shop per se, but a selection of badges, scarves, hats and poloshirts were available from the turnstile at prices that I felt were below average. The programme is very good for a step 6 side, with lots of stats and facts on the current season – very good value for £1.00.

Food & Drink

Obviously alcoholic drinks are available form the clubhouse whilst half time hot drinks, crisps, chocolate and hot food are available from a portakabin on the main stand side of the ground

Atmosphere

Everyone at the club was very helpful and friendly, with special mention to Torpoint’s match secretary, Robbie Moore, who – himself – is a bit of a groundhopper and went out of his way to make sure I had everything I needed during my visit.
The crowd for the match was 115 which is very good for Step 6 soccer (althugh the remoteness of the SWPL means they do get some decent crowds in this league) and both sets of fans were loud in their encouragement of their teams. If you have never experienced soccer in the SWPL then it’s well worth a visit

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