The weather forecast did not look too bad (sunny with possible showers). Having been before to the War Memorial Ground I knew there is plenty of shelter with 2 sizeable stands.
I have another good meal at the Cafe Rimski (my favourite Stourbridge eaterie) on the corner of the High Street and Market Street in Stourbridge town centre and suitably refreshed take the 15 minute walk to the ground.
Stourbridge is one of those grounds that is shared with the cricket club, so the one side of the ground has moveable metal fencing. I don't know if this will affect the club's chances of promotion but they might be pushed to get in to the Blue Square Bet Premier in the future.
I have a bit of a shock as I find it's now £10 entry (I was thinking £8)...well, I hadn't visited here for a good 12 months.
I see that Stourbridge have splashed out on a new striker, Ben Mackey from St Neots Town, a proven goalscorer at this level. Well, I don't think anyone would have predicted how quickly Mr Mackey would score his first goal for the club. After just 22 seconds, he is played in by Ben Billingham and he duly slots the ball in, much to the delight of his new colleagues and fans!
With the Weymouth defence looking very shaky, Billingham feeds Mackey with another pass......2-0 after 8 minutes!
Then Simon Evans, the Weymouth keeper, fumbles a shot from Stourbridge full-back, Drew Canavan, and the ball goes over the line for goal number 3 on 36 minutes.
During this hectic 45 minutes I also had the good fortune to meet a fellow photographer called Nigel Cliff, who is the snapper for AFC Wulfrunians of the West Midlands Premier League (currently in 2nd spot) who play in the western part of Wolverhampton. I have seen his website a few months back and he is a very good photographer. He gives me some good information for possible visits to other West Midland League clubs.
So the second-half is played at a more relaxed pace and Weymouth are able to establish themselves more in midfield. However things get worse for the visitors when their No.7 is sent off for an off the ball incident, which I did not see and then a few minutes later in the 78th minute, Billingham again sets up Mackey for his debut hat-trick.
For about 20 minutes during the second-half I have a chat with the Owner/Chairman/Secretary of Weymouth, Nigel Biddlecombe (must be a busy man). He tells me that the club have had some fraudulent financial problems in recent year and as a consequence Weymouth had gone through a bad time financially but he was glad to say that things were gradually turning around for the better and the aim was to establish long term stability. He also tells me that Weymouth are missing a couple of experienced players and thinks this is possibly affecting their performance today as they are basically a young side.
As I had lived in the south of England when I began my interest in non-league football, I pick his brains for the latest news on various clubs down there like Poole Town, Dorchester Town and Salisbury City etc.
Ben Billingham scores the 5th Stourbridge goal right near the end and although their team have taken a beating today the contingent of young Weymouth supporters are still in good voice and spirits at the final whistle.
The official attendance for today is 519, a good figure for this league!
I think Stourbridge could well get promotion this year while Weymouth will probably have to wait at least another year. Still, you never know in football and it will be interesting to see how things pan out at the end of next month.
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