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... A chance, therefore, to catch up. The draw had suggested that there would be the possibility of another Sunday trip to Chislehurst, but that fell by the wayside, the only remaining fixture involved tackling again the long drag from station to football ground at Arlesey for

Episode 9
Sunday 13th November 2022
FA Vase Round 2
Baldock Town   1   v   4   Newport Pagnell Town
Daniel Jones; Ezenwa Ukeje, David Murphy.

Without wishing to make unjustified assumptions, JCFC felt that AR1 certainly did not live up to the published name, so it may be that any or all of the above are what Mrs  Malaprop might have called a fig-leaf of the imagination. The referee was again young and slim, the two assistants more mature. AR2 resembled a cross between the Incredible Hulk and the Jolly Green Giant. Jolly he apoeared to be, giant certainly, but sadly he failed the green criterion.

The visitors went ahead on 5 minutes and continued to put the home defence under pressure. Midway through the half, however, a Baldock forward brought the ball down well and an expert finish put his side level -  though one of his colleagues received a lecture from the referee before the restart. The fancied visitors went ahead again just after the half hour. There was a yellow card for a foul by a Baldock defender before a long shot had the Newport Pagnell keeper leaping to tip it to safety, colliding heavily with the post on the way down. Mr Jones showed commendable urgency, racing to the scene and summoning the physio as he did so - it was not a case for waiting to ask the player. Fortunately he was able to carry on after treatment.



In a sunny first half, Baldock's all purple kit and Newport Pagnell's all green had provided a colourful contrast but in the period when the light was fading and the floodlights had not fully warmed up, the participants were less easy to distinguish, becoming almost ghostly as the mist descended. Newport Pagnell added a third two minutes after the restart and though their keeper had to make two good saves within seconds of each other, they extended their lead still further just after the hour. A free-kick to the visitors caused a delay, with a Baldock  player or two shouting at AR2, who had not been involved.

Mr Jones, if he it was, had covered the ground well and though the conditions ultimately made it hard to see what in particular he was bringing to the party, JCFC could not really recall anything he did wrong - though the home side claimed that there were some soft free-kicks, awarded, they felt, on the basis of yelps of feigned pain.

The walk from the station had taken about 40 minutes. For the return, it was now dark and Arlesey is not well endowed with street lighting, so there would be a need to take things carefully, leaving no chance of catching the 17.24 train. JCFC therefore took things carefully and steadily. About two thirds of the way completed, there was a road leading to a residential cul-de-sac on the left. Careful checking revealed no traffic in sight, so JCFC started to cross. Halfway across, (it begins to sound like Hoffnung's bricklayer) two headights suddenly appeared from nowhere. (A subsequent check on Google maps shows a hidden car park) JCFC therefore broke into what passes for a run, but the junction had a fan exit onto the main road and JCFC was still short of the pavement when bumped by the car, ending up on the road, much to the consternation of the driver. Apparently he had set off without waiting for his windscreen to demist and had only just slammed on his brakes at the last minute. The actual contact had caused no damage, but the road surface had weighed in with a swollen left knee, a dodgy right ankle and grazes to hand, nose and forehead, but fortunately nothing serious. The driver produced a towel to wipe the blood away and offered me a lift, asking where I was heading. On hearing "to the station" he asked what I was going to do there - catch a train, of course. So a lift was provided to the station - the driver seeming more shocked than JCFC. And of course, every cloud has a silver lining - we arrived in time to avoid an hour's wait for the next train. All's well that ends well.