SATURDAY 1ST APRIL 2023

Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip

Kick off 3pm.

Not just another new ✅ but it’s a venue I’ve been reading up on. Grosvenor Vale is a ground that Stones fans are fiercely proud of and there’s quite a bit of history to gen up on here.

And no reason whatsoever to mention Gordon Hill.

Too late. 🤪

Grosvenor Vale holds 3200.

It’s a ground absolutely cherished by the club’s supporters, who have completely renovated the place in the space of just six years – using entirely their own cash and skilled labour, so says the Football Ground Guide.

After leaving their iconic Lower Mead ground in 1991, the Stones spent 17 years of nomadic wandering, ground-sharing with Watford, Yeading, Edgware and then Northwood. In 2008 a number of Wealdstone directors took over the lease of Ruislip Manor Sports & Social Club in 2008, when its occupant Ruislip Manor FC folded, finally giving the Stones a permanent home at the tattered and peeling Grosvenor Vale Stadium.

In just a few months the ground was spruced up, partly rebuilt and ready for Ryman Premier League football. And over the next half-dozen years, work parties have added extra covered capacity behind both goals, extra steps around the whole stadium and even an electric scoreboard.

The original Ruislip Manor buildings are still there, with the Main Stand a low, corrugated-iron structure of six rows of 250 white seats. On the opposite side of the ground, a small area of 80-odd seats (with an overhang roof from the Social Club). 

Grosvenor Vale is a comfortable, homely place to watch football with two good covered ends and access to side seating all at the same entrance ticket price (£17 adults) although only the new Bulla Stand has a cantilevered roof. All other covered areas have traditional supporting poles which can impede your view. If segregation is in place (a rarity) then away fans are allocated the Social Club side of the ground stretching around to the low cover at the Gun Turret End, accessed by turnstiles at the North-East end of the social club.

We will be segregated I’m sure but it’s nice to see £17 (and Stones were doing it for £16 last season) compared to the liked of Kings Lynn who came into this league and promptly started charging £22 in line with serial offenders Barnet.

Like ourselves, Wealdstone have had an indifferent campaign, they can score goals but as has been seen of late are fairly proficient in conceding them too.

At the Rec, it was a comfortable win for the Stones on 1st October last year. I’d like to see some kind of amiable revenge with both sides having little to play for by the time this match happens – Jeff Stelling called it on Sky today saying that clubs from York upwards can consider themselves secure.

PRE-MATCH SOCIAL

There is a Social Club at the ground (the entrance to which is located outside the stadium) that normally admits visiting supporters. Otherwise there are a couple of pubs in easy walking distance of the ground and Ruislip Manor Station on Victoria Road. These are the Manor Bar and JJ Moons, the latter being a Wetherspoons pub. Close to Ruislip Station is the Crock of Gold pub.

DIRECTIONS

Ruislip is blessed with an astonishing  five railway/underground stations: Ruislip and Ruislip Manor both on the Metropolitan Line and the Piccadilly Line; West Ruislip and Ruislip Gardens are on the Central Line. West Ruislip is also on the Chiltern Main line out of London Marylebone.

South Ruislip is a bit further away from Grovsnor Vale but is also on the Central Line and the Chiltern Main Railway Line. Services are a bit infrequent from Marylebone to South Ruislip and West Ruislip Stations, so best to check before travel.

Ruislip station (a five minute walk from the stadium) is marginally nearer than Ruislip Manor, while Ruislip Gardens (if the Metropolitan Line is shut for engineering works, as occasionally happens on a Saturday)  is a 10 minute walk from the ground along West End Road.

RAIL STRIKES

Planned industrial action on this date on the rail network so assuming that does not mean the London Underground I am safe if I can get a National Express coach to London Victoria and take the tube.

£49!

That’s not far short of what the train would cost!

But it would need to be booked tomorrow because seats get filled up fast.

And the prospect of being in one of those cramped charabancs for almost three hours isn’t great.

What is great is the word charabanc don’t you think?

Originally the word was char-a-banc and it refers to a horse drawn vehicle, later coach, used in Britain during the early part of the 20th century.

And The Strangers mention it in their song Peaches.

🎵 Oh shit
There goes the charabang
Looks like I’m gonna be stuck here the whole summer
Well what a bummer 🎵

Let’s change tunes.

GOING UNDERGROUND

I’ve mapped out a foolproof 🤔 plan on the underground to get me from London Victoria to Ruislip.

From London Victoria coach station, ask for directions to Victoria tube station.

At Victoria tube station select the VICTORIA LINE NORTHBOUND, one stop to GREEN PARK and from there, find the PICCADILLY LINE WESTBOUND making sure that the train states that its destination is UXBRIDGE.

From Ruislip Manor tube station, it may be possible to see Grosvenor Vale from the train as the football ground sits between Ruislip Manor and Ruislip stations.

From there, walk south down VICTORIA ROAD and turn first right into STANLEY AVENUE.

Keep walking along STANLEY AVENUE on the left until you reach CRANLEY DRIVE and turn left and then left again to WEALDSTONE FC.

NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE as at 18th MARCH 2023

The 2-1 victory at Southend may have surprised some. It did me, particularly after going a goal down. A frustrating day anyway not being able to be part of the Tour Of Duty thanks to the industrial rail strikes – there were no south coast services at all. Three weeks after Wealdstone I hope to do York away and at the time of writing that one is ON for rail travel.

Tyler Cordner I believe got MOTM today, skipper Joe was coolness personified with the penalty and who knows how many Shots fans made the trip.

These two images via one fan there are great, I’d no idea about the barrelled roof that looks so like the East Bank – I did go to Southend in the early eighties but the game was snowed off.

Southend are holding up a board with 420 while so many away fans there have said it was a lot more than that. Anyone at Eastleigh last season may remember them claiming 400 where most know it was more like 650.

Anyway that’s it for now. This post will be updated with Wealdstone ticket information in due course.

UP THE SHOTS ❤️💙

Yesterday’s announcement that the planned industrial strikes for 30 March and 1 April is certainly welcome news and means that this trip to Ruislip is now back on.

Since writing last, Tyler Cordner represented England C, captaining them against Wales with England running out 1-0 winners with a goal from Barnet’s de Havilland.