2pm 26 October 2024
Amateur FA Senior Cup, First Round
Honourable Artillery Company 4 Fitzwilliam Old Boys 0 (att 52)
A first round cup tie between two teams from the Amateur Football Combination wouldn't ordinarily be my choice for a Saturday afternoon game. But this match was at no ordinary venue.
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) play most home games on a hired pitch at a sports ground in west London, but now and then they're able to play at their 'spiritual home', Armoury House close to the centre of London.
It's just a pitch, roped off and with a path along one side. There's a cricket square behind one goal, and a rugby pitch runs parallel.
But the setting is what makes it special. It's hemmed by a mix of the HAC's historic buildings and tall city offices. And not many, if any, sports grounds have a line of field guns along the perimeter.
Unsurprisingly for a military location you can't just walk in. Luckily HAC's social media accounts, aware of likely interest in games played here, collated names of would-be spectators and ensured they were given to security. If your name isn't on a list, you're not getting in.
To be honest, the actual football was almost incidental. HAC, from the Amateur Football Combination's top division, easily beat Fitzwilliam Old Boys, who play a level lower. The home side were 3-0 up by half time, and added a fourth in the closing minutes.
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