What's On This Weekend?

View from West Hill

Well, the last weekend of the school Easter Holidays sees a quieter time to be had, but, apart from the usual museums, parks etc to visit, there is a Spring Fair & Sale up at the West Hill Community Centre, Croft Road TN34 3JT, 11am to 3pm today (website). This won't be just a jumble sale, as also there will be reflexology, tombola, auction, morris dancing, and much more! 

At Hastings Pier this weekend sees the last two days of Automata at the Pier with Cabaret Mechanical Theatre (website), 10am to 5pm both days. The exhibition is free to enter and the collection, which has been touring since 1979, "merges the boundaries of art and engineering with their collection of extraordinary mechanical toys and many other marvelous, mechanical inventions."

This afternoon, up at The Pilot Field, Elphinstone Road TN34 2AX, with a 3pm kick off, Hastings United FC will be playing against bottom of the league Shoreham FC (website). As they are 15 places below Hastings, we would presume Hastings should score a few goals having won 3-1 away to Chipstead in their last match, and 7-1 away at East Grinstead Town in the previous match! Here's hoping I haven't jinxed them...

Oh, and I've just been told that the Somewhere in the World Art Exhibition at the Southwater Area Community Centre has been extended a week until Friday the 20th of April 2018 (website). The Centre is just behind Warrior Square Railway Station at 1 Stainsby Street TN37 6LA, and the exhibition is open 10am to 4pm. It looks like the Centre is closed on Sundays (looking at their website).

Whatever you do, have an excellent weekend!

Hastings United win 6-0!

On my way to watch Hastings United versus Nopeace Haven at The Pilot Field this Easter Monday, I wandered through Alexandra Park before walking up the hill...

Entering the ground, just £2 admission as a special price, usually five times as much! Match report coming further down for my first non-league match attendance in years.

Pre-match warm up...

Had to photograph, too many speedy wingers in the past apparently!

The teams come out, and...

The players and officials shake hands.

OK, the match kicked off, and within a couple of minutes Hastings missed a sitter, like a park football team, the player completely missed the ball when it came to him with only the keeper to beat; I remember doing similar for my school team when I was 10 years old! But then, the 'Man of the Match' Billy Medlock show happened, he scored 5 goals, with 2 near misses (one that hit the crossbar!), oh yes, and someone else scored a sixth in the final minutes, a 6-0 win, nice one, 3 goals per £1 sterling, good value!

Billy Medlock must have been the smallest player on the pitch at the time, but he out-jumped the 2 enormous Peacehaven centre backs to place a superb header past the keeper; an excellent early ball came through for Medlock to score the second when the ball came back off the post; a third just before half-time; his fourth an easy tap in; and his fifth an easy nod in after a fine cross; nearly got his sixth at the death, when he somehow won the ball and tried to score from a fine angle, just missing the far post. 

Hastings really did deserve to win this match, their passing was a bit suspect in the early stages, but they gradually put together quite a fine team performance, mostly passing along the floor, against Peacehaven's aerial bombardment! It was good to see players numbered 1-11 starting the match, instead of the squad numbers of teams in the higher leagues, an attendance of 624, not too bad for this level, and it brought a smile to my face when they played 'Pigbag' following each goal...