Another milestone in my footy travels as I get to the final unvisited ground in the Scottish Lowland League.
By my own self-imposed rules, I haven’t quite finished with the Lowland League as I’ve yet to witness BSC Glasgow play a home game. As they play in Alloa however, and I have been to their ground (twice) already, they will have to wait.
It’s a reasonable trek to the Islecroft Stadium (the best part of a two hour drive to Dumfries and Galloway) but I was happy to make the journey to see my first ‘Star’ team. My pre-match research gave me no clue as to why Dalbeattie are a ‘Star’ but I was intrigued by their club badge which looks like a cross between some sort of pagan cult and the Ku Klux Klan.
In the end, I decided that it is a crude depiction of Kronos from the Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who story, The Time Monster:
Other than an obvious(?) Doctor Who fixation, I found out nothing particularly interesting about Dalbeattie Star but I did discover that Dalbeattie was the birthplace of William McMaster Murdoch who, as I’m sure you all know, was the First Officer of the RMS Titanic. I made a point to look out for icebergs on the journey down.
The easy thing to find out was their form to date which saw the Star in 11th place in the 16 team league having lost 8 of their 12 games to date and boasting an unenviable goal difference of – 22!
Today’s visitors, The Spartans, had hardly set the world on fire so far this season but, even so, they sat five points and two places above their hosts having played three games less. I decided Spartans were the likely winners today.
I was to be joined, for this one, by semi-regular footy companion Kenny the Panda, but a severe case of ‘man cold’ struck him down during the week and he failed a late fitness test on Saturday morning. No birthday pie for The Panda this year (see my East Fife blog if you’re really interested). My thoughts and prayers are with you, Kenny, at this difficult time.
Despite a reassuring “I’ll be amazed if the game is called off” from the club on the Wednesday before the game, plenty of rain in Glasgow in the days that followed and gales elsewhere in the country the night before had me questionning whether I would make it. Appeals on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday morning were met with stony silence although I was buoyed by a tweet from Spartans at about 10.00am that suggested it was on. I took the chance on the two hour drive south but was more than conscious of the rain that accompanied most of my journey and the clock ticking past the 13.45ko time of my Junior League options. Although the rain stopped as I approached my destination, the puddles on the fields just outside Dalbeattie were ominous.
I needn’t have worried though as the full car park outside the Islecroft Stadium showed that all was well and, as I emerged from the car, I could hear the telltale sounds of teams warming up.
Having chatted to the friendly staff on the gate, I entered to find a nice little ground (I hesitate to call it a stadium) which I instantly liked. The grass pitch is enclosed within an oval perimeter fence with the dugouts on one side and a quirky old stand on the other. A fairly steep grass bank at one end affords a good elevated view of the playing surface.
There was a good showing of youngsters in attendance (the next generation of Star supporters) with the younger ones entertaining themselves pre-match on the bank behind the goal while the older, ‘cooler’ kids inhabited the stand with their mobiles.
The game was keenly contested and, although Spartans probably edged it, the game was in the balance for 85 of the 90 minutes. Spartans took the lead midway through the first half and Star equalised midway through the second. After that, both sides had half chances but the visitors got the decisive strike with five minutes to go before seeing the game out by the corner flag in a very professional (but not very entertaining) show of ‘game management).
I enjoyed a good chat with a local supporter during the second half, during which I discovered that nobody really knows why Dalbeattie are Dalbeattie Star (although stars appear in the town crest). Maybe we’ll never know…
So, Star were Dalbeaten 1 – 2, but I enjoyed my trip to the Islecroft Stadium. It’s just a shame it’s so far away.
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