Ewas Harold Incident – Grahame May (25th)

I was only half watching a TV programme quite recently called Escape to the Country when the above name was suddenly mentioned. I immediately took notice as it was there that the oddest football match I ever played in took place on Saturday 1st October1955 when we, the AATS – B team, played this local village side in a Hereford and District League Fixture. ( I checked all this with my old Service Diary which I am still in the process of trying to fully decipher! ) I note that the day started rather badly as we had a parade in the morning and the team had to scramble to board our bus so as to get to Ewas Harold for the 2.30pm kick off.
I remember we arrived in good time at the village green area and were immediately surrounded by what seemed to be a fair percentage of the population, including some dogs, and we had quite a job to get to the changing rooms and then down a lane to the football pitch. There we watched as a flock of sheep were herded off the pitch and then had to wait for our opponents to appear. We had overlooked bringing a ball in the morning scramble so we could not warm up and it was some time before their team, the referee, and the rest of the village arrived to cheers for them and a bit of verbal abuse for us. When the game eventually started we were immediately put under pressure and it was obvious that no prisoners were going to be taken. The crowd behind our goal were quite vocal and this added to the high pressure atmosphere. Not surprisingly, we were two nil down at half time, and it could have been a lot more as both goals came as a result of me and some of our defence being roughed up and impeded. Somehow the referee saw nothing wrong nor did he give us many free kicks for all the fouls that the whole team endured during the first 45 minutes.
At half time the crowd moved round so that they were behind our goal again, supposedly to witness some more scoring, but we had got together and decided that we should also dish it out and play them at their own game. Incredibly it worked and with only a few minutes to go we had levelled the score at two all and the crowd had become quiet and less rowdy Then it happened! I had to take a goal kick because our right back was limping rather badly and, when something hit me on the back of the head, I scuffed the ball straight to one of their forwards. Even then I had a chance to block his shot as he too miskicked, but I was too far to one side of the goalposts and the ball bounced and skidded well past me and finished up in the far corner of the net. The crowd laughed and became jubilant again and when the referee blew for full time they and their team quickly departed, supposedly to celebrate, while we trudged back to the bus where we had locked our kit away for safety. The whole of the village then just seemed to melt away and none of their team bothered to show up or even wave goodbye . (not even with two fingers!)
When we got back to Camp the news was given to all those who were interested and then we made a beeline for some welcome refreshment. Later I had a long soak in a hot bath and then realised I had a bit of a lump on the back of my head. Strangely, it did not hurt much and by Monday it was just a small tender little spot. {To this day I have no idea what hit me, but I know dam well where it came from!) Several weeks later I learnt that we had a return home fixture with Ewas Harold on Saturday 10th December but by then I was playing for the AATS- A team. We had an away fixture that same day against Bartonsham Rovers, which we won 2 -0. ( In actual fact I had taken over from ” Punchy” White of the 23rd Entry because he had given up the position of A team goalkeeper for reasons which were unclear !} The good news was that our B team won the return fixture with Ewas Harold 3-1 and I was given to understand that both teams had conducted themselves in a mature and civilised manner. Why that first game was so unusual is anyone’s guess as many of our league fixtures were nearly always played in front of a small number of people. Some even just had one man and his dog!.