My New Favourite Ground

I thought I had better post something quick smart or this blog would have died before it ever really started. There have been a lot of things I had pondered writing about; Man U fans not knowing who Norman Whiteside is for one! I don't really have anything to add to the reams being written regarding England's crapitude against the French except to say that virtually anything that was said about was probably an exaggeration. What I would like to mention though is my new favourite footy ground. I haven't even seen a game there and don't know who plays there but it's fantastic.


Hidden away below the the Docklands Light Railway and cordoned in by various rank smelling business premises is Lyle Park, the hidden jewel of West Silvertown. From the tiny bit of the park you can see from the road it just looks like a run-down children's play area and a couple of scruffy concrete tennis courts. However, venture past these and all of a sudden you find yourself in a little football secret garden.

The entrance is on the right hand side at the end of the wall and behind this viewpoint the park goes on for another 100 yards or so until it reaches the banks of the Thames. The main thing I know about it is that it was donated to the local people by Sir Leonard Lyle of Tate & Lyle fame and that is almost it. Canning Town's 3rd team were certainly playing here a couple of years ago but I don't know who uses it now. There is a changing room block that looks as though it just might also be able to sell tea through a window but for park football the facilities are pretty good. There is hard standing all the way round and a nice terrace behind one of the goals and a couple of small seated stands. No, no, hang on. I'll start again.

The hard standing may be just be a path. The terrace is just some steps leading to the rest of the park and the little stands could be more accurately described as park benches. I don't know if I'll ever see a game here. Somehow that might ruin the beauty of the place.

 Hopefully there is some kind of covenant on the place that will prevent it being bulldozed and developed. Maybe I'll look into reforming Thames and start climbing the pyramid from the very bottom. We might get as far as the Essex Olympian League!