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Stephenson Harwood v Reed Smith

8.30pm  8 March 2016

London Legal League, Division Two
Stephenson Harwood 3 Reed Smith 0 (att 1) at Wadham Lodge, Walthamstow

I've written before about watching football in the London Legal League, a midweek competition where all fixtures are on neutral venues around the capital. It's a handy source of games, and extra grounds, but rarely worth much of a journey.

This game appealed as it was a Tuesday night when I was in London for work, so for a couple of hours I swapped a warm and dry hotel in central London for a cold and damp artificial pitch in Walthamstow.

The Wadham Lodge ground is one of just three venues currently used regularly by the London Legal League, and for now that means I've finished the league.

Kick off was scheduled for 8.15pm, but late starts are a fact of life in this league and match durations are usually adjusted to provide two equal halves in the time available. We got underway a little over 15 minutes late, and two 32-minute periods were ample time for Stephenson Harwood to win comfortably.

There wasn't a lot between the sides. The "home" side (remember Legal League venues are all neutral) scored early, then added two more well into the second half. Reed Smith had plenty of possession, but no cutting edge. The better side won.

I'd been to Wadham Lodge before, but my two previous visits, in 1987 and 2005, were first to watch a game on the main "stadium" pitch and then on an outside railed off grass pitch. As well as the 3G staging this game, there's several small-sided pitches that were all busy.







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