Page 83 - Phonebox Magazine October 2015

Cllr Phil Winsor
Newport Pagnell Coffee Shop
the ball in the net which seems to be a problem! The Capital One Cup success brings Southampton back to Stadium:mk so perhaps another Premier League side scalp is there to be taken, just like Manchester United last season.
The three Rugby World Cup games will have taken place by the time you are reading this article. I am sure the city will have provided a warm welcome to our worldwide visitors, just as we did over the weekend of the 5th and 6th of September when the Foo Fighters came to town once again. The Milton Keynes Bowl is the place for a rock concert as the amphitheatre brings about an intimacy that stately home parklands just cannot replicate.
My wife and I celebrated our Ruby Wedding anniversary in Rome – an ‘open air museum’ to quote our Vatican guide – and Venice, just unique in my view. The sun shone, the wine was chilled and the Italian food was sumptuous. How do they make such terrific ice cream in all those wonderful flavours? That’s all for now.
Volunteers Required
If you are interested in joining us or know someone who would be interested please contact Ursula on 01908 618845 or call into the coffee shop. We are situated in the High Street at the rear of the Methodist Church. We would love to see you.
It’s a bit early to suggest that Newport Pagnell Town could be seriously challenging for the United Counties League championship this season, but
results so far are looking good and a finish somewhere near the top of the league seems a very realistic target. After an opening day defeat at Wisbech, Newport have taken 13 points from the next five matches to move to fifth in the UCL Premier Division, with a game in hand on all the teams above them. The outcome of league leaders Kirby Muxloe’s visit to Willen Road on 10th October should give some indication of whether Newport can be serious title challengers this season. The only dropped points in five league matches came in a 1-1 draw at home to Cogenhoe in a scrappy midweek match at Willen Road on a wet and slippery pitch. Lucasz Filipiak, coming into the starting line-up as a replacement for the unavailable Sam O’Neill, scored Newport’s goal with an excellent finish from a difficult angle. Newport had an opportunity to win the match late in the second half, but saw a Josh Crawley penalty saved. The penalty incident saw a Cogenhoe player sent off and they were reduced to nine men by another red card shortly afterwards, but it was too late for Newport to take advantage of their opponents’ reduced numbers.
Previous league results in recent weeks were two home wins, 2-0 against Rothwell
Corinthians and 2-1 against Eynesbury Rovers, and then a 4-1 win away at Harrowby in a game which saw all five goals scored in the 20 minutes before half time.
There have been mixed fortunes in cup competitions. The first team went out of the FA Cup and FA Vase in two close matches in less than a week. After a 1-1 draw against AFC Dunstable in the FA Cup at Willen Road, Newport lost the replay at Dunstable 2-1, to a very late goal. In the FA Vase, Newport dominated the first half of the home match against local rivals Kempston Rovers but could not score, despite hitting the woodwork three times, and it was Kempston who scored twice in extra time to win the match 2-0. There was better news for the Under 18 team, which had an excellent 3-2 win over a good
Uxbridge team in Preliminary Round of the FA Youth Cup at Willen Road. With both teams showing a lot of skill and trying to play fast attacking football, this was a very entertaining match for the 70 or so spectators who turned out to support the club’s youth players. By the time you read this the Under 18s will have played their next match in the competition, with a long midweek evening journey down to Bedfont Sports, near to Heathrow airport.
Forthcoming home matches (all UCL Premier Division):
T
he volunteers of the coffee shop held their half yearly meeting at the end of July.
They were pleased to present a cheque for £5,000 to Alison Waterhouse from the Hospice. This brings the total amount raised for Willen Hospice since 1983 to £205,980. A wonderful amount for tea, coffee and cake.
We have to thank our customers and, of course, our teams of volunteers for this achievement.
The coffee shop is totally dependent on its volunteers. At the moment we are urgently in need of three volunteers. Two to work on alternate Thursdays and one to join a team on Tuesday, from 9.15am until 12.30pm.
NPTFC Serious Challengers for UCL Championship
Sat 10 Oct:
Sat 17 Oct:
Tue 27 Oct: Welingborough Town (7.45pm) Sat 31 Oct: Northampton Spencer (3.00pm)
Phonebox Magazine 83
Kirby Muxloe (3.00pm) Wisbech (3.00pm)