Bath City FC - Twerton Park
A Words and Pictures Project.
Bath City V Taunton Town
Friday 7th April, Good Friday
A Somerset derby, full of anticipation, clear blue skies, fluffy white clouds and warm temperatures meant the outside bars where busy and the stands were full (ish). A strangely flat performance from Bath though meant Taunton went home with the 3 pints without much fuss, lord knows why, though he undoubtedly had other things on his mind.
Highlights
2 pints of Thatchers (no food today)
Jane Austen in the Shed
East Bound Freight Train over the viaduct
Bath City v Eastbourne Borough
Saturday 7th January
2 new loan players to watch, a chance of a pint before the game and a wet and windy weather forecast drew me towards Twerton today. Bath played well and deserved the win, though I didn’t manage to catch any goal celebrations, Photography is all about working with light, or in this case the lack of it. As soon as it stated to rain, I knew the photos I would take would be mainly of wet concrete, corrugated iron and space.
Bath City V Hungerford
8th Oct 2023
Good to be back, my first game of the season. Work has been hectic so no time for hobbies at the weekend till now. So so nice to be on the terraces again.
Started the game with a cheese burger with hot chilli sauce, lush !
Managed to photograph Bath’s first equaliser while holding a camera and eating a burger !
New bar in the corner of the Bath End. Seemed to be working nicely. I was a little worried that drinking during the game might effect the atmosphere but all looked, felt good.
Low sun, not sure I made the most of it photography wise.
Ah that penalty not given and Hungerfords last minute injury time winner, We all deserve better !
A poem for the end of the season. What do we do with our Saturday afternoons now...
On the field it’s been a difficult season, please don’t get relegated ( I don’t think they will ) but basically, for me and the majority of the 1000 plus crowd, Twerton Park is a pretty cool place to hang out. Whether your with friends, making friends, or standing in your favourite spot to watch the game alone and in your own thoughts, we love standing on those terraces. Please play the film above and listen to Jon’s poem, he’s a long time Romans fan, and speaks from the heart.
The Other Side of the Tracks
Twerton Park People.
A Words and Pictures Project - Season 2021-22
It’s not about the football. It’s about the fans, the community, your friends and your family. It’s about the journey, the tradition, the hope that sits with you all morning and up until the final note of the final whistle.
It’s about Saturday afternoons at Twerton Park..it’s all about belonging.
‘Below the tower’ refers to the Beckford Tower, which sits on the top of Lansdown Hill, and can be seen from Twerton Park, home of Bath City. The Tower was paid for by wealth accumulated from William Beckfords ownership of plantations and enslaved people. At every home match the players take the knee in support of Black Lives matter, and the fans applaud. Above is Jon Hamp’s great poem poem, photo by Neil Phillips.
It’s not just the score…
A poem for cold winter evenings, when we are happy to be under the lights. Set the Stage, a poem by Jon Hemp
Last Game of Season…
Bath City V Oxford City
Turned just after after half time, late because was stuck at work. The Kindly gate men let me in.
Sunny and warm, pressure off, smiles all around
no snacks !!!
Click on Pics to enlarge
Latest Game…
Bath City V Havant and Waterlooville
15th April 2022 (Good Friday)
0-0
Below are pics and a few notes on matches that I have visited this Season
Highlights
Mark holding his new born child. Baby Oakley attending his first Bath City game, having his Bath City baptism, like is other 3 children, barely a week old. Very proud.
Beautiful Easter weather.
Pint of Thatchers Gold, as the sun was shining.
The pain of the penalty award and the joy when it rattled the crossbar.
The 17.03 train to Penzance speeding over the viaduct as I walked back to the car ( I must get that train )
Click on Pics to enlarge and Scroll through
Bath City V Dulwich Hamlet
2nd April 2022
Highlights
Great Programme this week, loving the old school colours and design. Add to that the fact that the programme featured my photo of John Payne, who was celebrating his 77th Birthday. John is a life long Romans fan who has lots of stories and has written many pieces for the programme. He is always friendly, approachable and happy to chat.
A well earned point, down to ten men after 10 minutes, we could have won the game in the last few minutes.
A cheeseburger and cup of tea at the start of the game, always worth the wait in the queue.
Meeting Phil the Floodlight man. He caught me and a couple of Dulwich fans admiring the structures and wanted to know what we had spotted ( I think we was worried we spotted some kind of crack in the metal ! ). We told him we were admiring their beauty, he briefly looked at us with a puzzled expression on his face, then walked away scratching his head, though not before I took a photo of him standing below one of the mighty beacons. See pic below…
Bath City V Slough Town
16th March 2022
Highlights
Night games are always special, approaching Twerton and seeing the glow of the floodlights. Walking under the Railway arch, looking back and watching a goods train trundle pass by (this happened!). Buying an cup of tea, a Mars Bar and standing on the terraces.
The equaliser ! such a long time coming. but the celebations when Bath scored were amazing. It was pure relief.
I didn’t get so many pics tonight. Spent ages behind the goal waiting for Bath to score. It was worth it when they did, see below. I though it was important to include the old school dust bin in the Photo !
Bath City V Dorking Wanderers
12th Feb 2022
Highlights
The wonderfully observed one minutes applause for the young Bath City supporter, never to be forgotten.
The first pint of Guinness, slowly poured (about 5 minutes as the pubs were playing up ! :-) )
I thought the Dorking fans were a nice and colourful bunch, hope you don’t mind me including a couple photos of them.
Cheesburger before the game, cup of tea and Mars Bar at half time.
General chats and smiles with other fans.
Rain on the shed.
Bath City V Braintree Town
29th Jan 2022
Highlights
Charlie’s ran out of Guinness so enjoyed a lovely pint of Gem with Jon the Poet and friends.
Braintree’s amazingly vivid orange kit. Wow, it’s slightly influenced a few of my photos.
Really friendly group of Braintree fans. Just seemed to be having a the best time.
Half time cup of tea and mars bar.
Themes, Orange
CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE AND SCROOL THROUGH.
January Poem
Why Bath City FC ?
Stripes, Stripes, Stripes…
Late September afternoon, my car creeps into Bath, slowed by heavy traffic and clogged up car parks full of Saturday shoppers and Bath rugby fans. This famous and successful club draws in 13,000 fans every fixture. Before and after the game the pubs, restaurants and wine bars are filled are with fans . The fans have money to spare, and to be fair the they generate both a great income and atmosphere for the City of Bath
But I’m in Bath to watch football, not rugby.
This is a little new to me as my first love is Bristol City. But a year away from watching live football has made me rethink how I want to experience the game. I decided to try grassroots football. I wanted to stand on a terrace again, to have space and freedom while watching football. A trip to Twerton seemed to tick a lot of boxes. I’d spent a lot of time there in the 1990’s photographing a very good Bristol Rovers side who had temporarily moved in. It always struck me as a great place to watch football. Spruced up for the professional game, with the required health and safety in place, it still felt like a beautifully ramshackle and friendly place.
Almost 30 years on it hasn’t changed !
Bath City FC is a community club, run by volunteers and people who love the club. It’s friendly, welcoming and really tries hard to give it’s supporters a good deal and a great day out. Ok, it’s fairly rundown and in some areas desperately needs investment, but having said that, it’s charm and old school feeling is in the fading paintwork, tin roofs and crumbling brickwork ( Okay, that probably does need to be fixed! ). It has terracing, old school floodlights and a walk back to the car the includes a journey through leaky railway arch. It’s in the heart of the community and more importantly, welcome in the community, young and old. It wants to build something wonderful in Bath , something equal to those, who for some crazy reason, prefer the odd shaped ball.
So… as well as supporting the club, I want to create a photo document of the Club. The ground, its architecture, the fans and community, inside and outside of the club. I want to capture the spirit of the club and above all the emotional rollercoaster that the fan is put through every time they stand on the terraces. Emotions include joy, heartbreak, elation, despair, frustration, surprise and anger, resignation and that killer one Hope !
I’m in the process of getting official permissions from the club and as a thank you to some of the people that I’ve photographed I’ve been handing out free prints.
I hope everybody is ok with me carrying on with this project, I’m keen to promote Bath City and it’s fans in a positive way :-)
Bath City v Eastbourne Borough 22 Jan 2022
Highlights
Arriving early at Charlie’Bar and first pint of Guinness.
Trying to capture the warmth of the clubhouse.
Giving out some more free prints, chatting and making some new footy friends.
Meeting my first real Roman at Twerton.
Not missing the goals because I was in the bar !
Cup of tea and Mars bar at half time.
Photo Themes
Charlie’s Bar, Friends meeting, Stripes, Romans, Dogs (always Dogs :-) )
CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE, SCROOL THROUGH.
2nd Jan Bath City v Chippenham Town
Highlights
Big crowd and great performance. Over 2000 attended. Bath’s dominance kept the Chippenham fans quiet and kept our fans singing.
First pint of Guinness of the year and meeting ‘Jon the Poet’ in Charlies.
Lots of dogs today
Lots of families and half time kick abouts
Handing a few free prints out to fans. This seemed to go down well. I planned to hand out more but my website stamp on the back of the prints was smudging and turning the prints green! I need to rethink this.
Lowlights
No snacks today, the queues were a little long due to the bumper crowd.
Missing both goals due to going to Charlies Bar early to photograph half time drinks. So… I feel that my pics lack the general great and happy atmosphere of the game.
Themes include, arrival, half time, friendship and couples.
Images below, click on them to enlarge and see captions
Bath City v Hungerford Town 11th December 2021
Highlights
Christmas Celebrations, lots of colour angels, donkeys and Santas.
Bumping into one of my best Friends, Matt who popped down from South Stoke.
Lively atmosphere on the terraces due to good City performance and woeful refereeing display
Top chants, “we hate rugby, we hate rugby, we hate rugby” !
Lowlight - I left it late to buy lunch and the only thing left in the tea shack was a cheese twist. oh dear !
But… the free sample of goat curry on the way out made up for it.
Click on the image to enlarge and see in full
27th November 2021 FA Trophy Bath City v Dartford
( 0-0 Lost 4 5 on Penalties )
Highlights
My woolly hat, it’s flipping freezing!
Burger and Chips ( good chips but way too filling )
Hot cup of tea at halftime ( I was freezing by then, but the tea was strong and hot ), no Twix or Snicker bar ( too many chips earlier. ) Football is great on cold and windy days. It makes for a great atmosphere, a collective feeling of stoicism, i.e. we are going to enjoy this ( quite often endure ), despite the biting wind and woeful, sometimes unlucky finishing.
no extra time
Seeing Ken Loach walk the terraces.
Watching a mother desperately trying to keep her children warm, fathers and sons standing together on open terraces, leaning on breeze blocked walls, quiet, happy and together.
Watching the fans go out ( to Charlies Bar ) at half time, and watching come back in again, at just before the restart
Car finally starting after a panicky 20 minutes in the car park. My battery on my key fob had gone flat. It took a fair bit of hot breath and rubbing to warm it back to life.
Photographer’s notes….
Nikon D800, 35mm 2.8 and Nikkon 85mm 2.8
I’m becoming more familiar with the ground, it’s movements and heartbeat. I’m finding more sweet spots, where to linger, where to watch and wait. Though ultimately, I’ve a long way to go before the the pictures start to work for me. Generally confidence ebbs and flows, I’m enjoying the project though.
Click on the image to enlarge and see in full
20th November, Bath City v Concorde ( won 2-0) Community Day
Highlights
Pay what you want day so happy to pay some extra today, partly to give some money back after my free half time entry from Tuesday’s game.
Fiery cheeseburger with onions red sauce
Colin’s first goal celebration. He's been coming to the ground since 1973. (see pic below)
All generations enjoying the game together. I could do a whole photography series on different types of prams, pushchairs, not to mention the assortment of dogs who are made very welcome at this club. Twerton also has lots of nooks and crannies, quiet avenues, lots of places for the kids to have a kick about...
The club shop in the shipping container .
Second goal hitting the back of the net and crowd celebrations
Click on the image to enlarge and see in full
16th November Bath City v Hampton and Richmond Borough ( lost 1-3 )
Highlights
Twerton in Autumn Colour
My first experience of a City game under the floodlights.
Was late due to evening job in Merriett, near Crewkerne and photographing the ground from the park on the hill., the floodlights from the estate, and generally Twerton Park in autumn colour.
The friendly steward kindly let me in for free at halftime . At this point I knew that my decision to become a Bath City fan was a good one. I’m paying more on Saturday as a thank you.
A pasty and cup of tea at Half time. ( burger queue too long )
Meeting and photographing a Neil Young lookalike ( mid to late period Neil Young )
Witnessing my first Bath City goal.
The Bath City fans singing even though they were 3-1 down .
A kindly steward sharing his thoughts on the not so watertight City defence.
Listening to Gideon Coe on the radio and hearing the first single from Cola, a band to watch out for I’m sure.
Some Photos below… Click on the image to enlarge and see in full
23rd Oct Bath City V St Albans City (lost 0-2) Student Day
Highlights
Watching the students make full use of Charlie’s Bar
Cheese Burger, with onions, mustard and red sauce
Met Stuart and his 2 dogs at Half Time, A lovely bloke. Life long City fan who left his wedding reception early to catch the second half of a City home cup tie. His dogs have been known to make their own way down to the ground if he’s running late.
Bought my first match day prgramme. Stunningly old school black and yellow cover.
Took a fair selection of decent pics on my Sony A7siii, I seem to be favouring black and white today.
Click on the image to enlarge and see in full
25th Sept Bath City v Maidstone (lost 0-3)
Highlights
My First Game.
Parked outside the ground at 2.40pm
First pint in Charlies Bar, friendly and warm.
First Cheese Burger, with onions, Mustard and Red Sauce ( made a friend in the queue, a Maidstone fan. told me their coach was late due to the driver failing to navigate the railway arch!)
Saw the mascot, a pig, ( must find out why it’s a pig )
Cup of coffee at half time (£1)
Some iphone photos, pics below
