Up for the Cup

Wednesday 30th November

East Riding County FA Senior Country Cup R3 

The Draw

I really enjoyed it tonight.  Having been invited to take part in the the draws for the quarter-finals of both the East Riding Senior Cup and the Senior Country Cup, which was broadcast live on Radio Humberside's "Sports Talk" programme (Mon-Fri 6-7pm), I also got the chance to give a bit of publicity the way of the club.  Which was nice.

And we got a home draw as well.  Which was nicer.  A good result all round then.

However, perhaps the most pleasing thing was that the final twenty minutes of a programme that is usually - and quite rightly of course - dominated by the professional clubs in the region was insted given over to grassroots football.

In fairness to host Gwilym Lloyd, he showed plenty of interest and no shortage of knowledge about the local game, while Scunthorpe United chief scout Lee Turnbull was, in the absence of Pete Smurthwaite, probably the perfect co-host given the close nature of his job to football at this level.  Throw in Hull Daily Mail sports Editor Paul Baxter, responsible for raising the profile of the East Riding clubs in the CML, and it was a decent group to give ERCFA Chief Executive Adam Lowthorpe and co a decent platform from which to preach to the masses...well, the "Sports Talk" listenership!

All in all I really enjoyed the experience as I'm sure did Pete Bilsdon of HPL side Hessle Rangers, also represented on tonight's programme.  Hopefully members of other clubs will get the same chance to gain some much-needed publicity for themselves in the future.

As for the draw itself, a side from a lower division at home - in the form of Division 1 outfit Driffield Rangers - is probably the best you can ask for.  It's also probably the most dangerous of draws as well...

FOOTNOTE: The full ERCFA Senior Country Cup Round 3 draw can be found here

FOOTNOTE 2: For a brief period (i.e. until 6pm tomorrow) you can listen to the programme on Radio Player.   The draws kick-in from about 39mins onwards...