FA Vase Preview

The League finds itself with four clubs in the last 32 of the FA Vase, a situation that has never happened before, so well done to Camberley Town, Hartley Wintney, Knaphill and Sutton Common Rovers.

The draw for the 4th Round which used to be a completely national draw, but now remains regional to an extent, has nevertheless thrown up some interesting ties, which are due to be played on Saturday 9 January or over that weekend.

Firstly, Camberley Town will be meeting opposition from the Essex Senior League, in the shape of FC Romania, who ground share at Cheshunt FC. They currently sit in 4th place in their league and will be remembered for going mighty close against Sutton United in the FA Cup last season, eventually losing by the narrow margin of 2 goals to 3. As their name suggests, they are a club composed of mainly Romanian exiles and indeed, much of their website is in Romanian. It is a journey of around 59 miles each way for Camberley.

Hartley Wintney have been favoured with a home draw and will entertain Wiltshire based Bradford Town from the Toolstation Western League. They are currently 8th in their table, with 8 wins and 7 defeats from their 17 league matches to date. On paper, one would imagine that Hartley will have a good chance of progression, standing as they do, right at the top of the CCL but Bradford did well last season to reach the 5th Round of the competition and one suspects there will be no easy matches at this stage of the competition.

Knaphill have drawn a tough encounter away to Kidlington from Oxford. They play in the Hellenic League and sit in 2nd place at the moment, having lost just two league matches. In an earlier round, they defeated CCL Ashford Town after a replay but Knaphill are bang on form at the moment and will doubtless relish the task.

Finally, Sutton Common Rovers do not yet know their opponents, only that they will be away to either FC Broxbourne Borough or Bowers & Pitsea, who accounted for Hanworth Villa in an earlier round. Broxbourne are down in 18th place at present in the Spartan South Midlands League whilst Bowers & Pitsea, another Essex League club are 6th in their table and another with just two league defeats all season. The match was rained off at Broxbourne on both Saturday and Tuesday and now seems scheduled for next Wednesday 23 December.