theimps.tk Ground Guide Part 1
Swansea City's Vetch Field
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Swansea City's Vetch Field
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Dates Visited This Ground
 
25/1/2003 - Swansea 2 Lincoln City 0
4/10/2003 - Swansea 2 Lincoln City 2
 
Those of you who were surprised about my comments about grounds such as Belle Vue or Boothferry Park will get a return to normality now as we get to one of my least favourites grounds that thankfully, I never have to visit again. I do have some good memories of the Vetch Field, such as myself and my friend Grundy being bored due to the coach getting there 3 hours early, so we went around pretending to be Irish, it was amusing for about 10 seconds.
 
Both times I went to the Vetch, the coaches left Sincil Bank at 8am and both times, we got to Swansea at 12noon including a stop of 45 minutes, it was surreal, getting to a ground that's 250 miles away quicker than grounds considerable closer such as Orient, Southend and Wrexham. This often left time to go around the area surrounding the ground and there were a few pubs around the area that let us play pool in there until their local yobs came along and then we were asked to leave.
 
Anyway, back to the ground, I have been in 2 different stands at the Vetch. The first stand behind the goal was a huge terracing that was very very shallow which was unfortunate because the only place to get a decent view, was right at the front but no matter where you stood in the stand, the view of the other end of the pitch was diabolical. The amusing thing about this stand is the catering. Towards the right hand side of the stand was a coffee jar shaped hut, and if you wanted anything, you had to stick your hand about 3 feet through a hole in the fence to reach this.
 
The second end that we had been in, was the stand to the right hand side of the terrace and it was a very very very small seating area that ran the length of the pitch. It was only about 6 rows high and despite being a side on view, being stuck a very small corner of the stand meant that the view was indeed worse than the terracing. This catering department was even more bizarre in this stand. It was quite literally just an alcove dug out into the wall. The toilet facilities were also undesireable, 2 portacabins.
 
The other stands at the ground were, to put it frank, butt ugly. The stand behind the FARRRRRRRRR goal was an indication of Welsh efficiency. They had started to build a new stand at that end but had to stop 2/3 of the way when they released that they would have to buy up people's houses, something that the owners of those houses didn't want to do. The stand is huge, it has a tiny bit of terracing at the bottom but has a massive seating section above this that looks very very sparse.
 
The final stand was a pitch length terrace that was easily the best stand at the ground and that was saying something. One thing I was always curious about was how empty this ground looked when they were only getting crowds of around 3,000 a few years ago.
 
The atmosphere at the Vetch was rather amusing and fairly loud. In my visits, there are 2 chants that stick to memory. One was "2-0 to the Sheep Shaggers" and the other was "Have you ever seen your ****", directed at Sid. Talking of Sid, apparantly when we went 2-0 in the 2003/4 season, the cameras turn to the away end and you can see Sid pretending to fuck his inflatable sheep that he'd brought to the ground.
 
Overall, I though the Vetch, for lack of a better word, was shite and I am delighted that we never have to visit this ground again.

swans.jpg
THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY PICTURES OF THIS GROUND

SCORES

 

Overall Ground Quality : 2

Ease of getting there : 1

Atmosphere : 8

Programme : 7

View of Action : 1

Terrace Nutterage Factor : 3

The "football" feeling : 7

Friendliness of Home Supporters : 7

Quality of the game : 1

Chances of Coming Here For a Random Game : 0

 

Overall : 33/100