Two weeks ago, John Stancombe visited his 1,640th non-league ground, Sandbach Football Centre, the home of the North West Counties club Sandbach United. As a level of commitment to the distinctly football-obsessed pastime of groundhopping that is quite some milestone, but what makes this resolute 46-year-old extraordinary by any measure is that he is completely blind.
“This is my 10th football season being totally blind,” Stancombe says. “I haven’t been able to see since 2006. So when that happened, I sat indoors for a year and really didn’t do anything. I could no longer go anywhere and had to rely on someone else to help me.
“I got a bit depressed or low, whatever the word is. Basically you’re stuck on your own with four walls. I could no longer see to type my match reports. I can no longer do that so I had to speak into a tape recorder. You do lose confidence in life being blind. Until you can comprehend it, you will never appreciate what I’m talking about.”
On match day, Stancombe sets off for his chosen ground with a good couple of hours to spare before kick-off. He is then escorted around the perimeter by a volunteer, who explains the intricacies of the stadium: the number of floodlights, length of grass, diameter of the clubhouse, the detail of the sky and the size, colour and quantity of stands. This helps John create a picture of the ground in his mind.
Stancombe also arranges with the club for a commentator to sit with him, describing the play on a voluntary basis. From this he has been able to keep a fastidious record of the games attended, released in an annual book. He has been producing match reports for around 30 years, an interest which began when he followed Wimbledon.
“I started doing match reports after meeting two Wimbledon supporters who were doing the same for a publication called the Dons’ Outlook. So, after I left Blind School at 16, I thought I’d like to give that a go. I got my blind bus pass and went to Isthmian League grounds around the M25, recording games. It was through the Job Centre where I found that there was a course for the blind. It was there I was taught assisted software, so now I am able to write match reports again after becoming totally blind. Although, as the game is recited through someone else, my writing is through somebody else’s perception.
“As a groundhopper you’re neutral; it doesn’t really matter who wins. If the club has treated me well, commentated well, then I would hope for their team to win – but you’ll find as you go up the steps [the level of football], the clubs look at you as if you’re just another person, a number making up the crowd. It varies from club to club. You do get the odd journalist or radio presenter to come and assist you by commentating but it puts pressure on them if they’re not used to doing it.”
The 2015-16 season forms book 29 of his collection, accounting for matches 1,575 to 1,614. In it he details everything from the attendance, price of the programme and number of pages of advertisements in the programme to club colours, whether the clubhouse has a bar and TV and even whether it has adjoining toilets or dressing rooms.
This attention to detail stems, he says, from a great affection for the game. Stancombe recalls it was through his father came his obsession for football – and the dark side that comes with it.
“It was following Wimbledon with my father where I fell in love with football. My parents are both registered blind too; my father is partially sighted and my mother was fully blind. We lived in Balham, south London, and this was around the same time of the hooligan era. So then it became difficult for my father to take his partially sighted son to watch football games.
“The police during the time we were in the lower leagues, well, we could have a laugh with them. But as soon we got to the First Division, I don’t know whether the police just thought: ‘Oh, Wimbledon, just another south London club like Chelsea and Millwall at the time’ – but, let’s be fair, the Wimbledon players were probably more trouble than the supporters ever were.
“One day in particular at Derby, I remember the trouble. The policemen held us in for half an hour after the game, then we got frogmarched back to the train station. There must have been 30 of us supporters walking back to the station, led by about 50 police. Now, talk about overkill. That was just intimidation. It came to a point where I just didn’t enjoy it any more. This is why I moved on to non-league. I prefer the camaraderie of non-league, the friendship and the passion of the game. Like here at Sandbach United, you’ll find that players want to play for the love of the game, rather than how much money they can get in their back pocket.”
Because of the amount of planning and preparation that goes into attending matches, Stancombe is happy to take in more than one in a day if they are near to each other. “I once did three games in one day when I was down in Cornwall. Now for a normal groundhopper that’s not uncommon, but you got to realise the intensity of me having to memorise the train times. Travelling becomes very tiring. As I can’t see, I have to rely on the other senses, but trouble is that I am hard of hearing also, plus I can’t smell.”
Rather than his affiliation with football being simply an enjoyable hobby, Stancombe concedes that it is now more of a necessity, a way of having a purpose in life. “I do this otherwise I would just be sat in my local pub all the time. When you’re at home on your own as a blind person, you just fall asleep on and off. It comes more to the point now of just getting myself out the house, really. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. Just because I’m fully blind now, why should I stop doing it? I’ve got various health issues, but as long as there are clubs who are willing to assist me, I’ll endeavour to carry on groundhopping.”
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion