16 September 2017
Killing two birds with one stone (or, if you're German, two flies with one swat) that's what this weekend was all about. It's also Swiss cup weekend and FC Winti have a tie with plenty of banana-skin potential in Delémont. But we covered "La Blanchèrie" many moons ago so a different stadium was needed. Why not promotion league newcomers, Bavois? We'd actually planned this one as it also gave us the chance to meet up with our friends from Basel II.
Mrs Duck had the excellent idea of combining the Swiss 36 trip with Winti's match in Delémont, meaning we only came about a third of the way back to Winterthur and meaning that I'm writing this one propped up comfortably in a quiet hotel room.
Strangely, with the rest of the organization, things weren't quite as well thought out. I was hustled out of the house because we were only just going to make the 5:00 pm kick off before having to dash back for match tickets. We then found that we did have more time than we thought because of a sudden inability to tell the time that had struck Mrs Duck (good news actually as we had time to get some food for the train).
Even on the train, we soon saw we were still going to arrive 90 minutes before kick-off, a little unnecessary as we weren't anticipating a 50k plus crowd (nearer 50 plus actually). So what do you do in Bavois for 90 minutes?
Absolutely nothing, it's only a village of a few thousand people. Fortunately this piece of information was supplied to us by Schieri-Leroy, a referee who we met on the train. He was on his way to Yverdon where he was running the line in Yverdon's match with Sion II. He was good company on the long journey, which as a result went quickly. To burn a bit more time, we went on to Lausanne before traveling back up to Bavois.
Leroy was actually wrong about Bavois. The population is actually 946 according to the community website. However he was quite correct in that there's nothing there!
So here's a community of less than 1000 who have a football team playing in the third flight of Swiss football at a ground in the village! Credit where credit is due, that's impressive! But is their stadium? Points time.
Getting There.
9/10. Absolutely no problem. The S1 train runs every hour between Grandson and Lausanne. If you're coming by train, you'll most probably arrive either via Lausanne or Yverdon. You get can this train from either city. You can see the ground from Bavois station - it's about a 3 minute walk.
Friendliness.
8/10. Nice people work at the club. Exactly what we have come to expect from the small clubs.
Safety
3/10. Yes - unfortunately the tiny clubs get caught out in this category and it is tough on them. Once again the ground does everything the club need. But there's no segregation and behind one of the goals there's a rather deep hole. Were Bavois to get a big cup-tie, they'd struggle here or perhaps they'd need to borrow a stadium for the evening. It would certainly be tough for them to get a license at the next level, but then again, Bavois are already punching over their weight.
View
3/10. You've got to love that stand which proudly bears the name "Tribune principalé". I guess if it's the only stand, it must be the main stand. Anyway, that seats 74 people (I just counted) not including the press area at the back. Other than that, we have a pitch with a barrier around it. No raised areas so any sort of crowd could have spectators struggling to see. Behind one of the goals is also not good due to high fences. But again with Bavois' normal attendance good enough.
Atmosphere
2/10. Friendly enough but no atmosphere to speak of. Really difficult though as I think the attendance would struggle to reach the 200 mark.
Refreshments
8/10. The obligatory sausages grilled on a barbecue as usual and mine was very tasty. As for drinks, well the ground has a very nice restaurant which has a full selection at the bar. The food in the restaurant looked great although we didn't try any. We tried their wine though. We liked their wine!
Overall
33/60. A proud club with every right to be proud.
The Match
After having the young Baslers hammering at their door for the opening 10 minutes, Bavois seemed to find their feet, and what followed was an entertaining 0:0.
In all honesty, we didn't do so much watching the match, a shame really, because what I did see was good. Instead we were chatting with our Basel II friends, Schippi, Stanley and Sützi. While keeping our eye on the days cup ties. The notable upsets were Schaffhausen - leaders of the challenge league being shown the cup exit door by Münsingen, a team two flights below them while Super League Sion were embarrassed by FC Lausanne Ouchy of the promotion league 2:1 after extra time. We'd watched Ouchy get soundly beaten by Basel II just a month ago! That's why fans love the cup.
So back to that restaurant for a few wines before moving on. I'll not get too smug about Sion or Schaffhausen until after Winti's match.
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