Bradford Olympics

Bradford Olympic  1  Palestino  3

West Riding County Amateur League – Premier Division

I’m well versed with Bradford.

I’ve lost count of how many different football grounds I’ve watched matches on over the years while following games in the West Riding and West Yorkshire League’s.

The mix has been very eclectic, from the delights of Salts in the historic suburb of Saltaire to the West of the City, to the rugged Tyersal in the East, and then of course urban central locations such as Field and Campion that are hemmed in by houses and industry.

Clubhouse & Dressing Rooms

In recent years my football watching in Bradford has tended to centre around clubs playing on 4G pitches at Universities, Schools or Leisure Centres, typically in the depths of Winter, but when an ailing West Riding County Amateur League announced that Bradford FC, who were now named Bradford Olympic following a merger with a successful Sunday side, would be playing at the Eccleshill Sports & Social Club on Harrogate Road, we had a proper football ground to visit.

The league had the foresight to arrange early kick offs on what is realistically the last midweek of non-floodlit football, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to go and have a look.

Atop The Bank

I’d seen Bradford FC play on a couple of grounds, the first being the picturesque sports ground at Esholt, where Emmerdale is of course filmed, and quite appropriately I managed a pint at the Woolpack. The second ‘home’ I saw then at was a 4G surface at a college close to the centre of the City, this after arriving at Thornton United to find the game was off, so it proved to be a handy rescue job for me.

But now, with a merger sorted, they had decamped to a ground that had been used previously by Victoria Rangers Rugby League, and prior to that it was a cricket venue. Entering down a drive into the car park, the pitch is set at the bottom of a steep bank. It’s fully railed off and has floodlights, but I’m not sure that they are operational nowadays.

Players Access

A clubhouse sits at the end of the car park, while the dressing rooms are built below the clubhouse on the bank, offering an elevated viewing area in front. Some old terracing lies alongside the dressing rooms, while it looks like a serious clean up and renovation job is well underway. Olympic appear to have found a venue that they want to turn into home.

It’s a curious venue, definitely in need of some tender loving care, not least to make it more aesthetically pleasing, but from a potential point of view it could be turned into a facility that could see the club make the Northern Counties East League.

In The Jungle......

Visiting Palestino are listed on the leagues website as PFC, and prior to that they were known as West Horton, a club that I blogged last year. I’m not sure why the change in name, or what the relationship of the club is with Palestine (forgive my naivety), but on the night they won a cross City local derby by three goals to one.

It was a feisty game at times, and both the second and third visiting goals had an element of comedy about them. The second saw two players clash in the middle of the pitch, and while various other players from the home side decided to throw their handbags into the equation, the PFC players who had possession played on, and with the referee not having blown his whistle, they strode forward and scored a simple goal completely unchallenged.  Olympic were furious, but the referee was spot on, and if playing to whistle was an apt phrase, then this was a perfect example.

The Old Try Line

The third goal, just after the break saw the hosts goalkeeper torn between picking the ball up and booting it clear, he did neither and the ball trickled into the net. The PFC bench found this highly amusing and quite how ‘Karius’ kept his cool given the stick he was taking is anyone’s guess!

At 3-0 they were coasting and despite a late goal for Olympic, it was a comfortable victory for the away side.

So that’s Bradford for another season, but I’m sure it will throw up a few more options to visit further down the line. It’s the nature of the beast.