Walking Football

Holbrook St Michaels Juniors  0  Willington Reserves   3

Midlands Regional Alliance – Division One

Work this one out, it’s your one thousand three hundred and sixty eighth football ground visited for a game, and it’s a ten minute walk from your front door!

You see, this is where the weird and wonderful eccentricities of Groundhopping are pushed to the limit, because I was going to spend my Saturday afternoon at a venue that I’ve played on, and, that I spent a large number of Friday night’s last winter watching Master Hatt train on.

It was with a sort of despair that I flicked through the Midlands Regional Alliance Directory at the start of the season and noted that Holbrook St Michaels Juniors were playing on the 3G surface at Belper Leisure Centre. You see, because I’d not seen a game played on it, and, because it is a league I always complete, I had to go and ‘do it’ as is the speak.

A midweek option did not offer itself at the start of the season, so I was left with no choice. I would be spending a Saturday where I could have been in any number of places, watching football just down the road in a cage, on a piece of land that I’ve stood on so many times before. So, I had to make the most of it, with all due respect to the two teams involved.

It was as I was walking across Whitemoor Recreation Ground, the current home of fellow MRA side Belper Sports, that something struck me. Belper and the locality is pretty well blessed for non-league football, all of which is within walking distance of the home I share with my fellow Hatt’s. Belper Sports I can get to in five minutes, Belper United Reserves equally so on Nailers Way. Holbrook St Michaels Juniors is the aforementioned ten minutes, while Christchurch Meadow, the home of both Belper Town and Belper United is circa twenty minutes from Casa Hatt.

If you want to stretch your walking to the 30-45 minute mark, you can also get to the grounds of Holbrook Sports and indeed Holbrook St Michaels. When I get old and can’t be arsed with driving all over the place for football, I think I might just resort to shank’s pony and watch the local games, all of which have pubs en-route to them.  I can think of worse things….

So what of the home of Holbrook St Michaels Juniors then? Well it’s a relatively modern floodlit caged 3G surface at the back of the Leisure Centre, and to access it you have to enter the building and make your way out of the back. Many years ago it used to be an old floodlit ‘Redgra’ surface that did your knees and elbows no good at all, and on a wet day was guaranteed to double the weight of your trainers due to the amount that would be caked on.

I used to train on it for RJN Juniors and then a few years later I played a game on it when Belper School Teachers took on a Belper Town Supporters side, whereby I played in goal for the Supporters.

More recently as I said earlier, I watched young Hatt train on it for many consecutive Friday nights, and not once sloping off to the bar for a pint during the process! Incidentally though, during the bad weather spell which felt like most of last season, Belper Town Academy used it for a game against Radcliffe Borough, and if I remember correctly the surface only just meets FA guidelines for size, but as far as the NPL Academy goes it turned out to be too small. Belper won the game but the visitors protested, the outcome of which I’m not sure on, but it transpired Radcliffe were aware before the game that it was undersize, so sour grapes maybe?

The game was being refereed by Steve Davies, a Walsall fan from Newhall who I first met many years ago as he was mates with my mate Steve (confused yet?). I’d never seen Steve referee a game before, and I’m pleased to say that the game itself went by without controversy and we managed to keep 22 players on the park. Well done Steve, great to catch up with you!

So what about the game? Well it turned out to be a reasonably comfortable win for the visitors who took the lead virtually on the stroke of half time through Tom Toon.  Two second half goals from the giant that is Rayon Martin secured the points against a young Holbrook side who never gave up, but 

lacked the killer pass and punch in the final third of the field.

It was noticeable how small the pitch was though, a goalkeepers clearance could easily make the opposite goal, while the gap between the edge of the penalty area and the touch line was only a few yards.

Back through the front door by 4pm, Jeff Stelling for the second half updates and a little snooze at the final whistles, I could get used to this walking to football lark!