Appreciation

Hilton Harriers   1   Mickleover Reserves   3

Central Midlands League – Premier Division South

The clock was ticking past 12.30, it looked bloody cold outside, and according to Twitter my game of choice in South Derbyshire was very much on.

The problem was, I was nice and warm, Mrs H had got some weird subtitled Korean film on called ‘Parasite’, and having joined it quite late it was making no sense at all to me. That said, it was quite entertaining, and for a few moments I did wonder about staying put, but having never once in my football watching years allowed the TV and the central heating to win over me when a game has beckoned out in the fresh air, I wasn’t about to start now.

The village of Hilton is not far from Casa Hatt, a short run down the A38 and onto the A516 in a Stoke-rly direction leads you to a place that has grown significantly over recent years thanks to a massive housing development. The proximity of Toyota, JCB, Rolls Royce and Bombardier as major centres of employment lead to the need for more housing, and as a consequence, the services in and around the village have struggled to cope to a certain extent.

Schooling is one facet of everyday life that has been stretched, and I know that well as my Sister was once the Deputy Head at the local Primary. A new school has been built, while on the edges of the housing developments have appeared commercial and retail outlets, notably you will find car supermarkets and the famous ‘King of Caravans’ but more on that one later!

I’ve not written a blog for a while, and to be honest that hasn’t been due to a lack of football, as I’ve been to a quite a few games recently. But those who know how this works know I only write about my ‘Football Tourism’ adventures when it involves a venue that hasn’t previously been scribed about. Plus, of course, I might have got myself on the naughty list in recent weeks, and it wouldn’t have been very sensible to advertise the fact………

Skipping back, Boxing Day involved a trip to the ‘El CarParkio’ derby game, in Derby, between Borrowash Victoria and Graham Street Prims. And to be fair it did whet my appetite for a football purge over the festive period, because of course, no one quite knows when it all might grind to a halt again, for possibly even the final time this season.

With the heater at it’s maximum blast of 28 degrees and the toasted seats on level three, the journey into Hilton was accompanied by the words of Michael Stipe, “When you’re sure you’ve had enough of this life, well hang on......”. 2021, please be better, but for now, we do hang on, maybe with our finger nails at times, but we hang on for when we can feel normal once again.

Track and Trace was completed and it was into one of the final car parking spaces at the Mease Pavilion, a vast expanse located on the edges of the housing development, incorporating a large brick built changing block and a couple of pitches, one of which was railed off and in use by the first team of Hilton Harriers.

I’ve been to the Mease once before, and it was back in April 2013 when Bradwell were the visitors in the Staffordshire County Senior League. Since then they made the move to the Central Midlands League in 2017 and have remained in the Premier Division South ever since. They are on the very edges of the CMFL footprint, albeit it’s not an insignificant footprint in that league. This in itself has been a huge challenge in recent weeks due to the tier system and the fact at Step 7 and below clubs cannot have players travelling between counties in Tier 3, so the beleaguered fixtures secretary has been busy re-arranging games so clubs could play against others from the same County.

The upshot of this is that Hilton were presented with a very local derby game against Mickleover FC Reserves, with Mickleover of course being the first suburb of Derby you get to heading East out of Hilton. Mickleover Reserves, the club previously known as Mickleover Sports Reserves, and this is where the ‘King of Caravans’ comes into the mix.

Don Amott’s business was set up over 50 years ago, and it is now widely recognised as one of the largest caravan and motor homes outfits in the UK, and those of us of a certain age will remember the adverts on ITV back in the early Eighties, the jingle of course which crowned Don as the ‘King of Caravans’. Find it on You Tube and then try to get it out of your head!

Don is a huge sports fan, previously he’s been Chairman of Derbyshire County Cricket Club, while he’s also been on the board at both Derby County and Burton Albion, whereas nowadays he happens to be the Chairman of Mickleover FC. You have to say as well that under his stewardship Sports have moved forward tremendously. They dropped the ‘Sports’ suffix, they intend to rotate the pitch 90 degrees and install a 4G surface, while as we speak, they sit top of the Premier Division of the Northern Premier League, with the Conference North more than just a pipe dream away.

Don was watching the game today, along with another local legend, former Rams, Forest and Scotland midfielder Archie Gemmill. Archie has won three First Division titles, one European Cup, two League Cups and with it 43 International Caps. Of Course, his greatest moment in front of the Tartan Army came in June 1978 when he scored a quite magnificent solo goal to put the Scots 3-1 up against the Netherlands. The goal is rated as one of the greatest ever in a World Cup match.

Local celebrities aside, a crowd of around 120 were in place for what turned out to be a very good game of football indeed. Mickeover took a first half lead, but then found themselves down to ten men following a straight red for bringing down an attacker bursting through on goal.

This galvanised the hosts and they did force an equaliser early in the second half, but after that Mickleover re-grouped, and with some very talented youngsters in their side they re-took the lead with a powerful header from a corner. The scoring was over in the closing stages when a searing drive from the edge of the box found the back of the net before the goalkeeper had chance to move. Bobby Battison, Gus Williamson and Tom Eccleshall were the scorers for Mickleover.

To be fair to Hilton though, they played some good stuff and on another day they could have got something out of the game. 

With snow forecast, plus a Tier review on Wednesday which could quite easily see large parts of the Midlands moved into Tier 4, it may well be that the blog has to lie dormant for a period of time again. The 2020-21 football season is hanging by a very thin thread right now, and to be honest, I’m struggling to get my head around the possibility that the season could be drawn to a premature closure in January. I mean, surely we can’t have to wait until July again before we can watch a ball kicked?

Trips to Ireland, Football Weekends in Holland and Germany, Easter in Cornwall, pre-season in Devon, and of course, the Megabus to London, they’ve been missed, missed like you’ll never appreciate.

That’s a good word, ‘appreciate’, we won’t be taking that for granted again will we?    

The Rules

Fernwood Foxes   3   Elston United   2

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two South

I’m really not sure if I was supposed to be at this game?

I mean, football has started again, and apparently anything that was at Step 7 (as was) or below could admit spectators, according to the first announcement, but then, we got another announcement on the eve of the next set of scheduled fixtures suggesting that while it would be very difficult for spectators to be stopped from watching at these levels, it was not to be encouraged?

Then, I saw on Saturday morning a local club advertising that entry to their Step 7 game would be £3, however, spectators were encouraged not to attend! Mental……

Add into the mix the Tier system which has quite clearly shafted the North of England, unless of course you live in parts of North Yorkshire, Cheshire or Cumbria, and then suddenly it becomes debateable about where you can travel anyway. Is Tier 3 to Tier 3 ok? Is it not ok if you go via Tier 2? Tier 3 to Tier 2 is a no go, but can you go Tier 2 to Tier 3? I’m buggered if I know?

Of course, if it’s for work purposes then of course you can travel, and that’s why we had further chaos at Steps 3 to Steps 6 because for the players it was classed as work, but, if you were in Tier 3 it had to be behind closed doors, which quickly became apparent it wasn’t happening for both financial and moral reasons.

But, if you play football below Step 6, and were in Tier 3, you could not leave your County to play football, and this, again, caused chaos in local leagues as not all teams were in the same Counties, and indeed, neither were all of the players!

It was a mess, to be frank, and as I write this we’ve had a further change to the rules around spectators, which means a load of clubs have postponed two weeks worth of fixtures for no apparent reason now, and instead we’ve got a bunch of friendlies, that, were initially behind closed doors, but now aren’t!

Then of course, we’ve got the review of tiers on Wednesday anyway, when it could change again?

So, it was Saturday morning and I quite simply thought, “f*** It!”, I’m going to a football match!

I worked on the principal that the Newark Derby between Fernwood Foxes and Elston United wouldn’t fall foul of the fact one of the teams was based in a different County, and therefore couldn’t travel the mile or so to the game. I also assumed the players would be all local lads anyway and that rule wouldn't come into play either. 

I’d been meaning to head to Fernwood for a while but for a variety of reasons this season it hasn’t happened (I won’t list them all, you can imagine what they are though). The Foxes joined the Notts Senior League at the start of the campaign, and while the village of Fernwood is just off the A1 to the South of Newark, the club is based to the North of the town centre at the Lincoln Road Playing Fields.

It’s a touch tricky to find, my technology took me into the town centre, and then out again in a northerly direction, just over the railway line where Newark Northgate Station is, before turning right into a housing estate.

The playing fields are the East edge of the estate, down a narrow entry to the car park, and once inside you’ve got a large expanse of pitches with a brick built facility in the centre of it. The site is then flanked further to the North and East by the large Newark Business Park.

With two sets of players warming up, it was game on, on what was a chilly but dry day, and in terms of spectators I would say around 20 or so had turned up for what I guess can be described as the ‘other’ Newark Derby. With games between Town and the club formerly known as Flowserve being the major event, albeit that is taking a break as the newly named Newark FC embark on a rapid rise up the pyramid. Town, however, seem keen to try and at least stay on their coat tails.

So, Fernwood v Elston, how did it play out?

Very decent game to be fair, the hosts were leading 2-0 at half time, and then made it 3-0 just after the break thanks to a penalty. The goals coming from Callum Chilvers, Darik Samson and William Taylor. However, as the game moved into it’s closing stages goals from Harry Johnson and Jake Ledbetter narrowed the deficit to just one goal, leading to quite a frantic finish.

Fernwood hung on though for only their second win of the season against a previously unbeaten Elston side. And, from my point of view, I wasn’t ejected, arrested or indeed made to feel unwelcome at any stage, but even so, I’m still not 100% sure if I should have been in attendance?

I write a blog though, is that not technically work? That said, the wages aren’t very good if I’m being honest…….

Hiatus

Blurton Reds Under 17s   1   Hanley Town Under 17s   12

North Staffordshire Youth League – Under 17 South

It’s bloody depressing isn’t it?

Ok, so he’s put a timeline on it, we will be out of the lockdown period early December, but the sceptic in me has a feeling that won’t quite be the end of it. It can’t be that straightforward or that predictable, and as regards playing football again, depending on the level you are at, are players going to take to the field without any training? I doubt it.

Yes, I’ll be honest, while I grudgingly accept we’ve probably got no option if we want to stop the NHS collapsing, at the same time, I also perhaps have to accept that I might not see another game again in 2020.

Blurton Reds were on the radar, newcomers to the Staffordshire County Senior League. Blurton is an area of Stoke on Trent, and as regular blog readers will know, my alma mater was in the Potteries and I know the area well as a result, but Blurton is a place I’ve known of since I was a child.

We were on holiday in Weymouth, me and my Sister, Mum and Dad, Grandma and Grandad, our other Grandma, plus of course Aunty and Uncle. We travelled by train, a proper entourage, and I can remember in our Hotel, as you do, you get to meet other kids.

“Where are you from?” was always my first question, only I knew where places were because I liked looking at maps, and I knew all about football teams, although I distinctly remember losing an argument on the train on the way down with my Dad. We were approaching Southampton and he asked me to name Southampton’s nickname, I said Red Devils, I was convinced, he told me that was Manchester United and the name I should have said was Saints. I wasn’t having any of it, until we were rolling into Southampton Station and the name was sprayed onto a wall!

He won, but I digress, kids and all that, anyway, a couple of kids in our hotel told us they were from Blurton, which as far as I was concerned should have been Burton, but clearly they couldn’t speak properly! Anyway, once again I was put straight, it was part of Stoke, fair enough, and strangely they were on the same train back as us the following weekend, getting off at Burton on Trent ironically!

Fast forward from 1980 to present day, I spotted that Blurton Reds played at St Thomas More Catholic Academy, which is an institution just off the A50, virtually on the interface between Longton and Blurton. Along with Socially Distanced Steve, we had a look at how many teams they had and who else might play at the venue, and it came to light that they had an Under 17s side that played on a Sunday afternoon in the North Staffs Youth League.

I was going to go a couple of weeks previously but a double check on the morning of the game showed they were at home to FC Werrington, but on closer inspection the opponents had got a 100% losing record, all by walk over, so I decided not to bother travelling as a result. Seems FC Werrington are based at a Young Offenders Institution so I guess in the current climate, playing football isn’t practical.

I’m always a bit nervous about Youth / Sunday games, mainly because of short notice changes to kick offs and venues that aren’t going to be reflected on league websites. But thankfully, despite quite a bit of rain being around on the Sunday morning, pulling into the car park at the academy I could see quite clearly that a game was about to take place.

Blurton Reds is a FA Charter Standard club that has numerous teams under it’s umbrella. Youths, children, adults, ladies, the whole spectrum of options are available to anyone who wants to play football, and from looking at the clubs website and social media it was clear to see what the club is all about.

Base wise, as I’ve said, they play at the school, and to be fair the grass pitch that sits behind the main buildings was in good condition despite the constant rain. This looks to be the first season the club have moved into Saturday adult football and what they have at their disposal from a facilities point of view is more than adequate.

However, today was about the youth, so how did it pan out?

Not very well if I’m honest, league leaders Hanley Town arrived in confident form with a 100% record to their name, and they went on to win the game at an absolute canter. It was hard on Blurton because sometimes, especially at youth level, you come up against a team that is some distance better than you, and that can be hugely demoralising for the players.

But, to be fair to Blurton, they plugged away, and while disheartened, clearly, they never threw the towel in and they fought to the end. I would also say that they scored the best goal of the game with a fine volley, it was just unfortunate that Hanley found the net twelve times at the other end.

I felt for Blurton, but it was a tough lesson, Hanley had some very good players and looked a well drilled side who’d played together for some time. They’ll bounce back, I’m sure.

Let’s just hope all of football can bounce back in December, then run through uninterrupted to May, and we can see seasons concluded.

So, that’s me done for now, have a good lockdown everyone, stay safe, and, don’t hoard bog roll!

Lock, Stock & A Smoking Gun

Burton Khalsa   0   FC Sunnyhill   9

Midlands Regional Alliance – Division Two

“Could everyone please stop getting shot?”

A classic line from Guy Ritchie’s ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, and while not a laughing matter or indeed something to take lightly, I just want to say….

“Could everyone please stop catching Covid?”

I know, it’s not that simple, and no, of course people don’t have a choice about whether they get shot or indeed catch Trumpy’s ‘China Virus’, but it hasn’t half proving to be bloody problematic!

It’s been a funny few days, clearly the problem is escalating by the day, the government is coming under increasing pressure and with leaked press reports that a national lockdown is imminent, I suspect football is about to grind to a sudden halt.

In terms of Saturday’s games, we had the usual plethora of Covid cancellations, then add in of course the fixture changes due to clubs being in Tier Three, and the spectator restrictions that go with that and you suddenly found the list shrinking.

Oh, and of course it decided to piss it down, so as the morning wore on we saw postponements hitting the airwaves.

I had a plan though, and it was simple enough. Burton Khalsa were due to be at home with a 2pm kick off, and with neither them or the away team putting anything out on social media I took the view to simply have a wander down and see what was happening. If it was off, then I had a 3pm kick off on plastic at Cannock United, which incidentally happened to be where Socially Distanced Steve headed to after initially arriving at a game in Mansfield only to find nothing doing.

Burton Khalsa are a new name in the Midlands Regional Alliance this season, but, my sources tell me that they are the club formerly known as Real Medina who were also in the MRA last time around.

When I say last time around, Medina played at Shobnall Sports & Social Club on Shobnall Road, a ground where I saw Stretton Eagles play a few years ago, but to be fair, I’d seen Medina play at both Eton Park Recreation Ground and Hillfield Playing Fields previously. So, I incorrectly assumed I’d seen football on every available piece of grass in Burton Upon Trent, but apparently not!

It seems there is a football pitch on St Luke’s Recreation Ground, in Horninglow, which is on the West side of the A38, and it’s at that venue where Khalsa have pitched up for the current campaign. Now to be fair, despite the fact that it was slinging it down, I was quietly confident the game would be on, only because SDS went earlier in the season on an equally wet day and said the pitch was superb in terms of drainage, but, the proof would be in the pudding!

As I drove down towards Little Eaton and on to Markeaton I did think to myself that the game would be off, the rain was torrential, monsoon like, lakes were forming on the road and herons were circling looking for fishes in the puddles. But, weirdly, as I got down towards the A50 it changed beyond recognition, we had blue skies and sunshine. Just as I was approaching the entrance to the car park, with the entrance on my left, I was forced to stop as a cavalcade of cars came the other way, it was the players of FC Sunnyhill in convoy. They hadn’t quite got a police escort, but nothing was stopping them getting the last few parking spaces, so I sat back and waved them in!

We had a game then, no need to head to Cannock!

The football pitch sits at the top end of the recreation ground, at the summit of a slight slope so you can see why it drains so well. It is quite a large space as well, while to the side of it is the De Ferrers Academy, which back in my day was probably called a school.

So, with two sets of players and a referee in place, we got on our way, with visiting FC Sunnyhill from Derby also a new side in the league this season, and for that matter a side that was doing better in the table after half a dozen games.

To be honest, the game was as one sided as you’ll see. Sunnyhill took an early lead after about a minute and I’ve got to be truthful, it was pretty much one way traffic for the rest of the game. They went in 5-0 up at the break, and by now the Khalsa players were falling out with each other at regular intervals.

We got to 9-0 with around ten minutes to go and I was confident we’d see double figures, but it wasn’t to be, despite two disallowed goals that would have made the difference. Sometimes the club linesman and his offside flag can be all you need to keep the goal difference down!

Sunnyhill to be fair looked a decent side and they’d got some good players, whereas Khalsa looked awful. That said though, they had won their previous two games so they were hardly the whipping boys of the league, but, having lost a game 8-1 as well this season you sense that when it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong.

Boris was due on telly later that night, and while he perhaps wasn’t going to go as far as to ask us all to stop catching Covid, he was highly likely to ask us to stop going out. Fair enough Boris, you’re probably right, but maybe just let us have a couple more games before we try to save Christmas?

Education

Leek CSOB   2   Audley   1

Staffordshire County Senior League – Premier Division

The road from Ashbourne to Stoke-on-Trent is one that stirs so many memories every time I drive down it.

You see, from September 1991 through to the Summer of 1994 I was a student at Keele University, and during that era the A50 wasn’t the road it is now, so for me, the easiest way of getting to the Potteries was the scenic route.

I used to love the drive, climbing out of Belper and then through Hulland Ward to Ashbourne, before then heading up the hill through Swinscoe and dropping a left onto the A52. That road then took you through the villages of Whiston, Froghall and Kingsley before you started to enter the outskirts of Stoke, going through places like Cellarhead and Werrington, before eventually dropping down onto the Leek Road, almost opposite the Northwood Stadium.

I still love it now, and I make no excuses for it, sometimes if I have a choice of games to go to, I’ll deliberately select one that takes me that route, especially midweek as there’s something quite atmospheric about doing it in the dark!

I had a couple of options on a cold and wet Wednesday night, but, knowing that the easiest route to Leek CSOB was going to take me a good way along that route, it won the day over the alternative game at Eccleshall.

You can get to CSOB’s Pointon Park in Cheddleton by heading up to Leek and dropping down out of the town, but I elected to follow my preferred route and then head up via Wetley Rocks, just before you got to the junction at Cellarhead. It was a quiet but enjoyable journey, and to be honest, in just over 45 minutes after leaving home, I was parking up.

This wasn’t a new venue for me, I first went to Pointon Park when it was newly opened, back in March 2015 when they played what was I think their first game under floodlights, ironically against Keele University. It could have been even more ironic as the floodlights packed up at one point during the game, I seem to recall it was because they were trying to turn the lights off on the 4G pitches and someone flicked the wrong switch by mistake. Anyway, it was a night when the great unwashed of the travelling fraternity turned up, and they were treated to a 4-0 home win.

What’s the story with Leek County School Old Boys then, to give them their full name?

Formed in 1945, the club was set up for the former pupils (and I assume staff) of a school, or a collection of schools in the Leek area, I’m not sure exactly. Records suggest that that started life in local Leek leagues, before becoming founder members of the Staffordshire Senior League in 1984.

They remained in the competition until it was renamed the Midland League, but then in 1996 they won it and with it gained promotion to the North West Counties League.  They then got promoted again to the top flight of the NWC two years later, but by 2001 they were back in the second tier again, where they remained until 2014 when they resigned from the league.

The North West Counties League era saw the club playing at Leek Town’s Harrison Park, but after desperately trying to find a home of their own for a number of years, they finally secured a new ground in the village of Cheddleton, which coincided with the clubs move into the Staffordshire County Senior League. They won the First Division title in their first season in 2014-15, and then went on to win the Premier Division the year after.

Pointon Park is a community based facility, which was built by the company John Pointon & Sons, an animal by-products company who’s factory sits to the East of the ground. The ground and it’s children’s play area, and it’s all weather court sit between Felthouse Lane and the aptly named Bones Lane, which both lead to the factory itself.

It consists of a community changing facility with a tea bar, while the car park sits behind the West goal, with the pitch raised up in front of it. It’s fully railed, with hard standing, and it has floodlights, but at present it has no cover for spectators, which may explain why they haven’t yet pushed forward for a return to the North West Counties League.

That said, on the field, things have been looking pretty good this time around, prior to the game they sat just behind leaders AFC Alsager, Foley Meir and the visitors Audley, knowing a victory would take them to within a point of the summit.

A decent crowd pitched up on a chilly night and we got an entertaining and hard fought spectacle. Leek took the lead only for the visitors to peg them back, but a goalkeeping error lead to a second and winning goal for the hosts. Despite Audley’s late efforts, they couldn’t force an equaliser.

But then, it right royally kicked off! To avoid any doubt, this is what I saw and heard from my vantage point on top of the grass slope on the side of the ground opposite the dugouts.

As we were in added time, a Leek player went down injured but the visitors refused to put the ball out of play for him to be treated. It mattered not in the end, but at the final whistle, and I assume because of that, we had a bit of pushing and shoving.

Suddenly though, the whole thing very quickly escalated and we had the sight of supporters running onto the pitch to join in the melee. It started to get nasty, clearly punches and kicks were being thrown and the ‘scrum’ started to work it’s way across the pitch to right in front of where I was stood.

It was at this point that I could get an understanding of where the main issue seemed to be. Accusations were being made that a player had hit a child during the initial coming together. Now, whether the child was on the pitch or indeed not isn’t something I can say as I didn’t see it, but, as a result it became quite clear that the player accused of this was being singled out, largely by individuals who hadn’t taken part in the game.

It was nasty, the player was trying his best to get away from the situation, but every time he moved, someone came in with kicks or punches from another angle. Eventually, shirtless, he managed to get under the spectator barriers and into an area where he could be protected.

Finally, sometime after the final whistle, the pitch was cleared and I made my way back to the car. All very unpleasant and an unseemly ending to what had been a good night, what the repercussions will be I really don’t know, but I would be amazed if the matter found it’s way under a large carpet!

But, scenes from Kung Fu Fighting aside, it had been a good night, the road home was quiet with just 5 Live for company. I have a feeling though, that as Winter approaches, we might not have many more chances to watch football, but, one more midweek, maybe?

The Alliance

Clipstone   4   Borrowash Victoria   0

East Midlands Counties League

As regular blog readers will be all too aware, many roads have lead to Nottinghamshire this season as the expansion of the Senior League has opened up countless new ground opportunities.

But let’s not forget, in the Seventies and the Eighties, the Nottinghamshire Alliance League, which was the predecessor of the Nottinghamshire Senior League, was once a thriving and indeed highly competitive league in it’s own right.

We all know the story behind Rainworth Miners Welfare and their trip to Wembley in the 1982 FA Vase Final.  But of course not only that, they were a very successful and well supported team when it came to the league itself, and of course in the County Cup where they put many higher ranked teams to the sword over the years.

You then had Hucknall Town, once known as Hucknall Colliery Welfare, who went on to reach the Conference North and of course an FA Trophy Final at Villa Park. While a current and ongoing success story at this moment in time is Basford United who are challenging to get into Step 2, having been in the NSL as recently as ten years ago.

But, going back to the heady days of the Seventies and Eighties, other familiar names included Players, Keyworth United, Boots Athletic, Meadows Albion, Worthington Simpson (who became Newark Flowserve) and of course, Clipstone Miners Welfare.

Clippo’s halcyon days came in the early Seventies when they won the Senior Division crown three seasons on the bounce, this before Hucknall and Rainworth went on to dominate in a Rangers / Celtic style and between them won eight in a row!

That said, by the early Nineties, they went on to win the league again twice in a row, before deciding to jump ship to the Pyramid and join the Central Midlands League. They won the Premier Division title twice in the three years before getting elevated to the Supreme Division, where they remained for fifteen seasons.

A fourth placed finish in 2012 saw them promoted to Step 6 and the Northern Counties East League, and then in 2013 they dropped the Miners Welfare suffix and became plain and simple Clipstone FC.

The championship was won in 2015 and with it promotion to Step 5 and the Premier Division, but an awful season in 2017-18 when they drew two and lost forty games, conceding 172 goal with it, saw them relegated, this time to the East Midlands Counties League.

The first season back at Step 6 didn’t go especially well either, they finished eighteenth out of twenty, conceding over 100 goals, while last season they looked to be on their way back, amassing more points by lockdown than they had in the entire previous season.

Clipstone is another of those football clubs, that while they’ve been around at a good level for such a long time, and they aren’t too far away, I’ve been on very infrequent occasions. I don’t know why that should be either, because the Lido Ground is absolutely renowned for it’s ability to drain so on a wet day it is virtually guaranteed to be ‘game on’!

I first went back in 2003, a pre-season game against Sutton Town which the visitors won 4-2, and then it was another ten years, almost to the day, to watch Belper Town also win a friendly, this time 5-1.

The one and only competitive game I’ve seen at Clipstone was in October 2015 when they drew 2-2 with Handsworth Parramore, a game that became infamous because former Clippo Manager Brett Marshall (who was by now Manager at Staveley Miners Welfare) was refused admission to the ground! This lead to animosity between the two clubs and quite an interesting game between the two later that season at Staveley, which I also went to!

So, for the geographically challenged, where is Clipstone and how do you get to it?

Well, put simply it’s a village to the East of Mansfield, on the edges of Sherwood Pines Forest Park, and to get to it from my part of the UK you go up the A38 and then go round the edges of Mansfield on the A617. You then follow what is effectively a ring road round the East edge and come to the crossroads where Forest Town Miners Welfare is (AFC Mansfield) before doing a right and taking the road straight in. It’s a doddle, and as the ground is on the main road, I think even Mrs H would be able to find it!

The village itself has a population of around 5,000 and is a former mining community. The iconic headstocks from the pit era are still in place and can be seen on the right hand side as you head out of the village to the adjacent village of Kings Clipstone. They are apparently Grade Two listed structures, so they appear to remain safe for the time being at least.

The ground itself is a very tidy venue and one which the club should be very proud of.

The large car park sits behind the goal, with a small sided floodlit pitch adjacent to it. Once inside the ground a small area of cover with a row of seats sits to the right of the West goal, while to the left of where you enter behind the goal is the clubhouse and changing rooms.

The North side of the ground is covered for two third of the length, partly terracing and partly seats. The opposite side is hard standing while behind the East goal it’s out of bounds for spectators.

The pitch was in superb condition, as you would expect, while one of the impressive things about Clipstone over recent seasons has been their brilliant use of social media, and of course a superb match programme which is the best I’ve seen anywhere this season by a mile.

What about the game though?

Well before kick off the hosts had eleven points from their eight games and held a mid table berth, whereas the visitors from Derbyshire had a win and two draw from their seven games, which to be fair is a sign of improvement as the Vics have been whipping boys in recent seasons.

It was a relatively comfortable evening for Clippo in front of a crowd of just over 100. Charlie Dawes produced two neat finishes in the first half to give the hosts a deserved lead, while Jack and Lewis Warwick both netted in the second period. Vics put in the plenty of effort but little was created in the way of clear chances.

You sense Clippo, under the leadership of Dave Hoole, are perhaps on the way back, and with four promotion spots available from the East Midlands Counties League this season, is a return to Step 5 a possibility? Obviously it will be tough though with some big spenders around, and indeed big names like Hucknall, Eastwood, Sherwood, Ollerton, Clifton, Rainworth and Belper United.

Looking at some of those names, it’s starting to appear a bit like the old Notts Alliance all over again!

 

Swanwick

Boot   2   FC Chadd 2013   2

Alfreton Sunday League – Division One

The Sunday League football crusade continues unabated, and it looks like extending into November due to a combination of factors.

Postponements have curtailed one or two games, re-arrangements have taken place, and I’ve even had a slight issue in terms of a team from a Young Offenders Institution and being able to glean whether a game is actually taking place or not!

The latest one that’s crept up on us is another change in the Midlands Regional Alliance. You may recall earlier in the season I took in a game at Riddings Recreation Ground, the new home of Inter Belper, well it seems that for some reason everyone who plays on the ground in Riddings, be it Saturday or Sunday, has been turfed off and left to find a new home!

It seems Inter Belper have found a new home, and that happens to be Swanwick Recreation Ground, a venue very close to home, but, and this is something Sunday League football is teaching me, I never had any idea that it actually existed.

I only found out about this change a couple of weeks ago, and I missed my first opportunity to pay it a visit because I had a pre-arranged amble round Alfreton Golf Course with young Master Hatt. However, despite one or two games being postponed in the Alfreton Sunday League this weekend, it seemed the game between Boot and FC Chadd 2013 was still on, or at least it was an hour before kick off when I started to dig out some dry clothes after a very wet previous day in Nottingham.

Socially Distanced Steve had also got it on the radar, and to be fair, just as I was driving into Swanwick he gave me a call to say he was at the ground and all was ok. I had been pre-warned not to try and park on the roads that run up to the pitch due to the tightness and lack of parking spaces, so with a space found on High Street, it was a short walk over the road and down to the rec.

Swanwick is a village located on the road from Alfreton to Ripley. To be honest, I’ve not really had an awful lot of contact with it over the years, barring a couple of trips to watch the now defunct Swanwick Pentrich Road, and a couple of pre-match pints in the local boozers before the games.

Swanwick Hall School, along with Frederick Gent at South Normanton was always my old schools big rivals, I don’t think we ever had the all-out mass fight with them that was always threatened, but we did play them once at football when we were in the Sixth Form and we did beat them! They had Kevin Pilkington in goal, who went on to sign a professional contract at Manchester United, playing six times, then he went on to play over 300 games for Mansfield Town and Notts County.

If you didn’t know where Swanwick Recreation Ground was, you wouldn’t find it, simply because you can’t actually see it until you are on it! If you are coming up the main road from Alfreton, just as you pass the Cross Keys pub on the left, you do a left down Chapel Street and it sits right at the end. You’ve got two pitches, one raised on a plateau, with a changing room block in the corner. The pitches looked in very good condition to be fair, but once it pitch side it was noticeable that we only had one team!

Not to worry though, like the cavalry coming from the pub car park, already clad in their kit, at the top of Chapel Street you could see the lads from Chadd making their way down to pitch side. Chadd is of course the nickname for Chaddesden, a huge housing estate on the North side of Derby, and they happen to be in the Alfreton Sunday League after it merged with the Derby Sunday League a few years ago.

With an old school referee in charge, we had an entertaining game, albeit, the pitch was very narrow and consequently the ball did seem to be out of play for a fair amount of time. Both sides had a decent contingent of staff / helpers, so with a lively atmosphere on the touchline, they were treated to a 2-2 draw, with Chadd getting the equaliser late in the game. A fair result I guess, with the Boot, named after the nearby Boot & Slipper pub, goals coming from Finn Parkin and an own goal. Boot also included Sam Weston (Son of Rainworth Miners Welfare & ex-Selston Manager Craig Weston) in their side, a cracking lad to boot (no pun intended)! Chadd’s goals came from Charlie Naylor and Jake Walters.

Two more Sunday’s I reckon, unless of course anything changes, and in the current climate things can change very quickly. Now then, what’s the number again for the Young Offenders Institution…..

Breaking Every Rule

Wollaton III   2   Sutton Travellers   2

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Foundation Division

&

Trent Vineyard   4   Ballers   2

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two North

It was February 2008 when myself and my old mate Jamesie decided we were going to create some mischief!

At that time, the Non-League Matters Forum on the Tony Kempster website was a brilliant and thriving place. Some fantastic discussion, sharing of knowledge, sharing of experiences and general chatter was being posted on a continual basis.

Some of the posters were very learned and well travelled individuals, while others had some excellent inside knowledge as to the workings of clubs and leagues. It was brilliant, and sadly today’s version of it, for a variety of reasons, is not a patch on what it used to be, largely because the vast majority of the better posters have stopped using it, which largely is down to a select few who have both monopolised it and put others off with their ‘behaviour’.

Yes, so as you can imagine, the great and the good of the groundhopping and non-league World were all over it, but, the downside was that it was also a place that was inhabited by those who you perhaps wouldn’t want to engage with over a pint.

Politicians, smart arses, back-biters, snipers and in some case, just tossers in general did come to the fore from time to time. What also came to the fore were those who could collectively be termed as the ‘Groundhopping Police’, a group of individuals who made the rules, stuck rigidly to the rules, and clamped down on anyone who seemingly broke the rules.

What am I talking about you may ask?

Well, the best way to describe this group of individuals is to give examples. Could you count an abandoned game in your records? Is a new ground a new ground if as little as six inches of the pitch overlaps with what was the old pitch? Do pre-season friendlies count as real games? Are you allowed to count a game if the opponent is a reserve team? Does Youth football class as real football? If you miss the kick off does it count? We even get the bizarre stuff, like the clown who doesn’t count a 0-0 draw as a proper game and has to re-visit the ground as a result, or the ones who refuse to go into the ground, irrespective of how far they’ve travelled, if a programme isn’t available!

Don’t even get me on those who think anyone who drinks lager before a game as opposed to real ale should be banned from entering the ground!

This self-styled police force would be prowling the forums, and despite claiming to be of the ‘There are no rules, you set your own rules’ brigade, they were quick to jump on anything that seemingly didn’t tick all the boxes, with comments like “You surely can’t be counting that can you?”, or “You would never catch me doing that…..”

Anyway, Jamesie and I hatched a plan that would send this mob into an absolute tail spin, something that would both disgust and intrigue at the same time, we were planning on causing chaos!

Watch two games at the same time!

We spotted this could be done, and the location was to be Yarnfield in Stone, Staffordshire. You see, we’d fathomed out that at the home of North West Counties League Stone Dominoes, there were some outside railed pitches that were used by teams at different levels of the pyramid, and, given the proximity to each other of these outside pitches you could stand in the corner between two, and watch both games. The date was set, 23rd February 2008, and on one pitch we had a Staffordshire County Senior League game between Barlaston and Eccleshall, while on the adjacent pitch we had a West Midlands Regional League game between Stone Old Alleynians and Punjab United Sports.

Yes, it was a bonkers plan, but we were going to give it a go! To cut a long story short, we pulled it off successfully, and based on all of the rules listed above, we actually ticked all the boxes, including getting a programme at each game. But then, I left it to Jamesie to break the bad news on the forum…

It went mental, quite literally, we were beneath contempt, idiotic, dragging the good name of the hobby through the mud, we were the lepers, in fact, lets be honest, we were both cheats and frauds!

This all happened over the course of a Saturday night, but then, one of the original posters who had initially called us everything from a pig to a dog, came back late in the evening with the following…

“I’ve had a look, and this could actually be done again at least twice before the season ends, once in March and once in April, if of course you felt that way inclined?”

Yep, the initial adverse reaction had turned to one of curiosity, and actually, others were now starting to think about replicating it! I then threw another spanner in the works by providing a chronological run down of the afternoon, but interspersed it with about a dozen visits to the bar to re-stock on cans of Carling! Yes, more carnage…..

So let’s fast forward to today and this mad, bad World we are currently living in. It’s hard to plan games at the minute, but on the Thursday evening I decided I was going to stay fairly local so I took a look at the Nottinghamshire Senior League fixtures. It came to my attention that two games were taking place at Beeston Fields Recreation Ground, but, they had staggered kick off’s on different pitches!

It was like 2008 all over again, I smiled to myself, and without necessarily knowing the geography, I was going to turn up for the 2pm kick off between Wollaton Thirds and Sutton Travellers, and if it was possible, I was going to try and take in the Trent Vineyard against Ballers game on the adjacent pitch which kicked off at 3pm!

Arriving a good 45 minutes before the first game all was looking good, but with a deluge of rain forecast it was one whereby things could change quite quickly. Both sides for the first game were pitching up, as did Socially Distanced Steve, who I must admit I’d not discussed my plans with beforehand, but, being a like-minded creature it did not surprise me that he had the same cunning plan.

Did the geography work though? Well, the two pitches ran parallel to each other, with a gap of around thirty yards between the two, so I reckoned if you perched on the path that ran across the bottom of the playing fields, equidistant between the two pitches, this was a goer!

Game one kicked off as the heavens opened, a game in the Foundation Division, and trust me, the heavens did indeed open! I had an umbrella, Steve had to hide under some bushes, but it barely made a difference, the rain was coming down at such a rate we were going to get wet no matter what.

The pitch held up fine though and it was Wollaton who took a first half lead through a penalty. As the first half wore on players from both Trent Vineyard and Ballers were turning up, while the obligatory ‘Respect’ rope was going up along pitch side. This game of course was being played in the next tier up, Division Two North.

Both the second half of the first game, and the first half of the second game, kicked off almost simultaneously at just after ten to three, and this was where you needed to have your wits about you. Sutton came back with two goals to take the lead in the first game, while Ballers took the lead twice in the second game to lead 2-1.

Wollaton found an equaliser and the first game ended 2-2, while Trent managed to also make it 2-2 in time for the interval in the second game, the overlap part of the games had been completed and we’d managed to see all seven goals that went in during the 45 minute period. Steve and I did work in tandem though with a socially distanced plan, I had my eyes primarily on the first game, Steve on the second, and should the action reach a point whereby a chance may be created we would shout to each other. So the cries of “Over here!” and “This way!” came at regular intervals!

The rain continued to pour down as we edged closer to the action in the second game for the second period, and it was to be the hosts that scored twice more to win the game 4-2, having been behind twice.

By the final whistle, we were drenched, the car park was starting to flood and with a pair of jeans virtually sticking to me, the journey home was a touch treacherous with flash flooding on some of the roads.

So it went without a hitch, mission accomplished, all the rules broken once again, but it was great fun. While I’m sure virtually every reader of this article will be sat currently shaking their heads in disgust, it’s worth pointing out, just for reference, that on both the 7^th and the 21^st of November, this double could be replicated, if anyone is foolish enough and indeed wants to drag the hobby through the mud, wishes to take it on….

The Casual Vacancy

Wolverhampton Casuals   3   Cradley Town   2

West Midlands Regional League – Premier Division

I’ve been watching football in the West Midlands Regional League on a relatively consistent basis since 2003, but, one team that for some explicable reason, I’ve never ever seen play, is Wolverhampton Casuals.

My first ever forays into the league would have been way back in the late Eighties, watching the likes of Tamworth and Gresley Rovers.  But, it was in 2003 that I started the task of working my way through the divisions, which to be fair over a spell of about three years proved to be something of a mission, and then thereafter it was a case of picking up on new teams and new grounds.

To be honest, one of the early grounds I went to in 2003-04 season was indeed the Brinsford Lane home of Wolves Casuals, but it was a midweek game where ground sharers with Casuals, Ettingshall Holy Trinity, were at home to an up and coming Market Drayton Town outfit.

Weirdly though, despite watching as many games as I did in the competition, Casuals were never to crop up as an opponent, and being a bit Sinclair Spectrum, that bothered me somewhat! In fact it bothered me to a point that I was starting to look specifically for games involving Casuals, just to get that itch scratched.

It didn’t work though, and to be fair due to not a lot really changing in the WMRL over the past few years I’ve kind of not really focussed my attention on it. Whereas to be honest I’ve only  had a few cursory looks at midweek fixtures to see if I could get down to Casuals, and on the odd occasion where an opportunity had presented itself, something has come along and scuppered it, be it the weather or something that appealed slightly more.

I suppose the first thing to point out about Wolves Casuals is that you don’t have to go to Wolverhampton and fight your way around the City to watch them play, in fact it’s one of the easiest grounds to get to that you could imagine. Coming from my part of the World you head down the A38, then along the A5 past Bridgtown, and then when you get to the roundabout on the A449 Stafford Road you head down it for a few miles and the ground is just off to the left. Coming from further afield, it’s about two minutes from the M54, or about five minutes from the M6, so it’s an absolute doddle!

So, I spotted the game against Cradley Town on a Tuesday night, kept an eye on the chaotic World that is ‘Covid Cancellations’ and before you could sing the opening lines to “Hi-Ho Wolverhampton”, I was trundling in the general direction of Cannock.

Brinsford Lane is a narrow road that leads off the A449 and it’s only a few hundred yards from the M54, but it is a very rural setting. The ground is off to your left and once through the games you can drive up past the West goal and to the car parking areas to the rear of the ground.

Facilities wise, they have a seated stand on the North side of the ground, while to it’s right are the changing rooms, a tea bar and the clubhouse. You can stand down two sides and behind one of the goals, but the area behind the West goal is out of bounds.

They also have a second railed pitch behind the ground, and who uses that I’m not sure. I know Old Wulfrunians share the main pitch with Casuals, and that arrangement has come about because they need a floodlit arena to secure promotion.

The pitch was in great condition and the floodlights were of a good standard, while with it’s tree lined exterior, I have to say Brinsford Lane is a very nice place to visit.

But what about the team?

Well they joined the West Midlands League in 1982, and since then they’ve stayed there! That’s being a bit simplistic though, they have had it a little more exciting than that as I shall explain.

They started in Division Two, then got promoted to Division One, and after a number of second placed finishes they were promoted to the Premier Division in 1988, where they remained for three seasons before dropping back down to the First Division again.

They won Division One in 1994-95 to regain their Premier Division place and it is in the top flight that they have remained ever since. Recent seasons have in fact been very good to them and to be fair they’ve threatened promotion to Step 5 and the Midland Football League Premier Division. In the past eight seasons, they’ve finished in the top three on five occasions, and never been outside the top nine. Last season before matters were curtailed they’d only lost two of their 23 games so once again they were well placed.

It will be difficult though this season, with the likes of Worcester Raiders and Shifnal Town splashing the cash, but to be fair, I’ve a feeling that due to the delayed restructuring and the vacancies that are currently available higher up the pyramid, I suspect more than one club will go up. Add into the mix as well that the West Midlands Regional League top flight will not exist after this season, and your guess is as good as mine what might happen. Then of course we’ve actually got to complete the season, so perhaps it’s best to simply not think about it!

What about the game then?

Casuals opened brightly and took a first half lead through Yannick Gomes who rifled home from close range, and despite Cradley coming out at the start of the second period looking the stronger of the two sides, it was the hosts who made it 2-0 via Scott Broadway who capitalised on a defensive mistake.

Player Manager Sean Geddes netted a penalty to reduce the arrears in the 80^th minute but then another penalty was awarded, this time to Casuals and up stepped Broadway to net his second and the hosts third.

Jason Wellings reduced the arrears once again in the 85^th minute but it was the injury hit Casuals outfit that hung on for an important three points.

Escaping Brinsford Lane was easy, and I was soon heading back up towards Cannock and on the drag North back to Casa Hatt. The Casual Vacancy had finally been filled.