Friends With Benefits

Long Bennington U18   1   Keyworth United U18   1

Notts Youth League (Saturday) – Division Two

I don’t have many friends, you may be unsurprised to hear.

I don’t have many friends because as I’ve got older I’ve become increasingly more intolerant of the human race in general, so those I choose to either engage in discourse with, or indeed meet, are a select group of individuals, and strangely enough, pretty like minded!

I’m not perfect by any means, in fact, if I was to meet myself I’d probably take an instant dislike. I used to describe myself as ‘private’, but thinking about it, I’m deep down just completely anti-social and downright selfish!

Anyway, I can kind of live with that, and what I do know is that the handful of friends I do have are both loyal, and indeed helpful. However, more importantly, a few of them have reached a point in life where they care not about anything at all that us mere working and mortgaged folk toil over, largely due to the fact that they no longer need to get out of bed in a morning anymore!

The beauty of this select group is they also have significant time on their hands, and their use of that time can come in incredibly handy, especially when it comes to hunting out obscure football fixtures.

A couple of years ago, I would sit down at the start of the season and look at my list of grounds to visit, and then quite simply have a look at the fixtures for the teams that played on the said ground. 90% of those games would be on a Saturday afternoon, the remainder on a midweek night.

What I hadn’t considered at that stage was the Plan B option, it was Steve (he of socially distanced fame, and now Bargain Hunt!) that got me onto Sunday League games, and that to be fair has been a great source of entertainment and indeed of new grounds. However, you can sink much deeper than that, and being respectful, I don’t mean in terms of standards, I mean places you would not have imagined existed outside of a normal universe of Saturday afternoon’s and Tuesday nights!

For example, there are a whole raft of games that take place on a Wednesday afternoon, not just the ones in the Northern Premier League Academy, but also another competition who’s name escapes me, whereby some weird and wonderful venues are seeing action. This sort of football viewing very much caters for the unwaged and unemployable types, with many of the fixtures very kindly posted on Malc Storer’s ‘On The Road’ blog for easy access.

You also have Universities and Colleges, they play at all kinds of weird times, and we all know the kind of hours students keep, they start soon, but of course the current climate might put the kybosh on some of those games taking place, certainly with spectators.

Saturday morning adult football is also becoming more popular, you’ve got the Sheffield Fair Play League, and of course the Derby Churches League (keep your eyes peeled over the next couple of weeks for that one!)

Finally, and it was Steve who put me onto this, you have youth football, and in Nottinghamshire, they have three leagues. One playing on midweek nights, one playing on a Sunday morning, and one playing on a Saturday morning. This isn’t the academy Wednesday afternoon stuff with a college course involved, this is Saturday morning because the adults play on the pitch in the afternoon, and, we’ve got tickets for the Forest game so need to be done early! We are talking under 19’s / 18’s here, and it just so happened that in Division Two of the Notts Youth League sat a team called Long Bennington, a club who have just put a men’s team in the Notts Senior League.

Fixtures were advertised at 10.30am on Full Time, which meant ample time to get to an afternoon game, and with Steve providing the trial run the other week and confirming all went to plan, I decided to give it a go for a game against Keyworth United.

I’d got it in mind to head up to Bessacarr afterwards, an hour or so journey up the A1, given Long Bennington’s proximity to said road, but a couple of days before the game a curveball hit me.

The kick off had been moved to 12.30pm (probably because you can’t get a ticket for Football League games now), so I had to have a re-think for my afternoon game, but more on that later.

Long Bennington is a very attractive village that sits almost exactly between Grantham and Newark on the A1. I got to it via the Nottingham ring road and then going across country from the A46 via Elston. The ground could hardly be nearer the A1, with just a line of trees separating the pitch from the road, while the complex where the ground sits is just off the slip road when you leave in a Southbound direction.

Long Bennington Playing Fields comprises of a modern dressing room and office block, which was seemingly out of bounds today, while adjacent is a kids play park and some enclosed artificial surface areas. The grassed areas comprise of a couple of small sided pitches, and then down at the bottom of the complex is the full sized pitch, and very nice it is too.

The surface was very good, while one side had some natural banking that gave an elevated view of the proceedings. With trees lining half of the banked side, all of the opposite side and also behind one of the goals, it had quite an enclosed feel to it as well. Add in a couple of permanent dug outs and it very much felt like a football ground as opposed to a roped off pitch in a park.

It was bloody windy though, and that certainly had an impact on the game. I’ll be honest, the first half was very little to write home about as both sides rarely troubled the goalkeepers, but, as legs tired in the second period in the tricky conditions, chances started to come.

I did think a 0-0 was on the cards but then in the 76^th minute the hosts George Patrinos found enough space in the penalty area to compose himself and rifle the ball home. With time then running out it looked like three points were staying in Long Bennington, but as we moved into time added on, Gregor Howell produced a superb finish for the visitors to take a share of the points. In fairness, it was probably the right outcome.

As I made my way back to the car, the players of Long Bennington’s men’s team and those of Ruddington Village Reserves were preparing at the side of the pitch for the 3pm kick off. I didn’t hang around though, I had to make the journey back across country to meet my mate Steve at the next game.

One of my very few mates that is, although he does come in handy!

Chickpeas

Blidworth Welfare   4   Nottingham   3 

Central Midlands League – Premier Division South

Given the proximity of the Welfare Ground to Casa Hatt, even I was surprised at how infrequent my visits have been over the years.

Going back a while, to the 1994-95 season, I was back from University and about to embark on a list of grounds to visit, Blidworth Welfare were one of the clubs on that list, alongside places like Nuneaton Borough, Stalybridge Celtic and of course Borrowash Victoria. I’d been all about Derby County before that, but, having witnessed a harrowing Play Off Final defeat to Leicester City at Wembley, I was done, it was non-league for me going forward, plus it was cheaper!

It ended up being one of those grounds that proved to be a massive challenge to get to, and for no specific reason. They were a Northern Counties East League club at the time, so games were plentiful, but, I always had a reason not to go, either it being a lack of a car to get me to it (I used to borrow my Grandad’s), or, something else cropping up. It was either a Vase game involving Belper Town, or, a high profile game at Alfreton Town that one of my mates had cajoled me into attending.

I didn’t exactly have a load of grounds to get to on my list to be fair, but, Blidworth, and I remember this, was the only one I didn’t get to in that season. That was rectified the following pre-season though, Alfreton Town arranged a friendly fixture at the Welfare Ground, and with a car load of my ATFC supporting mates, I finally made it, witnessing a 4-0 victory for the Reds.

Strangely though, I was back within two months, watching Welfare take on Hucknall Town in an NCEL Presidents Cup tie, whereby on this occasion it would be the visitors that triumphed by two goals to nil.

And that was it until February 2011, nearly sixteen years later, when Hucknall were again to be the opponents in a Notts Senior Cup tie. Now then, there is a bit of romantic back story to this visit. At the time, the future Mrs H and I were going through our ‘flirting’ phase, we’d met across the aisles of Tesco where she worked and by her cunning means we’d ended up exchanging mobile numbers. That night, while I was at the game, and she was at work, texts bounced backwards and forwards, with the subject matter at one point being chickpeas. I must have blagged it, because up until that point I didn’t even know what a chickpea was, let alone be able to engage in a conversation about them.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, Hucknall won again, and within eighteen months myself and Mrs H were co-habiting.  The marriage came quite a while later, but, I can honestly say that Blidworth Welfare FC had no influence, nor indeed any connection to my Wedding. Sorry Bliddy, you were simply an innocent bystander in all of this!

So it was time, nearly ten years later, to have another trip (my fourth) to the Welfare Ground. The visits have been so infrequent I had to have a look on Google Maps as to where the ground was, and to be fair, once on the road I was soon finding my way into the car park that is shared by the football, the welfare and indeed the brass band!

So what’s the story with Blidworth Welfare then?

Formerly Folk House Old Boys, they joined the Midland Counties League in 1980, playing in Division One for two seasons before the change to Blidworth Welfare. They then joined the newly formed Northern Counties East League, plying their trade in Division Two South, and then Division Three, until the 1985-86 season when they resigned part way through the campaign.

That resignation came about due to the Miners Strike. The club were competing in a league where many Yorkshire sides also competed, and with tensions high between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire miners, it just became impossible and unsafe to play football matches. I remember at the time hearing stories of conflict and clashes, in fact a game against Grimethorpe Welfare springs to mind, whereby matters came to a head.

The club resurfaced in the Central Midlands League, and by 1990 found themselves members of the Supreme Division. They re-joined the NCEL in 1994, but dropped back again after a bottom placed finish in 1998. Since then, they’ve been a CMFL side, hopping between Premier, Supreme and Southern divisions, where they now remain.

The Welfare Ground is very good set up for Step 7 football. You enter in one corner, with dressing rooms to the right and a tea bar to the left, while the pitch is set below the entrance, down some steps.

Behind the goal is some covered seating (which used to be terracing), while in the opposite corner to the entrance on the dressing room side is a smaller area of cover that runs up to the half way line, with a couple of rows of seats in it. The floodlights are good while the rest of the ground is surrounded by hard standing.

It’s a proper miners welfare ground, the cover behind the goal epitomising that, and in many ways it’s very similar to what you see at other welfare grounds in both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. I think of places like Dodworth, Kiveton Park, South Kirby Colliery, Frecheville for example, all of which have structure typical by design.

A modest sprinkling of spectators were in place with some notable local midweek regulars like Malc ‘Fixtures’ Storer, Kev ‘Daft Lad’ Goodman, Pete ‘Chippy’ Chappell and Richard ‘Bronco’ Lane all viewing the proceedings. The official attendance was 37.

Visiting Nottingham are in their first season at what is now the notional Step 7, and they contributed to what was an excellent game.

Blidworth took an early lead but the young and athletic visitors were soon level, however a three goal burst for the hosts saw them take a seemingly unassailable 4-1 half time lead.

You expected more goals in the second period, but to be fair, when the goals did come they didn’t come for Blidworth as you perhaps would have been forgiven for thinking. The visitors re-grouped at half time and came out all guns blazing and took the score line back to 4-3 before they ultimately ran out of time to find an equaliser.

Excellent entertainment on a lovely night for football, and with it being relatively close to home, I was back in good time for a chickpea supper….

Industry

Pear Tree Hotel   5   The Cricketers Rest   1 

Alfreton Sunday League – First Division

Any trip to the area that stretches from Alfreton in the North down to Eastwood in the South reminds me so much of my younger years.

My secondary schooling took place in Alfreton, and having had my primary education at the gentile and innocent surroundings of Fritchley Church of England, when I first set foot off the 802 Trent Bus into the Badlands of Mortimer Wilson, it was an eye opener!

Alfreton was to become the backdrop of age 11 through to age 18, and I’m pleased to say that two positives can be taken from the experience. Firstly, I’m still alive, and secondly, I’ve never served a prison sentence, so you could argue the teachers got something right!

After returning from University, I had an overdraft to pay off, so I got work through a temping agency, and that pretty much took me to the Industrial Estates of Somercotes, Riddings, Pinxton etc, so I got to see what life was like in the factories, especially on the night shifts where productivity was a dying trend!

When I eventually got a proper full time job, it was indeed in Somercotes, and over time you got to meet the people, drink in the pubs, and find out a bit more about the history and the culture of the area. It was hard, it was tough, it was no-nonsense, and it was a good laugh at times, but more importantly you got to understand what the area was all about. You respected it, and you got a real feel for the journey that the generations of families had been on, from the coal mines, to the hard times, to the rise in new industry, to redundancies, and so on.

I remember reading a match report in the Ripley & Heanor News many years ago now, I seem to recall it was for a Codnor Miners Welfare game, who at the time were a Midlands Regional Alliance team. The writer, who was also a local school teacher, proclaimed that the names of the villages in the area even sounded hard, names like Ironville and Jacksdale, names that befitted their industrial pasts.

In the very same newspaper, the Alfreton Sunday League was regularly featured, it was a thriving competition, with the likes of Ironville, Jacksdale, Pinxton, Somercotes, Selston, Swanwick and indeed Riddings all featured. Today, it’s not anywhere near as strong, teams have gone, in fact the league now is merged with the old Derby Sunday League, with teams being spread over a much greater geographical area, Sunday football, not just in these parts, but all across the Country, is a shadow of it’s former self.

Riddings then, they had a Saturday and a Sunday side at one point. The Saturday side was Riddings St James who played in the Central Midlands League, whereas on a Sunday it was all about Riddings Rovers. Nowadays, neither exists in an adult form, but, this season, Riddings does have a side playing on a Saturday once again.

Inter Belper have formed this season, and have joined the MRA, playing on Riddings Park. I’ve never ever seen a game in Riddings in my life, in fact if you’d have asked me a month ago about football pitches in the village I would have been clueless.

But, when Inter Belper arrived on the scene, and no, despite living in Belper I have absolutely no clue as to who they are etc, I had a look to see if any Sunday sides played at their stated home venue in Riddings, and they did, the Pear Tree Hotel from Ripley!

Riddings Park is down Shaw Street, which is a very narrow road that runs off of the main B6016 that goes to Codnor. Word of advice, don’t go down it in a car, there is only room for one car, and when you do get to the car park at the end, it’s usually full as residents use it!  I arrived an hour before kick off, nothing was happening, was I going to be going to Pinxton instead? However, as I managed to turn around the car park a couple of lads carrying bags and wearing Pear Tree tops were heading to the pitch.

Parked up next to the Greenhill Tavern, there was time for one, before a wander back up. Riddings Park is a sizeable place, the football pitch has a slope from one end to the other, while a further expanse of grass sits at the top end along with a changing room block and kids park.

A disused mound that used to be a BMX track flanks one side, while away in the distance behind the trees is a cricket ground, a further football pitch and a community centre. The sun was shining now, I had to take my jacket off, and with all of the park benches full to capacity, I opted to stand behind the goal. Some locals had decided to perch on garden walls to watch the game, but what was in store?

It was all a bit one way to be honest, Pear Tree were the better side and ran out 5-1 winners against the Cricketers Rest who it appears are a Kimberley based outfit, currently playing their home games in Ilkeston. The pitch itself was bone hard, and had seen Inter Belper play on it the previous day, beating Castle Donington Reserves 3-2.

Pinxton Tops next week, another wonderful village in this maelstrom of former mining communities, the Hop Inn, who I am watching in that game have some interesting names listed in the squad, that should be one to watch with a keen eye.

I’ll kind of be disappointed when my Sunday league experiences come to a halt this season, not least for the trips down memory lane.

Hope Or Expectation?

Todwick Villa   2   Shireoaks Welfare Sports & Social   6 

Worksop Sunday League – First Division

It is more in hope than expectation that I travel to these Sunday games.

Quite understandably, very few clubs have any form of social media that’s kept up to date, so you are literally on a wing and a prayer when it comes to knowing if a game is on, or indeed, if it’s being played at the venue it’s purported to be at!

So, the turn into the car park, or that walk around the corner comes with a sense of anticipation, will there be a collection of hairy arsed pub footballers getting changed at pitch side, or will it be the old bloke scooping up his dogs latest deposit on the local recreation ground?

It’s the Worksop Sunday League again, the gift that continues to give, and feeling fresh as a daisy covered in doggy do-do, courtesy of an early night thanks to Mrs H being out on the town, I trundled up the M1 to junction 31, before the very short journey into the attractive and desirable village of Todwick.

A sense of pride came over me as I drove through the village, for my company has more ‘For Sale’ boards on display than any competitor, the housing market remains buoyant, lockdown has made many realise it’s time to move, for a variety of reasons, not least an irretrievable breakdown of relations with the other half!

Todwick Villa play on Goosecarr Lane, a road leading away from the village in a Westerly direction back towards the A57 and Sheffield. It was as I turned through the narrow gate the glorious sight was awaiting me, yes, it was Socially Distanced Steve stood at the side of his Peugeot, itching to tell me about the maiming and brutality that took place at the previous days encounter between Derby United and FC Sunnyhill.

The game was on, we had two teams and a referee (of sorts). I do like Sunday League refs, baffling but hilarious in equal measures, it’s as if they work to a different set of rules, one of which being the rule whereby the referee must not leave the centre circle under any circumstances.

So why are two grown men of questionable tastes and pastimes stood at the side of a field in Todwick?

Right, so Sheffield County Senior League, and it appears the team that was formally known as Thurcroft Miners Institute, have both disassociated themselves with the Miners Institute, and for good measure, fallen out with Thurcroft Sports Hub. So, they needed a new name (Thurcroft FC), and a new home (Goosecarr Lane).

This all came to light when the first fixture list was published, and as we do, we scoured the local Sunday leagues to see if Thurcroft’s new home, like many others at this time of the season, was in use on the Sabbath, hence giving us a chance for two / three games at a weekend while the weather is chipper.

Bingo, Todwick Villa, get in, bosh!

Anyroadup, on a well known football forum, a chap called Lee who’s involved with Kiveton Park, picked up on this Thurcroft move, and proclaimed that the pitch was barely big enough to host men’s football. In fact, only the day previously he’d seen Thurcroft’s opening game of the season against Stocksbridge Park Steels Development, proclaiming after a 7-4 score line that the size of the pitch would lead to some interesting results this season!

To be fair, it’s a nice place, as I guess you would expect in a well to do village. Cars park in clearly marked spaces down the entrance road, with the pitch running lengthways to the side, and yes, it is a tad on the small side. Behind the road end goal is a smart kids play park, with benches and a small garden, while at the top end of the facility is a changing block and beyond that and the adjacent cricket square is what looks like a floodlit bowls club.

So how did the game go?

Well, as far as Todwick were concerned, not very well. They were well beaten on the day by a stronger Shireoaks side who had one player, who played wide on the left, who simply ran them ragged. At one point they had three men on him to try and stop him, but despite his signature move being to cut inside on his right foot, no one seemed to know how to stop him, he was just too quick on his feet.

The visitors ran out deserved 6-2 winners, Todwick could have no complaints.

It was to be a busy Sunday for both myself and SDS, he had an afternoon game in Pinxton, mine was to be in Riddings, we travelled in more hope, than indeed expectation, once again……

The Last Bastion?

Broadheath Central   3   Garswood United   3 

Cheshire Football League – Premier Division

I first got in touch with Broadheath Central at the start of last season.

They’d been promoted to the top flight of the Cheshire League (my favourite Step 7 league as readers will have noted), but I was a touch confused as to where they were going to be playing.

In some quarters they were listed as being at Salisbury Fields in Broadheath, but it was also reported that they were playing at the old Flixton FC ground on Valley Road.

Anyway, I contacted them and they did duly confirm that it was to be Flixton, but, hopefully by the start of the following season they would indeed be back at their ‘proper’ home just to the North of the centre of Altrincham.

I’ll be honest, they kind of fell off the radar after that, but then, once the fixtures dropped onto Full Time I spotted that they were indeed listed at Salisbury Fields, cue contact again, cue confirmation, visit planned!

Now this is a funny one, because on a well known football forum much debate took place about Salisbury Fields, and indeed the access to the said venue. I had a look on Google and it looked quite simple, drive down Salisbury Road and the pitch was directly in front of you in a public park. Quite what was complicated about that I don’t know? Anyway, it all stemmed from the fact that the ground used to be listed as being on Viaduct Road, which, sits on the opposite side of a viaduct from the pitch, but I shall explain a bit more about that in a minute.

I did think about driving up through the Hope Valley but when I did some research I was just as quick shooting over to Stoke, going up the M6 and then taking the A56 all the way into Altrincham, and then heading out a short way to the other side of the town to the ground.

The journey was painless, punctuated by a few calls to my football mates to see where they had ended up. Captain Piles was at Vulcan as part of a two match double, Socially Distanced Steve was at Derby United while Martin (Clay Cross’s answer to Forrest Gump – he loves to travel on foot!), was walking to Ashover!

Now then, I’ve been to Alty a couple of times before for games at Moss Lane, but this was the first time I’d travelled in via this specific route, and by crikey, it looks quite an expensive place to live, and from seeing the edges of the town centre, it looked like it might be quite a good place for a drink!

Oh how I long for the good old days of travelling by train, consuming a fair quantity of soup, and then heading to the football. Clearly in the current climate, you’ve got to be masked up on a train, be choosy with your pubs, and, be sure the game is taking place and a club hasn’t been lurgy infected. So, in short, it’s the car for the foreseeable…..

Right, quite literally, I turned right down Salisbury Road, and there in front of me was a large park, with a railed pitch tucked into the bottom corner. But, that was when I had a moment of befuddlement, where is the ‘football club’? I mean, this is Step 7, you can’t just have a pitch and nothing else, can you?

But then, I spotted it, tucked in one of the arches under the viaduct, like Phil Mitchell’s garage off of Eastenders, was a door with a sign above it ‘Broadheath Central JFC’. Bingo, we had a room, so off I trotted and it was then that the confusion that had originally arisen on the forum became clear. You walked through the archway, out of another door onto Viaduct Road, where the clubs Social Club sat.

It was a very nice social club as well, I frequented it and was warmly welcomed in a Covid compliant style, but, and this is the slightly confusing bit if you didn’t know what you were doing, or you were ten pints deep after a day on the train. As you approach the viaduct from the social club side, there isn’t any signage for the football club, so you could end up in stumbling into a serial killers torture chamber if you weren’t careful! I was careful, I was soon back at pitch side.

Salisbury Fields on a glorious day, as it was, is a very nice place to watch football. With the viaduct at one end and houses down one side, the rest of the park is spacious and full of greenery. They do have some dugouts that are secured on non-match days, but otherwise, I suspect any chance of future progress would be severely hampered by the fact it’s almost impossible to enclose and installing any kind of furniture and indeed lights would not be easy. To this day I still don’t know where the dressing rooms are, the players changed on the pitch!

As for the game, well I’d seen Garswood lose to Lostock Gralam the previous week and on the day they’d been poor, whereas this was to be the season opener for Broadheath, it was a tough one to call beforehand.

What a cracking match it turned out to be.

Broadheath took the lead three times in the game, thanks to goals from Karmal Nelson, James Phillips and Cian Donahue, but three times Garswood showed resilience and forced an equaliser. The Garswood goals coming from Joseph Burkes, Daniel Clarke and Matt Robinson. On balance, I think Broadheath will be the more disappointed side having been in the lead so many times and letting it slip, plus, for the final stages of the game they were the side in the ascendancy.

All was good in the World as I got back in my car, which by now I’d moved to behind the viaduct end goal. The journey back was painless and the reports on Five Live of behind closed doors games in the professional game just didn’t sound right, or indeed sit right with me. Football is for the fans as much as it’s for the players, and that’s why the last bastion of this already fragile season may well be the parks pitches that the likes of Broadheath Central call home.

Nomads On The Up

Anstey Nomads   3   Lutterworth Town   0 

United Counties League – Premier Division

When I first embarked on the Leicestershire Senior League, I kind of did the best first, and saved the worst until last!

One of the first grounds I went to, back in 2004, was the Cropston Road home of Anstey Nomads, one of the more famous names in the league.

I can see from my records that it was in January 2004, and it was a 2-2 draw with Hinckley based Downes Sports. My memories are a bit vague but what I can remember is that it was a day when I was working on the Saturday, but my active diary management skills meant I engineered an early finish!

I had to jump on the internet before I left the office to get a ground address (I’d left my handbooks and all that at home), and then having quickly looked at a map online, try and remember how to find the ground. I can remember driving up to the gate and paying my admission, and then parking up next to the clubhouse, the rest though, I can’t remember a thing!

Anstey Nomads have one of those names, a name that when you hear it, you don’t forget it. I think I’d heard of them years before I even considered paying them a visit, and with that came something of a curiosity.

They joined the Leicestershire Senior League just after the War and remained in it until 1956 at which point they left, before re-joining it again in 1973. From 1973 onwards they stayed in the competition right up until being crowned champions in 2009.

In 2009-10 they found themselves in the East Midlands Counties League at Step 6, finishing an impressive runner-up in 2017-18, before being shifted sideways to the United Counties League which by now had seen it’s footprint moving further North.

A second placed finish in the clubs first season saw them promoted to Step 5 for the first time, and least season, before it was aborted, the club sat well placed in the top half of the table.

They’ve had some excitement in the FA Vase as well over the years. In 1978-79 they reached the Fourth Round, only to lose to Irthlingborough Diamonds. In fact, in the previous round they beat Halesowen Town 7-0, a side that was to go on to be a real force in the Vase.

Diss Town beat them in the Fourth Round again in 1991-92, while in 1995-96 they went one step further reaching the Fifth Round, beating the likes of Shepshed Dynamo and North Ferriby United on the way, only to lose 6-0 at Collier Row.

But, since that day in 2004, I’ve never been back, despite the fact it’s very close to home, sat to the North of Leicester, only a matter of ten minutes or so from the Coalville exit on the M1.

To be fair, I have tried to go back, notably last season, but waterlogging and then eventually them moving games to a nearby plastic pitch meant it simply didn’t happen, but now, with no excuses, and no lurgy in the vicinity, all was looking good!

Sometimes when you go back to places, it becomes apparent that very little has changed since your last visit, no matter how long ago it was, but that certainly wasn’t the case at the newly named Callingtons Community Complex.

The work they have done is to be admired. Firstly, the pitch was simply superb, if there is a better pitch at this level of football anywhere in the Country, I’d like to see it. They’ve installed new hard standing all around the ground, while the pitch surround, again new, painted red and white was smart.

A stand has been installed opposite the clubhouse, while the clubhouse itself is newly refurbished, with the dressing rooms and club offices adjacent. It all looks very impressive, and you sense a real professionalism about the club, and that is borne out in the ‘A Vision Of The Future’ booklet that was readily available if you wanted a copy.

A complete overhaul of Cropston Road is planned, with a smart two story facility built behind the goal, amongst other improvements, while the club have also acquired the facilities at nearby Ratby Sports Club with a view to transforming them into a state of the art training facility, as well as a base for the junior sides.

This is a club on the up, but what were they like on the pitch?

The first half, while goalless, was a fast and entertaining affair, with both sides giving as good as they got, but the hosts made the breakthrough in the 63^rd minute when Ben Tansley found the net.

The goal knocked the stuffing out of Lutterworth somewhat, and further brace from Zane Hakeem in the 77^th and 84^th minutes respectively sealed a very good victory and maintained Anstey’s 100% start to the season with three wins from three.

So, can they gain promotion to Step 4 this season? Well, with the champions and a runners up spot potentially being good enough for promotion, then why not? Shepshed Dynamo were on the cusp last season before it ground to a halt, while you would expect the likes of Rugby Town, Quorn and Wellingborough Town to be in the mix as well.

Anstey Nomads are a club to keep an eye on, no doubt about that. A lot has happened since that first visit in 2004!

 

1500 Up

AFC Creswell   0   Innings   8 

Worksop Sunday League – Division Two

I had it all worked out, at some point in April / May of last season I would be reaching a landmark, and that landmark would be the 1500^th venue I’d seen a football match take place at.

Clearly that all fell apart, so the countdown had to begin in early August of the current campaign, and while in an ideal World it would have been somewhere exotic like Germany, Holland, Ireland or even Scotland, it was going to have to be somewhere a little more mundane than that.

The problem is of course is that you can’t plan these events with any great precision because things change quite quickly, especially in the current climate, so it was really a case of just seeing how the cards fell and accepting that it would be where it would be!

Looking back at previous landmarks, number 1000 was Honley in West Yorkshire, which turned out to be quite a good move because I took Mrs L with me, largely as it was also the village where she first lived when studying at Huddersfield University.

Number 500 was Carlton Town’s Bill Stokeld Stadium, a game against Hallam if I recall, whereas 250 up was the Brewery Field home of Spennymoor United. Number 100 was Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground, whereas going back any further if we are being honest, isn’t really what I would call landmark territory.

Anyway, turns it was going to be a Sunday for number 1500, and in terms of options it was either AFC Creswell, or, AFC Creswell!

AFC Creswell have dropped onto the radar as the Saturday team have joined the Notts Senior League as one of the more Northern outposts, and it quickly transpired that they have a Sunday side in the Worksop Sunday League, a competition I dabbled in last season and did enjoy.

I’ll be honest, despite the closeness of Creswell, it’s a village I’ve never ever visited, but it is one with a rich history.

A mining village in North East Derbyshire, just outside Clowne, one of it’s landmarks is the ‘Model Village’ which is an area of housing built in an octagonal shape (when looking at a map that is), which was constructed in 1895 to house the miners and their families. While the pit may have gone, the houses still remain.

The pit’s past was marked by tragedy in 1950 when a fire trapped 80 men who all perished in the disaster, while it’s eventual closure came in 1991. The local amenities all centred around the pit, when at the time it was a thriving village, and one of the landmarks was the cinema on Duke Street which was built in the 1930’s in an art deco style. It became a bingo hall in the late 1960’s before eventually becoming swimming baths and a leisure centre. The facility closed in 2016 and was sold in 2019 to a developer, it’s future did seem uncertain, albeit I didn't venture down to check out the current state of play.

Creswell Crags Visitors Centre sits to the East of the village, while at the South side of the village, just beyond the Model Village is the site of the old colliery, with the pit ponds still remaining further South still. It was close to the colliery that the cricket ground and indeed the football ground of the former Creswell Colliery were located.

Now then, Creswell Colliery FC, that’s a famous old name! I remember them from the early Eighties as a lower division Midland Counties League side, but the history is a bit more than just that.

With a history stretching back to the 1880’s, they played in the Central Alliance League after the Second World War, but their most famous day came in the 1954-55 season when they reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, drawing Accrington Stanley at home. The game was switched to Peel Park in Accrington and despite a strong following, Colliery lost the game 7-1. I have seen copies of the programme for sale on eBay recently, I may have to invest!

The club moved into the East Midlands Regional League in the late Sixties, and by the early Seventies they were competing in the Mansfield League and the Sutton & Skegby League’s, until eventually joining the Midland Counties League in 1978.

They remained in the competition until 1982-83 season and became founder members of the Northern Counties East League Division Two South, along with the likes of Sutton Trinity, Long Eaton Grange, Retford Rail and Rolls Royce Hucknall, but after just one season they dropped into local football again and records from that point seem to have ceased to exist.

So here we are today, AFC Creswell, and having found the ground at the end of a small estate of new build houses, I have to say what a super little place they have.

A decent sized car park greets you, with a good sized changing room block adjacent. In front of this is the well manicured pitch, which is surrounded on two sides by elevated grass banking, giving good views of the proceedings, and of course the surrounding areas which are tree lined and aesthetically pleasing.

It has a very rural feel to it, yet if you know your history, this is a village steeped in hard industry, and I cannot recommend it highly enough as a place to watch football on a Sunday morning, or indeed a Saturday afternoon for that matter.

The game, as far as the hosts were concerned, oh dear!

Creswell got well and truly battered, to the tune of 8-0. Visiting Innings FC were on top throughout against an injury hit home side and four goals from Blaine Humphrey, three from Ricky Bolton and a single effort from Connor Brown did the damage. Perhaps from Creswell’s point of view, the less said the better!

But, today was about a visit to the village of Creswell, a look at the history of the place and the football that sits within it. Plus of course, it wasn’t a bad way after all to get to ground number 1500!

 

 

 

  

Wooders

Garswood United   0   Lostock Gralam   1 

Cheshire League – Premier Division

I do like the Cheshire League, it’s good for the soul you know!

A combination of the leafy backdrops, pretty villages and of course the more urban surroundings provide that variety we all need in life, and when you then add in the fact it’s not that far away, it means as far as Step 7 goes, this is my favourite competition.

Some pedant will now come along and say that Step 7 doesn’t exist anymore, well, true, but it sits directly below Step 6, so, go away and count matchsticks or something, it will always be Step 7 as far as I’m concerned.

Digression aside, it’s a great league, with excellent social media, so much so, they announce the constitutions at the start of the season via a video linked Powerpoint presentation, what’s not to like about that?

Furthermore, some of the grounds are excellent, Middlewich Town, Greenall Padgate St Oswalds and today’s destination, Garswood United, have all competed in the North West Counties League previously, while the likes of Knutsford, Malpas, Whaley Bridge Athletic and Poynton are lovely grounds and settings.

In recent seasons the Cheshire League has provided clubs to the NWCL in the form of Rylands, Pilkington, Wythenshawe Town, Cheadle Heath Nomads and Sandbach United, so the quality is also plain to see.

Yes, I like it, and with some changes at the end of the last curtailed campaign, I’ve now got three new venues to visit this time around in the top flight. Starting with the aforementioned Garswood, who incidentally I tried to get to a couple of weeks ago for a friendly game, only for the bad weather see that plan scuppered.

Records show that Garswood joined the Mid-Cheshire League in 1988 from the Liverpool County Combination, rising to the top flight which they subsequently won in 1995-96 season. This saw them promoted to the NWCL where in their first season they finished third in the second tier. The year after they finished in eighth place but found themselves back in the Mid-Cheshire, where they stayed until 2007 when the league was re-named the Cheshire Football League.

The league championship came their way in the 2013-14 season, but by the end of 2017 a bottom placed finish saw them relegated to the second tier. When last season was abandoned they were well placed for promotion, having won twelve and lost just one of their sixteen games, although problems with waterlogging and the pitch meant they were having to schedule home games on the 4G at the JMO Sports Ground in Skelmersdale.

The league saw fit to promote them though, and this season they find themselves back in the top flight again.

Getting to Garswood is easy, you leave the M6 at Haydock, head West down the East Lancs Road and in less than a mile you turn off, with the village itself being a couple of miles further North on the road the eventually leads to Winstanley and Wigan. Bizarrely though, you could argue why the Cheshire League, when perhaps the Manchester League is geographically more appropriate, and possibly even the more Merseyside based options like the West Cheshire or the Liverpool County Leagues?

I suspect it is historic, as a few Cheshire League sides sit in this area, the likes of Billinge, FC St Helens, and one or two in the Warrington area, but whatever the reasons, these clubs seem more than happy with where they are placed.

Garswood is a small village, and a pleasant one too, with the ground being located just North of the centre on the village, on the road that eventually leads into Wigan. Set rurally, a decent sized car park greets you behind the East goal, while also behind this goal is the dressing rooms, impressive clubhouse and some cover containing seats at one end.

It’s hard standing around the rest of the ground and it’s fully enclosed, while the pitch looked in excellent condition. I have to say I really liked what I saw, and you could sense that this is a football club that have competed at a higher level in the past.

A decent sized crowd was drawn to the game, the opening league game of the season, but visitors Lostock Gralam from Northwich were in no mood to let the Wooders have it all their own way.

The hosts struggled to get into their stride in the first period, and it was the visitors who took the lead through Myles Wady who produced a powerful finish cutting in from the right hand side.

Garswood tried to up the tempo in the second period but again struggled to find any real fluency, and other than a penalty shout that wasn’t given, they didn’t really do enough for me to deserve anything from the game. I guess in a higher league the Wooders will need time to find their feet, and with an away game at Broadheath Central coming next (that I intend to go to), they will be looking to bounce back.

On a lovely day, it was a great way to start the competitive Saturday’s of 2020-21, in a league that never fails to deliver as far as I’m concerned.

 

The Parmo

Thornaby   1   Penrith   2 

Northern League – Division One

One of the knock on effects of lockdown from a work perspective has been a re-allocation of branches. I got the call to say my South Yorkshire patch was going to be extending into North Yorkshire and Teesside.

Never one to miss an opportunity, I saw with this an opportunity! The Northern League is something I’ve not really immersed myself into, but, that could quite possibly change moving forward.

Naturally, any visits to this new frontier would have to be on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, and with it could be combined some exciting new places, places like Esh Winning, West Allotment and of course Ryton & Crawcrook, all uncharted water a far as I was concerned.

So the first visit came, a meeting with the new team in Darlington, and after the first forty five minutes of introductions and welcomes, I’d written one word on my notepad.

'Parmo'

Now I’ve never heard of a Parmo before, but when the conversation inevitably went onto food options for lunchtime (I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of food outlets close to my offices) I got told that I had to try this unique Teesside delicacy. It appears it’s a chicken breast that’s had the life smashed out of it, deep fried in breadcrumbs, then topped with béchamel and cheese, before being popped under the grill. Apparently it’s the Teesside version of the doner kebab, a must have after a gallon of loudmouth soup, and with it something like 2500 calories a throw, more if you have chips with it.

It seemed a bit much for lunchtime, but of an evening, that’s a different story! More on food later….

I’d got a number of games on the radar for the evening, matches were taking place at Billingham Synthonia, Redcar Athletic, Crook Town and Guisborough Town, but my plan was to make the short journey down the A66 to Thornaby.

I must admit though, I started to have my doubts at the beginning of the week. The Covid count in the North East started to rocket as areas were placed on watch, then suddenly as we approached Tuesday, a number of games bit the dust, albeit largely in the Newcastle and Sunderland areas, which to be fair, are a good way from Middlesbrough.

Thankfully though the Wednesday fixture programme was largely unaffected, so with all of my game options showing as on, I could leave Darlo with some confidence.

It was a relatively straightforward journey to the Teesdale Park home of Thornaby. The ground sits only a short distance from the A19, and is located up a long driveway, adjacent to a golf course. Crowds are limited to 300, and with the previous game being a sell out, I made a point of arriving nice and early to secure a ticket, and with it a place in the car park.

Teesdale Park is an interesting venue, the car park is behind the East goal, and once having purchased a ticket and left the obligatory contact details at the turnstile in the corner, the clubhouse was to the left, with what is effectively a large stage built to the side of it. The stage is covered, and has wooden pub style benches for al-fresco drinking, along with a PA Announcer cum DJ who has probably the most advanced sound equipment in non-league football!

In front of the clubhouse is some steep uncovered seating, while the tea bar sat at the end of the building.

The South side of the ground is hard standing with a large grass bank behind, while moving to the opposite goal, some old terracing with a low roof provides further cover. The main stand and the dressing rooms, which are all one building, sits on the half way line opposite the grass banking side.

Back to food again.

I was browsing the programme when the first thing that caught my eye was an advert for the final of the Chicken Nugget Eating Contest, which forms part of the British Eating League. It also appears the BEL is a member of the Competitive Eating Global Association, so crikey, eating is a sport now? Anyway, a £1000 prize was on offer for the contest which is due to take place in nearby Stockton on a Saturday in October!

Feeling suitably peckish now, it was time for a trip to the tea bar, and on the menu, it stood out like a beacon, Parmo! I had a decision to make, do I, don’t I, how do you actually eat it, do you use a knife and fork or do you just pick it up? Anyway, the bloke in front of me ordered one…

“Sorry, we’ve not had any Parmo’s delivered this week.”

I had a burger.

So what’s the story with Thornaby FC then?

Formed from the famous old Stockton club in 1999, they were originally known  as Thornaby-on-Tees for just one season until 2000-01 when they became known as they are now. The previous club had been relegated to the second tier of the Northern League, where, apart from a couple of brief dalliances with the top flight, they remained until 2018-19 when they finished runners-up and with it earned promotion.

In all honesty though, when the last campaign was abandoned they were having a tough time, with just five wins from the 29 games played, so this time out, the aim is surely to retain their top flight Northern League status.

I do love watching Northern League games, the standard is just so good for the level the competition is placed at. If you need any evidence that it’s by far and away the best Step 5 league then just look at the FA Vase. Last season’s final, which is yet to be played, see’s two of the league’s sides meeting in the shape of Hebburn Town and Consett. Furthermore, just look at how well promoted teams perform at Step 4, both Morpeth Town and South Shields in recent seasons have simply gone straight through.

The game itself was entertaining. The hosts took the lead as early as the fourth minute when Lewis Murphy fired home, but within ten minutes we had parity when Kyle May found the back of the net, leaving the Thornaby defence to ask questions of one another.

Penrith were organised and resolute, and despite pressure in the second period they stood firm and indeed took the lead on the hour mark through Max Brown. Thornaby threw everything at Penrith in the closing stages but to be honest, I couldn’t see them scoring, and they didn’t.

The car park was escaped painlessly and I was soon on the A19, and on a night when the roads behaved impeccably, I was back through the door before 11.30pm.

The Parmo though, that will have to wait until next time, assuming of course in the current climate, there is a next time…….