Oh When The Spurs

Gildersome Spurs Old Boys  2  Woodkirk Valley  0

Yorkshire Amateur League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme – No / No

Hello Yorkshire Amateur League, it’s me again!

Yes, we’ve been to Ealandians, we’ve been to Greetland, and now with just one more club left in the promotion shake up, it was time to head to Leeds to watch the wonderfully named Gildersome Spurs Old Boys, who incidentally follow me on Twitter, thanks for that chaps, I don’t have many followers, stalkers maybe, but not followers……

I’ve been to see the Spurs play before, it was a long time ago though, 2015 to be precise, the first Saturday of the New Year and a County Cup tie against a side called St Nicholas. At the time they played at a school called the Bruntcliffe Academy in Morley, I remember it was bloody cold but there was a Toby Carvery down the road so I was happy with that!

Nowadays, they play somewhere else, in Gildersome itself, on a playing field just off Street Lane, which is almost directly opposite Gildersome Sports Club which I assume is the clubs base?

This is the thing though, last season the club finished in a promotion place and if memory serves me correctly they didn’t get promoted due to ground issues, so whether the Street Lane facility is going to be ok to get them up, I’m not sure, especially as the players have to change in the sports club and then cross over the main road to get to the pitch. Anyway, that’s one for the AGMs and all that, right now it was a chance to watch a game at a new ground, and the rest will kind of take care of itself.

Gildersome, now that’s a name you hear a lot on the traffic reports on the radio, along with Chain Bar and Ainley Top, they are notorious M62 carnage zones, and tonight was not exactly plain sailing. All went well until the M62 exit and then it all turns to brown stuff as you crawl Leeds bound. Thankfully Street Lane is only a stones throw from the motorway exit, so pain aside, I was soon driving past the ground and observing the fact that no one could be seen and no signs were apparent that a football match was taking place.

Not to worry though, I turned into the Sports Club and saw players walking towards the building at the end, it was game on, I was just a little bit early. Turns out it was bingo night at the club and I was advised by a local not to park at the club as I might not get out easily so I elected to go and park on the road alongside the pitch, and watched as players dodged the traffic to get onto the turf.

There are two pitches at Street Lane, one of them appeared to be hosting a game of what I will describe as ‘tag’ Rugby League, where the players have a ribbon hanging from their shorts that if it gets removed by an opponent, you have effectively been tackled. That provided a few moments amusement, but the action I was interested in was taking place on the other pitch.

As you would expect with a pitch that I assume is maintained by a local authority at this time of year, the grass was pretty long, it was bumpy and uneven, while it wasn’t that easy to see the pitch markings. As you wandered around the perimeter of the pitch it was also noticeably quite boggy so I elected to stand on the elevated banking at the South end of the pitch.

Visiting Woodkirk Valley had been in the promotion mix up until relatively recently, but they’ve dropped away as the likes of Spurs and Ealandians have put runs together that have propelled them into the pole positions, and with Spurs having only lost three games all season, promotion was already in the bag. Albeit the two previous games had been declared as walkovers which was presumably due to opponents not being arsed (the correct term is of course being unable to raise a team).

Gildersome won the game 2-0, it wasn’t a fabulous spectacle but the pitch didn’t help matters to be fair. All eyes will now be on what comes next.

Will it be the Supreme Division, the runners up spot is guaranteed so league placings won’t be an issue, it will I imagine come down to facilities.

It is of course possible I might be paying Spurs a visit again next season, albeit somewhere else, I’ll let you know in July when the YAL drops it’s handbook onto the Interweb.

I kind of hope I do go again to be honest, it seems as they follow me I can call them friends, but then again, they’ve not read this article yet, you can soon fall out with people you know!