Eric

Golborne Sports  5  Avon Villa  0

Cheshire Football League – Division One

Admission / Programme – No / No

Eric was a lovely bloke, a mate of my Grandad’s, who he served with in the RAF during the Second World War.

He used to come down to visit occasionally, and when he did, I was tasked with going to fetch him. You see Eric wasn’t local, he lived in a place called Golborne, which was just off the M6, on the East Lancs Road, not far from Haydock Racecourse.

We are talking thirty years ago now though, and I can remember going up one Sunday morning, taking my Grandma (Grandad couldn’t travel that far with his knees), suffering a sizable hangover, and then upon arriving at Eric’s, having it insisted upon me that I tuck into the lunch he had prepared.

Tongue sandwiches…..!

Not my finest moment, but a memory that is etched, and, because of Eric, the town of Golborne is one that always brings back memories when I hear it mentioned, or indeed when I see a sign for it when I’m in the proximity. 

Golborne Sports then, like a racehorse tucked in behind the leading pack, they’ve had games in hand but they’ve timed their end of season run to perfection. From not being on the radar (or at least on my radar), they’ve come up on the rails in the Cheshire League First Division, and on the day myself and Steve visited, they were potentially one win from the championship.

It was a lovely May Saturday and the journey across the A50 and up the M6 was as trouble free as you would have hoped. It got a bit sticky at the M62 interchange, but otherwise the sat nav took me off at the first Newton-Le-Willows junction (J22) and it was a scenic cross country run through into Lowton, over the East Lancs Road and then into Golborne.

The ground in Golborne is a sports complex that also comprises the local cricket club. You go through the main entrance on Stone Cross Lane North and then you can choose to either park along the perimeter of the football pitch, or over on the opposite side adjacent to some all-weather courts.

With football and cricket taking place it was busy, and the bar at the ground was doing a decent trade a good hour and a half before kick-off. I landed first, only to be joined by Steve moments after Manchester City had taken the lead at Fulham on the TV. He was happy, some of the locals less so!

The football pitch is surrounded by a fixed post and rail barrier, while there’s hard standing on all four sides. No cover is in place, but it’s a neat and tidy venue that should have no issues meeting the requirements of the top flight of the Cheshire League.

On the pitch, visiting Avon Villa knew a defeat would relegate them, but as for Golborne, if they were to win, and other results went their way, they would be promoted. A decent crowd, and an expectant one, were in place to watch the game unfold.

The first half was a little edgy, but Golborne were on top, and they did take the lead to ease the nerves, but it was after the break that they moved up through the gears and really got into their stride.

Five goals without reply, thanks to Jordan Coates, Daniel Griffiths, Scott Walker and a brace from Rob Newcombe saw attentions begin to focus on matters elsewhere, and without professing to be an expert on all the pre-match permutations, defeats for Knutsford and possibly Vulcan came through via the social media apps, and at the final whistle the smoke bombs could be lit!

Golborne go up, and since then they’ve gone on to clinch a richly deserved championship. A run of eleven straight wins leading up to the final game of the season (they lost the last game!) was the key, and to be fair, there’s no reason why they can’t go on and do something in the Premier Division next season.

I don’t know if Eric was a football fan, but I do know that along with his family, they were big lovers of Rugby League, in fact his grandson, if I recall, ended up getting a senior position working for the League itself. So, I’m not sure how much he knew about Golborne Sports FC, but the town itself is now starting to sit up and take notice.

Strawberry Fields Forever

Bramshall  8  Vaults  1

Derbyshire Summer League

Admission / Programme – No / No

The Ashbourne Summer League, once referred to as the Derby Summer League, but in reality, just called ‘The Summer League’, has rebranded this season.

The Derbyshire Summer League, which to be fair, is probably as good a name as you could come up with, because while the league has never been Derby based, it isn’t solely Ashbourne based either. But then again, it doesn’t cover the whole of Derbyshire either, unless of course that is the plan for expansion!

I can’t say as I follow it that closely, in fact up until about twelve years ago I never went anywhere near it, until I got to a point where I decided to have a crack at visiting all of the grounds, which took a couple of months across May and June. Since then I’ve simply tried to keep on top of it, and up until this season I’ve only had two new venues come into the league that I’ve not visited, one being the new ground in Brassington, and the other being in Church Broughton.

But, we got another new one for the 2024 campaign, in Bramshall, a small village in the Western edges of Uttoxeter, so in theory in Staffordshire, but let’s not go down that route!

I have to say though, John Brailsford who is, I think, the General Secretary of the league, does a fine job in keeping the mailing list posted about what’s happening in the league. Prior to the season starting we found out who was in, who was out and where they would all be playing, and then usually twice weekly we get a fixtures and results update.

On that basis, it was how I found out about the location of the pitch at Bramshall, according to John it was going to be adjacent to Bramshall Strawberry Farm, which, in actual fact is a garden centre on the road that enters the village from Uttoxeter.

Fixtures wise, opening game of the season at home to Vaults from Ashbourne, 7pm kick off on a Thursday night, that ticked the boxes, I was on my way, but it wasn’t straightforward. I left Rotherham in good time but then once I got on the M1 we ground to a halt. We’ve all been in the place where the estimated time of arrival on the Sat Nav starts to go backwards, and it wasn’t long before it went beyond 7pm.

The emergency services were racing past us, and from what I could see the incident was only just in the distance, but nothing was moving, and I started to think of a Plan B, getting to Uttoxeter was looking difficult, and depending on the situation, making somewhere near Junction 28 was far from guaranteed.

Thankfully though, not least for those involved in the incident, the emergency services moved everything into the roadworks and we could begin to move, the Sat Nav recalibrated and as long as we didn’t encounter any more hold ups, I could make it with ten minutes to spare.

And that was exactly what happened, at ten to seven I turned into the gateway that lead into the field where the Bramshall pitch was located. You always have that moment of apprehension, in the sense that, will I find two teams on the pitch warming up as planned, or, will it be deserted? The good news was, we had two teams, a referee and on a real positive, a lovely warm evening.

Description wise, the pitch is exactly that, within a field, with a wooden dressing room building on the far side. The pitch is also used by the Bramshall Sunday side who compete in the Uttoxeter Sunday League. You can park along the perimeter of the field, as many chose to do, while if you wanted to you could also park on the opposite side, but, not wanting to take any players or spectators with me, I chose not to take a detour over the field!

You know what though, Bramshall are a very decent outfit, and once they got into their stride, especially in the second half, the young side really put Vaults to the sword and ran out 8-1 winners. Again, without seeing what the rest of the competition is like, it’s hard to say how they might fare over the course of the season, but on first impressions, they look like they’ll be more than a match for most.

So that’s the newly named Derbyshire Summer League boxed off again, visits are quite rare these days as I said, and being the kind of person who likes to draw a line under the football season in May, and not touch it until July, I won’t be making any more games.

That’s not to say though, if you are at a loose end, and happen to be in the area, there are worse ways to spend your Monday and Thursday nights…

Rumbush

AFC Solihull  4  Feckenham  0

Midland Football League – Division Three

Admission / Programme - £3 / No

It’s the first Bank Holiday Monday of May and I’m considering my options, but to be fair, given that I didn’t want to be driving far, I only really had one option when it came to getting a new ground in.

So, a bit like Leamington Hibernian, who I blogged about recently, I noticed that AFC Solihull had de-camped from the Leisure Centre in the middle of the town, to the Leafield Athletic ground on Rumbush Lane in Dickens Heath. But, unlike Leamington Hibernian, who have not given any indication as of yet if the move to their current home is permanent, AFC Solihull dealt with that one immediately, they had full on decided to re-home themselves at the new venue.

Steve did the initial reconnaissance mission a few weeks back when I was in Northern Ireland. I was necking a pint in the bar at Ballymacash Rangers when he phoned to advise me of the impressive standard of the bar and food outlet at Rumbush Lane. Steve and I do discuss the important things as readers will be aware, but not only had he established that I would be more than happy with catering and watering, he also stated that the ground itself was quite a pleasant place to be watching football.

So, we have a 3pm kick off, and I gave myself plenty of time to head down the A38 and the M42 before following quite a picturesque route via the back lanes to Dickens Heath, an area of South-East Birmingham that is far from shabby. Rumbush Lane itself is a narrow tree lined road and the ground itself is on the right hand side. You have two entrances, the first being the entrance to the pitch that is used by Leafield Athletic Ladies, while the second entrance is the one that takes you to the main pitch that is now used by Leafield’s men’s team and indeed AFC Solihull.

I was reasonably early so grabbed a space in the car park, and it was then that I spotted a few familiar faces. I had an inkling that some of the ‘fraternity’ would be in attendance and that was very much the case. Some of the lads from the West Midlands were in attendance, notably Steve Munday who is a gentleman I have a lot of time for, and when we do meet we often talk about the time his nephew played for Romulus in an infamous game at Belper Town that they lost 9-0!

The two Andy’s from the South-East had travelled up, and it was good to see Mr Langford out and about after his very serious health issue, while the cue for me to exit stage left was when the ‘Garstang One’ arrived on the scene, ranting and raving about something inconsequential.

It was a lovely day down Rumbush Lane, and it was a big day for the hosts, they had already been crowned league champions, and at the conclusion of the game they were to be presented with the trophy. They had elected to charge £3 admission and to be fair to them, they got a decent crowd, and if my memory serves me the unofficial headcount figure was something like 130.

So, the clubhouse, yes, Steve was bang on. While not a modern venue, it served all the usual beverages, but, the choice of food options was immense, you name it, they did it. They even had a sweet shop to keep the kids happy! 

The ground itself is set in a rural area, and with the dressing rooms and conjoined clubhouse sat on the halfway line on the South side of the ground, the remainder of the pitch is surrounded by an old barrier on three of the sides. No spectator cover is available, but on a rainy day you could watch from your car in the overflow car park behind the East goal.

It seems the ground is owned by Leafield Athletic, a side in the Birmingham & District League, who themselves have been promoted from Division Four to Division Three this season. Many did comment that given the standard of the facilities, why it’s never been used before at a higher level in the past, such as the Midland Combination or the West Midlands Regional League.

It was very much a game of two halves. The first half was a pretty uneventful affair with very few chances, and visiting Feckenham more than held their own against the lofty hosts. However, just when we thought a 0-0 was on the cards and someone from Garstang was going to have to come back (0-0’s don’t count in his World!), the gates opened and the goals went in.

Cherno Sey scored the first after 57 minutes, while on the 75th minute Scott Saunders made it 2-0 with a powerful header. The third goal came from MD Shimul following a great move and finish, while in the last minute Owen Williams was on the spot to make it 4-0.

While many of the locals stayed behind at the final whistle for the trophy lift and the celebrations, I decided to make my way home. Some of the others were heading to Shropshire for a game at Albrighton, while another individual was last seen wandering in the general direction of the nearest railway station…..clearly attempts to blag a lift had proved fruitless.

AFC Solihull though, this looks like a good move for them, and as they now prepare for life in Division Two, they can be safe in the knowledge that if it takes your fancy, you could swap your half time pie for lasagne, probably!

Magic Mikes

St Michaels DH  1  Knutsford  1

Cheshire Football League – Division One

Admission / Programme – No / No

The Cheshire League First Division has been intriguing this season.

About three months ago I went to Upton JFC and was convinced they were nailed on for promotion, but since then they’ve had a comparative mare and are completely out of it. I then went to Bollington Town thinking they were looking good, but again, indifferent results means that’s now looking touch and go, but they are still in the mix at this stage.

Vulcan had been in the mix for a large part of the season, but then again, Vulcan have been in the mix for years and never gone up, not sure quite what’s happening with them!

So, as we enter the final stages, a couple of other names have entered the equation, one being Golborne Sports, the other being Widnes based St Michaels DH.

I’ve done some daft journeys recently in terms of distances, so decided that I wanted something within two hours of home, and when I took a look at the fixtures, a trip to Widnes quickly jumped to the top of the list.

I’ll be honest, and I mean this with absolute sincerity, up until a couple of weeks before the trip, I knew absolutely jack about St Michaels DH, in fact, I still don’t know what the DH stands for, but I guess if I wasn’t so lazy I could probably find out if I tried.

So, away we went, along the A50, up the M6, Westbound along the M62 and then a short run down to the Western edges of Widnes and into the areas known as Ditton and Hough Green (I’m not sure technically which one the ground falls into, in fact, thinking about it, DH? Ditton, Hough Green? Mmmm)

Anyway, I must admit to being pleasantly surprised with what I found. You see the ground address was showing as St Michaels Catholic Primary School, so I fully expected a pitch, with a rope down one side, on a school playing field, but I was wrong.

Firstly, while the ground is right behind the school buildings, it is annexed from it and has it’s own entrances etc. It also has a fixed plastic rail all the way round the pitch, and a changing room block that is very much the clubs building, complete with signage and the like.

Parking wise, the main car park was rammed, so I had to utilise a grass verge, only it seems the car park is also used by churchgoers and it looked as though some kind of service was taking place over the road, they were all dressed very smartly and lots of kids were in attendance, so a Holy Communion maybe? Anyroadup, they all went their merry ways and the car park thinned out considerably, but by now the arriving players had elected to park on St Michaels Road which runs to the rear of the ground.

St Michaels are playing catch up somewhat, and their destiny is in their own hands, but they really can’t afford to be losing too many points along the way. Visiting Knutsford were sat just behind them in the table, with even more games to catch up on, so a relatively tight game was expected, and was indeed exactly what we got.

The visitors took a first half lead through Jonny Cavanagh, as the hosts laboured a little, but in the second period it was to be St Michaels who had the lions share of possession, and with it numerous chances to get on the scoresheet.

As the half wore on you began to wonder whether it was going to be three points lost but their perseverance paid off when Dominic Brereton found the net. St Michaels poured forward in the closing stages in search of a winner but it wasn’t to arrive. Whether the dropped two points will prove costly in the final analysis remains to be seen. Golborne Sports impressive late run is likely to give them one of the spots, the other is very much up for grabs.

What I would say though, don’t let the address put you off, the home of St Michaels DH is much more than just a school, in fact it’s not a school at all.

It’s a football ground, and one that could very well be hosting Step 7 football next season.

Viral Wombwell

Wombwell Main  1  Dodworth Miners Welfare  2

Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League – Premier Division

Admission / Programme – No / No

Wombwell Main are like, reyt famous!

They have a YouTube channel, the videos they post regularly get over 1000 views, and one of them struck a chord with so many people.

Manager Terry Simon was filmed walking over the pitch just over a month ago, bemoaning the quite horrendous weather we’ve had consistently since October, and his comment was “The football club won’t finish the season, and the cricket club won’t be able to start the season!”

He talked about a Junior Tournament that is due to be hosted in a few weeks time, and if that doesn’t happen, financially the junior section of the football club would be in a real mess because it relies on it to fund the season.

“I’m getting up in the middle of the night to see if it’s raining.”, Terry said in the video, he was genuinely concerned about the situation, this is something in all of his years of being involved with Wombwell Main, he’s never experienced.

At the point where that video was made, Wombwell had not played a home game since the 11th of November, they finally got back on their home pitch on the 23rd March, four and a half months later! 

Thankfully, it very much looks now like Wombwell Main will finish the season. Since 23rd March, of the ten games they’ve had, nine have been at home, and even after the recent run of decent weather, we sit as I type (11th May) and they still have two home and two away games still to play.

However, it was the video of Terry Simon that truly resonated with so many people, he’s been involved with Wombwell Main for more years than many of us have been around, but he’s never seen anything like it, and for Terry, there are volunteers at clubs up and down the land who have had similar situations to have to deal with.

But it was Wombwell Main’s video that went viral, and of course it was their Warhol moment, but it highlighted a very serious problem, that may well be something we have to live with moving forward.

Wombwell has been quite an interesting place from a footballing point of view. Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is to think about the venues before the clubs. Down in the East side of the town, on Station Road is the home ground of Wombwell Town, a club that have raced through the levels over recent seasons and now find themselves in Step 6, competing in the Northern Counties East League. 

The ground has been used before by other clubs, namely Wombwell Sporting Association who competed in the Yorkshire League and the NCEL in it’s early years, before dropping into the Central Midlands League and then the Sheffield County Senior League, by which time they had renamed themselves as Wombwell Town. The current Wombwell Town is no relation, the original club disappeared in 2000, with the new one arriving in 2018.

On the West side of Wombwell, very close to the railway station is the sports ground that the cricket club and Wombwell Main FC share. They joined the Sheffield County Senior League in 1996 and quickly got promoted to the top flight, where they’ve remained ever since, having won it three times in the late nineties and early noughties, and, been runners up a couple of times since.

The ground at Wombwell Main comprises of a clubhouse on the main road, and the cricket pitch directly in front of it. As you reach the edges of the football pitch a dressing room sits on the right hand side, and in terms of the football pitch itself, it has some banking on one side with a barrier in front of it, whereas on the side that runs up beyond the dressing rooms, you’ve got a bit of hard standing with another barrier.

It's a grand place to watch football, especially on a nice night, and having been before for an end of season game, I was pretty familiar with the layout, although the barriers on both sides look like a relatively new addition as I can’t recall them from previously.

A decent crowd rocked up for the game against neighbouring Dodworth Miners Welfare and they were treated to a very good spectacle indeed. 

Bailey Cowsell gave a depleted Main side the lead, but Jordan Kershaw equalised for the visitors who are set for a second placed finish in the table behind Penistone Church Reserves. It was heartbreak though for Main in injury time when Jack Wilson scored the winner for the visitors.

But, for Wombwell Main it’s about finishing the season, and that was something Terry Simon genuinely thought wouldn’t be possible at one stage.

Betty Turpin

Mayfield  4  Teversal  1

Central Midlands Alliance – Premier Division South

Admission / Programme – No / £2

Ashbourne is very much Mrs H’s former stomping ground.

Back in her post University days she landed a job running the Ex-Servicemens Club on the Market Place in the town, and as a result she became something of a pillar of the community, and in turn a font of all knowledge when it came to all things Ashbourne related.

Yes, Mrs H knows her way around Ashbourne, the bars, the clubs and clearly some of the local characters, some of whom I’m sure she’s had run in’s with in her publican days. So, when I go to a game in the vicinity, it often alerts her interest, she likes to know what’s going on you see!

Ashbourne and football aren’t two things that you would immediately put together, apart from of course the Shrovetide shenanigan that takes place under the national gaze, which as far as I can see is a legalised fight while under the serious influence courtesy of the town’s pubs!

Hang on, you may be thinking, what about the Ashbourne Summer League, Derbyshire Summer League as it’s now known? Well, yes, you’ve got that, but we’ll park that for a future blog because that’s worthy of it’s own piece, however, in terms of the normal Saturday stuff, it’s been somewhat spartan.

Ashbourne FC played on the Recreation Ground for many years, in the Staffordshire County Senior League, but they chose to move in with Rocester, with progression in mind. There was talk of a new sporting facility in Ashbourne that would have allowed the club to progress but to be honest, even though the place is just down the road from where we live, I have no idea where it was planned to be located.

But then, a couple of years back, a club called Mayfield joined the Central Midlands League. I’d heard of Mayfield, only because they did indeed have a side in the Summer League themselves, but it turned out that this variant was indeed going to be rocking up to play on the Recreation Ground.

I’ve been to the Recreation Ground before, for an Ashbourne FC game one midweek at the end of a season. It’s only a short walk from the town centre, so I popped in for a pint, giving Mrs H’s former establishment a swerve, only I wasn’t sure how fondly she was remembered!

But, I found out earlier this season from my old mate Pete that they’d built a sparkling new pavilion at the Recreation Ground, complete with bar and an outdoor seating area that overlooked the pitch. It was a Tuesday night in May, a 6.30pm kick off, the sun was out, and you know what, I decided I was having some of it!

Mayfield have made their way into the Premier Division South of what is now the Central Midlands Alliance League, competing against sides such as Arnold Town, Pinxton, South Normanton Athletic, and indeed the visitors for the game on the night, Teversal. Ok, they are struggling this season and probably need a few wins to keep them safe, but to have got to the level they have is a credit to them, Levels wise, they are now on a par with Ashbourne FC.

The ground is easy to find, coming in from Belper you turn right at the lights, follow the road round and then the car park to the Recreation Ground is on your right hand side. The pavilion is smack bang in front of you, and then down the grass bank below is the pitch, running width ways to the pavilion, with a small stand located on the Western touchline. It’s a public park so anyone can wander in and out, so no admission can be taken but the club makes up for it by selling programmes at the bar.

It's a busy place, a running club were doing their bit on the adjacent pitch, while the cricket nets behind the stand were in usage as well, Ashbourne Rec does feel like a real hive of sporting activity.

Visiting Teversal have fallen on some hard time of late and it was the kind of fixture Mayfield would have perhaps targeted to gain three points from in the battle to avoid the drop. To be fair to the hosts they took the game to the visitors and in the end they were deserving of the victory. 

A James Moore hat-trick and a further effort from William Harrison were the Mayfield goalscorers, with the Tevie Boys getting the consolation through Connor Bower

The game itself attracted a good number of the travelling fraternity, in fact I spent the second half talking to Martyn from Winterton who was bemoaning the financial dominance of the North Eastern clubs in the Northern Premier League Eastern Division this season. I understood completely, Belper Town have been on the wrong end of that dominance, but I don’t see it coming to an end any time soon.

But that was Ashbourne Rec, that was Mayfield FC, and as far as Mrs H is concerned, all is good in the town, since her departure everything appears to be ship shape. What her legacy is, well that’s a different matter altogether!