Summer League

Broughton Wanderers  2  Kirk Langley  3

The Summer Football League

It was the long hot Summer of 2012, and having finally got our new house to the liveable stage, Mrs H decided I needed to find something to do to keep myself from under her feet.

Mrs H spent a few years working in the licensed trade in Ashbourne, and was pretty well versed with some of the local customs, so when I mentioned the Summer League, she knew a fair bit about it.

“Why don’t you watch a few games in that, some lovely places….”

And that was kind of it, I was about to be introduced to the Derby Summer League.

It isn’t called the Derby Summer League to be fair, it’s actually called, quite simply, ‘The Summer Football League’, and if anything, if it needed localising, it would be more like an Ashbourne based competition than a Derby based one.

I’d read about it on the various non-league forums, and to be honest, my interest up to that point kind of ended when I’d read some of the harsher comments about farmers fields. But to be fair, the negatives were without doubt the exception, it did have quite a keen following amongst the travelling community, and I don’t mean those that turn up one day and park their caravans on open spaces!

Fixtures and locations could typically only be found by ordering the handbook from long standing League Secretary John Brailsford, and then subscribing to the mailing list, it proved handy, and away I went once armed with all of the relevant information.

It started at Kirk Langley, and moved on to places such as Osmaston, Hulland, Brassington, Biggin, Boylestone, Doveridge and Shirley. Teams were either based around the local village, or in some cases, notably in Ashbourne, centred around a pub. It had quirky rules, like the matches were forty minutes each way, apart from cup ties which were forty five! Also, if you were between the ages of 21 and 35, you could not have played Saturday football during the previous campaign.

So what was it all about then? It seemed, as chatter suggested, that it was designed for two purposes, one was to allow those who worked in the farming community who couldn’t play during the typical football months, to get a game, and, it also catered for those who liked to play rugby in the Winter months.

Whether that is strictly true or not I don’t know, but what I found was a keenly contested, and a surprisingly good standard of football. Facilities wise it was as basic as it gets, quite often players would change in cars, and it was literally a case of playing on the village recreation ground, expect of course the Red Lion who did quite literally play in a farmers field just outside Longford!

Over the course of a Summer I’d done the lot, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience at some truly fantastic locations in the heart of the Derbyshire countryside. Since then only one opportunity has presented itself to me in terms of new grounds and that was when Brassington moved to a new facility closer to the centre of the village.

But that all changed recently when it was announced that the village of Church Broughton was to host a team (Broughton Wanderers) after a few years without a side since Holly Bush used to play there. Holly Bush had gone by the time I started watching it, so it was time to dip into the Summer League once more.

It got pencilled in for a Monday night, the Summer League plays every week on a Monday and Thursday night, and it was also scheduled to be my last game of a long season. I took Derek and agreed to meet Dave, lock up your wives and daughters as the boys were coming to town…..

I’ve never been to Church Broughton before, located North of the A50 not far from Hilton, it’s the village where my sister used to be Headteacher at the local Primary School. With the pitch in the middle of the village right next to the school, and with us parked up and players arriving, it was time for a short walk to the aforementioned Holly Bush for a pre-match snifter.

In another lovely setting on a fine night for football, we had the pleasure of a very entertaining game. Kirk Langley upset the form book by taking the lead, but two quick goals from a confident Broughton side saw them turn a deficit into a lead.

But then, somewhat inexplicably, Kirk Langley equalised and then went back into the lead through something a freak goal which saw a clearance rebound off the back of a defender and into the empty net.

And that was how it ended, not only the game, but also for me, the season, and in some ways it was the perfect place to end it, with a couple of mates for company.

147 games, I’m ready for a (maximum) break………..