Beefy

Epworth Town Colts  0  Winterton Rangers  5

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It was a really late call on the back of a lucky spot that saw me manage to squeeze in the new home of South Axholme’s finest football club (South of the M180 – don’t want to offend Crowle).

The previous evening, while perusing the general guff I get copied into on Twitter (is copied the right word?), I saw a tweet from the doyen of all things North Notts / Lincolnshire, Rob Waite.

It appeared Epworth Town Colts had relocated from the South Axholme Academy I dutifully attended last season, to a new ground only just round the corner, and it also appeared the first game at the new venue was the following night against neighbours Winterton Rangers.

A quick word with Mrs H saw the relevant paperwork stamped, and after a text to my old mucker Steve, the plan was duly hatched.

As I said in the blog from last season, Epworth is a nice town, the place where John Wesley and indeed Sheridan Smith came from. It didn’t take me long to ascertain the whereabouts of a decent boozer as well, The Old School Inn, which provided a suitable quality of imbibation pre-match.

It seems the ground was one previously used by the old Epworth Town who played in the Lincolnshire League a few years hence, and prior to that it had been owned by the one and only Sir Ian Botham, who duly donated it to the football club as is his philanthropic manner. Sir Ian indeed was a resident of Epworth during his spell as a professional footballer with Scunthorpe United.

Quite how he ended up owning it in the first place, or indeed what he did with it was anyone’s guess, but good old Beefy’s legacy lives on and Epworth have a nice new home of their own.

Located to the West of the town, the ground has a very rural setting and upon going through the gates you find yourself in a large car park. Beyond this is a building to the right which houses the dressing rooms and the tea bar, and otherwise it’s simply a pitch with a rope down one side. Perfectly acceptable for the level Epworth play at, and it does look like they have room to develop, although local opposition to anything remotely progressive may well be an issue.

A plethora of non-league ne’er do wells were in attendance, alongside myself and Steve were of course Rob, a couple of chaps from Sheffield and a couple from Scunthorpe who are well known on the circuit. It seems social media is a very powerful thing.

A modest crowd turned up to watch Winterton field a different eleven in each half, and that resulted in a comfortable 5-0 win for the visitors, albeit they were only leading by a solitary goal at half time.

So, a bonus game and a new ground on a Thursday night, I could at this juncture go on to say that life perhaps doesn’t get any better, but that is probably too bold a statement.

But, for Epworth Town Colts, to have a home of their own where they can develop and grow must be a real positive for them. Maybe after seeing neighbouring Crowle make the jump to Step 7 at the end of last season, replicating that feat is perhaps pretty high on the agenda.