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….