Industry

Pear Tree Hotel   5   The Cricketers Rest   1 

Alfreton Sunday League – First Division

Any trip to the area that stretches from Alfreton in the North down to Eastwood in the South reminds me so much of my younger years.

My secondary schooling took place in Alfreton, and having had my primary education at the gentile and innocent surroundings of Fritchley Church of England, when I first set foot off the 802 Trent Bus into the Badlands of Mortimer Wilson, it was an eye opener!

Alfreton was to become the backdrop of age 11 through to age 18, and I’m pleased to say that two positives can be taken from the experience. Firstly, I’m still alive, and secondly, I’ve never served a prison sentence, so you could argue the teachers got something right!

After returning from University, I had an overdraft to pay off, so I got work through a temping agency, and that pretty much took me to the Industrial Estates of Somercotes, Riddings, Pinxton etc, so I got to see what life was like in the factories, especially on the night shifts where productivity was a dying trend!

When I eventually got a proper full time job, it was indeed in Somercotes, and over time you got to meet the people, drink in the pubs, and find out a bit more about the history and the culture of the area. It was hard, it was tough, it was no-nonsense, and it was a good laugh at times, but more importantly you got to understand what the area was all about. You respected it, and you got a real feel for the journey that the generations of families had been on, from the coal mines, to the hard times, to the rise in new industry, to redundancies, and so on.

I remember reading a match report in the Ripley & Heanor News many years ago now, I seem to recall it was for a Codnor Miners Welfare game, who at the time were a Midlands Regional Alliance team. The writer, who was also a local school teacher, proclaimed that the names of the villages in the area even sounded hard, names like Ironville and Jacksdale, names that befitted their industrial pasts.

In the very same newspaper, the Alfreton Sunday League was regularly featured, it was a thriving competition, with the likes of Ironville, Jacksdale, Pinxton, Somercotes, Selston, Swanwick and indeed Riddings all featured. Today, it’s not anywhere near as strong, teams have gone, in fact the league now is merged with the old Derby Sunday League, with teams being spread over a much greater geographical area, Sunday football, not just in these parts, but all across the Country, is a shadow of it’s former self.

Riddings then, they had a Saturday and a Sunday side at one point. The Saturday side was Riddings St James who played in the Central Midlands League, whereas on a Sunday it was all about Riddings Rovers. Nowadays, neither exists in an adult form, but, this season, Riddings does have a side playing on a Saturday once again.

Inter Belper have formed this season, and have joined the MRA, playing on Riddings Park. I’ve never ever seen a game in Riddings in my life, in fact if you’d have asked me a month ago about football pitches in the village I would have been clueless.

But, when Inter Belper arrived on the scene, and no, despite living in Belper I have absolutely no clue as to who they are etc, I had a look to see if any Sunday sides played at their stated home venue in Riddings, and they did, the Pear Tree Hotel from Ripley!

Riddings Park is down Shaw Street, which is a very narrow road that runs off of the main B6016 that goes to Codnor. Word of advice, don’t go down it in a car, there is only room for one car, and when you do get to the car park at the end, it’s usually full as residents use it!  I arrived an hour before kick off, nothing was happening, was I going to be going to Pinxton instead? However, as I managed to turn around the car park a couple of lads carrying bags and wearing Pear Tree tops were heading to the pitch.

Parked up next to the Greenhill Tavern, there was time for one, before a wander back up. Riddings Park is a sizeable place, the football pitch has a slope from one end to the other, while a further expanse of grass sits at the top end along with a changing room block and kids park.

A disused mound that used to be a BMX track flanks one side, while away in the distance behind the trees is a cricket ground, a further football pitch and a community centre. The sun was shining now, I had to take my jacket off, and with all of the park benches full to capacity, I opted to stand behind the goal. Some locals had decided to perch on garden walls to watch the game, but what was in store?

It was all a bit one way to be honest, Pear Tree were the better side and ran out 5-1 winners against the Cricketers Rest who it appears are a Kimberley based outfit, currently playing their home games in Ilkeston. The pitch itself was bone hard, and had seen Inter Belper play on it the previous day, beating Castle Donington Reserves 3-2.

Pinxton Tops next week, another wonderful village in this maelstrom of former mining communities, the Hop Inn, who I am watching in that game have some interesting names listed in the squad, that should be one to watch with a keen eye.

I’ll kind of be disappointed when my Sunday league experiences come to a halt this season, not least for the trips down memory lane.