No Recollection

Rowsley 86   3  Buxton Reserves   1

Friendly

To be fair it was royally smashing it down as I was trundling merrily along the A50, en-route to my game of choice at Garswood United. Garswood United, for those who have no clue what I’m talking about, is a Cheshire League club located just off the East Lancs Road, and they’d got a friendly game against Ashton Town.

But then, I got a call from someone to tell me the game had been called off due to bad weather, and thankfully the same mate was sat by his PC at the time so he was able to find me an alternative.

I was in the Uttoxeter area at the time, so the list of possibilities extended to Carlton Town in the FA Cup, Clay Cross Town who had a friendly against Mickleover, or, Rowsley 86 who also had a friendly against Buxton Reserves.

I’d not been to Rowsley for years, so that was the one I plumped for, and as I re-set the sat nav, it was going to take me a nice scenic route up to Ashbourne via Mayfield, and then across via Longcliffe to the A6, just to the North of Rowsley itself.

According to my records I’ve only ever been the once to the School Lane ground, it was in August 1997 for a Midlands Regional Alliance fixture against Belper Town Reserves. The Nailers won 2-1, apparently, and unusually for me, I have absolutely no recollection of it whatsoever, I can’t recall the ground, the game, in fact, I had to ask my mate whereabouts in Rowsley the ground was actually located as I simply didn’t know! I’ve driven through Rowsley countless times over the years, living literally on the A6 down in Belper, but it was one of those ‘forgotten’ places for me as far as football was concerned.

But even then, as I drove along School Lane I was unsure of where the ground was, and just as I was about to turn round and re-trace my steps, convinced I’d missed it, I spotted some goalposts in the distance to my left, bingo!

A few cars were already in the car park when I arrived, and as we got to within an hour of kick off more cars were parking on the roadside, any initial concerns I had about the weather scuppering my plans were put to bed, it was game on, but it was going to be a wet one!

So, the Rowsley 86 story then.

They were members of the MRA since records began, well, when I say that, Full Time goes back as far as 2005-06 season, and they were in it then, and, I’m pretty sure they’ve been in it since at least the early Nineties, possibly even longer. The MRA started in the mid-Eighties after a merger between the East Midlands Regional League and the Central Alliance, I don’t recall them being around in the very early years, but put it this way, they were very long standing to say the least. I guess the giveaway is the clubs name, one would think the 86 means that was the year they were formed!

In recent seasons they’ve always been one of the stronger sides, winning the championship in 2007, 2009, 2015, 2017 and 2018. As other clubs moved up to the Central Midlands League, Rowsley seemed content to be where they were, but that changed after the final title win, and at the start of the 2018-19 season they found themselves in Division One South.

I don’t think anyone who had seen Rowsley play over the years had much doubt that they would be successful, and indeed in their inaugural season they finished runners-up to Sherwood Colliery Reserves, losing only three league games all season.

That meant promotion to Step 7 for the first time, and last time out, before the season went belly up, they were sat in third place, again only having lost three of their 17 league games. Moving through the leagues didn’t seem to faze the club one bit, but, is Step 7 their natural level?

I guess when you walk out onto the ground at School Lane, the answer to that question would be an unequivocal ‘yes’. That isn’t meant to be a criticism of them at all, because on the field they are a very capable side, but off the field, to get their base up to Step 6 standard would involve monumental costs, and probably given the location, would be hugely problematic in terms of gaining permission for things like floodlights and stands.

At the moment, School Lane is without doubt one of the most scenic and pleasurable places to watch football that you could find, but, apart from two dugouts and a small dressing room building some way from the pitch, it falls short in the sense that it doesn’t have any hard standing, cover, fixed barrier etc.

So, right now, they kind of are where they are, a very good club, a talented team, but at a level it’s hard to see them move forward from, unless of course something changes significantly.

The rain had pretty much stopped by kick off, but it wasn’t the clearest of nights, and that was to have an impact as the game wore on. The opponents were the Step 7 reserve side of Buxton, a team that were newly formed last season playing in the Cheshire League, while this time around they’ve moved South into the Staffordshire County Senior League.

The youthful visitors took the lead in the first half, but as Rowsley found their feet they gradually got back into the game they quickly turned a deficit into a lead, eventually taking the score line to 3-1, but at this stage it was getting dark. The referee continued to monitor the situation but with 75 minutes on the clock he decided to call it a day. I must say, a 6.30pm kick off in September is a tad ambitious, but then on a clear night we might have been ok, and, had it been a league game, he may well have seen it through to a close. I have seen games played in darker conditions, put it that way!

And that was it, back home much quicker than I thought, and certainly considerably earlier had the game been on at Garswood. Let’s just hope in a few years time I’m not once again bemoaning the fact I have no recollection whatsoever of a trip to Rowsley 86, and let’s also hope, their ambitions mean they don’t have to either move, or make significant changes that would negatively impact the wonderful charm of School Lane.