The Alliance

Clipstone   4   Borrowash Victoria   0

East Midlands Counties League

As regular blog readers will be all too aware, many roads have lead to Nottinghamshire this season as the expansion of the Senior League has opened up countless new ground opportunities.

But let’s not forget, in the Seventies and the Eighties, the Nottinghamshire Alliance League, which was the predecessor of the Nottinghamshire Senior League, was once a thriving and indeed highly competitive league in it’s own right.

We all know the story behind Rainworth Miners Welfare and their trip to Wembley in the 1982 FA Vase Final.  But of course not only that, they were a very successful and well supported team when it came to the league itself, and of course in the County Cup where they put many higher ranked teams to the sword over the years.

You then had Hucknall Town, once known as Hucknall Colliery Welfare, who went on to reach the Conference North and of course an FA Trophy Final at Villa Park. While a current and ongoing success story at this moment in time is Basford United who are challenging to get into Step 2, having been in the NSL as recently as ten years ago.

But, going back to the heady days of the Seventies and Eighties, other familiar names included Players, Keyworth United, Boots Athletic, Meadows Albion, Worthington Simpson (who became Newark Flowserve) and of course, Clipstone Miners Welfare.

Clippo’s halcyon days came in the early Seventies when they won the Senior Division crown three seasons on the bounce, this before Hucknall and Rainworth went on to dominate in a Rangers / Celtic style and between them won eight in a row!

That said, by the early Nineties, they went on to win the league again twice in a row, before deciding to jump ship to the Pyramid and join the Central Midlands League. They won the Premier Division title twice in the three years before getting elevated to the Supreme Division, where they remained for fifteen seasons.

A fourth placed finish in 2012 saw them promoted to Step 6 and the Northern Counties East League, and then in 2013 they dropped the Miners Welfare suffix and became plain and simple Clipstone FC.

The championship was won in 2015 and with it promotion to Step 5 and the Premier Division, but an awful season in 2017-18 when they drew two and lost forty games, conceding 172 goal with it, saw them relegated, this time to the East Midlands Counties League.

The first season back at Step 6 didn’t go especially well either, they finished eighteenth out of twenty, conceding over 100 goals, while last season they looked to be on their way back, amassing more points by lockdown than they had in the entire previous season.

Clipstone is another of those football clubs, that while they’ve been around at a good level for such a long time, and they aren’t too far away, I’ve been on very infrequent occasions. I don’t know why that should be either, because the Lido Ground is absolutely renowned for it’s ability to drain so on a wet day it is virtually guaranteed to be ‘game on’!

I first went back in 2003, a pre-season game against Sutton Town which the visitors won 4-2, and then it was another ten years, almost to the day, to watch Belper Town also win a friendly, this time 5-1.

The one and only competitive game I’ve seen at Clipstone was in October 2015 when they drew 2-2 with Handsworth Parramore, a game that became infamous because former Clippo Manager Brett Marshall (who was by now Manager at Staveley Miners Welfare) was refused admission to the ground! This lead to animosity between the two clubs and quite an interesting game between the two later that season at Staveley, which I also went to!

So, for the geographically challenged, where is Clipstone and how do you get to it?

Well, put simply it’s a village to the East of Mansfield, on the edges of Sherwood Pines Forest Park, and to get to it from my part of the UK you go up the A38 and then go round the edges of Mansfield on the A617. You then follow what is effectively a ring road round the East edge and come to the crossroads where Forest Town Miners Welfare is (AFC Mansfield) before doing a right and taking the road straight in. It’s a doddle, and as the ground is on the main road, I think even Mrs H would be able to find it!

The village itself has a population of around 5,000 and is a former mining community. The iconic headstocks from the pit era are still in place and can be seen on the right hand side as you head out of the village to the adjacent village of Kings Clipstone. They are apparently Grade Two listed structures, so they appear to remain safe for the time being at least.

The ground itself is a very tidy venue and one which the club should be very proud of.

The large car park sits behind the goal, with a small sided floodlit pitch adjacent to it. Once inside the ground a small area of cover with a row of seats sits to the right of the West goal, while to the left of where you enter behind the goal is the clubhouse and changing rooms.

The North side of the ground is covered for two third of the length, partly terracing and partly seats. The opposite side is hard standing while behind the East goal it’s out of bounds for spectators.

The pitch was in superb condition, as you would expect, while one of the impressive things about Clipstone over recent seasons has been their brilliant use of social media, and of course a superb match programme which is the best I’ve seen anywhere this season by a mile.

What about the game though?

Well before kick off the hosts had eleven points from their eight games and held a mid table berth, whereas the visitors from Derbyshire had a win and two draw from their seven games, which to be fair is a sign of improvement as the Vics have been whipping boys in recent seasons.

It was a relatively comfortable evening for Clippo in front of a crowd of just over 100. Charlie Dawes produced two neat finishes in the first half to give the hosts a deserved lead, while Jack and Lewis Warwick both netted in the second period. Vics put in the plenty of effort but little was created in the way of clear chances.

You sense Clippo, under the leadership of Dave Hoole, are perhaps on the way back, and with four promotion spots available from the East Midlands Counties League this season, is a return to Step 5 a possibility? Obviously it will be tough though with some big spenders around, and indeed big names like Hucknall, Eastwood, Sherwood, Ollerton, Clifton, Rainworth and Belper United.

Looking at some of those names, it’s starting to appear a bit like the old Notts Alliance all over again!

 

Swanwick

Boot   2   FC Chadd 2013   2

Alfreton Sunday League – Division One

The Sunday League football crusade continues unabated, and it looks like extending into November due to a combination of factors.

Postponements have curtailed one or two games, re-arrangements have taken place, and I’ve even had a slight issue in terms of a team from a Young Offenders Institution and being able to glean whether a game is actually taking place or not!

The latest one that’s crept up on us is another change in the Midlands Regional Alliance. You may recall earlier in the season I took in a game at Riddings Recreation Ground, the new home of Inter Belper, well it seems that for some reason everyone who plays on the ground in Riddings, be it Saturday or Sunday, has been turfed off and left to find a new home!

It seems Inter Belper have found a new home, and that happens to be Swanwick Recreation Ground, a venue very close to home, but, and this is something Sunday League football is teaching me, I never had any idea that it actually existed.

I only found out about this change a couple of weeks ago, and I missed my first opportunity to pay it a visit because I had a pre-arranged amble round Alfreton Golf Course with young Master Hatt. However, despite one or two games being postponed in the Alfreton Sunday League this weekend, it seemed the game between Boot and FC Chadd 2013 was still on, or at least it was an hour before kick off when I started to dig out some dry clothes after a very wet previous day in Nottingham.

Socially Distanced Steve had also got it on the radar, and to be fair, just as I was driving into Swanwick he gave me a call to say he was at the ground and all was ok. I had been pre-warned not to try and park on the roads that run up to the pitch due to the tightness and lack of parking spaces, so with a space found on High Street, it was a short walk over the road and down to the rec.

Swanwick is a village located on the road from Alfreton to Ripley. To be honest, I’ve not really had an awful lot of contact with it over the years, barring a couple of trips to watch the now defunct Swanwick Pentrich Road, and a couple of pre-match pints in the local boozers before the games.

Swanwick Hall School, along with Frederick Gent at South Normanton was always my old schools big rivals, I don’t think we ever had the all-out mass fight with them that was always threatened, but we did play them once at football when we were in the Sixth Form and we did beat them! They had Kevin Pilkington in goal, who went on to sign a professional contract at Manchester United, playing six times, then he went on to play over 300 games for Mansfield Town and Notts County.

If you didn’t know where Swanwick Recreation Ground was, you wouldn’t find it, simply because you can’t actually see it until you are on it! If you are coming up the main road from Alfreton, just as you pass the Cross Keys pub on the left, you do a left down Chapel Street and it sits right at the end. You’ve got two pitches, one raised on a plateau, with a changing room block in the corner. The pitches looked in very good condition to be fair, but once it pitch side it was noticeable that we only had one team!

Not to worry though, like the cavalry coming from the pub car park, already clad in their kit, at the top of Chapel Street you could see the lads from Chadd making their way down to pitch side. Chadd is of course the nickname for Chaddesden, a huge housing estate on the North side of Derby, and they happen to be in the Alfreton Sunday League after it merged with the Derby Sunday League a few years ago.

With an old school referee in charge, we had an entertaining game, albeit, the pitch was very narrow and consequently the ball did seem to be out of play for a fair amount of time. Both sides had a decent contingent of staff / helpers, so with a lively atmosphere on the touchline, they were treated to a 2-2 draw, with Chadd getting the equaliser late in the game. A fair result I guess, with the Boot, named after the nearby Boot & Slipper pub, goals coming from Finn Parkin and an own goal. Boot also included Sam Weston (Son of Rainworth Miners Welfare & ex-Selston Manager Craig Weston) in their side, a cracking lad to boot (no pun intended)! Chadd’s goals came from Charlie Naylor and Jake Walters.

Two more Sunday’s I reckon, unless of course anything changes, and in the current climate things can change very quickly. Now then, what’s the number again for the Young Offenders Institution…..

Breaking Every Rule

Wollaton III   2   Sutton Travellers   2

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Foundation Division

&

Trent Vineyard   4   Ballers   2

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two North

It was February 2008 when myself and my old mate Jamesie decided we were going to create some mischief!

At that time, the Non-League Matters Forum on the Tony Kempster website was a brilliant and thriving place. Some fantastic discussion, sharing of knowledge, sharing of experiences and general chatter was being posted on a continual basis.

Some of the posters were very learned and well travelled individuals, while others had some excellent inside knowledge as to the workings of clubs and leagues. It was brilliant, and sadly today’s version of it, for a variety of reasons, is not a patch on what it used to be, largely because the vast majority of the better posters have stopped using it, which largely is down to a select few who have both monopolised it and put others off with their ‘behaviour’.

Yes, so as you can imagine, the great and the good of the groundhopping and non-league World were all over it, but, the downside was that it was also a place that was inhabited by those who you perhaps wouldn’t want to engage with over a pint.

Politicians, smart arses, back-biters, snipers and in some case, just tossers in general did come to the fore from time to time. What also came to the fore were those who could collectively be termed as the ‘Groundhopping Police’, a group of individuals who made the rules, stuck rigidly to the rules, and clamped down on anyone who seemingly broke the rules.

What am I talking about you may ask?

Well, the best way to describe this group of individuals is to give examples. Could you count an abandoned game in your records? Is a new ground a new ground if as little as six inches of the pitch overlaps with what was the old pitch? Do pre-season friendlies count as real games? Are you allowed to count a game if the opponent is a reserve team? Does Youth football class as real football? If you miss the kick off does it count? We even get the bizarre stuff, like the clown who doesn’t count a 0-0 draw as a proper game and has to re-visit the ground as a result, or the ones who refuse to go into the ground, irrespective of how far they’ve travelled, if a programme isn’t available!

Don’t even get me on those who think anyone who drinks lager before a game as opposed to real ale should be banned from entering the ground!

This self-styled police force would be prowling the forums, and despite claiming to be of the ‘There are no rules, you set your own rules’ brigade, they were quick to jump on anything that seemingly didn’t tick all the boxes, with comments like “You surely can’t be counting that can you?”, or “You would never catch me doing that…..”

Anyway, Jamesie and I hatched a plan that would send this mob into an absolute tail spin, something that would both disgust and intrigue at the same time, we were planning on causing chaos!

Watch two games at the same time!

We spotted this could be done, and the location was to be Yarnfield in Stone, Staffordshire. You see, we’d fathomed out that at the home of North West Counties League Stone Dominoes, there were some outside railed pitches that were used by teams at different levels of the pyramid, and, given the proximity to each other of these outside pitches you could stand in the corner between two, and watch both games. The date was set, 23rd February 2008, and on one pitch we had a Staffordshire County Senior League game between Barlaston and Eccleshall, while on the adjacent pitch we had a West Midlands Regional League game between Stone Old Alleynians and Punjab United Sports.

Yes, it was a bonkers plan, but we were going to give it a go! To cut a long story short, we pulled it off successfully, and based on all of the rules listed above, we actually ticked all the boxes, including getting a programme at each game. But then, I left it to Jamesie to break the bad news on the forum…

It went mental, quite literally, we were beneath contempt, idiotic, dragging the good name of the hobby through the mud, we were the lepers, in fact, lets be honest, we were both cheats and frauds!

This all happened over the course of a Saturday night, but then, one of the original posters who had initially called us everything from a pig to a dog, came back late in the evening with the following…

“I’ve had a look, and this could actually be done again at least twice before the season ends, once in March and once in April, if of course you felt that way inclined?”

Yep, the initial adverse reaction had turned to one of curiosity, and actually, others were now starting to think about replicating it! I then threw another spanner in the works by providing a chronological run down of the afternoon, but interspersed it with about a dozen visits to the bar to re-stock on cans of Carling! Yes, more carnage…..

So let’s fast forward to today and this mad, bad World we are currently living in. It’s hard to plan games at the minute, but on the Thursday evening I decided I was going to stay fairly local so I took a look at the Nottinghamshire Senior League fixtures. It came to my attention that two games were taking place at Beeston Fields Recreation Ground, but, they had staggered kick off’s on different pitches!

It was like 2008 all over again, I smiled to myself, and without necessarily knowing the geography, I was going to turn up for the 2pm kick off between Wollaton Thirds and Sutton Travellers, and if it was possible, I was going to try and take in the Trent Vineyard against Ballers game on the adjacent pitch which kicked off at 3pm!

Arriving a good 45 minutes before the first game all was looking good, but with a deluge of rain forecast it was one whereby things could change quite quickly. Both sides for the first game were pitching up, as did Socially Distanced Steve, who I must admit I’d not discussed my plans with beforehand, but, being a like-minded creature it did not surprise me that he had the same cunning plan.

Did the geography work though? Well, the two pitches ran parallel to each other, with a gap of around thirty yards between the two, so I reckoned if you perched on the path that ran across the bottom of the playing fields, equidistant between the two pitches, this was a goer!

Game one kicked off as the heavens opened, a game in the Foundation Division, and trust me, the heavens did indeed open! I had an umbrella, Steve had to hide under some bushes, but it barely made a difference, the rain was coming down at such a rate we were going to get wet no matter what.

The pitch held up fine though and it was Wollaton who took a first half lead through a penalty. As the first half wore on players from both Trent Vineyard and Ballers were turning up, while the obligatory ‘Respect’ rope was going up along pitch side. This game of course was being played in the next tier up, Division Two North.

Both the second half of the first game, and the first half of the second game, kicked off almost simultaneously at just after ten to three, and this was where you needed to have your wits about you. Sutton came back with two goals to take the lead in the first game, while Ballers took the lead twice in the second game to lead 2-1.

Wollaton found an equaliser and the first game ended 2-2, while Trent managed to also make it 2-2 in time for the interval in the second game, the overlap part of the games had been completed and we’d managed to see all seven goals that went in during the 45 minute period. Steve and I did work in tandem though with a socially distanced plan, I had my eyes primarily on the first game, Steve on the second, and should the action reach a point whereby a chance may be created we would shout to each other. So the cries of “Over here!” and “This way!” came at regular intervals!

The rain continued to pour down as we edged closer to the action in the second game for the second period, and it was to be the hosts that scored twice more to win the game 4-2, having been behind twice.

By the final whistle, we were drenched, the car park was starting to flood and with a pair of jeans virtually sticking to me, the journey home was a touch treacherous with flash flooding on some of the roads.

So it went without a hitch, mission accomplished, all the rules broken once again, but it was great fun. While I’m sure virtually every reader of this article will be sat currently shaking their heads in disgust, it’s worth pointing out, just for reference, that on both the 7^th and the 21^st of November, this double could be replicated, if anyone is foolish enough and indeed wants to drag the hobby through the mud, wishes to take it on….

The Casual Vacancy

Wolverhampton Casuals   3   Cradley Town   2

West Midlands Regional League – Premier Division

I’ve been watching football in the West Midlands Regional League on a relatively consistent basis since 2003, but, one team that for some explicable reason, I’ve never ever seen play, is Wolverhampton Casuals.

My first ever forays into the league would have been way back in the late Eighties, watching the likes of Tamworth and Gresley Rovers.  But, it was in 2003 that I started the task of working my way through the divisions, which to be fair over a spell of about three years proved to be something of a mission, and then thereafter it was a case of picking up on new teams and new grounds.

To be honest, one of the early grounds I went to in 2003-04 season was indeed the Brinsford Lane home of Wolves Casuals, but it was a midweek game where ground sharers with Casuals, Ettingshall Holy Trinity, were at home to an up and coming Market Drayton Town outfit.

Weirdly though, despite watching as many games as I did in the competition, Casuals were never to crop up as an opponent, and being a bit Sinclair Spectrum, that bothered me somewhat! In fact it bothered me to a point that I was starting to look specifically for games involving Casuals, just to get that itch scratched.

It didn’t work though, and to be fair due to not a lot really changing in the WMRL over the past few years I’ve kind of not really focussed my attention on it. Whereas to be honest I’ve only  had a few cursory looks at midweek fixtures to see if I could get down to Casuals, and on the odd occasion where an opportunity had presented itself, something has come along and scuppered it, be it the weather or something that appealed slightly more.

I suppose the first thing to point out about Wolves Casuals is that you don’t have to go to Wolverhampton and fight your way around the City to watch them play, in fact it’s one of the easiest grounds to get to that you could imagine. Coming from my part of the World you head down the A38, then along the A5 past Bridgtown, and then when you get to the roundabout on the A449 Stafford Road you head down it for a few miles and the ground is just off to the left. Coming from further afield, it’s about two minutes from the M54, or about five minutes from the M6, so it’s an absolute doddle!

So, I spotted the game against Cradley Town on a Tuesday night, kept an eye on the chaotic World that is ‘Covid Cancellations’ and before you could sing the opening lines to “Hi-Ho Wolverhampton”, I was trundling in the general direction of Cannock.

Brinsford Lane is a narrow road that leads off the A449 and it’s only a few hundred yards from the M54, but it is a very rural setting. The ground is off to your left and once through the games you can drive up past the West goal and to the car parking areas to the rear of the ground.

Facilities wise, they have a seated stand on the North side of the ground, while to it’s right are the changing rooms, a tea bar and the clubhouse. You can stand down two sides and behind one of the goals, but the area behind the West goal is out of bounds.

They also have a second railed pitch behind the ground, and who uses that I’m not sure. I know Old Wulfrunians share the main pitch with Casuals, and that arrangement has come about because they need a floodlit arena to secure promotion.

The pitch was in great condition and the floodlights were of a good standard, while with it’s tree lined exterior, I have to say Brinsford Lane is a very nice place to visit.

But what about the team?

Well they joined the West Midlands League in 1982, and since then they’ve stayed there! That’s being a bit simplistic though, they have had it a little more exciting than that as I shall explain.

They started in Division Two, then got promoted to Division One, and after a number of second placed finishes they were promoted to the Premier Division in 1988, where they remained for three seasons before dropping back down to the First Division again.

They won Division One in 1994-95 to regain their Premier Division place and it is in the top flight that they have remained ever since. Recent seasons have in fact been very good to them and to be fair they’ve threatened promotion to Step 5 and the Midland Football League Premier Division. In the past eight seasons, they’ve finished in the top three on five occasions, and never been outside the top nine. Last season before matters were curtailed they’d only lost two of their 23 games so once again they were well placed.

It will be difficult though this season, with the likes of Worcester Raiders and Shifnal Town splashing the cash, but to be fair, I’ve a feeling that due to the delayed restructuring and the vacancies that are currently available higher up the pyramid, I suspect more than one club will go up. Add into the mix as well that the West Midlands Regional League top flight will not exist after this season, and your guess is as good as mine what might happen. Then of course we’ve actually got to complete the season, so perhaps it’s best to simply not think about it!

What about the game then?

Casuals opened brightly and took a first half lead through Yannick Gomes who rifled home from close range, and despite Cradley coming out at the start of the second period looking the stronger of the two sides, it was the hosts who made it 2-0 via Scott Broadway who capitalised on a defensive mistake.

Player Manager Sean Geddes netted a penalty to reduce the arrears in the 80^th minute but then another penalty was awarded, this time to Casuals and up stepped Broadway to net his second and the hosts third.

Jason Wellings reduced the arrears once again in the 85^th minute but it was the injury hit Casuals outfit that hung on for an important three points.

Escaping Brinsford Lane was easy, and I was soon heading back up towards Cannock and on the drag North back to Casa Hatt. The Casual Vacancy had finally been filled.

The Muddle

Blidworth Welfare Red   4   Beeston Development   1

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two North

I was a touch confused!

Not unusual, you might be thinking, bearing in mind this is from a man who once went to meet his wife in a pub, only to go to the wrong village entirely and end up bumping into Nigel Clough and his family instead.

Ok, so I got my New Inn’s muddled up, but that was a long time ago, however, I was all of a muddle when it came to Blidworth Welfare Red, what, exactly, was that name all about? Are they connected to the Blidworth Welfare from the Central Midlands League? Where does the Red come from, are they all Forest fans and wanted to recognise the sad fact? And, furthermore, they play in Sutton In Ashfield, how come?

More on what they are about later, but, I’ll be honest, up until Friday night I had a different plan, I was going to go over to Newark to watch Fernwood Foxes play West Bridgford AFC, but, it transpired the lurgy had hit the guys from the East of the embankment and the game was duly called off.

I did look at other options, but to be honest Blidworth was number one choice, largely because they were very pro-active on social media, and checking the game was on proved to be simple and trouble free. The twitter guy I believe is the goalkeeper, and very quick at getting back to me he was too!

Blidworth Welfare Red play at the large Unwin Road Sports Ground which is just off the Kings Mill roundabout that conjoins Sutton In Ashfield with Mansfield On Sea. If coming up the A38 from Bodmin, you do a left at the roundabout, then left again, and finally, you spot a narrow left opening into the ground. The first thing you spot is that this is the home of Mansfield Athletic FC, a club I watched the other week on a Saturday morning in the Derby Church League, playing somewhere else completely!

Seems Unwin Road is the home for the clubs many junior sides, as it does have several pitches of various sizes, with boards up directing different teams to different pitches around a maze of roped off areas. Blidworth were using the pitch at the very top of the complex that backs onto the new housing that’s been built, and it did look to be the only full sized pitch.

It was as I was trying to navigate my way around the different roped areas to pitch side, that I was approached (distantly) by the Manager of Blidworth Welfare Red, who to be fair was probably just checking if I’d got lost on the way to McDonalds or something. Although in reality it was more likely to be the Track & Trace protocol!

It gave me the chance to ask what the club was all about, and it suddenly all made sense. On the basis that the bulk of the people that read this blog don’t actually work, and have ample time on their hands, I would imagine they have had the opportunity in the past to look at the fixtures and the teams that play in local academy football, typically played on a weekday afternoon.

Some clubs have two teams in the competitions, so to distinguish between the two they will often have a suffix, for example Belper Town have ‘Black Sox’ and ‘Gold Sox’, or in the case of Pass Move Grin, they have ‘Performance’ and ‘Elite’. Anyhow, it turns out Blidworth Welfare Red was one of those teams (I assume there was a Black, or a White, but probably not an Orange, as well). What happened was, they got to stage where from an age perspective they were too old for the junior / youth / academy leagues, and as they didn’t want to break the team up, they set up in their own right and moved into Saturday men’s football.

And that’s what it’s all about, they were connected to Blidworth Welfare FC, but not anymore it seems, and that explains why they had to find their own ground, in Sutton.

So what’s it like?

It’s a big old expanse, with a pavilion in the bottom corner, but right at the top is where the main pitch is. It’s fenced down a couple of sides with dugouts and a rope as a barrier on the top side adjacent to the houses. The pitch was also in very good condition, while if you came by car, there is ample parking inside the complex, although be careful if you pull in behind the goal as you’ve every chance of being wedged in as cars park back to back! Finally, I spotted an advertising banner up on the fence for a new housing development, and it seems my company were the selling agents, I might have to put an expenses claim in for the journey, checking out our marketing material and what have you!

Pre-match the hosts sat mid-table, while visiting Beeston Development only had one point to their name after four games. I had seen both sides in action during pre-season, but how was it going to pan out?

To be fair, it was a comfortable afternoon for Blidworth. A 4-1 victory was well deserved, and it was goals from Leon Bartle, Jamie Bourn, James Henry and Conner Pilmore which saw them on their way. Beeston went down to ten men on the half hour mark when Donny Howarth got a red card for a late challenge, while their consolation goal came from Sammy-Joe Smith.

The muddle was over though, the puzzle solved if you like, I could head back down the A38 in the direction of Bodmin safe in the knowledge that any confusion was put to bed.

Just to clarify though, I’m not from Bodmin, that just happens to be where the A38 finishes if you forget to turn off at Belper, and, Nigel Clough is a lager drinker!

Only One Kimberley

Kimberley Miners Welfare   5   Barrow Town   0

East Midlands Counties League

As far as crappy days go, this was a crappy day, not because I was feeing especially crappy, not at all, it was more to do with the crappiness of the tasks I had to do and the equally crappy wet weather!

We’ve closed an office, and in the basement of that office are all our old client files, going back years. As a result the responsibility falls upon me to sort and re-house the said files, I spent pretty much most of the day in a mouldy basement, probably catching various diseases like Cholera, Typhoid and almost certainly Legionnaires Disease, either bagging them up for confidential waste, or boxing them up to be shipped to another storage centre.

I was shagged by 4pm, I needed to vacate the premises, my arms ached, I was fed up and it had wazzed it down most of the day, I needed to go and watch some football.

Conscious that I was a bit early for heading to a game, and mindful of the fact I still had loads of calls to make my team to ensure they’d all done what they had supposed to do in terms of the business week, I decided to get in the car and head down from Sheffield City Centre to somewhere in the East Midlands. Then I was going to park up, and take stock of matters.

I had one or two games to choose from, but there was a caveat, Mrs H was going to watch Belper Town play at Stocksbridge Park Steels, so I had to be back at a reasonable hour to collect young Master H from his Grandmothers. I was toying with Loughborough Dynamo, but then I spotted the East Midlands Counties League games were all kicking off at the earlier time of 7.30pm.

I’d not been to Kimberley for a few years, so I kind of said to myself that it was always going to be Plan A, so it was off the M1 at junction 27, down through Underwood and Watnall, before parking up on Nottingham Road, adjacent to the entrance of the Stag Ground. All looked ok for the game in terms of social media, but, if there was a problem I was placed for the M1 again and Loughborough if need be.

With calls made, and noting the arrival of players from both sides, I could relax for a while, try and get some feeling back into my arms, and, do a bit of research into football in Kimberley, a subject matter that I’ve not paid an awful lot of attention to over recent years.

Let’s start with the town, well it is home to something in the region of 7,000 people, and is perhaps best known for the old Kimberley Brewery, or, as it was also known, Hardys & Hansons. The brewery was sold to Greene King in 2006 and subsequently closed, with the site being developed for housing.

Otherwise, alongside brewing, it was coal mining and hosiery that were the major employers in the town, all are now gone, and Kimberley nowadays has the usual mix of national and local shops, plus of course just down the road in Giltbrook you’ve got IKEA and the surrounding retail park.

Football wise, well Kimberley Town were Central Alliance League members until 1971 when they joined the Midland Counties League. When the merger with the Yorkshire League took place in 1982 they were founder members of the Northern Counties East League where they remained until 1986.

When the Central Midlands League went on a mission to create a Midlands Premier League in 1986, Kimberley moved to the new Supreme Division, and from that point until 2012, albeit in differing divisions over the years, that was the competition they remained in.

In 2012, the club resigned from the league and folded, but just down the road from the Stag Ground, on Digby Street, another club was looking upwardly mobile. Kimberley Miners Welfare have been around since 1926, playing in local leagues until 1995 when they joined the Nottinghamshire Alliance League. This league of course become the Nottinghamshire Senior League in 2005, and Kimberley were placed in the top tier, the Senior Division.

When Town vacated the Stag, Miners Welfare moved to the ground on Nottingham Road, and within a season they’d finished runners up and with it came promotion to the East Midlands Counties League. They’ve remained in this division since, more than holding their own, albeit when last season was curtailed they had been having a tough time.

I first went to the old Digby Street ground back in August 2008, watching Miners Welfare lose 2-0 to Wollaton. My memories of the place are sketchy, but I do remember it sits almost right on the roundabout of the A610 at IKEA, hemmed in by the road, housing and commercial units.

The Stag Ground is somewhere I’ve been a few times though to see Town play. I first went towards the end of the 1994-95 season and saw a cracking 4-3 win over neighbours Heanor Town, and since then I’ve been back on several occasions. Once to see Belper Town in a pre-season game, but more memorably, they used to play on Thursday nights for a period in the Critchley family days, when the team was largely made up of Sheffield based students.

Since Miners Welfare moved to the Stag, I’ve only been the once though and that was for a FA Vase replay against Heanor Town that finished 2-0 to the visitors, and had the added entertainment of a scrap between both sets of players as the teams left the pitch at half time!

The Stag doesn’t change much in terms of it’s furniture, I’ll be honest. As you walk in through the gate, the tea bar / clubhouse sits behind the goal, along with the dressing rooms, and the small stand extends from just beyond the goal to the far touch line. Otherwise it’s open to the elements, with hard standing down one side, and a grass bank on the other. That said, they have done an awful lot of work over the past few months to smarten the place up and to improve the playing surface.

One thing that also doesn’t change is the friendly welcome. From Chairman Neil Johnson through to General Manager Danny Staley, and all of the other helpers at the ground, Kimberley is a welcoming place to visit, I was soon forgetting my crappy day!

I saw Kimberley play at Belper United a couple of days earlier in the FA Vase and to be fair, they were a touch unfortunate to lose the game 2-1. But, with rock bottom Barrow Town the visitors, who themselves had a record of shipping goal aplenty since the season started, you sensed this was an opportunity to get back on the winning trail.

It was a comfortable 5-0 win in the end, and to be fair, had Kimberley got a more clinical edge and not squandered so many chances, it could easily have been double figures, they were that dominant.

Nathan Beaton opened the scoring before Isaac Stones got a second ten minutes before the break. Further goals from Samuel Brown, Luis Parkes and Carl Okojie sealed the win in front of 53 spectators. Interestingly though, the following Friday night the reserves of Kimberley entertained Hucknall Town Reserves, the crowd at that was 187!

With a quick getaway at the end, feeling more damp than achy now, I was soon in the car and heading back to pick Master H up well within the specified time curfew!

I’ve got to finish off clearing the basement next Tuesday now, I’ll need to find myself another Kimberley afterwards to cheer me up. But of course, as the chaps at the Stag Ground will tell you, there is only one Kimberley, well, maybe not ten years ago, but their certainly is now! 

Jolly Boys Outing

Colsterworth Sports & Social Club   2   Lincoln Moorlands Railway   7

Lincolnshire Sunday Cup – First Round

When the bus driver opens up the hatch for the players to get their kit bags out, and you spot the entire contents of Threshers stashed away, you know you’ve arrived at a proper Sunday football away day!

As far as Sunday games go, this one was a risky one, I mean, Belper to Colsterworth is a right old poke, we are talking about an hour and a half, but I’d like to think I’d done plenty of risk mitigation along with Socially Distanced Steve for this game. We’d checked the Grantham League website, we’d also checked the Lincolnshire FA website, and we’d even sent a message to Colsterworth via facebook and it seemed all was good.

That said though, when you are getting in your car at 8.30am on a Sunday morning, you can’t help but wonder if you are doing the right thing. So much can go wrong, for example, the game the previous day at nearby Cottesmore was abandoned at half time due to waterlogging. Of course, the lurgy can strike at any time, and also, lets be honest now, it’s a decent trek from Lincoln to South of Grantham on a Sunday morning, and the old ‘unable to raise a team’ thought does enter into the equation.

But, it was the Lincolnshire Sunday Cup, a competition that I’m sure sides take very seriously, so while it was a risk travelling, it was a calculated one in my book. Put it another way though, I won’t be going any further than this for a Sunday League game.

The journey was pleasant enough along the A52, round the ring road at Nottingham and then back down the A52 passing Radcliffe, Bingham and Bottesford before turning onto the A1 Southbound just as you are coming into Grantham.

Eight miles further along and you are then leaving the A1 and making the short drive into the very pleasant village of Colsterworth, and when I say pleasant, I can imagine that if you asks the locals where they come from, they will probably say ‘Vale of Belvoir’. I had a boss once who lived near Grantham, he used to say that, it’s a bit like me saying I live on the ‘Gateway To The Peak District’, no I don’t, I live on a 1960’s housing estate in Belper!

Anyway, it was very nice, and to be fair, this is a village I know a little bit about from a footballing perspective.  I seem to recall back in the 2000’s a side called Colsterworth United played in the Grantham & District League, and for one season they made the jump to the Lincolnshire League before departing. I’m not sure what happened to the club as we moved into the current decade but they certainly don’t seem to appear in league tables for the Grantham League, not in the past three or four seasons anyway.

Anyroadup, the gift that continues to give, the Nottinghamshire Senior League has acquired a team called AFC Colsterworth Sports & Social Club this season, plying their trade in Division Two South, albeit results have been somewhat mixed. The previous day to our visit they got spanked 13-0 by Grantham Town Academy in the County Junior Cup.

Now, a bit of research told us that another side linked to the Sports & Social Club were playing in the Grantham & District Sunday League, and this looked like a good opportunity, albeit a possibly risky one, to pay them a visit.

In fairness, they’d played every game scheduled so far this season, so I didn’t have any doubts as such about their commitment to the cause, it’s just the other factors that can come into play that were the concerns.

So, you drive down Old Post Lane and then to your left, next to some nice new houses is a driveway that loops round the edges of the sports ground, while at the very end is a small car park that sits between the main pitch and the clubhouse / dressing rooms.

It was very tidy, the pitch was in excellent condition, with dugouts on one side and a rope down the other. Two sides of the ground were banked up, while a couple of storage containers sat close to the pitch, presumably for equipment etc. In fact with the bar and the dressing rooms, it was a very good venue indeed and a real asset to the village and local football in general.

But, as you drive in, the best sight of all is two sets of players warming up, but, not only that, the away team has come on a bus, this must be a big game for them, or, they can claim the costs back off the gate receipts, minus the hosts clubs cost for stewarding and floodlights etc!!

I jest, but one or two had turned up to watch the game to be fair, but how did it go?

If you were from Colsterworth, not very well, especially not in the first half because you were 6-0 down at half time against a very competent Lincoln Moorlands side that in all probability had a number of players who turned out for the clubs Step 7 side in the Lincolnshire League. You could see the gulf in quality from outset.

It could have been more though, the slightly animated referee turned down two blatant penalties, and more chances went begging. Lincoln were very good, the hosts looked like they just wanted it over with.

I predicted double figures, I’ll be honest, but the second period was a different game to a large degree. Lincoln started well but Colsterworth really put up a good fight, scoring twice and only conceding once more. Yes, Lincoln had the game won, but they were still determined and certainly didn’t take the foot off the gas, it’s just the hosts found a determination and belief they didn’t have in the first half.

The final whistle was the signal, and before you had chance to slap your beer gut, the first case of Stella was open and the cans cracked before the lads had even left the pitch. it was going to be a good journey back to Lincoln, and so it should be, because let’s be honest, that’s what Sunday football is all about isn’t it?

 

Headstocks

Brinsley   2   FC Mansfield   4

Nottinghamshire Senior League – Division Two North

The arrival of Brinsley into the Notts Senior League came a little bit out of leftfield.

I can’t recall exactly when they last had a senior side competing on a Saturday, although something tells me they had a team in the Midlands Regional Alliance back in the Nineties at some point?

I remember they had a junior team back when we were kids, they were called Brinsley Magpies and I know that because one of my mates (Rad – real name Mark Radford) played for them and his Dad may well have been Manager. Rad was from Brinsley originally, and, furthermore the family were big Notts County fans hence the Magpies suffix.

I fancied something close to home to allow for a later start to my day, and with Brinsley being about twenty minutes away it ticked all the boxes. Brinsley, for those who don’t know, sits just North of Eastwood and is only a few minutes away from Underwood and junction 27 of the M1.

It’s only a village, with around 2,500 inhabitants, but what is it famous for?

This is where Wikipedia comes in handy as I must profess to not knowing a lot about Brinsley the village, and even less about the football club!

It appears that in 2007 there was some controversy in Brinsley when Sadie Graham was elected by the village to represent it on Broxtowe Council as an Independent candidate. Turns out that she was actually connected to the British National Party, but it mattered little, she never turned up for meetings and was sacked anyway.

Onto something more cultural and slightly less controversial, we have Brinsley Headstocks which are something to do with the mining industry. They are apparently the only type left of their kind, and having initially been placed in a museum, they are now back in the village.

Brinsley also has a well known carnival, which raises funds for local good causes, and, other than a quite nice looking chip shop on the main road, that my dear friends, is all I can tell you about the place!

So what about the football team then?

Well, they play on the local recreation ground which sits on the right of the main road as you come from the Eastwood direction, and at the side of the small car park is a large sized community building that houses the dressing rooms. The recreation ground itself is a large expanse containing two football pitches, a kids play area, and a circular walk around it’s perimeter which for the large part is tree lined. It was a nice place, and with the chippy and the ‘Go Between’ micro pub just over the road, spectators (and managers / substitutes) were well catered for!

In terms of this season, they’ve been placed in Division Two North as opposed to the Foundation Division, and to be fair, I cannot quite work out how the league decided who was going in what division, but it is what it is now.

It’s not been the best of starts though, four losses from four games did not bode well. That said, other than a 4-0 defeat at Trent Vineyard the previous week, every defeat has been by the single goal.

Visiting FC Mansfield are another new side this season, and after three games they had yet to win, albeit they’d recorded two draws. One way or another, something had to give.

Brinsley got off to a good start, taking the lead, albeit the visitors came back into the game and after some suspect defending it was the boys from Mansfield who sat with a 3-1 lead midway through the second half. The hosts did pull another goal back to reduce the deficit to one goal, but Mansfield responded to make the final score 4-2 to the visitors.

In fairness, Brinsley had plenty of the ball, and they had chances, but when they found themselves under pressure it was mistakes that proved costly, and the goals against column in the league table is testimony to that.

I was somewhat wet on the drive home, it smashed it down at half time and with no cover I was open to the elements. It was a very short drive back to blighty, and a change of clothing was very welcome.

And that was kind of it, not a lot else to say really. Neither over excited nor underwhelmed by it all, another one off the list, baby steps at the minute. Any time now I suspect it will all come to a halt, the Brinsley’s of this World may be as good as it gets, for the foreseeable that is.

A Stick Of Guisborough Rock

Guisborough Town    1   Newton Aycliffe   1

Northern League – Division One

It would be August 1980, and I was most excited, you see my Dad was going to go to the seaside with Belper Town, and there was a promise of a stick of rock!

My Dad took over the Treasurer role at BTFC in the Summer of 1979, and in his first season at the club they went on to win the Midland Counties League and the Derbyshire Senior Cup, it was exciting times!

For the opening game of the 1980-81 season they were due to visit league newcomers Guisborough Town, and apparently, it was by the seaside, so I was told. Three goals from Kevin Ormondroyd and one from Keith Dainter saw the Nailers win 4-1 against a side that had won the Northern Alliance League the previous season, and indeed reached the FA Vase Final at Wembley, losing to Stamford 2-0.

Later that night, when Dad got back, he had kept his promise, a stick of rock……

The Nailers competed with Guisborough until the 1984-85 season, which ironically was the next and last time they were to win a league championship, this time the Northern Counties East League. The visit to North Yorkshire on this occasion was clouded with a bit of controversy though.

Belper were forced to make the journey on a Thursday night, and perhaps the story is best told by the late Harry Bethell (Joint Manager) in his programme notes for the next home game.

“We battled tremendously hard on the Thursday night at Guisborough for a valuable point despite being without five senior players. However, from a management point of view the NCEL stand condemned for forcing us to travel to Middlesbrough for an evening game when both sides had a free Saturday before the end of the season. The decision to make us travel can only be described as utterly stupid and it is this sort of a decision that really spoils the good work that many of these dedicated people do for football.”

Harry and BTFC were not happy, but a 0-0 draw in the grand scheme of things was not a major concern because by the end of the campaign the title was won by nine points. Belper and Guisborough were never to meet again, as the Priorymen moved into the Northern League the following season, where they remain to this day.

So, despite a total of five visits to Guisborough, I was never to make the journey with the Nailers and it’s always been a bit of a niggle that I’ve never got to the King George V Ground. That was about to change though.

Watching football in the Northern League at the minute is a complete lottery, take the previous day for example, two of my three available games bit the dust, and the one I ended up at, thankfully as it turned out, was initially bottom of the list due to geography.

I was staying overnight in Middlesbrough, and with the pubs shut as I got back to my Travelodge, I had to make do with a cheeky four pack of Carling from Aldi, while I looked at my options for the Wednesday. I had a few choices, but in reality it was going to be one of either Redcar Athletic or Guisborough Town, but, as recent history tells us, that decision may be taken out of my hands!

The Wednesday was spent with the lovely people of our Middlesbrough branch, and to be honest I can’t recall as enjoyable a time in a branch, they were a fantastic bunch, probably helped by the fact that they made sure I had my first ever Parmo, from the highly recommended Manjaro’s on Linthorpe Road. Nice one Smoggies!

Anyway, by closing time both matches were still on, and to be fair, Redcar could wait, it was about Guisborough for me. So I jumped in the wagon and made the relatively short journey East and then South to the small town that sits right on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, and no, it doesn’t have a seafront either so the stick of rock remains a mystery!

The club were formed in 1973 and joined the Middlesbrough & District League, before joining the Northern Alliance in 1977, gaining a third, second and first place in consecutive seasons before joining the Midland Counties League. It did seem an odd move bearing in mind the club was in the Northern League footprint, but, within five seasons they’d made the logical move, albeit starting in the bottom division.

By 1987 they were in the top flight, and for twelve consecutive seasons they never finished outside the top seven. However, it got tougher and they had a spell back in the Second Division until gaining promotion back in 2011. Since then they’ve had three seasons when they finished third twice and fourth, but, in the last three seasons they’ve been in the lower reaches.

We know about the Vase final, well they also reached the semi-final in 1997, losing to North Ferriby United over two legs (I was at the second leg on Humberside), while in 1988 they reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, playing Bury at Ayresome Park, losing 1-0 in front of a crowd of 5,990.

I arrived in Guisborough well in advance of kick off, and with the crowd limit set at 300 in these parts I knew I had no worries getting in, so I decided to have a walk into the town. A very nice place it is too, the ground itself is set right on the Northern edge, next to the bypass, and a ten minute walk South and then East takes you to Westgate which is the main street where some nice looking shops, bars and restaurants are located. Going further along Westgate you come to the museum and of course the famous priory after which the football club is nicknamed.

Back at the ground, once through the turnstiles, I have to say I was very impressed. The first thing that struck me was just how well appointed and tidy the King George V stadium is. The clubhouse was closed due to the current climate, but the West side of the ground contains this facility, the dressing rooms and a tea bar, while sat in front of the clubhouse was the main seated stand.

Opposite the main stand on the East side is some covered terracing with a high roof, while behind both goals is hard standing, albeit the North end has a lofty grass bank providing good views, while three sides of the ground are surrounded by tall trees. At the South end of the ground where the car park is situated, is a leisure centre and this backs onto the football clubs land.

A crowd of just over 200 turned up on a pleasant evening, and they were treated to a tight affair between a home side who’d had a mixed start to the season, and Newton Aycliffe who were unbeaten.

The first half was goalless, with neither side seemingly able to take the game by the scruff of the neck, but, it was Guisborough who took the lead in the 50^th minute when Brian Close prodded home after the visitors failed to clear the danger.

Aycliffe started to come more into the game as we moved beyond the hour mark, and to be fair it came as no surprise when Liam Jarvie bundled the ball home with fifteen minutes to go. Both sides gave it a good go after that, but further goals were not forthcoming and the points were shared.

The journey back was relatively painless as the A172 took me via Stokesley to the A19, and eventually back through the front door exactly two hours after departing. I felt like something was missing though, I wasn’t able to leave a stick of rock out for Mrs & Master H.

Where my Dad got that from, I still to this day don’t know, my gut feel is they had a run to the seaside at Redcar, but maybe one day if I can remember I’ll ask him. If he can remember is another matter entirely!