The Happy Valley League

The 19^th Hole  0   Chapel Town Reserves  4

Hope Valley Amateur League – A Division

Admission / Programme - No / No

It was a weekly source of amusement for me when Steve was embarking on what seemed to be an impossible task to complete the Hope Valley League.

The fun would start on our regular Friday night call when we would tell each other our plans for the weekend. It would go a bit like this…

“I’m doing another Hope Valley, it might be Hope Sports v Grindleford, but one website says it’s on the cement works car park, and another says it’s on a cabbage patch in Bamford, but if not I’ve got a Plan B down the road at Bradwell, but one website says they’re playing Calver, another says it’s JB Sports. That said, Bradwell’s Twitter feed says they’re all at a players stag do this weekend so f*** knows what’s going on…….”

My reply would be something like…

“Good luck, I’m going to Coalville v Basford, and I’m 100% certain it will actually happen where it’s supposed to happen!”

And then we’d get to Saturday lunchtime, I’d be in a clubhouse having a pre-match pint, Steve would be sat in an empty car park trying to re-set the sat-nav to what had now become Plan D because Plan’s A, B and C will have all gone belly up!

This went on for well over a year, but to be fair it wasn’t bad at the start because he had plenty to choose from, it was more towards the end when it was the final few he needed to tick off. I can also recall one day when he was trying to get to one of the final grounds on his list, he phoned up the home club secretary to confirm where a game was being played, and got the following..

Steve - “Is your game on today mate?”

Sec - “It is.”

Steve - “Where is it being played.”

Sec - “Who’s asking?”

Steve - “I want to come and watch it, that’s all?”

Sec - “Are you from some sort of publication?”

Steve – “No, I just want to watch the game, are you going to tell me where it’s being played?”

Click…..

So clearly not straightforward, but I was hugely entertained by it all. When he finally did complete it, I actually thought about making a certificate up for him, but thought better of it when it came to light a team called Tipsy Toad had been newly invited into the league and I could sense the pain in his voice.

What I did do though was vow never to even contemplate embarking upon anything quite so stupid and painful as trying to complete the Hope Valley League. But then the World became a different place didn’t it?

It would have been April 2021, and our old pals Boris, Rishi and Matt (in conjunction with Prof Whitty and JVT) decided that after a stop-start football season that had been punctuated by lockdowns, we could commence playing again. That was good of them, but the problem was, the vast majority of leagues had declared themselves null and void, however, one or two decided they were going to carry on where they left off, and one of those was the Hope Valley.

Fixtures were scheduled from early April through to early June, so I had a look at it, and worked out over the course of two months I could in theory fill my boots, and, be watching football matches in what is undoubtedly some of the finest scenery you could possibly find.

So it began, it started at Bamford, then Furness Vale, then Hathersage, then Baslow, and before you knew it, I had rattled through a significant number of grounds, and to be honest a number of things stood out. The football was good and honest, the scenery was truly wonderful, the weather was nice, and given the locations, a very nice venue for a pre-match pint could be had.

Oh, and fixtures tended to happen when and where they were meant to happen!

As we moved into May I got to more outstanding locations like Youlgrave, Buxworth (which is stunning), Bollington and Dove Holes (or Love Hole as the sign entering the village has been discretely changed to!). In many ways I wish I’d been blogging at that point, because I would have had so much to talk about.

But, here we are two years later almost from when I made that decision, and as of yet I haven’t managed to complete the leagues venues, mainly because I’ve not really targeted them, I’ve preferred to pick them off as opportunities arose. A cursory look at the start of the season told me I only had two grounds left to get to, one being Hayfield’s home at Chapel-en-le-Frith Leisure Centre, and, The 19^th Hole who played home games at the Fairfield Centre in Buxton.

It was the works annual awards event in Nottingham on a Saturday night, I had to attend, I was presenting prizes, I had no get out of jail card, and that meant I had to be ready and on a train just after 6pm, so it needed to be local as far as football was concerned.

The 19^th Hole were at home to Chapel Town Reserves, allegedly, at the Fairfield Centre, allegedly, so I rang Steve the night before and told him, he was in stitches, of course, my day would inevitably end in disaster.

More in hope than expectation I trundled onto the housing estate that is Fairfield, a place that is as far removed from the Spa Town as you could possibly imagine from an aesthetic point of view. Located just beyond the flats that sit above a row of shops is the Fairfield Centre, a community hub with sports facilities that The 19^th Hole (a local pub with golf club associations) use for home games.

Once parked up, it was all about checking to see if the game was actually happening, and I was mightily pleased to spot someone in a club tracksuit who duly confirmed it was indeed game on, with a 2pm kick off.

Description wise, it’s literally a huge expanse of grass with space for a decent number of pitches, with the one being used located at the very far end, edging up to the housing and the nearby school. No rope or rail, and on a windy day but murky day you could see out over the hills that flank the roads that lead to both Leek and Macclesfield.

The game pitched two sides in the second of the two tiers of the HVL, named the A Division. The hosts sat in mid-table while the visitors occupied one of the two promotion places. The first half was reasonably even but Chapel took a 14^th minute lead through Ben Percival.

Three more goals followed in the second period, all within ten minutes of each other as the game moved towards it’s close. Sonny Shaw got the second, Aiden Theyer the third and then Henry Lythe Depee got the final and fourth goal for the visitors.

As always, it was played in a good spirit, it was a relatively comfortable ride for the referee (they operate a small pool in the HVL and are all well known to the teams), and given the fact the game kicked off five minutes early and half time was also only a five minute interval, I was back in the car and away with no problems at the end.

So, one more to go, I remember when Steve was in a similar place, it certainly wasn’t as straightforward as it perhaps ought to have been. Wednesday 3^rd May 2023, watch this space, somethings tells me my luck has got to run out at some point…..

But on a serious point, if you haven’t dipped your toe into this league yet, I strongly urge you to do so, other than the odd blip, it certainly does not disappoint.