Sunday 30 July 2023

The Ballad Of Billy Whitehurst

Dearne & District  3  Armthorpe Welfare  5

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Admission / Programme – No / No

It would have been December 2008, I’d got a week off work and decided that I was going to have a day out on the train and take in a football match. The problem was the sub-zero temperatures meant that I was very limited in terms of choices, but the solution was a very simple and indeed local option.

I noticed that Leicester City were playing Wolves in an FA Youth Cup tie at what was then called the Walkers Stadium, of course the relatively new ground had undersoil heating so we were all systems go. I’d taken a train trip to the same stadium previously, on that occasion it was the Conference Play Off Final between Halifax Town and Hereford United, and as a result I was well versed with a pub route to the ground.


So that was the plan, and, I’d also convinced my mates Steve and Jamesie to come along, albeit they were travelling independently by car. It all went to plan, in fact it went too well, by the time I met up with Steve and Jamesie I was battered. Loud and uncoordinated I made my way to the seats, it wasn’t long before those around us moved, and as for me, I was at one point seeing double. I might also have fallen over at half time as I tried to leave my seat, but anyway, it didn’t end well, Steve decided that no way was I getting a train home so he gave me a lift, but not before I had a row with a fellow motorist at a roundabout…..

So what the hell has this got to do with a trip to Dearne & District?

During the course of the game at Leicester, Steve and Jamesie struck up a conversation (I couldn’t join in, I couldn’t talk) about a footballer called Billy Whitehurst, a player who played professionally at the likes of Hull City, Newcastle United and Oxford United. He was something of a character and a real hard man, who started out in non-league football, playing for Mexborough Town in the Midland League.


Steve used to be a bank manager, and he knew Billy as a customer, you see Billy was born in a village called Thurnscoe, which is one of the places that forms the Dearne Valley. There are many tales about Billy and some of his antics, he was a renowned hard man, in fact in Alan Hansen’s autobiography he recalls one of the most terrifying moments of his Liverpool career was having to mark Billy in a cup tie.  Other tales include one of his time at Oxford where he used to challenge people to bare knuckle fights for cash!

Fast forward several years, Dearne & District FC have dropped onto the radar, moving to the Central Midlands League from the Doncaster Senior League a couple of seasons ago, they have moved from what was their home on Kingsmark Way in Goldthorpe to the Miners Welfare ground, which it seems was the clubs traditional home.


I went to Kingsmark Way in pre-season for a game against a well respected Sunday side called Dog Daisy United (who had one or two well known semi-pro’s in their squad, notably Danny South who at the tine was with Belper Town). Dog Daisy won the game 5-0, but what impressed me about Dearne, off the field, was the enthusiasm and the level of support they appeared to be able to muster.

Social media confirmed that the Tuesday night visit of Armthorpe Welfare was indeed going to be played at the Welfare Ground, so after a call to Steve, it was mutually agreed that we were going to make out way to the hub of what he called the ‘Golden Triangle’ of Thurnscoe, Bolton Upon Dearne and indeed Goldthorpe.

Goldthorpe sits just off the Dearne Valley Parkway, a road that essentially runs between the M1 South of Barnsley, to the A1 just to the West of Doncaster. Principally mining areas, that have suffered since the closure of the pits, it is now an area of growth and innovation (if you believe what you read) with industrial zones scattered along the corridor. But, ‘Goldy’, will always be a pit village, and rightly proud of it they are too.

I got a call just as I was driving into Goldy, having been lost in thought along the Parkway, it was Steve, it seems he decided to have a trip down memory lane to see what’s become of his old bank. Turns out it’s become a pub, well, we were left with no choice.


Steve pointed out the location where his office was, seems it was in the very table area where a woman was removing her husbands nasal hair, while what was effectively the counter, was now serving very reasonably priced Carling at £2.60 a pint.

Of course, the stories flowed, in fact one of them being a relatively recent one when Goldthorpe was on national television ‘commemorating’ the death of Margaret Thatcher, an unpopular character locally for obvious reasons. But no, as you would expect, the conversation moved on to Billy Whitehurst.

With kick off approaching it was a short trip back through the village out to where the Welfare Ground lies, and I have to say, if I was a betting man, give it a couple of years and I think this club could be looking at a Step 6 move. They’ve done a tremendous amount of work to a ground that I’ve passed regularly on the train. Hard standing is being put down, while floodlights are already in place, as is a small covered stand. The players currently change in the building down the bank which is also the home of the social club. Various kids teams had been training, but impressively, I would estimate that close on 200 people rocked up to watch the game.

Dearne are managed by local footballing legend Mick Norbury, a man who has played professionally, and from a style perspective, well, if you asked who his influences have been, Billy wouldn’t have been far down the list I suspect! Mick will always have a place in the hearts of the fans of Belper Town, being part of the management team that got the club promoted in the play-offs a couple of seasons ago.


Mick has pulled together a more than useful squad, and I have to say, along with Armthorpe they provided us with a superb evening’s entertainment, with eight goals going in. Armthorpe took an early lead but Josh Moore equalised on ten minutes, they were soon in arrears again but Bayly Lowe was on hand to make it 2-2 with only seventeen minutes gone.

Welfare took advantage of a couple of mistakes as the game continued to ebb and flow, but by half time we had a 2-4 scoreline. They went on to make it 5-2 just after the break but then Conor Leake-Blunt pulled a goal back for Dearne, it could have been closer n the end but Lowe missed a late penalty for the hosts.

So that was it, a very enjoyable night out, a great club and a wonderful community. Talking of community, the conversation wandered back towards Billy as the game was drawing to it’s conclusion. Was he still in the locality, what was he doing nowadays, and did that autobiography that kept getting mentioned ever get written?

Alan Hansen is wondering if he’s going to get a mention……

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