Buzzing

Burton Hornets  1  Stapenhill Reserves  6

Central Midlands Alliance – Division One South

Admission / Programme – No / Sort Of!

Finally, the much rumoured merger between the Central Midlands League and the Midlands Regional Alliance took place in the Summer.

‘Merger’ isn’t quite the word some would use though, I have heard the word ‘takeover’ being mooted recently, although I haven’t yet heard it used alongside the word ‘hostile’, but let’s not open that political can of worms, I don’t want to get sued / banned from every ground in the league, bearing in mind I’ve still got a couple that I need to visit this season!

Anyway, it happened, and now we have got a league that comprises of it’s two Step 7 competitions, then it’s got four regional First Division’s (North, South, you can guess the rest), and then a Second Division where the geography stretches from Darley Dale, to Ashover, and then down to Newhall, Melbourne and Castle Donington. The criteria as to who got into Division One and who went into Division Two, well, pass, but anyway, there will be a rationale somewhere along the way.

When the provisional constitutions were announced, there was a bit of second guessing to be done, as some names we’d never heard of before had appeared, like Hatton United and South Normanton Villa, whereas Ruston Sports, Doncaster City and Gainsborough Town, we’d got a bit of an idea as to who they were.

However, the provisional constitution and the actual constitution are two different beasts, South Normanton Villa disappeared, Hatton United became Burton Hornets, Gainsborough Town went somewhere else and Ruston Sports appeared to change their name to Streina. That said, it was now set in stone, and to be fair based on the directory, I’d got three new grounds to visit, Streina (who may or may not actually kick a ball this season), Hemington Hammers (if anyone can work out where they actually play) and Burton Hornets, who it appeared were playing on the old Bass Recreation Ground, now known as Washlands Sports Ground, in Burton Upon Trent.

Now then, Saturday 26^th August was meant to be a Groundhop UK organised Groundhop Day in the new league, but that fell by the wayside when insufficient clubs were prepared to be flexible with their fixtures so it seems. One of the games that was meant to be on that planned event was the game between Burton Hornets and Stapenhill Reserves. But as soon as I arrived in the vicinity of the ground, I spotted a significant hurdle that I’m not sure could have been resolved very easily. More on that shortly….

The Washlands Sports Ground, I’m pretty sure was once one of the locations that Burton Albion were considering for their new stadium, and in some ways that would have made sense because it was already a sports ground, used by Burton League sides and also for cricket (Derbyshire played games at the venue). However, to get to it you have to head through Burton and then get on the bridge that takes you over to Stapenhill. Once on the bridge you have to turn left, and if you didn’t already know there was a left turn, you would miss it because it’s both tight and not visible until you are on top of it. This is where the Groundhop would have struggled, no way would it have got a bus (which they use) onto the single track lane, let alone down it! I can also see why it wouldn’t actually have been very suitable for Burton Albion, the road itself is a single lane, and then it becomes a potholed track that leads down to the facilities. Getting 2000 folk in and out of the place would have been chaotic!

Burton Hornets are a well run and large junior football organisation, whereas Hatton United were a Sunday side. The two, from what I can gather, got together to create a side playing in senior football on a Saturday, and by doing so they created a pathway for the junior teams and players.

They have a very nice facility to be fair, a facility that was once a playground for Bass and it’s employees. It has a cricket pitch, a football pitch, a cricket pavilion that the club use as dressing rooms and a clubhouse that opened at half time. There were also facilities back along the track towards the main road that looked to be smaller sized football pitches, but all in all, it was a nice venue, with the football pitch being nicely tucked into the corner with trees on three sides and the River Trent running behind the goal.

A couple of gents I know from the West Midlands were in attendance, as was Steve Hardy, a chap who is without doubt the non-league programme king, compiling the database of issuers and having over 8,000 different UK club issuers in his collection. I’ve known Steve for a few years and always have a natter, but, he only goes to games where a programme is being issued, but to be honest, I’d seen nothing, not even any home officials wandering about, so what was he doing here? Anyway, turns out Steve had done a programme for them, ten copies he told me, and they were all in the home dressing room. I never got one, but then Steve kindly emailed me a copy the following week.

The game was pretty much one way, Stapenhill Reserves were the better side and won at a canter. Cameron Briscoe, Jude Ayetine, Tommy Large and Jake Meaking all scored in the first half, while Joseph Biryomasho and Laiq Haidary scored in the second period as Hornets were put to the sword, their consolation goal coming from Tavis Johnston.

The second half was spent in the company of Dan Bishop, the Manager of Newhall United Reserves and a league official, I’ve known him for years, and he’s always good for a bit of info and a chat in general about the local scene. He’d been to watch the first half of Willington United v Melbourne Dynamo Reserves at the Marstons Sports & Social Club in the town.

So that was Burton Hornets, a very decent little place, and a nice easy afternoon out, which I needed after a pretty heavy night before in Sheffield! Teething troubles aside, this takeover, sorry, merger, might not be a bad thing for local football.