Sunday Lottery

Rempstone  0  Eagles Corner  1

Notts Sunday League – Division One

Admission / Programme – No / No

Sunday League football is a real lottery, on a couple of counts.

Firstly, the reliability factor, in the sense that sometimes you are on a wing and a prayer in terms of whether the game will actually take place as per the league website, and for that matter, at the stated venue.

Secondly, depending on the league and the depths of the particular league you are venturing into, sometimes the actual football can be absolute garbage, and I mean, truly horrendous.

So, you might be asking, why the hell do I go and watch it, albeit very infrequently?

Well, it’s only ever because I might spot that a ground I have on my hit list, that’s used by a Saturday side, is also used on a Sunday, so as long as it’s local enough I’m prepared to give it a go. By that, it means if I turn up and nowts happening, it’s not been an onerous trip, and furthermore, if the footy itself is crap, I’ve not travelled a long way for it, and, it’s not what some may term a ‘Wasted Saturday’.

Every so often though, and this is pretty rare I have to say, I turn up for a Sunday game and the whole experience is significantly more enjoyable than what I’ve seen on many a Saturday, and this happened only the other week when I decided to pay a visit to the Costock Road home of East Leake Robins, on a Sunday.

East Leake Robins, well I paid them a visit not long after we were liberated a couple of seasons ago, and at the time they were playing on a 4G which was at the school / sports centre in the village. A pre-season friendly against South Notts if my memory serves, and I’m not even sure at the time if we were even allowed to watch football, but Steve and I did, and we also found a pub where if we stood a good 100 yards from each other, we could have a pint, as long as we pretended to live together!

Anyway, turns out that was only a temporary home, because shiny and new things were happening at Costock Road, and the plan was that the Nottinghamshire Senior League club were always going to return back to base. A game was played at the ground last Christmas Eve if my memory serves me correctly, but I was far too dilatory to pick up on it, so it was a case of waiting for the moment when they officially took up residence.

I was aware that a Sunday side played at the ground as well, Rempstone, so in my wisdom, working on the principal that East Leake was by no means a challenging journey on a Sunday morning, I elected to give it a blast.

It was a bit of a wing and a prayer, other than Full Time showing the fixture, the battle against Arnold based Eagles Corner had not yet trended on any form of social media, so off we went, and upon driving down Costock Road, it became very apparent that the sports ground was a real hive of activity.

The car park was rammed so I had to go a couple of hundred yards down the road to park, it seems a kids game was pulling the crowds in, but, the players of both Rempstone and Eagles were also spotted falling out of cars and ambling in the general direction of the entrance.

You know what, they have a brilliant facility, one that is shared by various clubs, all of which are named on the entrance board on the way in, and on the board is indeed Rempstone, a stakeholder in the facility. Directly in front of you is a cricket square, with a small sized pitch to the left and the main full sized pitch, complete with dugouts to the right. Beyond these pitches behind a hedge are more pitches, which appeared to be mainly for juniors, but also some rugby posts could be spied in the distance.

The focal point though is without doubt the clubhouse, a modern facility housing dressing rooms, a bar and a snack bar that was doing a roaring trade with breakfast cobs. The exterior was in keeping with the local area, and has clearly been very tastefully designed, the village has without doubt a venue to be proud of and the clubs that have use of it are indeed very fortunate.

I have to say as well, the pitch that Rempstone and East Leake Robins use was in superb condition, billiard table like in fact, so before the game had even started, I had a real feel good factor about the place.

The game itself was a second tier clash, and having seen a few games in recent seasons from the top flight, I had an idea that it would be a good standard of football. Helped of course by the excellent surface, both teams put on a tremendous display and it turned out a first half goal from the visitors was to be the decisive moment in the encounter.      

So, a nice facility, a great pitch, a very good game, a sausage cob and a pint of Carling, it’s what Sunday League football is all about, isn’t it?