Cutting It Fine

Bollington Town  1  Newton Athletic  0

Cheshire Football League – Division One 

Admission / Programme - Free / Free

It was going to be tight, very tight indeed!

It was the work annual awards night, and muggins here had been roped into being the Master of Ceremonies for the evening, which in the simplest of terms meant I had no choice but to be boarding a train in Belper at 5.34pm!

Any later and I would have been in a whole World of pain, so whatever plans I had for football, they simply had to tie in with the logistics. In short, I needed to get home, get changed and all that, and then be ready for my lift to the station which was coming at 5.20pm courtesy of Mrs H’s Mother….

So, plans had to be carefully made, and getting to a new ground, well, it did look like it was going to be an impossibility until I was looking at the Cheshire League fixtures in the build up to the weekend.

It came to my attention, after having visited Upton JFC the week before, that Bollington Town were also in the running for promotion, and in terms of the venue they played at, well it was a school 4G in Macclesfield. Google Maps told me that with a 2pm kick off, not too much buggering abut at half time, a modest amount of injury time, and a quick getaway, I could get home for 5pm, but, I needed to be on my ‘A Game’ if I was going to make it happen without a disaster.

I spoke to Steve, and very quickly I had a wing man, a wing man who was setting off before me to check things out, because my departure was going to be delayed due to another domestic matter that needed to be attended to. I was on the Via Gellia when Steve phoned me to tell me he’d arrived at All Hallowes Catholic College, but, he could see no signs of life. After a bit of snooping around though he discovered that the college had two entrances, and he had gone to the wrong one. A quick re-route and by the time I was getting on the Cat & Fiddle all was good in the World, the players from both teams were arriving.

Rumours of a snowbound Cat & Fiddle proved to be just that, while the terrain was very white, the roads were clear, and before long I was dropping down into Macc, and making my way out the other side to where the college is located. The college is located in an area of housing just to the West of the town centre, and Steve was very kindly stood at the side of the road to direct me into the car park. It was twenty past one, the pub was shut, so it was a simple waiting game, and a hope that everything was prompt!

Ok, so we may be in Macclesfield, but the neighbouring town of Bollington, what’s the deal when it comes to football? If I’m honest, I had no knowledge of any teams playing in the town (not saying that they didn’t, I just wasn’t aware) up until a couple of years ago when I was playing around with the Hope Valley League and a team arrived (Bollington FC), which to be honest felt a little out on a limb given the geographical patch. They did pretty well but then disappeared to what I seem to think was the Lancashire & Cheshire League, where as far as I know, they remain. 

Bollington Town, also as far as I know, have no connection to the Bollington that played in the HVL, and I noticed last season that they’d landed in the Cheshire League, after winning the Altrincham & District League. Anyway, after getting promotion by finishing in third place in the Second Division, they seem to be on a roll and are now well placed to get into what is effectively Step 7.

The ground in Bollington that Bollington FC played at was the recreation ground that was shared with the cricket. Set in something of a valley, it was a lovely venue, whereas the college in Macclesfield that Town play at might not have got the same scenic setting, but as you can imagine it’s a caged affair with a viewing area down the one side. Set in a dip to the North of the college buildings, it was far from an unwelcoming place, and indeed sat behind it was a small area containing sheep and pigs, that Steve and I went to have a chat with at half time!

The game was two minutes late kicking off, and given the fact it was second versus bottom placed visitors Newton Athletic (who share the same ground as Upton JFC), the game was far from one sided, and was indeed settled by the only goal of the game when the hosts scored late in the first half through George Richardson.

Half time took a little longer than I would have hoped, largely because both sides trooped off back into the college, and in the second period it was the visitors who were putting on the pressure late in the game, but it was ultimately to no avail. I moved fast, finally pulling onto the drive at 5.05pm, within fifteen minutes I’d gone from casual to smart, fully attired in a penguin suit, ready to bear the brunt of the ridicule from fellow passengers on the Belper to Nottingham train service, and then of course the Forest and Liverpool fans that were loitering around the proximity of the rail head.

Once a year I have to do this, just once a year, and I don’t think there are many more Bollington’s and the like that I can loop into the equation. But two years running now I’ve pulled it off, last time round it was joys of the Fairfield Estate in Buxton, which to be fair was a little less stressful than Macclesfield.

Can Belper United get into a new ground in 12 months? I somehow doubt it………