Groundhopping journeys

 A beautiful summers evening for a visit to another West Yorkshire League side, one that I'd been trying to do for a long time, having already acquired a pin badge from ebay. We made a day of it, having fish and chips in the excellent Wharfe chip shop restaurant, before a walk down to the river and then back into town. I had some brilliant raspberries from the fruit shop in town before we went in Whitakers pub and just caught last orders for the food, as a side note, everywhere in Otley either closes early afternoon or stops serving food after 4pm, it's all catered for senior citizens, who all go home at 1pm. I had a beautiful homemade muligatawny soup with warm crusty bread and we both had half a lager. We made our way to the ground in good time, expecting a 1830 kick off, the opposition from Harrogate being Beckwithshaw FC. I'm not sure of the league they are in but my good friend Marc 'Wal' Watson used to be involved with them in some kind of coaching capacity ma...

 A glorious summers evening at Bardsey Sports Club, for a pre season fixture vs Ripon City. The ground is extremely basic, walk past the cricket pitch and club house to it, there is no railing to lean on for spectators, however we managed to sit at a bench at the corner of the cricket pitch, albeit we had to turn quite a way when the action was towards one of the goals, it was comfortable enough but not a ground to be visiting in the middle of winter! The ground had been the scene of heartbreak and despair getting on for 60 years ago as my fellow York fan and groundhopper, Pete Moss missed a penalty for Grafton FC, despite making amends by later netting a goal his team trudged off to a 4-1 defeat. I believe he upset the referee that day too for some reason! This evenings game also finished 4-1 to the away side, with Ripon showing their superiority and higher league status to run out comfortable winners. They rarely looked troubled at the back and had a good mixture of pace and powe...

 I was completing the quartet of Belfast based premiership clubs today, having already done Linfield, Glentoran and Cliftonville. Crusaders and Seaview were my favourite though, a real nice little ground, due only to get better through the UK governments levelling up fund, and real nice people associated with the club. It was a last minute decision to go there having been scuppered with my plans for Bangor Celtic in the FAI Cup, with them now playing at Crumlin United, where I had already visited, I wanted a new ground ticked off. I got the 0850 train from Connolly to Belfast, however upon arrival at just past Lurgan station, disaster struck as there was a tree on the line. They reversed us back to Lurgan, so I wasted no time in booking a taxi to Seaview at a cost of £60. I'd rather that than potentially miss the game though. The taxi driver was good to chat to, being a Polish football fan and we discussed the World Cup in great detail. Having arrived at the ground in real good tim...

 It was my second visit to St pats, having visited three years previously. It was done, purely as a bonus game on the Friday night, having originally planned to go to Bangor Celtic on the Saturday, however with them deciding to switch the game from their usual home at the transport club to Crumlin Uniteds 4G pitch at pearse park, having already been there too, I opted to travel to Belfast on the Saturday and do Crusaders Fc, but more about that in my next blog. I had some external interest in this game as Ryan Edmondson now plays for St Pats, having come through the ranks at York City, I watched him many times in the youth cup. Having promised much following his transfer to Leeds United, he has never lived upto the hype since, with several very uninspiring moves in his career. I have to say I wasn't expecting much from him this evening and he didn't disappoint, putting in a laboured performance against lower league opposition in Wexford United. On my previous visit to St Pats I...

 A local game this evening at Altofts FC, the opposition Thackley FC were sure to provide a stern test being semi pro and coached by consummate professional Jamie Price, formerly of York City. The set up at Altofts is a good one with a little stand, a bar and a car park, they seem geared up to go for promotion from the West Yorkshire Premier League should they so wish. The ground is walkable from Normanton train station and I got chatting to a groundhopper from Lancashire who was jn attendance and was an Oldham supporter, which made for good conversation. I drove and it's just off junction 31 of the M62 through an industrial estate. There were a couple of familiar names in the Thackley lineup with former Albion Sports captain Aran Basi at centre back and former Garforth striker Hass Gorji at number 9. Thackley took the lead after 20 minutes through that man Gorji with a smart finish, however Altofts dug in and didn't look outclassed in this first half, equalising fifteen minute...

 I set off for North East Wales in the car for the 100 mile trip to newly promoted Holywell. The journey was a straightforward one, once we got over the M62 it was very relaxing too. We found a car park priced at £2 for the day, before moving upto the Hospital car park just outside the stadium, which was free after 3pm. The town is only small with one main High Street and not much else apart from a Tesco Supermarket just the other side of it. We wandered along the high street to look for toilet facilities, located behind the town hall, before dining at the Holywell diner, which offered very decent food even though it was like sitting in somebody's living room. Fish and chips and a Ham salad bap were ordered and two bottles of water. The Fish was good even though it was an Iceland frozen one, the chips seemed homemade and I got mushy peas and a slice of bread and butter, no tea or coffee was offered even though it was supposed to be included. I was told the Ham salad bap was excelle...