Bardsey FC

 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 power going forward. The number 9 had an interesting game scoring two sitters and missing at least another four.

It was 1-0 to Ripon on 20 minutes as a cross came in from the right, the keeper came and missed it and an easy tap in for the 9 as he made no mistake. Bardsey briefly came back string with a scruffy goal inside the 6 yard box to level things up before a good save from the Bardsey keeper which he unfortunately spilled into the path of the 9 for 2-1. The third came as it was stroked home from a corner after the number 9 had his effort cleared off the line. It was 4-1 with 10 minutes to go as a cross was thundered over from the right and it somehow arrowed straight into the top left corner, I bet he couldn't do that again if he tried!

A small car park is available at the ground if not in the car get the X99 X98 buses from Leeds and get off at Keswick Lane traffic lights.