Bingham Town v Amsworth Villa
Basford United v Corby Town
As ever, the original plan for the weekend. This was a Friday jaunt up to Scotland for an evening game at BSC Glasgow, and then staying over for Lowland league games at Selkirk and Gala Fairydean. However, the walk to the station on Friday presented this sight.
With this being the festive scene at the station. As the weather forecast in Scotland was even more severe, I decided to abandoned my plans and instead went to work.
This did mean that I had my first go on the new Ordsal rail curve in Manchester. This provides a connection between Victoria and Piccadilly stations, and therefore trains that currently run across the main TransPennine route from Leeds via Huddersfield, instead of reversing in the main platforms at Piccadilly to continue to the airport, can now run via Victoria to avoid having to cross the station throat at Pic. Which would be fine except the new timetable plans to run 16 trains an hour on the two tracks between Deansgate and Piccadilly, which is completely inoperable. It will be the busiest stretch of twin track outside of Crossrail or Thameslink, which have both had billions of pounds spent on getting twelve coach trains and automatic train control. This will be fixed signalling and two car Pacers. The last time this was attempted was in the late 1980s when the Windsor Link line to Salford Crescent was opened, and the 14 trains an hour with a significantly fewer number of passengers, created melt down and the timetable was completely changed after a couple of weeks. The map below from the RailwayDave site shows this.
However, although the link is open, the timetable is based on having electric trains from Bolton running, and as that scheme is massively behind schedule, the only trains using the new line are a two hourly extension of Northern's Calder Valley service from Leeds. This means I can now get a train home from right outside my office, but predictably, it is the one that doesn't stop at Sowerby, so is of no use to me, but I thought I'd have a go on it anyway, and change at Hebden for the follwoing stopping service. Anyway, the new service uses the bay at Oxford Road, which in turn means the Liverpool-Oxford Road service now terminates in the through platform, which has brought chaos so far, so there had better be a good reason for these new services operating.
We headed off, and a couple of minutes later we were on the new line, which consists of three hundred feet of track and a bridge. That is the sole tangible evidence of George Osborne's Northen Powerhouse.
And has it suddenly turned Lancashire into the new Frankfurt with hoardes of new commuters required for this boom in commerce? Well, this was my coach. Yes, all this faff was for the benefit of myself and two other persons on the train, which then was full and standing from Victoria. Who'd have thought everyone would still just use the station that is next to all the shops and offices, and a faster tram connection for Picadilly?
Saturday saw me instead heading southwards to a snow free Nottingham, which had a myriad of options to fall back on if any games were caped (edit - On reading back, I've just noticed I've adopted rail speak in everyday parlance. CAPED is the telegraphic code for a train not running; Cancelled And Proceed Empty to Destination). Except all the snow had disappeared from Sowerby.
Into an equally snow free Leeds.
Over to the Lancashire and Yorkshire bays, except the anticipated sight of a class 158 Express Sprinter, instead a class 144 sat in the platform. This meant that either I was about to do a two hour class 1 timed journey in a Pacer, or else the Nottingham was late. The destination panel of the donkey revealed it was a Knottingley service, which was a partial success. A quick check of genius revealed that the inward working of the Nottingham hadn't left Sheffield (the units work Leeds-Sheffield-Leeds-Nottingham-Leeds-Sheffield and so on) which meant either my train would be caped or else we'd have whatever Northern could swap onto the diagram.
In the end, it was the latter scenario, as a heavily graffitied class 150/1 turned up, obviously from Holbeck as it had no heat and was showing a Manchester Victoria destination. Still, a train's a train. Doing a journey which no timetable search would return as being the quickest option, the train was full of Sunderland fans heading for Forest. The ones sat across from me had an equally individual choice of drink, being Mateus Rose with lemonade, who were comparing the fact that the train toilet had an automatic sliding door, to the evolution of pepper grinders which are now electronic and work at the push of a button. I'll never cease to be amazed by the diversity of travelling football supporters. They then proceeded to watch videos of scorpions fighting tiger centipedes.
Into Nottingham, having picked up Forest supporters all the way in from Chesterfield. The old bloke next to me being particularly proud of his 'bread man' nick name for Mark Warburton, to the extent that to every stranger on the train he had to announce 'if we lose today, that's it for the bread man', and then quiz the unfortunate recipient as to if they could work out who the bread man was. His conversation was more prophetic than it was witty.
Reading through the railway logs, it appeared the unit had been graffitid overnight, and that it had therefore gone to depot to be painted out, before coming back into service. Though if you looked hard enough, you could perhaps tell where the graffiti had been.
I was across to one of the east bays, for a 158 on a Cleethorpes service. The big X in the windscreen meaning it was non-multi, so couldn't be coupled with anything.
Off we sped towards Grantham, passing the Recreation Ground of Radcliffe Olympic.
This was meant to be my second game of the day, but the pitch didn't look too pretty, and a check of Twitter revealed it was off.
I was off at the next stop, Bingham.
Which apparently is more of a holiday destination than I expected. Bingham is actually a small market town, growing up as a trading point on the Fosse Way, specialising in the local Stilton Cheese. Stilton of course, having Protected Origin Status, but for this area where it was always made, rather than for the town of Stilton, which is South of Peterborough and where it was never made, only ever sold to travellers on the Great North Road.
In terms of stations convenient for football grounds, it would be hard to find one closer than the venue for my first game of the day, it being immediately behind the up platform, as the corresponding Cleethorpes-Nottingham service arrives.
Access being conveniently off the end of the platform.
Which led to here.
Municipal sign cleaning obviously being a casualty of government austerity. I could think of a north west rail project that could have saved £400 million.
A somewhat smarter entrance and signage, just out of sight to the left were the players waiting for the changing rooms to be unlocked, and swapping stories about the most dangerous skiing incident they have ever had. You don't get that at Stamford Bridge, part 12857.
A lot of games were now being called off, only four surviving in the top two divisions of the Notts Senior. The pitch was damp but playable, but the teams were warming up away from it.
Which did give a unique @nonleague_trains opportunity, as East Midlands train 1L09 1136 Manchester Piccadilly to Norwich passes non stop. As these normally run to Liverpool, this is one of the sixteen an hour that will be forcing its way through the Oxford Road corridor.
Bingham Town 1 v Amsworth Villa 1, Nottinghamshire Senior League - Premier Division
For a reasonably large town, Bingham was always noteable in not having had a senior football club since the 1950s. In 2010 this changed, when a Sunday transferred over to Saturday football in the Notts Amateur Alliance, and then progressed to the Notts Senior League, where they have gained promotions to the Premier division.
Awsworth is a small mining village north west of Nottingham, on the outskirts of Ilkestone. There seems to be some mystery about when the football club was set up, but they seem to have definitely been in existence since the 1960s. By the 1990s, they were in the Notts Alliance, and then joined the Notts Senior League when it was formed in 2004.
Butt Field is a large public recreation area, including a number of football pitches, as well as a cricket pitch and tennis courts. I'd been here once before, in the late 1990s as a housewarming party for my then boss who had just moved to the town, coincided with an end of season Sunday league game. From memory, there was a small wodden pavillion, which looks to have been replaced by a much more substantial offering on the left.
The football club's main pitch is immediately adjacent to the facilities block and is roped off for games.
There are also some dugouts in place, not sure if these are permanent or are put out for the game.
I'd got a drink in the club house when two blokes walked in, one immediately enquiring 'where are the programmes, I checked before we came and you said you were definitely issuing', and before a response could be offered, his mate joined the tag-team inquisition with 'do you have any badges, I'd like two badges'. The lady behind the tea counter responded with perhaps my favourite retort for a very long lime. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but are you groundhoppers?". Whilst I'm not sure what this was trying to establish, or how it answered the questioning, but it stopped the rapid fire questioning, the rather meek response being an equally obtuse "we're from the other side of Mansfield", which I took to be some sort of local geographic euphemism. After some debate amongst various officials present, it was established that the programmes would be here in the next ten minutes, as they were with someone who was a various times described as being called Jack/Graham/Jim. His timeliness was more accurate than his nomenclature, and indeed he soon turned up, and a very good offering was available for a very old school price of 50p, which reflected that the club seems to have a very sound and committed set of people running it. Anyway, the teams emerged, with the two groundhoppers, with obligatory anoraks and carrier bags, serenading the teams onto the pitch.
The sun beat down as the teams lined up, and were joined in platform by the returning pair of 155s, having been to Nottingham, now working 2S19 1345 Nottingham - Skegness.
The coin toss took place to the drone of Cummins NT855R5 thrash as the pair of dog boxes headed off for the Lincolnshire Coast.
As the game got underway, with the rolling farmland a less rateable backdrop.
It is only now, a day later, that I realise I never bothered to find out which team was which. I assume that Bingham are in the red. It is this complete lack of interest in the detail that sees me keeping a very wide berth from the groundhopping community, as they'd try and kill me with the static from their nylon slacks if they knew someone had such desultory concern for statistics.
This bloke really liked beating the same defender four times, and then getting a throw in. Here he has surpassed himself by getting a corner.
I then invented a past time of uber-nerdishness; train spotting/ground hopping, I'm still looking to convene a focus group on what the portmanteau name should be, all ideas welcome. Anyway, the foot crossing into a housing estate saw 158785 on 1L10 1236 Manchester Piccadilly to Norwich pass the game.
Whilst the station footbridge gave a view of 153311 leading a 156 on 2S16 1315 Skegness to Nottingham.
Back to the action as 2S19 1345 Nottingham to Skegness passes a lot of whichever team is in blue, playing either a very flat back four, or else an ultra attacking forward line.
The Bingham forward uses closing down the Awsworth keeper as a convenient excuse for getting the number of the 153 working 2S21 1445 Nottingham to Skegness.
The home bench fights its instinct to take in the majestic sight of the EMT 158 on 1R90 1257 Norwich to Manchester Piccadilly.
There was a decent amount of local interest in the game, the more hardy taking a damp pitchside position, with an equal number watching from the pathway.
A bloke in wellies watched a bloke take a corner.
This bloke is obviously a novice to the game. Number one rule of watching non-league football, is don't stand on any touchline which is shared with a cricket pitch, as you will spend the whole game retrieving sliced through balls. Here he returns the umpteenth defence splitting pass that the centre half was certain was going to earn him the 'Bingham Baresi' nick name, but instead was more likely to win plaudits for consistently pitching outside off stump on the cricket square.
Eventually there was a goal.
And then an equaliser. Just not from this though, as the forward managed to clear the bar by a good twenty feet with this effort though.
An alright game finished 1-1, the club being a very well run set up and full credit to them for getting the game played.
With my proposed bus move to Radcliffe now scuppered, and the previous plethora of games in the area now reduced to scant offerings, it was a train back into the city. I had a few minutes to wait so had a quick look at the centre, and half a diet coke in a warm looking pub. I got latched onto by a bloke who was relentlessly dull, even by regulars in Whetherspoons standards. His sole topic of conversation was describing how Auf Wiedersehen Pet was filmed in Bingham in the 1980s and the cast used to drink in the Dog and Bear, who he played darts for. Except all his stories just told how they'd come in the pub in an evening, and do exactly what anyone would do in a pub, like drink beer and play pool. The crescendo to his story was the time a barrel had to be changed, and whilst the barman was off doing it, Wayne from the show looked after the bar for a few minutes, the punchline being that no-one else in the pub recognised him, and just thought he was the new barman. Mate, you've had thirty years to make that story interesting.
Thankfully, it was soon time to head off, just as my new friend was launching into "apart from Jimmy Nail, he was always in the Crown...", and I was back at the station in an unusually ample time before my train.
Which was a 153 and 156 lash up.
This took me back into Nottingham, where it was a switch over to the tram, but a struggle with the ticket machine meant I didn't have time for a departure photo. We headed up to the northern outskirts of the city, until we passed this. Now you may be thinking, what a crap picture of a ground, surely there must have been better pictures?
Well, this was the alternative.
I was off the tram at Highbury Vale, on a role with my photographic skills as I managed to cut out half of the passing tram.
I was heading for Basford United, a ground I hadn't bee to for a while and it seems they had moved pitches so potentially considered a new ground. I also hadn't been here since the tram opened, and couldn't work out how to get to the ground as there were quite a few fences, a river and a tram line in the way. In the end I just wandered down the latter. I think my PTS is still in date.
Which eventually got me access to the playing fields where it was confirmed, that a new stadium seems to have sprung up behind the previous one.
Basford United 4 v Corby Town 0, Evo-Stik Northern Premier League - Division One South
Basford United were formed in 1900 and in the early days were a major force in regional football, to the extent that they were allegedly approached by the football league about joining the new second division in 1905, but chose to decline it, causing a new club to be hastily formed to fill the vacant position; the resultant outcome being the formation of Chelsea. Basford carried on in the Notts Alliance for most of the 20th century, with reasonable success. However, the formation of the Notts Senior league in 2004, coincided with a dip in form for the club, so they weren't able to join the new county league. Eventually they did gain access. However, they have had a meteoric rise since 2011, when they joined the Central Midlands League, and have since shot up (and sidewards!) through the East Midlands Counties, Northern Counties East, and Midland League, up to the Northern Premier League where they are currently in division one south. They have paid some decent money in wages in recent times, and I'm not sure where the money is coming from, but they do seem to have a very decent level of local backing and do seem to be putting in a structure for the ground, playing set up and finances, that supports the rise, rather than just a strong on-field team being bankrolled by one individual, as is usually the case in such instances.
Basford moved to the current site in 1990. Prior to that, they were based at playing fields which were a few hundred yards away, actually on Mill Street. These were being built on, so they moved here, which retained the name Mill Street, even though they aren't actually on the road.
A lot of clubs that have had meteoric rises through leagues, do not keep up with ground requirements and end up ground sharing somewhere else or have promotion denied. Fair play to Basford, as they seem to have heeded this and a lot of work has been undertaken in a short time, with a new clubhouse, changing rooms, offices and seating area on the near touch line.
The down side is that all the structures are Atcost pre-fabs, with more down the opposite touchline.
And again behind the goal line. If you need to upgrade your ground quickly and on a limited budget, this is the ideal way to do it, so no criticism of the club. However, it does make the ground a bit featureless, and there is the added issue that a lot of the prime sites for viewing around the ground, you can't stand in because it blocks the view from the ground level seating behind. Perhaps in time a bigger, permanent stand may emerge, who knows, but its the clubs business, not mine.
So to the game. Basford were leading 1-0 when I arrived, and added another.
At new 4G pitches, there is limited opportunity from groundsman's clutter discoveries, but this fearsome looking offering was on proud display.
Some more football, this time in the second half with Corbu on the attack.
There was more @nonleague_trains viewing, with the tram visible in the far corner.
This stretch of the tram route is shared with the Robin Hood line and Basford added to their score as an EMT 158 passed on 2D17 1537 Mansfield Woodhouse to Nottingham.
The evolution of ground hopping is generally that they follow a league team, then in their middle ages, drift into non-league and suddenly go chasing new grounds. My path was different in that I was much more into grounds than football from my teens, but it is seldom that young hoppers are seen unless they are with parents. The scoring of goals and substitutions saw this gaggle of teens eagerly jotting down details. This either means they are sports journalist students, or else are the next-gen stadium cranks. If the latter, then it is worth starting early, as it means you can be in the 'five thousand by fifty' club, without having to resort to week night visits to step 13 tennis courts.
In the high how stakes, I thought this bloke had done well, in managing to get it above the trees.
However, with the very last kick of the game, his team mate managed to clear the moon, a fitting end to a year of football.
I wandered back to the station. Basford had scored another couple of goals in the time I'd been at the game, it finishing 4-0. Who cares, they kicked the ball higher than the moon!
I'm sure you want to know what Highbury Vale platform A looks like whilst running for a tram. Here you are.
This got me back to the station, in time for the direct Leeds service.
A very arsey conductor on the train, tried to charge me even though I had a valid pass, for the sole reason that I was a manager. His relief at Sheffield was not full of complementary words for his colleague. At Leeds, I just missed the 1920 and then the 1951 arrived late, and we then sat around for half an hour waiting for a guard. Northern being consistent to the very end of the year.
So brings to an end another year of sports going. Totals for the year were 295 stadiums, of which 227 were football, 26 rugby league, 22 cricket, 14 speedway, 2 cycling, 2 ice hockey, 1 motorcycle football and 1 tractor pulling. However, the biggest stat has been 0 pints, which is about 1,000 down on previous years.
