Broomhill Pirates v FC Philly
Langsett Pumas v Kings Athletic
Kiveton Park v Caribbean Sports Reserves
Worksop Town v Staveley Miners Welfare
My second weekend of three consecutive on-call duties, so another weekend consigned to being 'on-route'. Not a worry though, as still plenty to do. Today I had decided on a few games around Sheffield, including the 'fish in a barrel' option of a @nonleague_train at Kiveton Park.
However, engineering work in the Calder Valley meant my day started with a rail replacement bus from outside the refreshment rooms.
So for once, it was a chance to see the Wainhouse Tower up close and personal. Well it would have been if the bus wasn't completely steamed up with condensation, which the driver assured us would go as soon as the heaters kicked in.
This took us to Halifax, where the trains were running from. The station side chocolate factory was steaming away nicely.
Because the trains were terminating here, it was rare use of the turn back siding.
With appropriate train stop boards in use.
It was on to Leeds.
A debacle as we then endured three platform changes, from 17a, to 3c (which would be impossible as trains can't access the Normanton line from that platform) and eventually the signaller settled on 11b for our Sheffield fast service.
Into Sheffield.
The on-station tap now has a massive poster enticing people to the haven on platform 1. Happy days, though my 200 days of sobriety wasn't challenged as being on-call meant I couldn't drink anyway.
It was out the back of the station and onto the tram.
I had to do a phone conference at ten o'clock and my plan was to jump out at whichever stop I was at at 0955. However, this turned out to be here, which is slap bang in the middle of a busy dual carriage way, so it would actually have been quieter to do the call on the tram.
Although my move onward was on an empty tram, which meant I got the drivers eye seats.
The tram was taken to the end of the route, at Middlewood interchange, where the bus on the right connects to take people up to Stockswood, former stamping ground of JAmie Vardie.
However, my first destination was more local. Passing these typical Saturday morning cyclists; all the fancy gear but still four abreast down a narrow lane.
The themed fire places gives a clue of which part of the city I was in. Wednesday's official central heating power flushing supplier.
This distinctly non-league fixtures board confirmed where I was.
This is Leppings Lane, which obviously needs no introduction. At the time of the disaster, I'd never been to the ground, but I remember seeing pictures of this end and thinking how tatty and run down it looked. Thirty years later and all that seems to have been done is it being renamed as the West Stand. I would have thought that the club would have made an more of an effort to try an overcome the accusation that a contributory factor to events was the crumbling state of the infrastructure by at least attempting to make it look like there has been some investment. You may be glad to hear that is the last of any serious comment for the rest of the report.
My destination was here.
Only my second ever game at a Police dog training school (when a bomb was discovered in Portland's old ground, they played a few games in the prison grounds, with the pitch in the dog training compound).
Broomhill Pirates 0 v FC Philly 11 (eleven), Sheffield Fair Play League - Division 2
Broomhill is a western suburb of Sheffield, that grew up around one of the roads that heads over the Penines, though it is now mainly a student area. It is where they finally caught Peter Sutcliffe. Don't know much about the football team, other than they made this advert with Ian Wright.
This was a local derby with FC Philly also being from the Broomhill area. They were formed in 2007 and at first, appear to have some sort of religous persuasion as their badge has a cross on it. But then it also has knife and forks on it, so maybe it isn't that serious. Who knows.
The Niagara Recreation Ground is the home of the South Yorkshire Police Sports and Social Club. It was opened in the 1920s, previously being a rubbish tip. The centre piece is a large pavilion on the far side, with football, rugby, hockey and cricket pitches. It is also home for the dog handlers and mounted police sections.
I arrived just as the home side conceded a goal and were having a hissy fit about something, with language that was more pirate than fair play.
Immediately there was another goal.
Then a penalty.
Which was scored.
The two sides were in adjacent league positions, but Philly scored another.
And another.
I soon spotted what was making the difference. Despite this being at step 45, all the Broomhill players had matching shorts and socks. Philly's more liberal attitude to colour matching of lower garments gave their players the freedom to express themselves and dominate the game.
Which they did with another penalty.
The background to the pitch is the famous Hilsborough cantilever stand, which was the first on a large scale.
Right place, right time, to record the one time the Pirates did get into the opposition half.
With thirty minutes to go, my experience of god knows how many thousand games, led me to believe that Broomhill wouldn't pull back their 0-11 deficit. So I wandered off to see if I could watch police Alsatians jumping through burning hoops.
However, I found myself to be the real victim of the Westminster shenanigans, as 'due to the weeks events' public access was denied to the dog training. Well, that was what the sign said, the bloke on the gate having the rather more demeaning line of 'What are you, fucking 12?'. However, he did inform me that the National Emergency Services Museum was in town, and I could go to that instead. Until that moment, I had no idea such a thing existed, and a quick check of the internet, revealed that not only was it open, it was also the World's Largest.
So I headed off, back past Hilsborough. The main stand has had a new facade added. I can imagine the conversation now:-
Architect; There are two options. Option A would be a bespoke design which reflects the sensibility and history of the stand with high level materials, but the cost would mean you would have to charge away fans a minimum of £36 a ticket. Option B would be to re-use the design from the last set of student halls of residence I built, and then just slap a club badge on the front.
Club; There is an option C. Let's go for the second design, charge £36 anyway, and spunk away the proceeds on a striker who scores two goals a season.
Back to Middlewood.
Heading past Hilsborough Park and there was now a game on at the arena.
Though the attendance at the bowling green would have put a lot of step 8 games to shame.
So I hopped of the tram, to the sprawling reaches of the park, which was formerly the grounds of Hillsborough hall, which is now a library.
If their is a slimming world banner on a fence, you know you are in swearing distance of an amateur football game.
Langsett Pumas v Kings Athletic, Sheffield Fair Play League - Division 3
Langsett is a tiny village out beyond Stocksbridge. It used to be called Penisale, a name that now relates to Doom Bar. The football team were formed three seasons ago.
Kings Athletic play on the other side of Sheffield. They may be something to do with King Edward school, although that is local to this side of the city, or maybe Kings hospital.
I'd looked out for the game earlier, but it seems that it had kicked off late.
Hillsborough arena has always been the sports pitches part of the park. A huge new pavilion was built in the late 1990s. At various times I've seen Sheffield FC and Sheffield Eagles reserves play here.
There is a cracking view all around, with the park on one side and the hills of Crookesmoor on the other.
The away keeper looked like a stand-in if ever there was one. Firstly, he was wearing just a long sleeved cotton t-shirt.
He didn't have a @keepers_towel, but did have a rucksack, looking like he was on a geology field trip.
And he had someone taking goal kicks for him.
So, some action shots. Some people run.
Some people shoot.
And someone did score, though I have no idea if there were any other goals.
With the game over, I went to the other tram terminus in Hillsborough, at Malin Park.
This was taken down to Shalesmoor.
Looking back up to the tram stop of where I'd tried to host my phone conference earlier. I really couldn't have picked a nosier location.
A surprising find on the ring road, 70 miles inshore, was a powerboat centre. Probably an outlet for the Yorkies who won one on Bullseye.
But eventually I reached my promised land, the National Emergency Services Museum.
I learned about the evolution of the fireman's helmet.
And the ambulance.
And the police vans that are only ever seen outside football grounds, or being petrol bombed on the Garvaghy Road.
Scab fire engines.
And ones for dwarfs as well.
And mines rescue vehicles. For some reason this display only went up to the mid 1980s. Bloody Thatcher.
Strangely, the museum was hosting a kids party, and they did a lot of screaming, so I curtailed my visit, though still with infinitely more emergency services knowledge than I was expecting to acquire today. It was back to the tram.
For a relatively short move.
This took me back to the station.
Where, beneath the famous Park Hill flats, I was onto a Lincoln bound service.
This took me past my next venue, which at first view was deserted, but reassuringly, at the far end were some youths trudging along with kit bags.
My steed had been the prototype refurbished Pacer, which has horrifically upright seats, an electronic display which permanently announces the train is arriving into Elsecar, and three quarters of a coach taken up by a baby changing bog. Unsurprisingly, this hasn't tempted anyone to convert any more.
I left this at Kiveton Park, which still has a signal box to control the level crossing.
A huge amount of money is being spent on providing step free access to station platforms. The downside of having this is that sometimes a 17 year old will attempt it in a Citreon Saxo. Here is the aftermath, a half demolished waiting shelter surrounded by police tape.
Almost a b-road walk of shame but this one had a pavement vice a grass verge.
A certain contributor to the WSC board gets very upset when I refer to Wales as a principality. This might send him over the edge. Though fortunately he is about three months behind in reading these. So if you hear heavy teeth grinding coming from South London in July, you know he's finally got round to reading this.
Kiveton Park was a tiny hamlet, existing to serve the nearby stately home. However, the opening of the colliery in the 19th century saw the village expand hugely. Herbert Chapman was from here. The colliery shut down in the early 1990s, since when it has become a commuter villages, with new estates for people who like to wash cars and build conservatories.
The sports complex is in the centre of the village, adjacent to the railway.
Though with an entrance that defines the word 'unassuming'.
Kiveton Park 1 v Caribbean Sports Reserves 1, Pete's Patisserie Sheffield & Hallamshire County Senior League
Kiveton Park are a very old club for this level of football, having being officially founded in 1892, though they were playing before then. The clubs roots are with the colliery, and have played in various Sheffield and Worksop leagues, before finally joining the Yorkshire league in the 1960s, which became the Northern Counties East in the 1980s. The lack of floodlights and other facilities has always restricted progress, and they dropped to the Central Midlands League, before the closure of the colliery also saw the club stop playing for a number of years in the 1990s. However, they started again in 1999, but 2013 saw them drop to Sheffield league football, and they now struggle in division 2.
Caribbean Sports are based in Ecclesfield, north of Sheffield. They were first set up by Jamaican ex-pats as a cricket club, but have expanded to include a strong football section. The first team have been members of the Sheffield league since the early 1990s, but this is the first season for their reserves.
The Hard Lane complex includes a reserves and first team pitch, as well as a separate junior section, and also a cricket pitch.
The main pitch is fairly basic considering it was once of NCEL standards, though it is miles better than anything else in the division.
However, it does have this fine stand, which is of 1960s vintage.
One of the main activities for kids in the village was to smash the shit out of the ground, but it now seems to be secured off, and therefore has undergone a bit of a refurb, with new end screens, roof and dug outs.
An unexpected addition is that the previous terraced steps are now occupied by folding chairs, seemingly liberated from a church hall.
Being fabric covered, the weather and bird shit was taking its toll.
Another novel feature was that the pitchside hard standing had be done in crazy paving.
It looks like another building project is underway, though there were signs that not much had been done for a while.
I take it these are for dugouts, as their current location obscures the view from 50% of the main stand.
The adjacent cricket club seem keener to tie in with their industrial past.
The football club making do with winding gear on the club badge.
One of the most stringent non-league ground grading requirements is to have a completely unfathomable item of agricultural equipment. Kiveton's was this metal cylinder on a screw post, attached to the pitch railings.
Both sides were warming up on the adjacent training pitch.
The home side emerged, with a bald bloke excitedly waving his arms as he explains his game plan to uninterested team mates.
Eventually the away side emerged, looking not that Caribbean, but also with a bald bloke excitedly waving his arms as he explains his game plan to uninterested team mates.
Pre-match huddles at step 13. Modern football at its worst.
And so the game started in balmy sunshine.
Although the ground is excellently sited for views of @nonleague_train, the traction on offer these days is very limited. This used to be a haven for MGR coal workings, but now it is a Pacer on the hourly stopping service. Once again, I find myself as the real victim of Thatcherism. So here is a Northern class 143 on 2P69, the 1219 Scunthorpe to Lincoln Central.
And from the lofty heights of the main stand, a 142 on 2P27 1326 Lincoln Central to Sheffield.
On a Saturday is bonus action as one of the three trains a week that serve the Gainsborough - Brigg line pass by on a Cleethorpes to Sheffield service.
There was also double @keepers_towels. A conventionally hung offering from the home goalie.
But a unique position from the away keeper, on the floor in the middle of the goal.
It was the away side that took the lead.
But Kiveton then started running out of players as due to injury, they had used their three subs by half time.
However, they did manage an equaliser.
The game finished 1-1, which means the sides stay in third and fourth position.
I headed to Kiveton Bridge station, which is located at the opposite end of the village.
This was taken on to Worksop.
There was the opportunity to get the tail end of Worksop's NCEL game.
The main entrance is through a retail park, but I had walked down the main road, so it was through this relic from the old Central Avenue ground.
Worksop Town 1 v Staveley Miners Welfare 1, Toolstation Northern Counties Eastern League - Premier Division
Worksop has hosted football since the origins of the game in the late 1800s. When Worksop Town were founded changes with every source you read. We'll go with the one where they joined the Sheffield league in the 1890s, then moved onto the Midland league. They were founder members of the Northern Premier league in the 1960s, where they had a long spell and even got to the Conference North. Financial problems saw them lose their ground to Sheffield Parramore, and then drop out of the NPL to the NCEL in 2013.
This was a relatively local derby, with Staveley being a mining town between Worksop and Chesterfield. There have been a number of football clubs in the town, Staveley Miners Welfare being formed as a pub team in the 1960s. They moved through the Mansfield, Chesterfield and then Sheffield County league, before joining the pyramid with the Central Midlands league in 1993. They soon moved up to the NCEL, and have been there since, most recently in an 8 year stint in the premier division.
Sandy Lane is a bit of an odd ground in that at first appearances it is a historic, town centre ground. However, it was only opened in the 1990s. Before then, Worksop played at the aptly named Central Avenue. However, this was a three sided ground, shared with, and more importantly, owned by, the cricket club. The sides that were accessible were well developed, with a stand in one corner. However, the cricket club sold the football part of the ground, and so Worksop Town were homeless. After three years sharing at Gainsborough, after a few false schemes, the council gave them this playing field, which was an old rubbish tip. The spell in the conference brought with it financial problems, and they lost control of the ground and played three seasons at Retford and Huckall in the late 2000s. It is now owned by Sheffield/Worksop/Handsworth Parramore (Sports) and Worksop Town are tennants.
The site is extremely cramped, and the main stand is this tall, narrow offering on the touchline, up against the main road.
On the opposite touchline are a couple of token covers.
A long stretch of cover behind the far goal housed the very vocal home support, who seemed incensed with something or other.
There used to be an opportunity for a @nonleague_train, but the sidings that separate the ground from the running line are now full of redundant coal wagons, obscuring the view. Bloody Thatcher.
The @keepers_towel was much more prominant from the away goalie..
Worksop's compliance with the unfathomable item of equipment grading rule, was this obscure structure. It looks like a TV gantry, but was positioned level with the six yard box. Maybe pro-active construction of public gallows, ready for the post Brexit return of public hanging in this UKIP heartland.
Worksop had a late chance to win the game, but the forward shot straight at the keeper. I have no recollection of climbing a tree, so god knows how this picture is obscured by branches?
However, the game finished 1-1, with the players seemingly more amicable than the crowd.
An unexpected find in the car park was branded step 8 tarnsport.
Checking the team sheet later, and both sides are full on perpatrators of the biblical J name syndrome. Worksop have three in their first four players, and one as sub, with Staveley having two Joshua's. I am very sceptical that the first linesman is real, its the sort of name that ringers play under.
Opposite the station is this strangely named barbers. Either it refers to a team formation, or else the wheel arrangement of....
...one of these. The excellent Mallard pub on the station at Worksop, for once, not visited.
There was the option of a bud move to Doncaster, for a direct Grand Central service back to Halifax, but a +1 connection at Sheffield would mean I could make the same train at Wakefield, so I chose the man of steel move.
Awaiting a platform at Sheffield due to a late running Scarbough service made my connection into a -3, but it was adjacent platforms, as this rather rushed photo shows, and our late arrival made the Leeds trains a couple down, so I made it.
On to the Grand Central service at Wakefield.
Which took me direct to Halifax.
Where it was onto exactly the same bus as I'd had that morning, with windows just as fogged up as they had been that morning, and back into Sowerby. This time tomorrow this will be daylight.
