Saturday 24th December 2022 ko 14:00

Central Midlands League Division One North

BESSACARR 3 (Cooper 25 34 Tyers 77)

780 JLC 2 (Teal 7p Allison 88)

Att c65

Free Entry

Programme £2

Badge £2.50

Judging by the amount of groundhoppers at this one a lot of folk had the same conversation I’d had with Chris Garner. It went something like, “Do you fancy a game? Where? Yeah, but where?” 

For the record Bessacarr is a district of Doncaster, its where One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson is from. He of course famously turned out for Doncaster Rovers’s reserves, and while he didn’t actually play there, we did pass by the site of Doncaster Rovers old ground Belle Vue on the way to Cantley Park.

The name Cantley Park can cause a little confusion. I don’t think anyone will mistake the place for Wokingham & Emmbrook’s temporary ground, but the park does also house Doncaster Rovers’ training ground; you can see its buildings behind one of the goals in a couple of my pictures. I suppose in an ideal world you could watch Rovers’ youth team on a Saturday morning then stroll over to watch Bessacarr afterwards. For those who might fret as to whether they’re separate grounds, yes they are and Futobology does recognise it, even if the App did place a German flag by the Bessacarr version- work that one out!

With GroundhopUK’s Chris Berezai still on committee at the Central Midlands League, he spotted this game was likely to attract the groundhoppers and encouraged Bessacarr to produce a programme. I didn’t spot anyone there that would see a programme as a prerequisite for their presence, but it certainly gave the club an additional source of income, I hope some took my view that it was entry by programme. All my carload bought a copy.

The opposition’s name is a portmanteau of 780 Training and John Leggott College. The former is firm offering football along the similar lines to Pass Move Grin further south. They’ve teamed up with Scunthorpe-based John Leggott College to offer football alongside continuing education. 

Here the visitors turned up with just the twelve players and in a close contest, extra substitutes may well have been the difference as Bessacarr did enough to win the game.  It was a cold, but convivial afternoon, if not particularly Christmassy. But then as the clock clicked over to 4 o’clock we all headed for home. Perhaps we all were just delaying our festivities.