Saturday 31st December 2022 ko 15:00

Notts Senior League Division One

KIRTON BRICKWORKS 0

BESTWOOD COLLIERY 5 (Samuels 6 J Fisher 35 Tinsley 11 K Fisher 86 Knight 88)

Att 37 at R.H. Academy, Mansfield

Free Entry

I must admit, I did ponder why I was doing this. If was New Year’s Eve, I was tired, and the weather saw my options reducing as pitches became waterlogged. But any hobby requires a certain amount of commitment and sometimes you have to create your fun wherever you can. 

I tend to think of Rob Hornby whenever the Notts Senior League is concerned, and the former hop organiser does live in Mansfield. Kirton Brickworks were never covered on one of Rob’s Hops as their ground in within the brickworks and the lorries passing behind one goal made hosting large crowd a safety issue. Here though, the brickworks’ ground was waterlogged so the match was switched to the 3G cage at Mansfield Town’s Training Ground. 

The Radford & Hymas Academy is named after Mansfield Town FC chairman John Radford and club Academy Director Steve Hymas who with the Football Foundation funded its construction on the site of the former Woburn Lane Playing Fields. Other than the 3G pitch there are 3 grass pitches, and changing room block/education centre, which was unfortunately out-of-bounds as there were still a couple of Stags players present following training.

So it was very much as case of Kirton making use of a 3G pitch to get a fixture played. They may though have regretted the switch as Bestwood won well against our youthful hosts. The tie did attract, unsurprisingly quite a few groundhoppers, and it was good to catch up with people as 2022 reached its finish. Like I said, sometimes you just have to show a little commitment.