Friday 27th February 2026 ko 19:45

North West Counties League – First Division North

DARWEN 0

COLNE 0

Att 895

Entry £7

Programme £2.50

So back on GroundhopUK duty, but the 4 of us have been doing it so long we just slip into our roles without any great effort, and that also goes for the North West Counties League too. That for us adds up mainly as Martin Fallon, who seems to become a groundhopper for the weekend! Robyn and I were particularly looking forward to visiting Darwen, with their background of Football League membership, but the evening was to straddle comedy and the bleakest of tragedy in the space of minutes.

The tragedy was learning of the illness and prognosis of a friend of many likely to be there, and us trying to let those who needed to know the news while giving his family their privacy. Some understood, but unfortunately some didn’t which taught us all an important lesson. It was news that cast a shadow over the weekend for many of us but I still cannot imagine what his family were and are going through. I’m still thinking of them daily, how could anyone cope?

But then as we were distributing programme packs in the rain, we spotted a flashing blue light. Soon enough a police car pulled into the car park, and dropped off a highly embarrassed groundhopper. He’d booked a hotel a 20 minute walk from the Anchor Ground but had taken a wrong turning and ended up on the hard shoulder of the M65! Yes, he did look sheepish and no I have no idea whether he found his way back to his hotel afterwards. I’d like to think the police weren’t involved!

For me the interest in being here was Darwen’s history. They were elected to the Football League in 1891 but immediately had to change their strip! League rules meant that teams could not have the same coloured kits and since Notts County had already taken black and white stripes, Darwen adopted a salmon pink top from which their nickname “The Salmoners” originates. They did set one unwanted record as being the first club to suffer a divisional relegation, into the newly formed Division Two in that first season, and failed to be re-elected in 1899 after enduring 18 consecutive defeats.

1899 was also the year that Darwen moved from Barley Bank, to the current Anchor Ground, so while their current ground has never staged League football it does have real history; just imagine Darwen playing Woolwich Arsenal in the FA Cup here in 1900. They lost 2–0 but Darwen had refused Arsenal’s offer of £150 to switch the tie to London. The tie at the Anchor attracted a 7,000 crowd to the Anchor, I wonder which option was the most profitable?

Sadly that iteration of the club died in 2009 after 134 years in existance. Fortunately AFC Darwen was quickly formed as a phoenix club, and they changed their name to that of the old club in 2022. And once my GroundhopUK duties were complete, it was a real pleasure to soak up the atmosphere, and feel the history. The big crowd helped, which goes to prove if a tie is relevant to people’s needs then they will come and watch in their hundreds. That by the way is, nothing to do with the groundhop weekend, we probably added 200 onto the gate here.

Some groundhoppers made far too much of the lack of goals, and let’s fact it, if goals are you only measure of a game’s value, then imagine all that they are missing? And this evening in Darwen was the perfect example of this.

For Peter Miles