Sunday 1st March 2026 ko 11:30

North West Counties League Premier Division

ATHERTON LABURNUM ROVERS 2 (Bacon 5 Obasoto 73)

EUXTON VILLA 0

Att 593

Entry £6

Programme £2

Sunday dawned, or more interestly St David’s Day, and the groundhopping tradition of buying my wife Robyn Daffodils. Robyn is from Bristol, and since we visited Albania and our friend Ditmar famously said, “Bristol, isn’t that nearly in Wales?” she’s been teased about being “Welsh” ever since! It’s not often a girl from Bristol walks round Atherton with a bunch of daffs is it?

Of course the roots of the North West Counties Hop tie in this part of the world, following a late switch of tie in the Northern Counties EAST hop to Atherton Collieries. That, would you believe was back in 2013, although it did take until 2016 to get a hop going in North West Counties |League it is bizarre that we took this long to get to Crilly Park!

Laburnum Rovers were founded in 1956 named after Laburnum Playing Fields of the Laburnum Cotton Mill where they first played. In 1966 they acquired and converted a farmers field to provide the Greendale Ground, with the name changed in 1980 to Crilly Park after former chairman Jack Crilly who passed away suddenly that year.

The club added Atherton to the name in order to enter the Cheshire County League at the same time, and became founder members of the North West Counties League when they league merged with the Lancashire Combination two years later. The club spent 3 seasons in the Northern Premier league too, departing back to the North West Counties in 1997.

The ground reflects that lost status, with the main stand reminding me of the edifice at Whitby Town but more than anything else it was a morning to let the club do their thing, and absolutely make the most of the opportunity they’d been given- that they did in spades! We had a friend of the hop there too, in the unusual position of Assistant Referee! We’ve seen Alan Mair before, at Stockport Georgians and Abbey Hey but most notably at Bathgate Thistle where despite being Scottish he wasn’t allowed to officiate- due to his registration being English!

It was a good competitive game too, albeit one where Rovers had too much for a Euxton Villa team we at GroundhopUK have a lot of time for- they too were superb hosts two years ago. It was a shame to leave, but we had one more game to catch….