Saturday 29th August 2026 ko 17:00

West Lancashire League Division 2

GALGATE 2 (Moore 45+2 McKeeking 78)

Lewis sent off 62 (DOGSO)

APPLEY BRIDGE 3 (Ray 11 Atkins 64 90+2)

Att 268

Entry & Programme £5

From Storeys to the village of Galgate the heavens opened. I smiled at two ironies, the firest was that the rain would help the rhubarb that grows prolifically here, and was once reckoned to havge been used to dye the silk that once was spun here. The second was that since we were sat in a traffic jam, I knew the hop was causing it, and so the weather wasn’t putting people off.

The issue was that to access the ground, you had to turn right, and by-pass a pub car park. The club made it work, and parking was dealt with efficiently but then I spotted something odd. Behind the far goal the community centre was decked out for a wedding reception, but it became obvious it was being used for the ceremony too. A suitably posh car pulled up, the bride in all her finery got out and made a beeline for the centre, as a muddy stray ball from the warm-up whistled past her. I’d have hated to have been partly responsible for an event that ruined her day!

One silver lining to the weather was that people were drawn to the gazebos where a quite bewildering array of food was available, there was no trying to serve 250-plus through a hatch, host clubs on a Step 5/6 hop please take note. Galgate with minimal facilities put much better appointed clubs’ efforts to shame. I trust it was all worth their while, but for me the acid test was that when we got back to our hotel in Bolton, Robyn and I went for a pint not a meal.

The weather may have been lousy and the pitch greasy but we were treated to a quite wonderful game. Either side will argue they deserved to win it, Appley did happily for them, courtesy of virtually the last kick of the game, and we all headed to our overnight accomodation to dry out. Except of course the bride and groom; I hope they had a lovely evening.