The Long Shot

16 Monday Sep 2013

Tags

Andy Roome, chatsworth house, Dan Bishop, Derbyshire, derbyshire dales, hawfields, James Ward, junction railway, king edward vii, Midland Combination, midlands regional alliance, Newhall United, Rowsley 86, School Lane, Simon Baldwin, Tim Baker

Saturday 14th September 2013 ko 15.00

Midlands Regional Alliance Premier Division

ROWSLEY 86 2 (T Baker 29 Roome 85)

NEWHALL UNITED 1 (Ward 26p)

Att 8

Entry FREE

Tea FREE

No Programme

Head north on the A6 from Matlock and in around 6 miles you’ll reach the pretty village of Rowsley. It’s at the confluence of the rivers Derwent and Wye, and was the site of an extensive marshalling yard for the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway. The station was frequently used by King Edward VII when he visited nearby Chatsworth House. The station became a goods depot until 1968, when it was closed and converted to a contractor’s yard. It then became the centrepiece of a shopping development which is still open today. Perhaps it goes without saying I didn’t pay it a visit! Continue reading →

Threesome

08 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by laurencereade in K

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Tags

act of parliament, british midland, Danny Morris, East Midlands Airport, football traveller, Greenhill, Jarmain Nelson, kegworth air disaster, Kegworth disaster, Kegworth Imperial, King George V, Newhall United, North Leicestershire League, ratcliffe on soar power station, Ryan Mason

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 ko 18.15

North Leicestershire League Premier Division

KEGWORTH IMPERIAL 0

GREENHILL Y.C. 4 (Morris 3 Mason 49 Nelson 52 70)

Att 49

Entry FREE

Nothing for sale

Sometimes I can sit there with a copy of the Football Traveller and there isn’t a fixture that grabs me. Its daft, a weekly magazine with around a thousand fixtures in, a case perhaps of Bruce Springsteen’s “57 channels and nothing on..” In the end Newhall United secretary Dan Bishop suggested this one, after I asked for something low level. Dan never, ever lets you down….. Continue reading →

My very own mug!

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by laurencereade in S

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Adrian Whitmore, Central Midlands League, Franz Xaver Graf von Werra, Guy Wilding, Highfield Road, home-made club mugs, John Balfour, Leicestershire Senior League Division One, midlands regional alliance, Newhall United, Penalty, Richard Jeffery, Steve Cook, Swanwick Pentrich Road, The one that got away

Saturday 18th August 2012 ko 3.00pm

Midlands Regional Alliance Premier Division

SWANWICK PENTRICH ROAD 5 (Wilding 62 71 A Whitmore 64 86 Jeffery 78) Jeffery missed penalty 45

NEWHALL UNITED 1 (Balfour 29p)

Att 13 (h/c)

Entry FREE

No Programme

Tea in a mug 70p

I have to say that this charming little club does have a rather particular name. Consider if you will the small Derbyshire village of Swanwick. It’s a former pit village near Alfreton, and is best known for the German flying ace Franz Xaver Graf von Werra, who escaped from the Swanwick Hayes POW camp in December 1940. He reached RAF Hucknall and was recaptured after trying to steal an aircraft in the guise of a Dutch airman. He finally did escape later in the war, and his exploits are immortalised in the flim “The one that got away.”

But let’s look at that name again, to the best of my knowledge there’s no other team in Swanwick so why have a name that’s so specific? Continue reading →

Rain o’er me

22 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by laurencereade in D

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Tags

Ben Laxton, Dan Bishop, Desford, East Midlands Counties, Kirkby Road, Lee West, Leicestershire Senior League, Lutterworth Athletic, Newhall United

Thursday 19th July 2012 ko 7.00pm

Pre-Season Friendly

DESFORD 0

LUTTERWORTH ATHLETIC 1 (Laxton 30p)

Att 22 (h/c)

Played at Kirkby Road, Desford.

It was, I suppose the classic reason to do a pre-season friendly, a ground not normally used for Saturday football. With the pitch at Peckleton Road, being relaid, and improved drainage being installed, this fixture was moved across town to Kirkby Road. It’s very much a community facility, the facade of the changing room block reflecting the multi-cultural nature of the community here. Mind you, I didn’t know that the Simpsons live in Desford!

This part of Leicestershire is a former coal mining area, reflected in the pit wheel used as a logo by the home team. Nearby is Market Bosworth, where to the south in 1485 the House of Lancaster led by Henry Tudor, beat the House of York led by Richard III who was hacked to death during the battle, ending the Plantagenet dynasty. It must be an unlucky place as Lady Jane Grey was born here, before being beheaded 16 or 17 years later after being monarch for only 9 days.

None of which seemed relevant on an evening where the weather was as wet as the football was uninspired. I was fortunate to have company in the form of Lee West, together with the self-styled poor man’s Peter Ustinov, Dan Bishop. Dan’s general manager of Newhall United latterly of the Leicestershire Senior League, and its fair to say his view of that league is less than complimentary! He kept us entertained through 3 dire periods of 30 minutes, where we got throughly soaked.

What seemed to be lost on Desford was the word, ” Friendly.” The tackles were consistantly late, and they took full advantage of the convention that no-one gets a card in a pre-season friendly. If the same tactics get used during the regular season, they’ll be fundraising to pay the disciplinary fines. We did get a goal, just before the end of the 1st third, Ben Laxton picking himself up after being chopped down in the box, to put away the penalty. After that it was simply a case of whiling away the time until the players finished. For that Dan and Lee’s presence was greatly appreciated.