✔714 Coronation Park

Eastwood Community 6-0 Clipstone
East Midlands Counties League Premier Division
Saturday 28th December 2019
Eastwood is a former coal mining town in the Broxtowe district of Nottinghamshire, on the county border with Derbyshire. (population almost 19,000)

The town developed during the Industrial Revolution and is the birthplace of the Midland Railway, plus writer and poet D. H. Lawrence, who was born in Eastwood in 1885. The local area is mentioned in many of his novels, especially in The White Peacock, set amongst the backdrop of industrial Nottinghamshire. There were ten collieries within walking distance of Lawrence's home, with the majority of the local male population working down the pits. His birthplace still stands and is now a visitors museum at 8a Victoria Street, his first of four family homes in Eastwood.
 Eastwood Community FC formed in 2014, following the demise of Eastwood Town. The Badgers were founded in 1955 and reached as high as Conference North level, after winning the Northern Premier League in 2008-09. After a 4th place finish in their debut season at Step 2, they were unable to compete in the play-offs due to ground grading issues. This resulted in the owners put the club up for sale. Eastwood Town were issued with a winding up petition over an unpaid tax bill of £168,000 in November 2013, with the council banning the club from using Coronation Park. After postponing five consecutive home games, they resigned from the Northern Premier League in February 2014.


The newly formed club joined the Central Midlands League South Division and the Red Badgers took part in the FA Vase for the first time in 2015.
Central Midlands League 2014-2018
Runners-up 2016-17
Champions 2017-18
East Midlands Counties League 2018 - present
 
Coronation Park
Chewton St, 
Eastwood, 
Nottingham 
NG16 3HB

Current ECML grounds visited - 7


The Main Stand is a single tier structure with black flip seats with ECFC picked out in white. On the same side is the clubhouse, media room, snack bar and team dugouts. There is covered standing behind both goals, one with terracing. On the far side is another covered stand sitting in the middle of hard standing, with additional build up terracing. 
Eastwood Community(3rd) 6 (Webb 25,55,68 Knight 50,84 Hines 77)
Clipstone(13th) 0
East Midlands Counties League - Premier Division matchday 19
3pm ko
Att.188
Admission £5
Coffee £1

After a lacklustre first half, with just a Paddy Webb goal giving the home side a slender lead, the Red Badgers came out in the second half and battered the visitors. 
Kieran Knight connected with a right wing cross to start the onslaught five minutes from the restart, then he twice teed up his strike partner Webb to complete his hat-trick. Knight also assisted with the fifth, to set up a tidy finish from substitute Wayde Hines. The man of the match dribbled his way into the box to score his second of the afternoon and make it 6-0 at full time.
 #HeedHopper
134 miles door-to-door
Travelled with Lee & Katie, departing from NECGC Towers at 11.45am.

We arrived at Coronation Park at 2.30, so just enough time to nip around the corner to the Tap & Growler - the 126th (and probably the last) new GBG pub I've ticked off throughout 2019. The Whisky drinking Hull Hoppers - Dave and Phil were already in there, so I joined them for a drink before walking back to the ground. 
After the game the five of us called to the local JDW - The Lady Chatterley for a farewell drink before heading back home, after ticking off a great ground and a big home win to finish off the decade.

✔713 Tockwith Sports Field

Tockwith 4-0 Marston Green
York Football League Division One
Saturday 21st December 2019
 Tockwith is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, 8 miles west of the city of York.( population around 1,600) 


The village was listed as Tocvi in the Domesday Book. with the name deriving from Old English - toc and wic - which is most commonly translates as 'dairy farm'.
Tockwith's greatest claim to fame is being used as a staging post by Oliver Cromwell prior to the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644. He made reference to Tockwith in his diaries, in which he said: "If heaven should be half as blessed as the fields of Tockwith, all those who should pass St. Peter's Gate shall be met with joys unequalled".


Tockwith Sports Field
Tockwith Lane
Tockwith
North Yorkshire
YO26 7PX

Tockwith AFC have two senior teams in the York Football League, with the first team currently in Division One. The club started off in 1987 as a junior football club, playing on a school pitch and following a break reformed in 2002.
Sport has been a feature of Tockwith life since the pre-war years, with football played on the site of the present Sports Field in the 1930's.  Since then it has moved to various farmers fields in the village, until finally settling once again in its present location.


The Clubhouse and car park was built by local tradesmen and volunteers and completed in 1988, with permanent floodlights erected in 2000. The pitch is railed on both sides with a pair of unused dugouts on the far side.
Tockwith(11th) 4(Wilson 17 Campagna 81 Perkins 85 Richards 90)
Marston Green(1oth) 0
York Minster Engineering League - Division One Matchday 8v12
1345ko
Att.26hc
Goalscorers names to be confirmed

Tockwith took the lead when Alex Wilson connected with a corner kick in the 17th minute. It looked like that strike would be the match winner, until a three goal burst in the final 9 minutes. Mario Campagna volleyed home the second before the ball was squared to Jamie Perkins who fired into an open goal. In the last minute Tom Richards raced through on goal before rounding the keeper and firing in to top off a 4-0 win. 
#HeedHopper
77 miles door-to-door
York Football League grounds visited - 8

Our original play was to have another crack at Staithes Athletic, until we learned on Friday evening that their fixture had been moved. As I had another night out planned, I couldn’t drive too far, so we agreed on ticking off a York League ground. After much debate we decided on Poppleton United with a departure time of around 11.30am. We stopped off for petrol just outside Upper Poppleton, just a mile away from the ground and it was here when we found out the match was off, just 20 minutes before kick off time. Lee had a quick check of the fixtures and found Tockwith was just 16 minutes away, so we raced along the 7 mile route and arrived just as the players were emerging from the changing rooms. 
The early kick off meant I was back at 100FgC HQ for just after five bells, and then out on the lash at 6 o’clock.

✔711 Ericstan Park

Wythenshawe Town 1-1 Consett (A.E.T.)
FA Vase 3rd Round
Saturday 30th November 2019

 Wythenshawe transferred from Cheshire to the City of Manchester in 1931, where at the time, the largest housing estate in Europe was in the process of being built, covering 11 square miles. 
Wythenshawe is 8 miles south of the city centre and is the southernmost district of Manchester, bordering Altrincham, Hale, Sale and Cheadle.(population 110,000)
Wythenshawe was the original outdoor film location for the Channel 4 series Shameless, (when it was good) which shows various shots of residential areas and other buildings unique to this area. 


 Wythenshawe Town was established in 1946 as North Withington Amateur by attendees of St Crispin's Church in nearby Fallowfield and they adopted their current name in 1987. 


South Manchester & Wythenshawe League - Division Two champions 1949–50
Lancashire & Cheshire Amateur League - Division C champions 1958–59 Division Three champions 1959–60 Division B champions 1963–64 Division Two champions 1964–65 Division One champions 1965–66, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71
Manchester League -  Division Two champions 1973–74 Division One champions 1974–75, 2011–12 
Cheshire League - Division Two champions 2014–15 Division One champions 2015–16
Joined the North West Counties League First Division South in 2018-19 finishing 5th in their debut season.
Ericstan Park
Timpson Road, 
Wythenshawe, 
Greater Manchester
M23 9LL

Current NWCL grounds visited 25/60

The club originally played at Hough End Field on Princess Road, using the Princess Hotel as their headquarters. They moved to the Baguley area of Wythenshawe in 1974, naming the ground -  Ericstan Stadium after founder committee members Eric Renard and Stan Hahn. The two are also honoured in the club crest, which has a fox (Renard in French) and cockerel (Hänchen in German).
The changing rooms and clubhouse, which opened in 2009 are behind the goal by the entrance gate.There is two enclosures on the dugout side, one with two rows of seats plus a standing enclosure called the Billy Moore Stand. Opposite is another covered structure with a long singular row of seats. Currently over one half of the dugout side and the far goal are out of bounds.
Wythenshawe Town 1(Byrne 72pen)
(1Q Goole(H) 5-2/2Q Skelmersdale Utd(A) 2-1/1Rd  Nostell MW(A) 2-0/2Rd Northwich Vic(A) 5-5 (H)2-1)
Consett 1(Pearson 78)
(1Rd Winterton Rangers(A) 5-2/2Rd Irlam(A) 5-2)

The Buildbase FA Vase Round 3
3pm ko
Att.302
Admission £5
A tight game saw the hosts break the deadlock in the 72nd minute when the keeper brought down Timmons in the box, with Brad Byrne slotting in the penalty. Consett quickly responded with Dale Pearson heading home the equaliser six minutes later. The visitors finished the game the strongest, but were unable to grab a winner within the 90 minutes. The teams still couldn't be split after extra time so they'll have to have another crack at it at Belle Vue next week.
 #HeedHopper
152 miles door-to-door

I made my way down to Katie & Lee’s on the bus for a 10am departure to Greater Manchester. We called into Sale for lunch at The JP Joule before nipping to Timperley before the match. The reason for this brief visit was to pay homage to Frank Sidebottom, as his statue stands in his hometown on Stockport Road. 
When we arrived at the ground we were greeted with a warm welcome by the club committee, however this warmth didn’t extend to the clubhouse as there were a few glum faces after Man City were denied victory in the Premier League lunchtime kick off. (Great point for the Toon, but I kept my gob shut!)  
It was also good to see former Northern League main man Mike Amos at the game. He had a chat with us during the first half and it's good to see he still follows the Northern teams away in the Vase.
As the match had gone into extra time I was back home later than intended, the X1 bus dropped me back at HQ in Sheriff Hill after 9pm, following a nice day out in the FA Vase.