TT No.30: Mike Latham - Thurs 23 August 2007: Mid Cheshire League Division 2; Whitchurch Alport v Crewe. Res: 0-1; Att: 50 (h/c); Admn: £2.50; Prog: No (one is produced on a Saturday); FGIF Match Rating: 3*

View matchday images   01 02 03 04 05   ‘Where would we be without referees?’ is an oft-quoted question around the sport.  ‘There wouldn’t be a game without one.’   A statement that went through the mind of more than one player and spectator on a gloriously sunny evening in north Shropshire, as we waited for this league game to commence.   The teams had turned up and duly warmed up, the spectators were in position, including some of the best known travellers on the circuit (no names, just in case they had an alibi, this being a Thursday and a precious extension to the normal travellers’ schedule) and the tea bar in the excellent club house was doing a roaring trade with home made rolls and hot drinks.   But we had no referee.   He eventually turned up, just in time for the game to kick-off at 7pm, apparently having first gone to Crewe.  Luckily the evening sky was clear, though it did turn very cold, and the game was able to finish in near darkness around a quarter-to-nine.   Whitchurch Alport recently celebrated 60 years as a club founded just after World War Two and were founder members of the Mid Cheshire League in 1948.  A local spectator informed me that their unusual suffix is derived from the neighbouring Alport farm which donated a piece of land for a football club to be formed as a tribute to a relative killed in action during the war. The venue is now called Yockings Park.   A splendid venue it is, too, reached down Talbot Road by the side of the Railway Hotel in the centre of Whitchurch.  Two hundred yards or so after the builders’ merchant is a track leading to the ground.  Cars can park on a rough field by the entrance and a cheerful man at the gate takes a modest entry fee but dispenses the bad news that there are no programmes, this being, he says, down to it being a midweek game.  At half-time, though, he does provide one from the previous Saurday’s game- a modest rather homespun effort but with several good features.   The ground is bordered by fields though a young delinquent spoils the ambience by tearing around an adjoining green field on a motor bike for most of the duration of the game.  The ground is four-sided in theory but the far side, behind the dug-outs is effectively a no-go area as nature has taken over and the banking is covered in long grass.   The rest of the ground is well maintained with a neat post and rail fence, an excellent small club house and bar and a splendid raised and covered seating area straddling the half-way line that provides a good vantage point.   The pitch is well grassed and, unusually, mowed diagonally which makes for slightly unusual viewing.  The game is fast, vigorous and played in a sporting spirit and decided by a 53rd minute goal from the visitors’ striker, apparently a former trainee with Reading.  If so, no wonder as he certainly looked a class apart from the other players.   Whitchurch, often by-passed by travellers using the A49 road, is a busy market town of close to 10,000 inhabitants located in lovely countryside.  It also houses a fine cricket ground (the team competing in the Birmingham League) and rugby union club.  A warm welcome awaits the traveller at the football club and the standard of the venue is far higher than might be expected at this level of football.  Highly recommended.

amended & contributed on 24/08/07