And so to the MPM Stadium, aka Ben Rhydding Sports Club, for a Bank Holiday Monday North West Counties Division One North 'derby' between Ilkley Town and Nelson.
Open age football in Ilkley has existed since the early 20th century with Saturday and Sunday league teams playing at West Holmes and East Holmes fields alongside the River Wharfe.
The post war predecessors of the current Ilkley Town football club were Ilkley Rangers (1947) and Ilkley British Legion (1955) before Ilkley Town was formed in the 1960s competing in the Wharfedale League.
In the late 1980s the club struggled to survive in a town where rugby, cricket, tennis, golf and hockey possessed greater social allegiance and better facilities, and disbanded in the early 1990s.
The club was re-formed in 1995 as Ilkley AFC and joined the Harrogate &
District Football League gaining promotion to the Premier League in 1997. After
a period of financial difficulty the Baht 'Atters moved up to the West
Yorkshire League, with promotion to Division One at the first attempt followed
by a change of name to Ilkley Town in 2006.
After decades of renting local authority and school pitches Ilkley Town
Football Club was accepted into the Ben Rhydding Sports Club in 2009 (a 4G
pitch was added in 2017). Promotion to the Premier League of the West Yorkshire
AFL was won in 2016.
The club
was promoted to the North West Counties League Division One North this year,
and will enter the FA Vase for the very first time - playing Penrith at home a
week on Saturday, but league form has been shocking; five straight defeats then
followed by a 6-0 drubbing of the Salmoners of Darwen AFC and a 3-2 away win at
South Liverpool two days ago - no reward without effort as the club badge
shows....
Nelson FC was
founded in 1881, joining the Lancashire League in 1889 and becoming champions
in 1896. The club folded during the 1898/99 season and was expelled by the
Lancashire FA. Having rejoined the League in 1900, the club again closed down
in 1916 with bailiffs called in.
Having
reformed in 1918 and entered the Central League, the Admirals became founder
members of the Football League Division 3 North in 1921. Promotion to Division
2 followed in 1923, and the side embarked on a Spanish preseason tour which saw
them beat Real Madrid 4-2 !
Sadly the
club was relegated after only one season, and against a backdrop of struggling
form, falling attendances and growing debt (even a fund raising carnival lost
£20 !) the team finished bottom of the League in 1931. They failed to win
re-election and were replaced by Chester City. Having dropped into the
Lancashire Combination the Admirals folded once more in August 1936 due to
crippling debts.
Hastily
reformed as Nelson Town the new club entered the local Nelson & Colne
League in which they played up to the start of World War II. After a further
reformation in 1946 and rejoining the Lancashire Combination, the Admirals were
crowned champions in 1950 and again in 1952, the latter under the stewardship
of Joe Fagan, who went on to manage Liverpool.
In 1971
the football club moved from its Seedhill base, home since 1905 and which also
hosted the Nelson Admirals speedway team, to Victoria Park. Seedhill became a
stock car racing venue, but was all but demolished when the M65 was built.
Nelson FC
became a founder member of the North West Counties Football League in 1982 but
was evicted in 1988 due to ground grading requirement failures. A four year
sojourn in the West Lancashire League ended with readmittance to the NWCFL as
Victoria Park, or Little Wembley as the locals christened it, was upgraded. The
Admirals resigned from the league in 2010 but after a 12 month 'sabbatical'
returned and were promoted to the Premier Division in 2014; relegation in 2017
subsequently was followed by underwhelming performances and season
abandonments, emphasising the club motto of 'Nothing Can Be Achieved Without
Work'. This term the Admirals also have six points from seven games - one win,
three draws and three defeats.
Amidst
pockets of drizzle, which become a heavy shower in Ilkley, it's past The Vine
Inn - Watson and Woodheads Gold Medal Ales and Stout since 1909, then Garveys
still advertising St Patrick's Day....Motorway traffic on the M60, M61 and M65
takes us past Darwen Tower - the Jubilee Tower erected to commemorate Queen
Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Today's numberplates are NAS1:1A, G4RB J (rubbish
!!) and XP05SED.
Through Colne with Hedgehogg Florists and the Morris Dancers pub, it's into Glusburn and Cross Hills (t'other way round from the opposite direction) before I reach Silsden, 'Cobbydale', headquarters of the Ecology Building Society. Then Ilkley and its artisan shops and pubs, and home to the arts, supporting an art gallery, playhouse and cinema - and even a Furniture Hospital !!
Passing the Fuggle and Golding, Flying Duck, Ilkley Cow, Bar T'At and Mrs Duttons Wondrous Workshops, we alight on the Lister's Arms, opposite the former headquarters of the West Yorkshire Road Car Company. Lunch is taken with a pint of Pommies Revenge.
Then a walk into Riverside Park, agin the River Wharfe and down the road to Ben Rhydding, overlooked by the Cow and Calf, signs for Niddtrail, and a diversion to the Ben Rhydding de Mohicanen Scout and Guide Group - the thought of girl guides with Mohican hairdos does not sit comfortably with Ilkley's affluent reputation....
The MPM Stadium forms part of the Ben Rhydding Spoprts Club which hosts flat green bowls, croquet, hockey, cricket, mini football and in the far corner the Baht 'Atters. £6 in, a bumper crowd of 160 (goodness knows how they accommodated 499 for the visit of Bury AFC on the season's opening day !!) - and a sizeable away contingent ☺
One tree lined side is fenced off, and there's a covered shelter, 'The Ilkley Carnival Stand' opposite, but no seats anywhere....a walkway extends round the three occupiable sides. At the top end a sign for 'Beers & Pies' leading to more football pitches, but definitely no beers or pies !! At the other end 'Beer, Coffee & Cake' provides a truer reflection on what refreshments can be bought.....
Strangely
Ilkley, who play in all navy blue, are in alternative colours of all maroon.
The Admirals, who also normally play in all blue, are in change colours of grey
with electric lime sleeves. I take up position next to a stout linesman with
tattoos on his hand and behind his ear, and alongside a groundhopper wearing a
Peaceful Hooligan cagoule, who has selected this game for goals - both sides
having scored and conceded plenty.
An
entertaining first half produces several chances but by the half hour Peaceful
Hooligan is forecasting a goalless draw.... Tom Smith goes close for the Baht
'Atters, and then left back McCauley Smith fizzes two long range efforts just
wide. For the Admirals Nathan Webb has four strikes, one scored at the second
attempt but ruled out for offside, and Jack Holt has a shot deflected
marginally wide.
But on 35
minutes a Nelson corner is cleared and Ilkley's policy of leaving right back
James Hudson as the sole man up front pays dividends. He outmuscles the centre
half and, in a straight one on one, sees his initial shot saved by Jack Little
before calmly tucking away the rebound, and Baht 'Atters are one up at the
break.
Within a
minute of the restart The Admirals are level - the ball breaking fortuitously
for Webb to smash home emphatically beyond Callum Gladding. Thereafter Ilkley
suffer injuries to three of their back four and cling on, creating the
occasional breakaway chance, with Tom Smith's curling effort their best
attempt.
Webb is guilty of a horrendous miss, and Nelson pass up several further opportunities as the clock ticks down into injury time. Ilkley sub James Hughes overruns the ball in acres of space and fouls Little in the 94th minute; the subsequent free kick is hoofed forward and drops for Admirals' substitute Brad Ditch to fire home for a 2-1 Nelson victory ... and a headline writer's dream ☺
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