Turn Right At Mottram Roundabout - Week 15
Tue 15th November 2016 | General | By Stewart Taylor
The club we were visiting last week was AFC Liverpool.
The photo shows the ground perimeter fence with a couple of numbers. These numbers relate to the numbers of the houses behind the fence so that the club know which door to go knocking on to retrieve any footballs which go over the fence – curious perhaps but effective.
The link question related to a link between this club and the giant statue the “Angel of the North” which is located near Gateshead. The “Angel of the North” was sculpted by Antony Gormley. One of his other major outdoor works is called “Another Place” which is on Crosby Beach which is about a mile from the Marine Travel Arena in Crosby where AFC Liverpool play their home games.
One of my correspondents suggested that the link might be with the Mersey Wave in Speke. A good shout but not what I had in mind.
For the second time in this series we focus very much on the football club and say little of the town it represents except to comment that what is considered, statistically, to be the most dangerous road in the country runs close by this town which has seen a significant reduction in population since the heyday of heavy industry over 100 years ago.
This club has one of the most significant of footballing pedigrees of all of our current member clubs. If we cast our collective minds back to the latter years of the Victorian era we are into times when very few people travelled at all.
As an example, in those days, and much much later, it was possible to discern an Oldham accent from a Rochdale accent even though these two towns are only a handful of miles apart. Norman Tebbitt’s quote about getting on your bike to find work away from where you were born and brought up had no resonance in that sense, but folk did ride bikes (of a sort).
In the Lancashire towns, football, along with beer, was very much the release from the tedium, and often danger, of heavy manual labour. That folk didn’t really travel led to the formation of many football clubs in what we might suggest today is a homogeneous area. Equally, as football was very well supported in terms of numbers for much of the period up until the early 1960s, it was possible to have clubs with good attendances playing at a very high level within a very short distance of each other.
This is part of the origin of this club which can trace its history way back to the end of the 19th century. From lowly beginnings came dizzy heights as the club was part of the Football League for a number of years having spent most of its time in professional football in the Third Division North but one season in the Second Division.
These days, pre-season tours by football clubs are very much the norm but this club was something of a pioneer of what has become commonplace today. The pre-season tour to Spain in May 1923 must have caused some real logistical nightmares but would have been an experience of a lifetime for most, if not all, of those who were involved.
Of more recent times this club, a founder member of the NWCFL in 1982, has seen more than its fair share of difficulties. Ground issues and financial problems have overseen what can only be described as a chequered recent history and, during the last 80 years, the club has briefly ceased to exist on a couple of occasions.
These days the focus of the club is very much community based seeking to reflect the diverse cultural nature of the town and its surroundings to bring together people from different cultural backgrounds into the common cause of community as reflected in football. If the objective of bringing another club in the region up to the standards of the professional game is achieved then we can truly say that the golden era has been restored and former glories can be revisited, but there’s a long way to go.
Quick link - How might establishing a link between an American singer and film star who established a successful partnership with Janette McDonald and July 18th help to identify this club?
Turn Right At Mottram Roundabout - Week 15
Tue 15th November 2016 | General
By Stewart Taylor
The club we were visiting last week was AFC Liverpool.
The photo shows the ground perimeter fence with a couple of numbers. These numbers relate to the numbers of the houses behind the fence so that the club know which door to go knocking on to retrieve any footballs which go over the fence – curious perhaps but effective.
The link question related to a link between this club and the giant statue the “Angel of the North” which is located near Gateshead. The “Angel of the North” was sculpted by Antony Gormley. One of his other major outdoor works is called “Another Place” which is on Crosby Beach which is about a mile from the Marine Travel Arena in Crosby where AFC Liverpool play their home games.
One of my correspondents suggested that the link might be with the Mersey Wave in Speke. A good shout but not what I had in mind.
For the second time in this series we focus very much on the football club and say little of the town it represents except to comment that what is considered, statistically, to be the most dangerous road in the country runs close by this town which has seen a significant reduction in population since the heyday of heavy industry over 100 years ago.
This club has one of the most significant of footballing pedigrees of all of our current member clubs. If we cast our collective minds back to the latter years of the Victorian era we are into times when very few people travelled at all.
As an example, in those days, and much much later, it was possible to discern an Oldham accent from a Rochdale accent even though these two towns are only a handful of miles apart. Norman Tebbitt’s quote about getting on your bike to find work away from where you were born and brought up had no resonance in that sense, but folk did ride bikes (of a sort).
In the Lancashire towns, football, along with beer, was very much the release from the tedium, and often danger, of heavy manual labour. That folk didn’t really travel led to the formation of many football clubs in what we might suggest today is a homogeneous area. Equally, as football was very well supported in terms of numbers for much of the period up until the early 1960s, it was possible to have clubs with good attendances playing at a very high level within a very short distance of each other.
This is part of the origin of this club which can trace its history way back to the end of the 19th century. From lowly beginnings came dizzy heights as the club was part of the Football League for a number of years having spent most of its time in professional football in the Third Division North but one season in the Second Division.
These days, pre-season tours by football clubs are very much the norm but this club was something of a pioneer of what has become commonplace today. The pre-season tour to Spain in May 1923 must have caused some real logistical nightmares but would have been an experience of a lifetime for most, if not all, of those who were involved.
Of more recent times this club, a founder member of the NWCFL in 1982, has seen more than its fair share of difficulties. Ground issues and financial problems have overseen what can only be described as a chequered recent history and, during the last 80 years, the club has briefly ceased to exist on a couple of occasions.
These days the focus of the club is very much community based seeking to reflect the diverse cultural nature of the town and its surroundings to bring together people from different cultural backgrounds into the common cause of community as reflected in football. If the objective of bringing another club in the region up to the standards of the professional game is achieved then we can truly say that the golden era has been restored and former glories can be revisited, but there’s a long way to go.
Quick link - How might establishing a link between an American singer and film star who established a successful partnership with Janette McDonald and July 18th help to identify this club?
