Match Information
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Earlswood Town 2-5 Littleton
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When: Bank Holiday Monday 6th May 2024
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Kick-off: 3pm
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Where: The Yakinori Pavilions, Malt House Lane, Earlswood, Solihull, West Midlands B94 5DX
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Competition: Midland Football League RFL Division Two
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Attendance: 74
Since most National League System fixtures were already completed at Steps 1 to 6 of our Non-League Pyramid, I took a look at what used to be called Step 7 for my early May Bank Holiday groundhopping action.
This level of football is now referred to as Regional Feeder Leagues. Accordingly, the Midland League Division Two possesses some decent enclosed venues so I began scrutinising available matches.
Earlswood Town are extremely active on Twitter X and swiftly confirmed there would be a printed programme for their home encounter versus Littleton. Hence I set off on my 220 mile round trip to the Solihull area utilising M1, M6 and M42 motorways.
Earlswood itself is a small village housing 650 residents. Unusual access to the football ground sent me via a narrow lane bridge dissecting directly across Earlswood Lakes.
Ground Description
An impressive main building incorporates dressing rooms, a cosy bar and helpful spectator covered overhang accommodation next to the pitch.
There are ground naming rights with Japanese restaurant chain Yakinori.
Programme Details
Expertly edited by John Sharpe, it was an excellent 20 page production on sale at £1. I liked the wide range of interesting Non-League reading that included profiles of defunct clubs Lovells Athletic and Chipping Norton Town.
Other contents embraced the history of Earlswood Town, league table, chairman’s column, line-ups, a ‘Back In Time’ match report from 2001, results & goalscorers, Midland League Division Two round-up, club honours and a history of Earlswood’s local district.
John religiously scours the Non-League Paper every Sunday to keep up to date on nationwide news.
The Match
Battling against relegation, bottom placed Littleton’s scorers were James Batchelor two (4, 65 minutes), Mike Boyd (45+2 mins), Dan McArdle (69 mins) and Ben Cowlishaw (82 mins).
The ‘Earls’ in 12th position replied courtesy of Joseph Drake-Cervantes (9 mins) and Tom Kinsey (70 mins).
The People
Earlswood Town are a really friendly club and it was great to chat to everybody involved.
Andy Walker has been chairman for the past three years and is meticulously hands-on during matchdays. I’ve known Andy for a long time due to his fine career.
He told me: “I realised quickly at a young age I wouldn’t be good enough to get paid to play football so I figured the second best route to take would be to get paid to watch. I started out as a sports journalist covering mainly football – but occasionally rugby, cricket and athletics – for a variety of regional and national newspaper titles.
“After seven years in journalism, the PR world came calling when I was offered the chance to join Birmingham City FC in developing their social media strategy back in 2010. My responsibility at St. Andrew’s soon expanded to the position of head of media and communications.
“Following a rollercoaster journey of four and a half years with the ‘Blues’, an opportunity to join The Football Association leading on communications around our England men’s national teams arose in 2014 and here I am a decade later.
“However I’d always harboured an ambition to get involved at a Non-League side. I’m Solihull born-and-bred. Apart from a three year spell at university in Southampton, I’ve continually lived in the borough.
“Earlswood is equidistant between Solihull and Stratford-upon-Avon and is generally renowned for picturesque lakes which are a popular spot for day trippers.
“I was first aware of Earlswood Town FC whilst working as sports editor at the Solihull News having written a piece celebrating the club’s 40th anniversary in 2008. Then I officially became Earlswood chairman after UEFA EURO 2020 and the rest is history.
“We’re a strictly amateur set-up solely run by volunteers. We’ve worked hard to increase our attendances and community reach – particularly in launching our inaugural fully-fledged junior section. Therefore I aim to ensure all attendees gain a positive experience that will entice them back to the Yakinori Pavilions.”
Meanwhile, the aforementioned John Sharpe is ‘Mr Earlswood Town’ and gave everyone arriving a warm welcome manning the entry gate. John was actually one of the club’s original founder members in 1968 and possesses massive in-depth knowledge of Non-League affairs throughout the country.
Indeed, he used to send me information concerning his team when I was editor of Pyramid Football Magazine in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
John said: “I haven’t been to a professional match for years. I get my enjoyment watching Non-League.”
No point in John checking football betting for Premier League odds then!
In addition, Steve Poole is a magnificent Non-League ambassador fulfilling his Midland League vice-chairman role.
Steve was primarily spending the afternoon presenting a trophy at another club two miles down the road. Yet once he read my pre-match tweet about visiting Earlswood Town, he drove over to meet me for a chat.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Tony Incenzo*
