Match Information
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Holker Old Boys 1-1 Daisy Hill
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When: Saturday 27th July 2024
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Kick-off: 3pm
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Where: The Handmark Engineering Stadium, Rakesmoor Lane, Hawcoat, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria LA14 4QB
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Competition: North West Counties Football League First Division North
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Attendance: 116
Several leagues around the country were commencing early on 27th July thereby affording me the chance of week-long groundhopping holiday. It is such a contrast to when I was growing up in the 1970’s whereby the football season always began in mid to late August.
Anyway, I studied the current set of fixtures and identified the North West Counties League as my suitable destination involving a three game trip to Holker Old Boys, Longridge Town and Garstang FC.
In particular, Barrow-in-Furness team Holker are especially difficult to visit from the south of England necessitating a six hour drive of 280 miles to the Cumbrian coast.
Therefore, it made perfect sense to include this club on an overnight stay. Barrow-in-Furness itself is a port town containing 56,000 residents. I had ventured there twice before for football by train.
On Saturday 18th August 1984, I saw Barrow 3 Weymouth 3 at Holker Street in the Alliance Premier League (now the National League) attracting an attendance of 721 and plenty of football betting.
Meanwhile on Saturday 17th December 2005, I was part of a 2,303 crowd for Holker Old Boys 0 FC United of Manchester 2 in a North West Counties League encounter switched to the Barrow Rugby League stadium at Craven Park to accommodate FC United’s large travelling support who relished betting on a victory.
Bringing the story up to date, today’s opponents were Daisy Hill and I have a weird but amusing story from groundhopping their home venue back in 1984. On arrival, I started reading the match programme and the editorial notes opened with: “Welcome to New Sirs…”
I remember thinking to myself that this was an incredibly formal way of greeting new visitors to the club. But it was only a few days later I realised Daisy Hill’s ground is in fact called…New Sirs.
Ground Description
A decent sized car park leads to the entry hut. For spectators, a sturdy grandstand sits in the corner behind one goal providing 100 tip-up seats across three rows.
A further covered area along the touchline incorporates wooden picnic tables and benches.
Programme Details
A colourful 18 page online edition which I can print out from the PDF forwarded to me by Holker’s helpful social media manager Glen Ritchie.
Contents embraced the manager’s notes, away team history of Daisy Hill, club news, player sponsorship details and the matchday squads. The programme was expertly produced and edited by GR.VISUALS.
The Match
Two sides ranked 7th and 12th respectively in the NWCL First Division North table last season. It rained on the morning of the game but then turned out to be a pleasant sunny afternoon.
Following tight and tense scoreless first half exchanges, the two goals arrived in quick succession. Tyler Wood put Holker Old Boys ahead on the hour mark heading powerfully in from a corner.
However, 21st birthday boy Kaiden Barlow delivered a crisp one-on-one finish to restore parity for Daisy Hill five minutes later. Having watched a number of pre-season friendlies this year, it was nice to actually enjoy some competitive action.
Friendlies these days are not as serious as in the old days because they feature multiple substitutions totally disrupting the flow of play and sometimes even take place in three thirds of 30 minutes. Little more than training exercises really.
Indeed, there was one friendly I attended in early July where the two teams unexpectedly changed their shirt colours at half time making 11 substitutions each. I suddenly thought I was witnessing a different match and I had to ask someone what was going on!
The People
I chatted to a number of loyal club volunteers led by the enthusiastic Allan Wilson.
I really must say Allan is an amazing character who has helped out at Holker Old Boys since 1975 filling assistant manager, secretary and chairman roles in the past. Nowadays, he is the groundsman and Holker’s playing surface is in magnificent condition.
Post-Match
After the final whistle, I drove over the short road bridge to Walney Island and had dinner in a good restaurant.
It was the first time I have ever visited this island although I plan to return as it houses two interesting Regional Feeder League football teams - Walney Island FC in the West Lancashire Football League Division Two and Vickerstown FC of the Furness Premier League Premier Division.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Tony Incenzo*
