Frickley Athletic

Can you spot the Man from Torquay?

www.pitchero.com/clubs/frickleyathletic/videos/frickley-athletic-v-hednesford-35273.html

I know you were heading towards Aldershot so must be in the south east? Can't see any league or BSP matches it might have been so further down the pyramid?

Chelmsford

Brighton

Bugger I had ruled The Valley out as I thought the game was off! Need to concentrate more!! I didn't use the very precise clues BD provided just went for places I knew ex-Torquay players had gone to. Miles out again. Hope you are right as my next guess was going to be Melchester Rovers!

I know this is an ancient thread but...

I am a Frickley fan who grew up in the South Elmsall/South Kirkby area and I stumbled across this thread by accident, it is really interesting to read about our little club from your perspective.

Our town is a little oddity and for it's size of only about 6-7 thousand inhabitants has a bit of a history of punching above its weight.

Aside from the heroics of Frickley in the 1980's, the one bright spot around the time of and just after the miners strike that turned the streets around the football ground into a war zone there are a few more unexpected things to note, from the moment you get off the train at South Elmsall station where A. F. Bransdreth set the final scene of 'Dim the Lights' on the southbound platform.

You mentioned Geoff Boycott earlier, a man who has close ties to South Elmsall and a street named after him in the town (although he was born in a neighbouring village). If you Google Map search Boycott Way, WF9 you will see plenty more famous names having been given the honour of been assigned to streets in the town.

Michael Parkinson of chat show host fame was also born nearby in Cudworth, as was noted playwright John Godber who was born in neighbouring Upton. Less famous but more current ,Chris Walker of BBC series Doctors is from South Elmsall and the colliery brass band Frickley Colliery Brass Band are still going strong and winning national awards. At the height of the poverty following the closure of the colliery a small dance school in South Elmsall represented Great Britain internationally in Russia (as can be seen here: www.independent.co.uk/life-style/living-from-coal-dust-to-star-dust-1304234.html ) and in the build up to the 2012 London Olympics the local college and sports centre was chosen as an official athletes village and training centre for Olympic teams from abroad.

Other notable people such as the band Tiny Dancers were from the town and neighbouring South Kirkby and Chumbawumba (remember them?) were regulars on the picket line at Frickley and wrote a song about the experience oldweirdalbion.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/interview-with-boff-whalley-of-chumbawamba/ too.

The town and nearby area has a long history beyond this too. The vicar of South Kikby church was hanged on the walls of Pontefract Castle for treason in the English Civil War and the town is the site of "The finest example in Yorkshire of a 255 million year old Permian patch reef" at the long disused and now internationally protected limestone quarry. www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2629939

Football wise there have been a whole host of football legends to tread the hallowed turf of Westfield Lane, when I was a kid I used to see charity matches at the ground regularly with the best local talent from the surrounding villages representing the club and area versus a Leeds Utd team of legends including most of the most famous Leeds names from the 60s and 70s.

I'm sure there are loads more oddities about the town and club that other people are aware of but even these few show that when you scratch the surface of this rather grim little ex mining town there is a real history and culture behind it, not that you would guess that when you are stood in the biting wind and rain on a cold winters night at Wesfield Lane, watching a bore draw under the shadow of the famous former slag heap.

Hello Westfieldlane. So sad to hear that South Elmsall is in mourning at the moment over the terrible crash on the M62 in which a young woman was killed and several more badly injured. An incident like this is bound to have been devastating in a small town in which more or less everyone knows each other.

The leader of the Town Council Steve Tulley is a good friend of mine and he will be on Look North tomorrow to talk about the effect of the tragedy on the people of the town.

With love and best wishes to you and all the community.

Felix