With just a month to go until most leagues commence, there are plenty of pre-season games to pick from. I’d initially identified a low-key fixture between Westmoreland League teams on the basis that they generally involve sitting in a camping chair in a field. That meant that Jen and Henry would have been able to come along. However, Henry wasn’t keen to get in the car and so I left them both in the garden instead. They were fine with that.
My delayed departure called for a change of plan to a closer ground. I’d been saving Knaresborough to combine it with a visit to somewhere like Mother Shipton’s Cave, but it was the best fit for that afternoon and we can always pop along to the cave on another occasion.
The Manse Lane ground is on the outskirts of the town. That’s just as well as Knaresborough is a busy place on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Knaresborough Town are in the ninth-tier Premier Division of the Northern Counties East League. Opponents Blyth Town were promoted last season from the Northern League via the play-offs and will play in the eighth tier Northern Premier League Division One East this season.
It was six quid admission and the bloke on the gate also sold me raffle tickets for a meat draw. I’m not sure what the meat was, but there was a large lump of flesh in a small glass-fronted fridge. I think he assumed I’d travelled ninety-odd miles from Blyth as he told me that if I was worried about taking the meat home in the thirty-degree heat I was welcome to take twenty quid as an alternative prize.
The ground worked well at this level. There was a covered stand with five rows of seats along one side and a small raised covered standing area behind one of the goals. Blyth had brought some fans on a coach and one of them, a young lad, had taken up residence in the standing area with his flag and drum.
There was also a clubhouse with a bar and a raised beer garden outside. If anyone wanted to sit closer to the pitch there were a handful of picnic tables as well.
I watched the first half from the covered seated stand where the benefit of shade was cancelled out by the lack of a breeze. I shared the area with a couple of old blokes, a family with a baby that looked no more than a few weeks old and some lads out on the beer who soon left to get another pint each. The highlight though was a small dog inside of a handbag.
Both sides kept it tight for the first half-hour before Blyth scored twice in quick succession. They added a third on the stroke of half-time.
I wandered around to the food hut and bought a hot pork pie before watching the second half from different vantage points on the rail. Knaresborough pulled a goal back before a well-taken finish to a one on one with the keeper restored Blyth’s three goal advantage. That’s how it ended up.
Trail of the Lion King 