After completing the 92 last week. I was back to watching domestic football this week. I. Went to watch Spennymoor Town play away at Bradford (Park Ave). I left it very late to book my train to get for this trip, so I ended up. Having to get the 0630 train from Kings Cross to Leeds. Which meant I was in Bradford by 09:30 on Saturday morning.
As I had such an early start from Kings Cross, I was there just before 6:00 AM unexpected the area to be very quiet with perhaps one or two people on their way to work. Coming out of the underground station I was surprised to see several gangs of youths milling about and various knife fights taking place between the different gangs. I heard barely a word of English between these gangs, and it was quite a worrying situation. I spoke to one of the door staff at McDonald’s who told me that this was a regular occurrence and that the police did very little about the matter. Further investigations suggest it is likely to have been fights between Bengali use based in Kings Cross and Somali Youths based in Camden. A lot of those taking part were high on substances and I suspect had probably been in the local nightclub which don’t kick out until 5:00 AM in the morning.
I got myself a coffee in McDonald’s and moved to the safety of Kings Cross station. There is a number of security staff on duty at Kings Cross station and an order of the youth seemed to attempt to come anywhere near the inside of the station.
For all my journey from Kings Cross to Leeds, apart from the last quarter mile, my train was running ahead of schedule (and yes, I am that sad that I monitor the progress of the train past every point on the route). Unfortunately, we were delayed outside of Leeds and arrived 5 minutes late. Ironically on the journey home the train was running slightly late all the way until the last stretch when it actually arrived in Kings Cross 5 minutes early
I made full use of the time I had in Bradford. I initially had a wander into the town centre to the local Wetherspoons pub for a breakfast. A sausage and Egg Muffin and a drink for two pounds forty was not to be turned down. Also, they were serving beer at 99p applied. The same as in Fleetwood the previous week. It would have been rude not to have taken Mr. Wetherspoons up on his generosity.
I had plenty of time to spare before my friends looking into profit, so I decided to go on visit Bradford’s old ground. The club have a long history, their predecessor club were in the Football League until approximately 1970 when they lost their place in the league and eventually went bankrupt in about 1973. That ground at the time was shared with the Bradford Cricket Club and unlike some grounds, the cricket and football pitches were separate. After Bradford Park Avenue went bankrupt the Cricket Club purchased the football ground and knocked it down. The old football ground now has cricket Nets on it and a gymnasium. there remains little of the old ground visible from the outside.
On Park Avenue itself you can see the old external wall of the ground and the bricked-up turnstiles. You can still see the old price marked on the wall next to the turnstiles showing as a pre decimal amount. Unfortunately, that is all that can be seen from outside the site. The Cricket Club have secured all entrances to the site with big metal fencing. Because it is the wintertime the Cricket Club is all locked up so very little can be seen from the outside.
One thing I did notice though was that in the wall of the old cricket ground you could see there had obviously been numerous turnstiles and ticket windows there. Bradford cricket club was used on several occasions by Yorkshire cricket club to host County Championship games and the ground was clearly quite a substantial ground in the past.
There being nothing more to see at Park Ave, I took a cab over to low Moor which is near where Bradford plays now. A few beers in a very nice pub called the British queen wait some of my fellow Spennymoor fans was in order. The landlord of the British queen is quite proud of drinks he serves and certainly serves a very good paint. I would recommend this pub to anybody going to watch Bradford play. Paragraph from this pub it is approximately a 10-minute walk to the can you ground that Bradford play out will stop the ground is a former athletic stadium which for current purposes consist basically of 1 seated stand, a large substantial stand that. Behind both goals at present there was just flat standing. On the far side of the pitch which housed the dressing rooms and dug outs spectators were not allowed.
Bradford have done the best they can with the ground. Because the main stand as a quite steep rake to it, you do not notice the running track around the pitch that much. Certainly, compared with around this area where Ilford play at Cricklefield and it is not a pleasant venue to watch football at. The same is not the case at Bradford. Paragraph the game itself was uninteresting game. Bradford is a well drilled and physical side but when they attack, they get lots of men forward and they know exactly what they’re doing will stop however they did not create that many chances and Spennymoor took the lead in the game add had by far the most chances. Bradford equalised through a penalty which couldn’t be argued with it was clear from where we stood but a foul had taken place.
After the game I had booked a taxi to take me back into the centre of Bradford. The taxi driver was not aware that Bradford existed. When I said I’ve been to a football match he thought I had been to watch Bradford City Youth or Academy team play. He was not aware that there was another team in Bradford. Bradford City are in the Football League in league 2. This means they are only two divisions above Bradford. It is quite sad that Bradford has so little recognition even within their hometown, especially when one considers the history of their predecessor club.
The taxi took me back into the centre of Bradford where I had about an hour and 3/4 to wait for my train. So, I did what most football fans would do and headed back to the Wetherspoons pub for something to eat and a few more beers at 99p a pint. I left just in time to get some drinks for the train home will stop got the train from Bradford into Leeds which was packed with football supporters. They turned out to be Orient fans who were heading from Rochdale back to London. I hadn’t expected the Orient fans to be travelling this way.
I eventually arrived home at approximately 11:00 PM at night some 18 hours after I had left my house as all football fans know you make sacrifices to follow your team.
Bobby Shaftoe's Gone to Sea 