Welcome home: Roy Winfield looks down as Nostell Miners Welfare chairman-secretary Granville Marshall inspects the new surface at the Crofton Community Centre
‘Sorry the game is off because of a waterlogged pitch’ is a statement neither Roy Winfield or Granville Marshall should have to say as often when Nostell Miners Welfare return ‘home’ next week.
The main pitch at the Crofton Community Centre struggled to cope with the smallest amount of rain last season and a ridiculous amount of Toolstation NCEL Premier Division matches were postponed.
Even match secretary Roy admits: “People didn’t believe us (when a game was called off) and thought we were swindling it.
“It only took a bit of rain for a game to get called off. The bottom goal-mouth and the side where the stand is, were always like a quagmire.”
The community centre, who run the ground, had to do something – hence a major investment of about £98,000 to renovate their two main pitches.
Their secondary site was not used from November to March because of its inability to cope with even the smallest deluge.
Sport England, WREN, Football Stadia Improvement Fund and Sport Turf Research Institute have all contributed funds towards to the project which has left the club unable to host a home game since the end of last season.
It was a major job – intended to improve the drainage and ensure that the needs of the community and beyond are fulfilled.
Hard-working stalwarts Granville and Ray, two important cogs in the wheels that make Nostell turn, have watched on as giant machinery vehicles have worked their magic during the summer.
Roy and Granville are busy working to ensure that Nostell are ready for their first home game on the 11th October when Cleethorpes Town visit
Workmen put an 18 inch hole in the ground to improve the drainage – as part of a £98,000 project. Photo: Malcolm Lumb
The tractors on the pitch during the summer. Photo: Malcolm Lumb
Chairman Granville is devoted to the club and the centre, having being around since he was a player at 17.
Now 56, he has also been club secretary since 1982 and is up at the ground “virtually” every day “doing any job that needs doing”.
Roy, 65, joined the club 22 years ago as a manager of team.
He’s “supposed to be retired”, but he’s the match secretary and treasurer and spends his Tuesdays and Thursdays at the ground helping Granville.
Then there is the likes of other volunteers such as John North, Malcolm Lumb and Pete Owens and all the teams that play under Nostell’s banner.
“The refurbished pitches will benefit everyone,” Granville says.
“We have always invested in the facilities and tried to have nice facilities.
“The work on the pitches doesn’t just help our teams as there’s also the local leagues that use our ground for cup finals.
“I’m really pleased with the work that has been done.”
The only opposition that Nostell have faced at home this season has been rabbits, who cannot get anywhere near the pitch as nets have gone up all around the perimeter.
As Granville puts it: “We would have been wasting our money if we hadn’t.”
Darren Holmes’ Nostell Miners Welfare are bottom of the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division and have yet to win a league game
Granville Marshall and Roy Winfield and their other volunteers will ensure the ground is ready
Match Secretary-treasurer Roy Winfield cutting the grass at the Crofton Community Centre
The real opponents will be in eleven days’ time when Cleethorpes Town arrive in Crofton – unless a home game is thrown in for next Tuesday.
Nostell’s first team manager Darren Holmes will be hoping his bottom-placed side can kick-start their campaign with their first win.
Roy jokes that playing away is ‘much easier because there’s not as much work to do”, but Granville points out: “It has affected the club because not having any home games has meant that no money has been coming into the club.
“But it (the work) had to be done because it was getting embarrassing.
“It hasn’t helped the team either having to travel away for each game and I hope when we start getting the home games played we can start putting some points on the board.”
Once Nostell set foot on their refurbished surface, Granville and Roy will turn their attentions to the new pitches that will be ready in three years’ time.
The centre has planning permission for three full-sized pitches on land that belongs to Nostell Priory behind the main pitch.
That’s the long term plan on the facilities front. The short term aims are to survive in the Premier Division for an eighth season.
The club had a meteoric rise from the West Yorkshire League under Alan Colquhoun and was immediately promoted into the Premier Division after just one campaign in Division One.
They won the President’s Cup in 2009, but that was the last bit of silverware during the long Colquhoun era and Granville adds: “Under the present structure we have probably reached as far as we can go.
“The side have that got us into the the NCEL and won a lot of trophies have got older and moved on and it has been difficult to sustain the success.
“A lot of teams are paying money to players, but we haven’t got it to spend.
“Any money we do have we put it back into the facilities and we use our facilities as a way of attracting players.
“We probably are punching above our weight in the Premier Division.
“There has always been the threat of relegation, but we have never been in the mire until the last two seasons.”
The club are a shining example to others in the day and age of boom and bust for their devotion to improving their facilities.
Maybe their return to Crofton will drag them out of mire and help take them up the Premier Division table.
Words and pictures by James Grayson (@jamesAgrayson, @NonLeagueNorth)
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