Thoresby Colliery Welfare F.C.
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Thoresby Colliery Welfare Football Club is a football club based in Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, England. As of the 2007-08, the club is a member of the Central Midlands League Premier Division.
[edit] Club history
Thoresby Colliery Football Club was formed in 1930, and in its early years, played on a farmer's field in Edwinstowe, before moving to their present ground on Fourth Avenue, Edwinstowe. The Ground was created by the Bolsover Coal Company, who were the then owners of the local colliery, Thoresby, which is situated just on the edge of Edwinstowe village.
Over the years several of Thoresby's players have moved in to the professional game. One such player left Thoresby to join Queens Park Rangers and as compensation, the club received a Blue and White playing strip, their team colours to this day.
The 1950’s saw various successes for Thoresby, and in the 1952-53 season, the team won the Nottinghamshire Junior Cup despite being drawn away from home in every round. The late 70's saw the club winning the Notts Alliance Senior League Cup and in the 1980-81 season, they finished runners up to Rainworth Miners Welfare in the Senior League by a single point. In that same season Thoresby played Rainworth MW in the Nottinghamshire Senior Cup Final at Clipstone losing 1-0 to a penalty. After that season six members of the Thoresby squad left to join Rainworth and later went onto appear at Wembley in their FA Vase Final.
The club continued to play in the Notts Alliance League for many years, but the clubs management committee decided that it was time for the club to try and move forward and Thoresbys application for admittance to the Central Midlands Football League was successful, and the club played it’s first fixture in the league in the 2001-02 season, finishing a creditable 10th and improved on that finish by two places the following season. The 2003-04 season was a disaster for Thoresby, with the club ending in bottom position, and, at one point faced going out of existence, and Martin Betts was brought in to manage the club in an effort to revive its fortunes.
The 2005-06 season saw Thoresby narrowly missed out on a promotion place as they finished in eighth spot, just two wins away from promotion, a feat that would have been remarkable for the fact that the club was bottom of the table in October having won just one, and losing all the rest of its first eight games of that term.
[edit] Thoresby Colliery Sports Ground
The Thoresby Colliery Sports Ground is the shared home of Thoresby Colliery Welfare Football Club and Thoresby Colliery Cricket Club. Located at the opposite end of Fourth Avenue to the main Welfare building, the entrance to the Sports Ground is through an un-gated entrance and into an asphalt surfaced car park which is able to accommodate approximately 50 cars. Access to the Pavilion and the playing surfaces is through a gate to the right of the Pavilion.
The facilities on the Sports Ground are basic, and have remaining largely unchanged since the ground was laid down in the early 1930s. Extending to over five acres, the Sports Ground is generally rectangular, and is bounded on the east side by the St Edwin's Junior School playing field, which is separated from the Sports Ground by a recently replaces wire mesh fence which extends the full length of the boundary.
Half of the northern boundary is now part of a housing development, and is now fenced by means of a 2m high wooden fence. The other half will become a "recreational area", affording a skate park for young people. The western boundary adjoins part of the old school playing fields. Until the autumn of 2004, the Rufford School occupied the land. The southern boundary is currently open to the Parish playing fields (formally the Rufford School playing fields). At one time, there was a fence which ran the full length of this boundary, but this is long gone, although parts of it are still visible. The Pavilion, Equipment Store/Garage and Tea Room are the major structures on the Ground, and there is also a small prefabricated building which provides changing accommodation for the clubs youth team.
The Pavilion itself has changing accommodation for two teams. Both dressing rooms are identical and quite spacious. Each is equipped with washbasin, toilet and showers. There is a separate changing room for match officials, which also has toilet, washbasin and shower. In addition, there are toilets, including disabled facilities for use by spectators which adjoins the side of the Pavilion building.
The Pavilion also has a small bar and refreshment area in the center of the building which provides hot and cold beverages as well as snacks prior to and during matches, and beer, lagers and other alcoholic and soft drinks after the game. There is also a television and radio for obtaining scores from the BBC and ITV. At a push, the Pavilion bar will accommodate around 40 people.
The Tea Room is a modular building, and is mainly used by Thoresby Cricket Club to provide "Tea" and it also houses the scorers for their matches.
The playing surfaces are maintained by a part time Groundsman. The Cricket square is set in front of the Pavilion, and the football pitch is beyond that. In the traditional way, the outfield of the cricket pitch overlaps onto the football pitch (about 20 yards or so) which means that extra care is taken in maintaining this particular area of the football pitch to provide the best surface possible for the cricketers. Generally, the playing area slopes from the north boundary down to the south boundary. The slope is slightly more pronounced the nearer the football pitch you move, but this makes for excellent drainage, and, coupled with the sandy subsoil, it means that there is seldom a problem with waterlogging.
The football pitch is completely surrounded by a blue and white painted steel hand rail that is made from 3" heavy-duty pipes obtained many years ago from the nearby Thoresby Colliery. When the football season ends, the parts of the barrier that occupy the cricket field are dismantled and stored away until the football resumes, when they are then re-erected and re-painted. On the far touchline to the cricket square is located a covered stand, capable of holding 100 or more standing spectators. Each side of the stand are the "dug outs" for the home and visiting teams mangers and substitutes.
The stand its self is a tribute to the ingenuity of the mining community, the supporting steelwork are salvaged "arches", which are used underground for supporting the rock in the tunnels, while the covering of corrugated galvanised sheets, are "tins" which are also used underground in conjunction with the arches to prevent loose rock falling through the skeletal archway construction. The back of the stand is brickwork, while there are two small rooms built into each end of the stand, although these are currently unused and secured. The stand itself, while adequate, is decaying. The brickwork is cracked, and the "tins" that cover one of the unused rooms are missing in part, plus they leak in places. A large sign on the stand announces "Thoresby Colliery". There is a path that extends the full length of this touchline on the stand side. The remaining three sides are unpaved, largely due to the cricket requirements. There is ongoing work to provide hard standing to the currently unpaved areas behind both goals.
From behind the stand, and extending down the side of the football pitch to the southern boundary, and then continuing along the full width of the pitch is a row of mature trees approaching 50 feet high. When the Sports Ground was constructed, the ground sloped so severely at the football pitch end, that the ground has been excavated to reduce the severity of the slope which is approximately 1 in 150. The consequence of this is that there is a ten-foot high bank behind the "top" goal, and this, together with the mature trees, provides a sense of "enclosure" of the football pitch on three sides.
The pitch is large (112 yards x 76 yards) with a good, flat playing surface, which is maintained weekly.
[edit] External links
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Armthorpe | Blidworth Welfare | Bolsover Town | Calverton Miners Welfare | Harworth Colliery Institute | Kimberley Town | Kinsley Boys | Kiveton Park | Louth Town | Newark Flowserve | Newark Town | Ollerton Town | Parkhouse | Phoenix Sports & Social | Sutton Town | Stanton Ilkeston | Thoresby Colliery Welfare | Thorne Colliery | Welbeck Colliery Welfare | Yorkshire Main |
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