So I went to the football, & caught most of the second half of the rugby league! Very cheeky of me, as the coach was free for the Storm game, but hey...I couldn't ignore the opportunity to go to the Throstle Nest, & have a rare chance (for me) to 'tick' a northern ground! Farsley AFC play in the Koolsport Northern East Counties League Premier Division.
My taking of photos was hampered by ignorant officials, who questioned me, as were a couple of junior girls teams in the crowd. They then begrudgingly let me take some of the ground again..if the girls were not in any, & I deleted the ones I had taken with them in. I was up for arguing my corner, but was a cockney up north, & didn't want to get into 'argumentative mood' if the old bill were called, even though I was totally in the right, as I was a long way from London & had no means to get home if they made me miss the coach! And I wanted them to get lost so I could watch the rest of the game in peace!
The woman from one of the teams was only interested in HER players & couldn't care less if any of the other girls team were in any shots! And her argument to me that supposedly made her above reproachment was that she had been CRB checked! Well...anyone can say that! So have I, for my job! Being an amateur photographer taking snaps of a sports ground does not make me a nonce!
I'm sure if I'd said I was from the local paper & wanted to take a team photo of her girls for the back page of it she'd have readily agreed!
Anyway, that aside, it was a decent ground, that has recently actually been home to Conference National football a few seasons ago, before Farsley Celtic went bust last season.
Leeds Carnegie, who play in the KoolSport Northern Counties East League Division One, groundshare here. They are a university based side.
You can see the clubhouse as you approach the ground.
No 'next game' listed, as Farsley Celtic were no more.
A proud old club...gone.
Make that proud FORMER members...
Smart gates next to the turnstiles. Impressive.
The turnstiles are at the corner of the pitch.
To our right, ahead of us down the side, is the main stand.
While behind the goal to our left is a covered terrace, with seats at the far end of it. We are going to head along here first, moving round in a clockwise direction.
Looking along the terrace we can see the seats, I would guess added for grading requirements when they played in the top division for the olny time in their history, in 2007/08.
From this end we look across the pitch, to our left, at the open terraced side.
With the main stand to our right.
Here we reach the seats, clearly added on to the terrace, to make a 'new' stand.
Pitchside we look at the main stand again, from behind the net.
Looking along the 'bolt-on' stand.
There is segregation in place here, again presumably to meet Conference ground gradings.
Moving on past the goal we see the dugouts down the side.
Beyond the seats, in the 'away section' there is the rest of the covered terrace.
Here we look back along the covered end.
Another angle down the open side.
In the corner are more turnstiles. Not the best of photos, but the sun was in my eyes, & I was snapping 'blind'!
Now we look along the open terracing down the side.
A corner flag shot, with the main stand opposite.
From the same spot we turn back to the covered end.
We start to move along the open side. Note the netting to prevent footballs going over the blue surrounding fence, where there is a steep drop to neighbouring housing behind.
Heading toward the dugouts.
Note how the steps are staggered here, to account for the slope.
Across the pitch, to the main stand.
Standing behind the dugouts.
Further down, we are passing the dugouts.
On our way to the open end.
In between the dugouts we look across the pitch once more.
The blue fencing gives way to green railings. I don't know why, but my guess is that some of the blue stuff had blown away in bad weather, as we are up on a hill.
The open end looks rather bleak from here.
Reaching the end of the terracing we glance back up it.
Another corner flag snap, with both areas of cover in view.
Behind the next goal is just open hard standing. I'll bet some of the former Football League fans, who are now non-league in the Conference, weren't too complimentary about this!
Now behind the goal, we look back to the dugouts side.
Directly behind the goal I look down the pitch, trying to 'artily' capture the main stand through the netting.
Here we see the main stand side, & can see the terracing to the left of it.
Another peek at the dugouts side, past the goal.
And a shot down the full length of the tarmac end.
The last corner flag picture today!
And here we are, about to walk along the last side of Throstle Nest.
Another man with a camera. I wonder if the 'nonce police' had a word with him?
This is a decent stretch of terrace, I'd imagine this is a popular vantage point at Farsley matches.
And here we are, at last, arriving at the main stand.
The press area. That man was reporting for BBC Radio Leeds.
From up in the seats we look back to the cage, that is the players tunnel.
Now we turn & look along the rest of the stand.
And from up in the stand we look across to the covered end, where we started our tour.
A bit of action from the match.
Another look along the stand from near the end of it.
And looking down from this end we see the last part of the ground, hard standinf to the corner. The tea bar & clubhouse are on the left.
Pitchside again, we have another look at the covered end.
Before we look back at the main stand, with a few steps of terracing at this corner.
A very last look at the covered end, before it's time to leave.
