If ever you needed an excuse to get out of London on Friday 29th April 2011...then this was it! A Bank Holiday to 'celebrate' the royal wedding, and there was a set of fixtures in the Northern Premier League Division One North. The stand out choice was Wakefield FC, who were playing the last ever fixture at their College Grove ground. Sorted! Not the best of games, a single goal victory for the visitors Curzon Ashton, but nice to get to a ground before it vanished for once.
Here is the main entrance into the multi-sport complex.
The club sign. Don't think anyone 'arf-iched it as a souvenir!
Plenty of sports played here. Bowls. Hockey. Rifle & Pistol. Squash. Not forgetting the jazz.
The hockey pitch was next to the football ground.
It had a slightly higher step of open terrace.
Here's another angle of it, the football ground is to the left of this snap.
There were dugouts on the far side.
The other side of the car park was the bowls club.
And here's the sign for the squash club.
But we're here for the football. There was this clubhouse outside, but the Football Club also had their own bar inside the ground.
The obligatory sign from the league sponsors.
Now we are the turnstiles, ready to enter.
They are in the lower corner of the ground, main stand on the far side.
To the right, up the touchline is open terracing. and the dugouts, which you hardly notice in this picture.
To the left, it is open, this is behind the goal, and we are going to head round the ground this way, clockwise.
Thes buildings are the boardroom area, and the bar beyond it, with changing rooms at the far corner.
Open hard standing all the way along.
Behind the goal, looking toward the main stand, you can see some open terracing along the side too.
Behind the net we glance the other way, to the open side.
Directly behind the goal, up the typically dusty end of season pitch.
And now past the goal, toward the main stand, again.
One of the home faithful. Outnumbered by groundhoppers today.
Almost past the boardroom block, and heading toward the clubhouse in the corner.
Past an open grassed area.
A banner encouraging young kids to take up the game.
Here we approach the bar area.
Toward the terrace and stand along the side.
The exterior of the bar.
Here is the bar itself, inside.
Some club souvenirs on sale.
Posters framed on the wall.
And a nice embroidered club crest.
Teamsheet helpfully pinned up.
Various club shirts on the walls.
And the view through the glass.
Bit of a queue for the refreshments outside.
Time for more supplies...
Now we are at the corner, and our first glimpse of the open terrace, with the stand further along.
From the side we look back along the clubhouse end.
Here's a good shot of the terrace on the side.
Popular with the drinking hoppers, due to the close proximity of the bar!
A home flag on display.
From the back of the terrace.
And the front.
League sponsors hoarding prominant.
Past the terrace now, almost at the stand, we are in front of...
The toilets!
And now here we are at the seats, from the front...
And the back...
Press area at the rear.
Looking along the seats in front of them.
Lovely retro Leeds United tracksuit top.
Along the seats, at the front, as we move on.
Across the halfway line, to the dugouts.
Here they are, zoomed in.
Now the seats once more, from the rear, looking back down what we've seen.
The whole stand, from on the pitch.
Here concentrating more at the centre of it.
A tie up with the local college.
Peter Maude was a Wakefield & Northern Premier League stalwart.
Past the stand is more open terracing.
Plenty of room at the back, on a slight grass bank for a canine fan.
The terrace continues to the corner.
Almost there!
From this side we look toward the far end, which has a strange area of cover.
Off goes the ballboy!
Now right at the corner we turn for a view down the main stand side.
Corner flag view, over to the open side.
Terracing behind the goal, with some basic scaffold cover.
Not the most impressive, but it does a job.
a view from it, back to the stand.
Moving along we see back, under the roof.
Here's a view of it, from along the stand side.
Behind the goal, back toward the stand.
And time to move onward, now back in the open, to the next corner.
Two steps become one step.
The view down the pitch.
Now eyes to the left, down the open side, hockey lights 'merge' with the football ones.
Who says size isn't everything? ;-)
very tight at the corner, hockey pitch behind.
Actually not as tight as it looks.
Turning the corner we look back behind the goal.
Last corner flag shot, main stand in the background.
Down the side, simple hard standing.
Moving along, past the hockey ground.
Almost at the dugouts now.
You can see the back of both of them in this one.
Here's the first one, from the front.
The area between the two.
Over the halfway line, from this side, to the main stand.
And now going past the rear of the away dugout.
Here it is from the proper side of it.
The terrace then stops, for flat hard standing down to the corner where we came into the ground.
Getting there...
Past a painted gate.
A last look behind the bar end.
One glance back...
And here we are, where we came in.
A little bit of the game, to finish.
And that was Wakefield FC at College Grove.
