Pontefract Collieries 2 v Selby Town 2 & Hemsworth Miners Welfare 0 v Knaresborough Town 4 - Baris NCEL Div 1

BARIS NCEL Easter Bank Holiday Groundhop (a part of) ...

As part of this season's NCEL Groundhop weekend, four games were scheduled for today, with staggered kick off times, one in the Premier Division and three in Division 1. 

The opening game, which kicked off earlier in the day, saw Glasshoughton Welfare beat Nostell Miners Welfare 2-0 and tonight, Athersley Recreation take on Askern Villa, in a top v bottom fixture, but life is kind of hectic at present, so I only managed to squeeze in the middle two games of the planned itinerary. 

Friday 29th March 2013, Kick off 1.45pm

at the White Rose Stadium, Pontefract

Baris NCEL Division 1

Pontefract Collieries (1) 2

Luke Durham 30, Andy Catton 83 (pen)

Selby Town (2) 2

Dan Gray 1, 28

Admission £5, Programme £1.20, Attendance 424

Selby took the lead inside the first minute and were good value for their two goal lead inside the first half a hour.

I think it would be fair to say that the visitors manager Ian Dring, isn't a shy and retiring wallflower kind of guy once he gets to work in the dug out and I would imagine that one or two of his outbursts could quite easily have woken up any passing traveler, who was having an afternoon snooze on the one of the trains that passed by on the top of the embankment that runs along one side of the Beechnut Lane ground.

But once he's off duty, Dring isn't like that at all. 

Earlier in the season, he'd been holding a training session with his Selby team, on one of the pitches adjacent to where Denaby United were playing against Harworth in a hastily arranged friendly, because both teams were short on match practice, due to a string of weather dictated postponements and he came over to watch the game and have a chat and he seemed like a thoroughly decent, good humoured sort of  bloke to me. 

Ian Dring was on the books of Mansfield Town several years ago and has also been at Maltby Main, Parkgate and Rossington Main, among others ... but today, well, quite a few of the 'groundhopping fraternity' who were present, will have left the game with the impression that he, err ... swears too much.

He certainly had plenty to say when Luke Durham pulled a goal back for 'Ponte' two minutes after Selby had got their second.

Durham's goal gave the home side a lift and they finished the first 45 minutes strongly, but the Robins held onto the lead.

The second half saw Pontefract getting more and more on top, as they went in search of an equaliser and their efforts were rewarded in the 83rd minute, when Andy Catton scored from the penalty spot.

Both teams had opportunities to grab all three points, but in the end, I think a draw was a fair result.

FT - Pontefract Collieries 2 v Selby Town 2

Via a slight detour to check out the current state of play at Hemsworth Alpha FC's ground, on Kirkby Road, opposite the Hippodrome, where I had attended the very last game in 2010 ... it's now a rather unspectacular looking housing estate, unworthy of even pointing my camera at ... we arrived in Fitzwilliam around 20 minutes before kick off and were pointed towards a small, hard standing car parking area right outside the ground.
Some weren't so lucky, they were up to their back wheels in sludge and needed a push when they wanted to leave the adjacent field later on. And others were still en route, having been held up getting through the not entirely generous traffic light system that allows a few cars at a time out of the lane that leads to Pontefract Collieries ground.

Friday 29th March 2013, Kick off 4.30pm
at the MDC Sports Stadium, Fitzwilliam
Baris NCEL Division 1
Hemsworth Miners Welfare (0) 0
Knaresborough Town (4) 4
Steve Bramley 12 (pen), 17 (pen)
Joel Freeston 25, 36
Admission £5, Programme £1, Attendance 415

Joel Freeston had a hand in all four of Knaresborough's goals as they started the game at a cracking pace and were 4-0 up inside the opening 36 minutes.
For the first one, there was definitely contact, as he crumpled inside a crowded goalmouth, but for the second, well ... I was stood a couple of yards away straight in line with it and as Freeston over ran the ball while rounding Andrew Joburns in the Hemsworth goal, he went down very convincingly but there had been no contact with the keepers outstretched arm.
To compound his misery Joburns was booked, for shouting "You conning ba@stard!".
Maybe the referee thought the abuse was aimed at him.

Steve Bramley's second penalty

Despite his opportunist fall, it was apparent, that Freeston was by far the best footballer on the pitch, as he proved by helping himself to a brace of goals, that effectively killed the game off as a contest long before the first half had even ended
Hemsworth almost had a glimmer of hope after the break, but when Knaresborough's Jack Rushworth clawed the ball back after it had gone over his goal line, the referee and his assistant didn't get a clear view of it, among a scrummage of players in the six yard box. It was unfortunate for the home side, but it wouldn't have changed the course of the game now. Where's that goal line technology when you need it, eh!?
The home side, to their credit, kept plucking away throughout the second half, but the damage had already been done.
FT - Hemsworth Miners Welfare 0 v Knaresborough Town 4

Footnote: Athersley Recreation beat Askern Villa 8-1 in tonight's other NCEL Division 1 game.