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Wanderers Ways. Neil Thompson 1961-2021

Bolton Playing Fields


Horwich

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Barlow Park was good, even though some tosser from Park Utd ,snapped me TIB & FIB on it.

Moss Bank was decent .

Haslam Park , you needed 1 leg shorter than the other.

Hulton Lane always seemed massive.

Our Pitch at Chequerbent was OK , till some bugger set fire to the changing room.

Can't remember the name of the pitch up Horwich which had a slope on it like the North face of the Eiger.

The problem nowadays is there are very few 11 aside matches any more. Every one plays 5 aside.

Bolton Combination used to consist of 4 divisions.

Then there was also Bolton and Horwich Sunday leagues.

Every bugger used to play.

Edited by embankment
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Barlow Park was good, even though some tosser from Park Utd ,snapped me TIB & FIB on it.

Moss Bank was decent .

Haslam Park , you needed 1 leg shorter than the other.

Hulton Lane always seemed massive.

Our Pitch at Chequerbent was OK , till some bugger set fire to the changing room.

Can't remember the name of the pitch up Horwich which had a slope on it like the North face of the Eiger.

The problem nowadays is there are very few 11 aside matches any more. Every one plays 5 aside.

Bolton Combination used to consist of 4 divisions.

Then there was also Bolton and Horwich Sunday leagues.

Every bugger used to play.

And not forgetting Bolton Sports Fed had 4 divisions at one point (80's).

Throw in the Lancs amateur league and North West Counties - that's a lot of Bolton lads playing footy on a Saturday afternoons back then

2 pitches at Longsight Harwood were good, but the other 2 were biz,

One or 2 on Harper Green were ok.

Scholes bank at Horwich was decent.

New House farm up Breightmet was diabolical

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Great memories.

Loads of characters.

Remember The Soul Squad.

Albert one of the refs. Small guy.

Park Utd.

Big Paul Fitzpatrick.

Away trips to Paderborn.

Playing on pitches near Burnden Park , which meant you could leg it to the ground and get in for the last 20mins.

Hopefully getting to a final , so you could play at Grundy Hill or even Burnden.

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Great memories.

Loads of characters.

Remember The Soul Squad.

Albert one of the refs. Small guy.

Park Utd.

Big Paul Fitzpatrick.

Away trips to Paderborn.

Playing on pitches near Burnden Park , which meant you could leg it to the ground and get in for the last 20mins.

Hopefully getting to a final , so you could play at Grundy Hill or even Burnden.

Certainly remember Soul Squad - didn't the lad who died Lennox Bell play for them? The Lenny Bell trophy was contested by Bolton Sunday League teams every year after his premature death.

I think the Ref you're talking about was Albert Handley - wore glasses whilst officiating, but he was blind as a bat even with them on!!!

There was also a Sunday league ref called Paddy - Oirish fella funnily enough,he was quite a character - "Whats yer name son" he says to me whilst getting his book out "Jack Flash" sez i trying to be a smart arse "Well get fucking Jumping then Jack - you're off!"

Park Utd were almost unbeatable right through the 80's - decent side.

Great days,so many memories.

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Can remember vividly playing on the old Hacken Lane site in my early years at secondary school. It was adjacent to a sewage farm with white scud blowing onto pitch on windy days. that and games teacher inspecting all boots after the game - anyone with protruding nails from studs got a whacking. I soon changed mine for the nail in rubber variety. Happy days!

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Certainly remember Soul Squad - didn't the lad who died Lennox Bell play for them? The Lenny Bell trophy was contested by Bolton Sunday League teams every year after his premature death.I think the Ref you're talking about was Albert Handley - wore glasses whilst officiating, but he was blind as a bat even with them on!!!There was also a Sunday league ref called Paddy - Oirish fella funnily enough,he was quite a character - "Whats yer name son" he says to me whilst getting his book out "Jack Flash" sez i trying to be a smart arse "Well get fucking Jumping then Jack - you're off!"Park Utd were almost unbeatable right through the 80's - decent side.Great days,so many memories.

Good old Paddy Johnson.

 

Didn't the Soul Squad turn into Bolton West Indians ?

 

I always played for Daubhill Athletic until they folded then played for the Rupert.

 

Fine bunch of characters in both Saturday and Sunday leagues, and some bloody great players as well.

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Paddy Johnson thats the fella - cheers miami, i couldn't remember his surname. Yeh i reckon Soul squad morfed into Bolton West Indians. I used to work with Albert Handley, he doesn't look any older than he did 30 years ago, but his eyesight certainly hasn't got any better! Beltin fella though and a Wanderer through & through.

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Paddy Johnson booked me for shouting a player offside, still winds me up. As for playing surfaces, Leverhulme park had 5 rectangular shapes on it at this time of year, back in the day, in the process of getting re-seeding, unfortunately the youth of today would rather not get dirty and prefer plastic pitches instead. Puffs the lot of em, not a proper man with between em

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Paddy Johnson booked me for shouting a player offside, still winds me up. As for playing surfaces, Leverhulme park had 5 rectangular shapes on it at this time of year, back in the day, in the process of getting re-seeding, unfortunately the youth of today would rather not get dirty and prefer plastic pitches instead. Puffs the lot of em, not a proper man with between em

Aye, cause the 6-14 year olds get full choice of what pitch their team plays on and when.
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