Showing Our Age

The football club started the season basking in the glow of July’s excellent centennial celebration at School. Sadly, the glow dimmed as, at the three-quarter stage as I write, all four men’s teams are finding wins elusive and all could face relegation battles.

Finding the right blend of age, with concomitant experience, and youth, with its pace and drive, has proved hard to achieve for the Saturday teams. Indeed, the struggle to find eleven capable and fit players has not always been easy, especially for the A team. The First Eleven, often including at least half who qualify as veterans, saw a little cup success, but are now concentrating on Premier Division survival. The Reserves sit just below halfway in their division, but teams below have games in hand. Goal scoring is often seen as instinctive – this knack has been but rarely evident – perversely when goals have come, they have flooded in at both ends. The A team, inexplicably in a division of first and second teams, despite their previous season, languish again teetering above the drop. Our esteemed treasurer was persuaded to dust off his manager’s mantle after a troubled first two months threatened collapse of the team. His first tranche of matches saw 28 goals against and one for (and that an own goal), but March started with a seven-goal win –survival is still possible.

The Veterans are strong only in that cliched sense of holding up their whole division. Innumerable players have been called on, but to little avail in a winning sense. As has wistfully been opined – if all the first eleven vets played on Sunday not Saturday, what heights might be scaled!

The Ladies are shining in the relative gloom. They found the sort of form any team hopes for and are six matches undefeated as I write. They sit second in their division and have again reached their divisional Cup Final.

The ‘estate’ is still the envy of so many – the Lee Pavilion is now ten years old, but is a fine facility and, as a defiant show of commitment to further improvement, the pitches are now cared for with a new tractor with Summer plans in place to reseed and redrain, finances permitting.

On a further brighter note, the year’s celebrations will conclude in part up at Tower Street – start at School, end at Turton seems symbolically appropriate with an Over55s match on 13th May; it is intended to follow this with the end of season celebratory presentation evening. One year on from the Festival of Football, and one decade on from ‘Turton to Burton’, current plans are to stage a mighty sponsored 24 Hours of Football on 8th July – five-a-side on the mammoth scale in which anyone with links to the club past, present and future can participate, raising money for both the club and charities of our choice. Details of this finale will appear on the club website and social media (www.oldbolts.co.uk, @oldboltsafc)

Into its second century, the club is still alive, unlike many, but undoubtedly requires an injection of new blood. As suggested, the need for more players, preferably under 30, is pressing, and the manager cadre and volunteer enablers, embodied on the committee, would also ideally be refreshed – so the plea, as the club passes its 103rd birthday, is for Old Bolts out there who fancy good old eleven-a-side from playing, administrating or just spectating points of view to join us and keep this marvellous institution going!

Martin Wadsworth (Boys’ Division Staff, 1974-2006)