Bolton Sunday League football match between Darcy Lever (red strip) and Colliers Arms (blue strip). Micheal Leece, left, Colliers, tackles Gaz Molyneux, Darcy Lever. Picture taken off Cotefield Avenue, Great Lever, Bolton. Photo by Paul Sterritt
LOCAL league football is suffering a long, lingering death in Bolton.
For generations, the town has had a vibrant open age league football scene.
Even up to six or seven years ago, there were four leagues in existence, the Bolton Combination, the Bolton Pioneer League, the Horwich Sunday League and the Bolton Sunday League.
Now the latter is the only one still going, and that is struggling to survive.
When it goes the same way as the rest - as is likely, eventually - Bolton will be left with a void in its sporting make-up.
The first open age league to go was the Bolton Sports Federation 25 years ago.
advertisement
There was little consternation at the time, as the Combination and the Horwich and Bolton Sunday Leagues were still going strong.
Then the Pioneer League sprung up 15 years ago to bring the town's number back up to four leagues.
From then, however, the growth of alternative forms of entertainment hit the leagues hard and, one by one, they collapsed. There are still teams in Bolton, about two dozen of them who play in the West Lancashire League, Lancashire Amateur League, and Manchester League.
But that number is a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of teams who filled the many divisions of four Bolton leagues a decade or so ago.
The rest have folded, victims of a change in the nation's culture and of the greater economic difficulties of running a team.
It would help to revive amateur football in the town if the crippling cost of renting pitches could be dramtically reduced.
This, if combined with a drive to improve pitches and facilities, could be used to entice clubs and help to put local football back on the map in Bolton.
Posted by: RICHARD, bolton on 3:34pm Thu 27 Mar 08
whats needed is a redistribution of wealth....look at all the money at the top of the pro game...it only needs a 5% levy on premier league clubs to run local amateur soccer for years...as usual the rich get richer and the poor.......well same old,same old!!
whats needed is a redistribution of wealth....look at all the money at the top of the pro game...it only needs a 5% levy on premier league clubs to run local amateur soccer for years...as usual the rich get richer and the poor.......well same old,same old!!
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
