TT No.64: Rob Campion - Saturday 14th February 2015; Thurnby Nirvana Reserves 1-5 Anstey Nomads Reserves Leicestershire Senior League Division 1; Venue: Hamilton Park, Sandhills Avenue, Hamilton, Leicester, LE5 1LU; Admission: None; Attendance: 5 |
Due to my limitations regarding football this season due to work one of my aims was to re-complete one of my local leagues, the Leicestershire Senior League (LSL), and at the start of the season I had three venues to visit - one in the Premier Division and two in Division 1. The other two were both visited before Christmas and they were GNG's new ground (The Riverside Football Ground) on Braunstone Lane East in Leicester and Aslockton Cranmers home on Spa Lane in Orston, Nottinghamshire.
Thurnby Nirvana is the result of a merger a few years ago between Thurnby Rangers and junior set-up Leicester Nirvana. All the clubs teams apart from the mens 1st and reserve sides play under the latter name, and Hamilton Park is home to them. Around Christmas time when at work one night I got talking to a customer who was wearing a Leicester Nirvana jacket and was told that the first team will be moving to Hamilton Park once the ground is ready for step 5 football, and this would be by the end of 2015 latest. I did ask if when they move they would change the first team's name to Leicester Nirvana and was told probably. Hamilton is an estate on the north east side of Leicester with work beginning in the late 1980's. I used to live not far from there until 1988 and remember it being farm land with a farmhouse set on its own with nothing else around it. The name itself comes from the name of a deserved mediaeval village in the Barkby Thorpe parish that lies outside of the City boundary. More information about the history and location can be found on the Charnwood Borough Council website by clicking here.
Thurnby Nirvana Reserves are new to the LSL this season having transferred or depending on which way you look at it, promoted from its reserve team competition, the Leicestershire Combination, while their opponents joined the previous season. The fifteen teams in the LSL's division 1 are made up about as equally as you can get with an odd number of eight first teams and seven reserve sides. Both teams today are in the lower half of the table with Thurnby occupying 13th position with fourteen points and Anstey two places and one point better off.
I also used this afternoons football to catch up with my dad who I had not seen for six weeks, and with him living a five minute drive from Hamilton Park I picked him up. On arrival there is a small car park and club house decked out in Leicester Nirvana signage. It is an L-shaped venue with two full size pitches in front of the clubhouse and one to the left - this was the one used this afternoon. There was nothing pitch side literally and the pitch wasn't even roped off, and was without doubt the most basic of venues I have seen a game in the LSL at with my first one being back in 1998. |
contributed on 16/02/15 |