TT No.162: Andrew Gallon - Sat 5th January 2008; Kirkburton v Bronte Wanderers; WRCAL Division One;     Res: 0-0; Att: 40 (h/c); Admission: Free; Programme: £1 (16pp); FGIF Match Rating: ***

Connoisseurs of scenic football grounds will love the Gregory Playing Fields home of Kirkburton, the West Riding County Amateur League First Division leaders. The venue is perched on a lofty shelf high above one of several pleasant villages in the dramatic Pennine landscape immediately south of Huddersfield. Good visibility is essential to appreciating fully the charms of this delightful ground - and I was blessed with a classical winter day of blue sky and bright sunshine. Perfect. Well, almost. A stentorian gale was blowing and not being a brass monkey the final whistle found me chilled to the marrow of every bone. So, heed this warning: If you're going to Kirkburton any time between the end of September and the start of April, wrap up warm, take a brolly and pack a flask.   Inevitably, at this level of the game, setting is of more interest than the nuts and bolts of the ground itself which, in Kirkburton's case, doesn't consist of much. The climb from the A629 on the valley floor through neighbouring Highburton to Gregory Playing Fields, which is administered by trustees on behalf of the community, is reminiscent of the gear-grinding ascent to Forest Green Rovers. With a cough and a splutter (that's the car engine), you arrive finally at a dead end with the dressing room block on the right. This modern, single-storey structure is made from the same Yorkshire stone as the adjacent estate of new builds and is shared with a tennis club, whose pavilion is at one end. Football Foundation cash helped pay for this impressive little set-up which has a limited number of spaces in an orderly tarmac car park. The pitch, accessed by steps, is up above, with three tennis courts alongside. These have an artificial surface and are fenced off and floodlit. The pitch is something else. Flat land in this part of the world is restricted largely to the valley bottoms, and with Burton seemingly halfway to the moon, a bit of contouring is inevitable. As you stand behind the Huddersfield goal, the grass slopes from left to right and beyond the halfway line from near end to far as well. There are no floodlights, no hardstanding, no cover - and no prima donnas. The players put the nets up here when they arrive and then take them down before reaching the sanctuary of the showers. The home club get a covered dugout but no seats; the away team a wooden bench but no dugout. The dugout, on the tennis court side halfway line, is a tall metal affair with a concrete base, and friendly Burton officials are quite happy to share it with travellers eager to escape the worst of the elements. Check out the salty banter - and manager Dean Calcutt's book on the first home scorer. The bench, opposite, is about as exposed as it could be, especially on an afternoon when the wind is fairly whistling through the leafless trees. "Is it always like this up here?" the Bronte manager, cheeks ruddier than a cradle-to-grave alcoholic's, asked me during the last 10 minutes. "Aye, lad, 'appen it is," I was tempted to reply. Beyond the left-hand goal is a tarmac footpath and then the Burton Acres Recreation Ground.. This tree-lined sward includes a rather flatter pitch and a children's play area, and was gifted to the young people of Kirkburton and Highburton in 1922 by veterans of the First World War. Beyond the top side is Hallas Road, which drops precipitously down into the village and is lined with venerable semis. Behind, the topography rises again to the spectacular television mast on Emley Moor - a notable landmark hereabouts. At 1,084 feet, this is the tallest freestanding structure in the UK. There are more houses behind the right-hand end, and netting suspended on poles to keep footballs out of their gardens. Beyond, the sturdy tower of the village's parish church of All Hallows is all that is visible of what lies beneath in the depths of a wooded gorge. A flag of St George, unfurled to its last thread, tells of the wind's strength. A wooden post and metal railing fence surrounds the pitch, which is fringed by tussocky grass. Crowds here aren't big enough to keep it flat.  So far, so relatively humdrum. But just admire the view from the Hallas Road side touchline. It's stunning. A vast panorama of interlocking hills rings both foreground and far horizon. Sharp eyes will spot another television mast (750 feet high, if you're making notes) on Holme Moor, over to the left and also the soot-blackened upward thrust of the tower on sandstone-capped Castle Hill dead ahead. Even in winter, with much of the colour bleached from the landscape, it's a sparkling scene. In any of the other three seasons, it must be breathtaking.    Goalless draws are never entirely satisfactory but this was a good deal livelier than most. With Kirkburton top and on a run of 16 straight wins, and Bronte fourth, a decent contest was always likely - and so it proved. The visitors often played the smarter football, created the better chances and were unlucky not to avenge recent 3-2 and 3-1 home defeats by Burton in, respectively, the Division One League Cup and the First Division. Bronte, who as their name suggests are a Haworth club but for grading reasons play in Keighley, went close early on when Liam Blacka clipped an upright in a one-on-one with Scott Bissett after a defence-splitting throughball from Liam Houldsworth. Team-mate Dave Nelson was inches too high with a searing 20-yarder before Burton's Ben Hughill had a stabbed effort cleared off the line by Steve Bainbridge. Nelson planted a first-time potshot wide and new signing Adam Wilson, who has been at UniBond League Guiseley of late, went close to putting the hosts ahead but cleared the crossbar with an off-the-shoulder number.  The Kirkburton camp had seen enough to be worried. You'd have struggled to get a Rizla paper between the teams, and the second half continued in much the same nip-and-tuck vein. Joel Gallagher was left in the clear when the home defence failed to deal with a big clearance from keeper Dave Bainbridge but the Bronte striker sent a wicked volley skimming inches over. Burton had a lot of possession but struggled to unpick a resolute Wanderers rearguard and the visitors almost nicked it near the end, only for substitute David Alderson to fail to get a telling connection on a superb Nelson cross. A point was good enough for Burton to go six points clear at the top because title rivals Marsden were beaten by struggling Salts.   It's about six years since Kirkburton (motto: Look Forward With Hope; Backward With Pride) made the step up from the Huddersfield League into the WRCAL. They're progressing well under the managership of former Emley stalwart Calcutt, have some decent players and look nailed on for promotion. Full-back Nick Reed was on the books of Huddersfield Town and has been attracting the attention of scouts, while centre-back Steve Chandler saw active service with York City. The club's welcoming officials include president Jack Crookes, whose claim to fame in these parts is being the man who unearthed one-time Coventry City pin-up Brian Kilcline as a ready-made replacement for Terriers-bound defensive lynchpin Peter Jackson to keep Halifax Town's 1997-98 Nationwide Conference championship-winning campaign on the right course. Jack had a trial with the Shaymen after the Second World War, and was rejected without being given the chance even to kick a ball. If you didn't look good running up and down the terraces, you didn't get a game in those days. Jack's the chap who tends the pitch, both here and at the village's cricket club. He'll also sell you a Burton lapel badge.  Not many clubs in this league produce programmes but Burton are regular issuers and this, they say, has attracted travellers from far and wide. It's a decent effort for such a small outfit and a good fundraiser, too - always handy when you can't take a 'gate'. Warm recommendation doesn't sound quite right in this instance. Just make sure the weather forecast is favourable if you're heading down this way! Going for a Burton, as it were.

contributed and amended on 07/01/08