Steve B the Groundhopper

1pm 27 July  2025 Burnley Summer League Globe FC 4 Pendle United 0 (att 20) Back in June I visited Mount Carmel High School in Accrington for a Burnley Summer Cup fixture, only to find the action moved away from a waterlogged main pitch. Since then I'd been determined to return and 'tidy up' that visit for a game on the proper pitch. Globe have two sides in the Burnley Summer League. As far as I can tell, Globe FC is the 'first team' whereas FC Globe are their second eleven. Both play winter league football in the Burnley and District Sunday League, and stage home games at Mount Carmel. The main football pitch takes up most of the school playing field. In a corner near the entrance is a hut that, with its stock of sweets and canned drinks, may double as the school tuck shop. There's some picnic tables nearby. When I saw Globe here in June they scored 14 against a hapless Hyndburn. Today's game was much more competitive, with the slightly flattering 4-0 win ...

1pm 20 July  2025 Burnley Summer League Dewhurst 1 Pendle United 5 (att 10) Back when it was just plain Prairie Playing Fields I saw games on various grass pitches, including several in an earlier incarnation of a Burnley Summer League. One of those grass pitches is now broadly covered by one of two 3Gs, and the whole site has had an impressive makeover to become Prairie Sports Village. Reliable fixtures for the current Burnley Summer League aren't easy to find, but as the information I had suggested that both pitches would be in use I thought it'd be a good chance to 'tick' the other 3G. It's probably the lesser of the two as, unlike the other one, there's no barriered spectator area and no dugouts. But on a day of torrential rain showers the artificial surface at least meant no problems getting the game completed. Both these sides play in the Burnley and District Sunday League over the winter, and both use Prairie as their home ground. Although keeping up to d...

2.15pm 8 June  2025 Burnley Summer League at Mount Carmel High School, Accrington Globe FC 14 Hyndburn 2 (att 22) From my lunchtime game in Nelson it was a short drive to Accrington, where the playing field at Mount Carmel Roman Catholic High School was due to stage its second fixture of the day. I arrived about 20 minutes before kick off to find some confusion, and the goals being wheeled away from the main pitch. It turned out that heavy rain during the earlier match had left the pitch waterlogged. Rather the postpone the fixture it was moved, just a few yards, to a much smaller pitch on the edge of the playing field. The alternative pitch was way too small for an adult 11-a-side game, but with a bit of improvisation, including training cones used to indicate part of the touchline, there was a least a playable area to host the match. If my earlier game had been one-sided, this one was a complete mismatch. Hyndburn conceded the first goal in the opening minutes, and by half time t...

12 noon 8 June  2025 Burnley Summer League at Nelson and Colne College Dewhurst 6 Peel Park 1 (att 11) The Burnley Summer League, or at least this version of it, is a new addition to the off season this year.  It provides competitive football for 10 teams in a league format that will also determine the qualifiers for cup competitions later in the summer. A previous Burnley Summer League was a short-lived and ultimately doomed attempt to keep the town's Saturday league going, by switching to a summer season, more than a decade ago. This incarnation features predominantly, and possibly entirely, local Sunday league sides. Both Dewhurst and Peel Park were in the 2024/25 Burnley and District Sunday League, although the latter played as AFC Accrington, before recently coming under banner of Peel Park. As both sides had spent the season in the same division, finishing just three points apart, I expected a close game, but it turned out to be a stroll for Dewhurst. They scored three g...