JULY 2012 & A DRIVE TO CLAY CROSS TOWN FC: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT...

The Devil Made Me Do It…

Having voted for a change of name, allowing visiting teams to avoid head-scratching at the venue of ‘Parkhouse’ for Clay Cross Town FC, it seemed sensible to use the town’s name in the club’s identity, so that satnavs would scream recognition and make phone enquiries less frequent. But what to call the ground? The football gods deemed it hilarious to ensure that Rob Clements, owner of a local tattoo shop, should win a raffle to earn the right to rename the ground from its former Mill Lane. His business was ‘The Devil Made Me Do It Tattoo Store’ which became the ground’s name. Loved that…

When I arrived for a friendly match v Heanor in July 2012, which the visitors edged 1-2 with a late winner, I was welcomed from Solihull like I had travelled from Serbia. The two veterans at the entrance, also known as ‘Fixtures and Fittings’ were fine characters and then Martin Roberts sprang from behind a wall. He had called me en route to assure me that the game was going ahead and was so decent, that apart from buying 50-50 draw tickets from him, to my chagrin I also purchased a new club badge. 

I don’t do badges…

Martin was wearing a virtual sash which read, ‘General Dogsbody’ but he fought tooth and nail to align shirt numbers with players’ names for me, so I could later write a vague account of the proceedings.

 An elderly gentleman took me into the V.I.P. hut to sign the visitors’ book, the first to do so since the name change, apparently. He also called me “Duck…” and thus I gathered that I really was welcome. He apologised for the absence of biscuits and activity near the tea-urn, assuring me that when the season started, steam would surely rise. An 8-page programme had been produced and was free with the entrance fee of £2 but the club’s usual programme had been nationally acclaimed during the previous season, I believe. The programme would muscle out to 36 pages for the season and I agreed to subscribe, for any cash to Clay Cross Town FC would aid their efforts to provide floodlights for the Devil’s Needle Stadium…

The club was neat and very friendly, with improvements in the pipeline. As a few spots of rain began to fall and I was making a note of Clay Cross players’ names from Martin’s scribbled list, an acquaintance from Retford United’s Mick Godber days walked past and we spent the afternoon nattering. He used to do the announcing at Cannon Park and when he reached a certain Yorkshire club’s half-time score, he would say with relish, “Brighton 1, Dirty, Dirty, Dirty Leeds 0…” It’s what he did…

The game was lively, my new club badge was carefully pinned to The Bodging's sash and I decided to visit Clay Cross Town again during the regular season. 

I still haven’t.

But I will…  

THE BODGING, MINUS SASH BUT STILL GOING STRONG, PICTURED AT ALVECHURCH RECENTLY...