Liskeard Athletic - Lux Park

Liskeard Athletic FC

Lux Park

Coldstyle Road

Liskeard 

Cornwall

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Ground Number: 1289
Saturday 30th March 2024
Liskeard Athletic 2-0 Dobwalls
South West Peninsula West

LISKEARD ATHLETIC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The current club was established in 1946 after the Second World War but a club did exist in the town at the turn of the 20th century but went bust in 1935. After playing in local leagues such as the East Cornwall League, they joined the South Western League in 1966. Liskeard Athletic were champions in 1977 & 1979. After the latter win, they joined the Western League, finishing 3rd in Division 1 in their first season. This earned them promotion to the Western Premier which they won in 1988 as well as finishing as runners-up to Exmouth Town in 1986 and Taunton Town in 1990. Financial considerations saw the club drop back into the South Western League in 1995 despite success at the higher level. They were runners-up to St Blazey in the last-ever South Western League in 2007 before it merged with another league to become the South West Peninsula League. Liskeard Athletic were placed in the Premier Division and despite finishing 7th in 2012 were relegated to the Division 1 West in 2014 after finishing bottom and winning once all season. They won this division in 2019, at the time the league was being restructured and they were promoted to the West Division which sits at step 6 of the Non-League pyramid. They were runners-up to Falmouth Town in 2022 but there was only one promotion place available.

Liskeard Athletic have embarked upon fifteen FA Cup campaigns. Their best run has been to the 3rd Qualifying Round, reached on four occasions. In the FA Vase, their best run came during the 1994/95 season. They beat Wellington, Bideford, Cinderford & Tunbridge Wells before a defeat to fellow Cornwall side Falmouth Town in the 4th Round. Local cup wins include the Cornwall Senior Cup on seven occasions, two South Western League Cups, the Cornwall Charity Cup in 1980 and the Merit Cup in 1981. The market town of Liskeard is situated 20 miles west of Plymouth and has a population of around 11,000.

MY VISIT

Though this hop was primarily based in Devon, this would be the sole game in Cornwall as far as I could work out. Cornwall I think, was my least visited county with only Truro City's old ground (got food poisoning, narrowly avoided a waterlogged pitch and saw a 0-0), Newquay (fantastic pork and apple sausage rolls), AFC St Austell (a last-minute replacement for Wadebridge during Covid) and Falmouth Town (my favourite ground of all). I think the reason was that transport links are not so good and the lack of backups should the weather be bad. My favoured value-for-money option was to go for a midweek game and get the overnight coach back. For most though, the car was by far the most convenient option, albeit potentially very pricey.

I awoke early on the day of the game, being used to getting up for work. I felt pretty decent though and finished off my blogs from last night. After relaxing for a bit, we left at 8.30 and walked the five minutes to the car. It wasn't the best journey over to Liskeard, Google Maps choosing us some right obscure single-track roads for some reason. We were in Liskeard at 9.45, walking 15 minutes to Wetherspoons 319, The King Doniert. A breakfast was needed as I was starving and as tempting as a pint of Black Dragon was from the excellent cider selection, I went for Stowford Press at half the strength. It was all very nice and pleasant and I think the hoppers that stopped over here had a better place to look around than we did at Holsworthy. We were at the ground 45 minutes ahead of kickoff. Entry was the standard £6 and a disappointing programme was £1. Though it had been lovely and sunny so far, it didn't take the weather long to return to the standard rain as the heavens opened as kick-off approached.

 

Continuing where we left off yesterday in the West Division, Liskeard Athletic were the highest-placed team so far, sitting in 2nd.They'd won 3-0 at Wadebridge Town in their last game and had a good shot at that title, however, leaders AFC St Austell held the Indian sign over them this season results-wise. Local rivals Dobwalls were in 6th and in mixed form. They'd won 1-0 at Newquay in their last game. Dobwalls started the better side but it soon levelled out. On 21 minutes, Liskeard took the lead, Ruben Kane turning in a right-hand-sided ball from six yards. The game got quite physical at times, much to the chargrin of the Dobwalls manager who was very vocally active. His side started the second half strongly, playing down the slope. However, Liskeard doubled their lead from close range, Max Gilbert rounding the keeper to finish on 52 minutes. That was it as far as scoring was concerned with Liskeard safely seeing the game out.

THE GROUND

LUX PARK is a pleasant ground located around a 15-minute walk from the town centre. There is buses for public transport and street parking for cars. The ground itself has a small clubhouse, a BBQ and a merchandise stall. There a couple of areas of cover, an old stand holding around 100 and a standing area holding around the same time. The view from a lot of this is not great due to the dugouts in front but it was useful on a rainy day.