Whitchurch Alport - Yockings Park

Whitchurch Alport FC

Yockings Park

Black Park Road

Whitchurch

Shropshire

SY13 1PG

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Ground Number: 1388

Saturday 22nd February 2025

Whitchurch Alport 2-4 1874 Northwich
Midland Premier

WHITCHURCH ALPORT FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was formed in 1946 during the football season that followed World War 2. It was named after Alport Farm in Alport Road, Whitchurch, which had been the home of Coley Maddocks, a local footballer who had been killed in action in the war. They spent two seasons in the Shrewsbury & District League, winning the title in the second season. Whitchurch Alport joined the Mid-Cheshire League in 1948 where they remained for many years. Before expansion, they were runners-up three times and champions in 1970. A second division was added from 1975 until 1983 and then again in 1987. The following year, Whitchurch went down to Division 2 where they finished 3rd twice and went back up after two seasons. They went down again in 2001 and remained in Division 2 when the league was renamed to the Cheshire League in 2007. In 2012, the club was forced to resign from the Cheshire League after 64 years, surviving narrowly and playing in the Mercian Regional Football League until they joined the North West Counties League following a successful appeal in 2015. They started in Division 1, finishing bottom in their first season. By 2018 they had improved to finish 4th and beat Sandbach United and Cammell Laird in the playoffs to reach the Premier Division. They've been there ever since with a best finish of 9th in 2023.

Whitchurch Alport have reached the 1st Qualifying Round of the FA Cup twice - most recently this season when they took step 4 side Wythenshawe Town to a replay before losing 2-1 in Manchester. During the 2021/22 season, they reached the FA Vase Quarter Final. Tividale, Pershore Town, Sleaford Town, Malvern Town, Atherstone Town, Congleton Town and Coventry Sphinx were beaten before they lost to eventual winners Newport Pagnell Town. They have a chance to better that in around a week as they travel to Whitstable Town in another quarter-final. Local cups won include the Welsh FA Trophy in 1974, five Shropshire County Cups and the Shropshire County FA Huddersfield Cup and Shropshire Senior Cup in 2019. Former Northern Ireland international (46 caps, 12 goals) and football league striker Jimmy Quinn, most noted for his spell at Reading in the 1990s started his career at Whitchurch Alport as a teenager in 1977.

The club plays at Yockings Park. The dressing rooms were constructed from wooden packing crates acquired from the Military Camp at Prees Heath shortly after the end of World War 2. Whitchurch is a market town in the north of Shropshire, England. It lies 2 miles east of the Welsh border, 2 miles south of the Cheshire border and 20 miles north of the county town of Shrewsbury. The population is around 10,000 and it is noted for its traditional architecture. Historically the town has been the centre of cheese-making. Today Belton Cheese continues to be a major employer. It has been in existence since 1922. The town has a railway station but with infrequent trains.  Monday to Saturday, the station is served both by the local stopping service between Shrewsbury and Crewe (every two hours each way) and certain longer-distance trains between Manchester Piccadilly and Cardiff Central. Whitchurch Rugby Club currently competes in the Midlands 1 West league, the sixth tier of English rugby. Founded in 1936, the club plays at Edgeley Park, around a mile from town. Whitchurch is twinned with Neufchâtel-en-Bray in northern France.

MY VISIT

Whitchurch Alport had long been a target ground of mine, ever since I had seen a favourable review on Joe Gibbons' excellent blog. This was made even more important with them being moved to the Midland League as I only had them and Uttoxeter Town to visit to complete the Premier Division. The one thing that had prevented me from visiting though was the train prices. When looking on the Wednesday before, the asking price was a whopping £67, even using the best value splits. It was not that much more to drive, even if I took into account servicing costs in what had been an expensive year. It was with that fact in mind that I decided to try and get a few more miles out of my brake pads and tyre before they got changed on Tuesday. I decided to try and find a double to make driving worthwhile, Chelmsford-born hopper Daniel Turner had been to Stafford Rangers last Saturday and it really got me in the mood for a revisit. My blog for that ground could do with some work on the club history and as it was, I spent the whole of Wednesday afternoon updating my blog. The two clubs were a decent pairing and with Colin coming with me, it was going to be a decent value day out for two games.

I was back in Wycombe on Saturday around 9.20. I even had time for salt and chilli chips from the ever-excellent Peking House. The food was great, prices cheap and I was on the 9.35 bus home as the service was great. It had been a boozy old day but not a great one in terms of pubs as my original plan in Solihull had involved a load of Wetherspoons. As it turned out, everything in that area was wiped out, so Wombourne was a decent choice and a good club. I only got a few hours of sleep ahead of my day at work on Sunday. I already knew that my FA Sunday Cup game was off but it was a reasonable day at work on both Sunday & Monday. Tuesday was my day off as usual and as well as a walk down Wycombe and back, it was my car's annual MOT & service. It was not good news. The MOT & Service cost £337.15 and I'll be without my car next Tuesday too as it needs new front and rear brake pads and a new tyre. The dire month of February has continued for a while.

 

It was Wycombe once more on Tuesday as they faced Bristol Rovers. The main talking point though was the outrageous £32.50 Birmingham City was asking for away fans tickets for our game up there soon. I was looking forward to a revisit there but I am glad that I'm busy elsewhere in the North West that weekend. Wycombe barely had to get out of first gear to beat a poor Bristol Rovers 2-0 but it was a nice win. My local team Holmer Green also beat Windsor 3-0 to make it a good night. The bad February continued though when I was up for some of the night with a dodgy stomach, so I was glad of the short shift at work on Wednesday. I finally gave myself something to look forward to with this double with the weather looking good, still anticipating something going wrong though. The rest of the week was fine at work. As much as I'd have fancied some Friday night football, I didn't fancy a 300-mile round trip to a new ground or a visit for the second Friday in a row to Beaconsfield, so a few cans it was.

We left our previous game at Stafford at 12.30. From there it was a cross-country route. We passed through the pleasant-looking town of Eccleshall and past the ground which I still need. When I looked, it was very tricky by public transport. We got to Market Drayton just after 1 and parked up. The pay and display was just 40p for an hour, retro pricing. The reason for the visit was Wetherspoons 391 - The Hippodrome in Market Drayton. I'd missed out when visiting the ground but it was a pleasant place. I had a chicken strips meal with non-alcoholic Kopparberg for £7.78. From there it was 25 minutes to the ground where we parked in the overflow car park. It was a short walk to the ground where I paid £8 to get in. In the club shop, a hoodie was £10 and a drawstring bag £8. It was nice to put some money into clubs, unlike a certain naughty hopper who got in on a free carers ticket at Sutton United. That said, £21 is pretty steep for non-league, so I don't know. I also got a can of Magners for £3. Everyone was lovely and friendly and I knew I'd made a good decision to come.

 

Whitchurch Alport were in 6th place, one position but six points off the playoffs. They'd won five league games in a row, the latest a 3-1 win at Studley last Saturday. 1874 Northwich were in 4th place and were in mixed form. Their last result was a 0-0 draw at home to Shifnal Town last Saturday. It was the visitors who took the lead on 25 minutes, a great strike from Mark Jones who finished into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. Whitchurch only had the occasional chance on the break and 1874 made it 2-0 on 37 minutes when a corner was bundled home. Whitchurch Alport started the second half brightly but it was 0-3 on the hour, Shaun Weaver finishing off a move on the break. Whitchurch Alport reduced the arrears by 64 minutes, and Freddie Bishton converted a very soft penalty. Northwich made it 4-1 on 82 minutes, a ball across the area was poked home by Henry McNulty. The hosts reduced the arrears from close range in injury time but it was too little, too late.

 

The attendance was 314 including a healthy following from Northwich who would be gone home happy. It was a lovely club to visit but on the field, they were second best.  It had been a lovely day in lovely company. We got back to the car at 5 to discover that we had missed a 0-0 draw at Wycombe, my decision to go hopping vindicated. Mike Dodds, our new manager, seems a bit obsessed with clean sheets for my liking. Gone is the free-flowing football with iffy defence under Matt Bloomfield, replaced with a more safe style of football. The jury is very much out on the new man in my opinion. It was disappointing to see former boss Gareth Ainsworth's Shrewsbury Town had lost to Stevenage. My local side Holmer Green had been thumped 5-0 at Yateley United. In fact, the only good news from Bucks was that Milton Keynes lost. It was a decent journey home although Colin fell asleep. The radio was very poor, Troy Deeney on TalkSPORT not a patch on other phone-ins. I dropped Colin off and was in at 8.15, having dinner, a few drinks and typing my blog before bed.

THE GROUND  

YOCKINGS PARK is a great venue to visit which has cover on all four sides. The only negative is that you can't walk all the way around as a quarter of the ground is closed off. The main stand holds around 150 and is a traditional structure. Opposite, the cover runs all the way along, with around 25 seats. Behind one goal is a small terrace, keeping a few hundred under cover. The far goal has a small seated pre-fab stand, holding around 50. The bar offers a decent range and the food is fairly priced. The best aspect is the club shop with a huge range of merch at fair prices, sadly no old programmes though. Parking is plentiful, mainly in the overflow car park. The town is a short walk away with irregular bus and train services out of the area.