Yorkshire Amateur

Yorkshire Amateur AFC were formed back in 1918 in Leeds by a man called Kolin Robertson.

For the first couple of years they were based at Elland Road after Leeds City FC became defunct, before they sold it to newly formed Leeds United for £250 in 1920. "The Ammers" moved to their current home at Bracken Edge off Harehills Lane.

Ammers became founder members of the Yorkshire League in 1920, where they remained for sixty two years. The club also reached the FA Cup on a couple of occasions, before bowing out to Carlisle United in 1931-32 and Lincoln City in 1945-46.

In 1982 the club became founder members of the Northern Counties East League, where they have remained since while trying to produce their own players through an impressive youth set up.

In season 2014-15, Yorkshire Amateur will compete in the Northern Counties East League Division One.

My visit

Yorkshire Amateur 1 Scarborough Athletic 6 (Saturday 8th November 2008) Northern Counties East League Division One (att: 220)

I missed out on Scarborough Athletic's first couple of visits in the league and cup so when Fred rang me and said he was having his stag do on the day of the NCEL visit in November 2008, I made sure I booked the day off work.

I got to Leeds later than the rest of the lads. Some were already well "in beer" as they'd watched the Rugby League World Cup semi-final earlier. We had a good tour of some excellent purveyors of real ale before I got a taxi with Butch to the ground to spend a bit of time in the clubhouse with the rest of the sizeable away following.

It was certainly very friendly but not the tidiest of clubroom's I'd ever used. The lads who went the previous season said it was warmer outside than in the club the previous season and it had been tidied up quite a lot since last time. The mind boggles. What they lacked in salubrious surroundings, they made up for in hospitality and service. The catering was nice and cheap.

Bracken Edge didn't seem a bad place to watch football. It had a small strip of flat standing on three sides of the pitch with banking behind the goals towards the corner flags on the stand side. On the far side of the pitch stood an all weather floodlit five a side court. The side where you enter has all the facilities, namely the clubhouse and dressing rooms, then a bit further up a long stand with a mixture of seats and terracing which formed excellent acoustics for the travelling Seadogs.

Boro won the match 6-1. The Ammers had equalised but then were reduced to ten men almost immediately when one of their players was deemed to have handled on the line, which I considered to be a harsh ruling that ruined the game as a spectacle thereafter. The Ammers had knocked Boro out of the Wilkinson Sword Trophy in a shock a few weeks earlier. It was easy to see how as they had a talented and spirited young side. Ryan Blott was the star of the show for Boro as he rattled in five goals. Bunner also put in a cabaret performance by rugby tackling a Boro fan, who'd been a bit of an embarrassment down one of the banks and giving Radio York reporter (and York fan who took delight in our struggles), Barry Parker the third degree. The moments were gladly caught on you tube for prosperity.

Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSyrbZylI-A and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1sDDI2W9u4

We celebrated with another beer before getting a taxi back into the city to sample more imperious Tetley's, including one or two in The Templar Hotel, one of my favourite pubs in the world. With Butch and Batley flagging I went to catch up with the stag party who were in a trendy bar near the station. Unbelievably a group of lads from Scarborough who I use to play against came in as they'd been celebrating one of their birthdays.

My train journey home was a nightmare because of engineering works. I had to go to York and then Retford, where a replacement bus transported me to Grantham before another train took me to Kings Cross (not that I remember too much apart from having to get up to change modes, for some reason!). It had been a very long but enjoyable day out but I was not upset to get home.