Beginning with the answer to last week's visit, the club we were looking for was Atherton Collieries.
The quick link referred to the little known American philanthropist Arnold M. Eisen, and Colls took to social media to try to get the answer to this one but, so far as I know, nothing was forthcoming.
He is little known because he is completely fictitious, so our friend Mr. Google (other internet search engines are available) wouldn’t be able to help, but the link is that the name is an anagram of Emil Anderson who is currently Secretary of Atherton Collieries.
The photo shows just how imaginative our clubs can be in providing facilities at little cost.
So, on to this week and if you thought that last week’s quick link was a bit obscure then so is this one.
This historic market town lies towards the south of the area covered by the League. Throughout the year, many festivals are held including a three day Jazz and Blues Festival at the end of August and a Food and Drink Festival held in June.
Flowers are an important feature of this town as winning the North West in Bloom competition in 2013 and 2015 will testify. The town now goes on to represent the North West in the 2016 Britain in Bloom competition.
The major park in the town was opened as long ago as 1871 and won a Green Flag Award – awarded to the best open spaces – in the four consecutive years between 2008 and 2011. One of the major features of the park is the Pavilion which was built to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. As with many public buildings, the Pavilion has had something of a chequered history but was restored in 2005.
For those of us who might want to improve our physical fitness, this town hosts a 5 km Park Run every Saturday starting at 9 am. Interestingly, perhaps, it starts and finishes at an Indian Restaurant and it might just be within my capabilities to start at 9 am and finish the 5K just in time for lunch.
As with many of our towns, this place once had many thriving local industries. Perhaps the most well known, and profitable, was silk making but the area also specialised in lace and leather gloves. Many of the old mills are still in existence but are now converted into residential units which are much in demand as the town has become an attractive commuter town but something of a traffic bottleneck.
On the sporting front, the town was notorious in the 17th century as a centre for cock fighting and bear baiting and this latter, rather outdated, pursuit is the origin of the nickname of this town. Of more recent times, the local rugby team hold the record for the longest rugby match ever played which lasted for over 24 hrs. The answer to the question why? would be informative.
This town is home to two Olympic medallists from the 1964 games held in Tokyo in the form of the husband and wife team of Ann Packer (Gold - 800 metres) and Robbie Brightwell (Silver - 4x400 metres.). Two of their sons, Ian and David, played football for Manchester City.
Organised football in this town has a long history going back to the Victorian era. The club was another of the League’s founder members back in 1982 and joined the Northern Premier League in 1987 before rejoining the NWCFL in 2001. A renowned cup side with the highlight being an appearance in the first round proper of the FA Cup in the 1989/90 season although the result last Saturday will have been a disappointment.
Quick link - What links this town with the former Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea star Nicolas Anelka?
