Ramsbottom United		FAT2Q		11.11.17	
THE BACKGROUND
Between 1907 and 1910 Alty played Ramsbottom half a dozen times in the Manchester League, but that club has as far as I know no connection with our guests this afternoon, who first saw the light of day in 1966. For the record, the Robins won two, drew one and lost three of those games. 
THE GROUND
My one and only visit to United’s Riverside Stadium was for an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie against Thackley in August 2002 which the Rams won by the only goal. At that time they were members of the North West Counties League First Division, along with Abbey Hey, Clitheroe, Mossley, Nantwich Town, Warrington Town, Curzon Ashton, Fleetwood Town and Salford City among others. The East Lancashire Railway (which I seem to remember using that day) runs past the far end while, as I recall, the cricket ground also adjoins the site, which is within walking distance of the town centre. There is seating and covered standing on one side of the ground and one end is a covered terrace. 
AT THIS STAGE …
ALTY IN THE TROPHY 2nd QUALIFYING ROUND (N.B. From 1998-9 to 2004-5 this was known as Round 1)
Season		Opposition		H/A	Score	Att	Scorers
1974-5		Runcorn			H	0-0	n/a
		Runcorn			A	0-0	1461
		Runcorn			A	1-1	1158	J. Hughes
		Runcorn			H	2-0	1600	Smith, J. Hughes
2000-1		Ilkeston Town		A	1-1	597	Thomas
		Ilkeston Town		H	4-3	322	Hay, Landon 2 (1 pen), Talbot     (a.e.t.)
2001-2		Spalding United		A	0-0	307
		Spalding United		H	3-2	458	Thornley 2, Sertori
2003-4		Gateshead		A	2-1	222	Welton 2
2004-5		Ossett Albion		H	6-1	456	Hallows, Talbot, Band, Scott, Potts, Little
2017-8		Ramsbottom United  	H

Summary		P	W	D	L	F	A
Home		5	4	1	0	15	6
Away		5	1	4	0	4	3
Overall		10	5	5	0	19	9

(It may well be of interest to at least one potential member of the visiting squad that in all four games against Runcorn in 1974 the Alty no. 8 shirt was worn by one Graham Heathcote, who was in addition team manager in seasons 2003-4 and 2004-5)

LAST WEEK’S QUIZ QUESTION
Barry Wood was the former Robin who appeared for Lancashire in the snow-affected County Championship match at Buxton in 1975, opening the batting and scoring 26. His Moss Lane career was short and somewhat chequered. Making his debut in a North-West Floodlit League game at Runcorn on Monday October 14th 1968, he did well enough to be named as substitute for the following Saturday’s NPL game at bottom of the table Worksop but wasn’t used as the Robins went down 2-1 in what manager Freddie Pye called “my worst experience in the new league”, citing a “ridiculous” pitch and a lack of atmosphere at Central Avenue, which coincidentally doubled as a cricket ground, but recognising “a shocking display, the kind I will not tolerate.” As it turned out it was probably a good thing that “Woody” didn’t feature as it was later discovered that he wasn’t actually eligible to play! The following Monday he was to have played against Hyde United in another NWFL game but was involved in a collision while driving to Moss Lane and arrived only ten minutes before kick-off. He was switched to substitute and did get on the field later for what turned out to be his last appearance for Alty. In his more famous role as a cricketer he was capped 12 times in Tests by England, scoring 454 runs, and made a further 13 appearances in one-day internationals, scoring 314 runs and taking nine wickets. He scored just under 13,000 runs and took just over 250 wickets in first-class cricket for Lancashire between 1966 and 1979 and also played for his native Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Cheshire.