CUFFED CHORLEY HAVE THEIR CAKE AND EAT IT

 

There will be singing and dancing (socially distanced, of course, to avoid a police fine) in the Lancashire town of Chorley tonight. Their football club, imaginatively nicknamed The Magpies, overcame The Rams (Derby FC) 2-0, in the FA Cup Round 3 this afternoon. Granted The Rams had a bunch of kids playing for them and I doubt that Wayne will have travelled? Wouldn't the prospect of a Chorley Cake got his taste buds salivating? See above, a local delicacy, 5 inches in diameter.

There was a lad from my local club, Hepworth United FC on the Derby bench, one of our club goalkeepers, George Sykes-Kenworthy, who has moved on to greater things on. His family are still closely involved with HUFC though.

My interest was doubled with an Independent Schools' FA footballer, from Repton School, near Derby, Harrison Soloman wearing the Derby 4 shirt. You will know by now, the game went the way of the National League North side (presently 10th), from the Sixth Tier, at Victory Park, a ground that was first used in 1920 and built to commemorate the end of the War. Victory Park hosted nearly a 10,000 crowd when the Magpies played neighbours Darwen FC in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round in 1932. You will of course read about Darwen yesterday. 

The stadium suffered a fire in 1945 and was rebuilt in 1947. After the fun of this weekend, Chorley have more down to earth league matches against Leamington FC, Kettering Town, Gateshead and Blyth Spartans. Back to business.

Chorley had more shots  than Derby (19-2), more corners (7-2), more possession (55%) ; and deserved their victory, played out in front of a skeletal crowd.

Chorley started in 1883 as a rugby club, but soon changed to soccer and were known as the Magpies from the 1890s. As usual they worked they way through the local leagues: Lancashire Junior, Lancashire Alliance, Lancs Combination and Cheshire County, into the National Premier and Football Conference. So far the club has beaten Football League clubs Wigan Athletic 2-3 and Peterborough Utd 1-2, in the previous cup rounds, to reach this famous day.

Brian Pilkington is a Life President, Mickey Walsh of the Republic of Ireland is a past player, so is Paul Mariner and Phil Cool....no... what I mean is Phil is a local lad, as is Bill Beaumont, Lee Mack and of course the Sad Cake, a bigger version of the Chorley cake, filled with fruit, pastry and so on. With a population of around 35,000, located near to Blackburn to the north-east and Bolton to the south-east, it is within shouting distance of Horwich will test whether my senior editor is reading this.

Rather like my village, Carlecotes, Chorley has an Anglo-saxon placename associated with the "ceorl" and "leah", a clearing (ley) in a woodland, where the "peasants" lived, with status similar to a yeoman or freeman. (the "cotes" bit in my settlement refers to the "side of a hill")

Chorley, of course, was located in the heart of the cotton industry, along with a local coal field and excellent transport facilities from the Mersey, industry blossomed; here is the local Liverpool to Leeds canal.