Saturday 5th July 2025 - Pre-Season Friendly - Harrowby United (0) 0 v Stamford AFC (1) 3 (OG or Luke Shaw 44, Jordon Cooke 66, Cameron Johnson 87. Attendance: 156
Woo-hoo! That's one of my bucket list grounds for this term already ticked off, while the new season is still only in the process of doing a few stretches and warm-up exercises n’all. And, as it turned out, a great opportunity to catch up with a few friendly faces from local (ish) football circles, who I haven't touched base with for a while.
This game kicked off at 11.45am to allow the visitors: Stamford AFC, of the Southern League, Premier Division Central, to travel to a second fixture at 4pm against their neighbouring club: Blackstones FC, who like Harrowby United ply their trade in the United Counties League, Premier Division North. If I’d been better organised, then I’d have nipped along to the Seven Bespoke Joinery Stadium too, to tick off a second game of the day, but I’d already arranged to attend a curry night, before I head off ‘abroad’ for a Sunday game, while most of you will still be tucked up in bed.
It beggars belief that I haven't visited this forward-thinking and progressive football club before, given their close proximity to both my des-res (35 miles away) and that bloody horrible A-road that I spend so much time on, gallivanting up and down this sceptered isle, at least a dozen times a month. Y’know the place: that bumpy old 410 mile stretch that links the capital cities of England and Scotland together, with a substandard road surface, a myriad of potholes, a top-heavy compliment of speed-cameras and far too many short-notice night-time closures (that invariably coincide with my midweek travels to watch games of association football).
Were any of you aware, that in days of old, when Knights were bold and I was still a bonny cherub of a lad (who’d have thunk it, eh!?), this accursed road used to dissect East Retford upon Idle too? It passed right through the middle of town, where that narrow part of (the now pedestrianised) Carolgate thoroughfare is, before continuing north round the even narrower bend on White Hart Corner. Picture that!
Harrowby itself, is book-ended neatly into a rural Lincolnshire hinterland, sandwiched between the A1 and A17. This conurbation is actually considerably larger and more densely populated than you might imagine. But, it used to be even bigger, until it was split in two circa 1894. After the passing of time, Grantham eventually usurped one half of the territory in 1909.
Incidentally, Nicholas Parsons and Margaret Thatcher both originated from Grantham. One presented a television programme called Sale of the Century, while the other took inspiration from the show's name and sold off British industry in its entirety during her Draconian spell as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She was actually elected one day before I left school… and the day after I left Ordsall Hall County Secondary School, I went to Wembley to watch the FA Cup Final.
Curiously, when the split occurred and two new Harrowby’s were formed, they were renamed Harrowby Within and Harrowby Without, respectively. In 1930 the ‘Without' people merged with nearby Londonthorpe village, to form the Civil Parish of Londonthorpe and Harrowby Without. The Withinners had already sided up with Grantham during the aforementioned 1909 amalgamation.
So, do Harrowby United reside in Harrowby Within or Harrowby Without? Which of the two do they represent? Does their name, ‘United’ indicate that they are actually a unison of both? Or does their official address of: Dickens Road, Grantham, render inert all of the painstaking research I have undertaken on this subject (AKA five minutes scrolling through Wikipedia). Either way, there will be questions asked in my monthly quiz, so I hope you have all been paying attention.
Former Mansfield Town midfielder (53 games, 3 goals) and all-round nice bloke Jack Thomas, was making his debut for the visitors today. Another ex-Stags player who in common with Thomas had come through the clubs youth set up is Jamie McGee, who is the Arrows current first team manager. McGee made two football league appearances for Mansfield and also played against York City at Bootham Crescent in the Setanta Shield (Conference League Cup)
Stamford appear to have updated their traditional ‘Daniels’ nickname to the less formal sounding ‘Dannies’. Daniel Lambert, who was thought to be England's heaviest man ever, used to reside in Stamford, where he is now buried, in a bloody great big coffin. And that's where the punchy sobriquet originated from.
A few years ago (February 17th, 2012, Stamford AFC 4 v Sheffield FC 3) I purchased a badge from the club shop at Lowthorpe Road (Stamford’s former home before they moved to the ‘Zeeco Stadium’ in 2014), depicting Lambert’s rather portly frame. It’s an amusing and tasteful item of football memorabilia, even if he didn’t actually have yellow hair.
Dickens Road, is possibly the nearest ground to my homestead that I’ve never previously visited. It's approximately thirty-five miles away as the crow flies, give or take a few circuits of the houses on the estate adjacent to the ground searching for an entrance. A club volunteer gave me a more accurate sat-nav code to the one I had copied off of t’interweb.
The ground has a seated stand, behind the dug-outs on the far side of the pitch to the entrance, a covered standing area on the near side, halfway down the touchline, sheltered standing and benches outside the clubhouse and a raised viewing platform approximately thirty yards along from the bar. So there's plenty of choice to be had for all sorts of tastes. There's also a children's play area behind the covered standing, which was well populated today.
The game got under way at a decent tempo, with both defences having plenty to do, but looking fairly solid and well organised. Though it was still a fairly humid day, the hot sun that has been a prominent feature of the previous week, was thankfully only peering out from behind cloud cover. However, it was still good practice to take fluids on board (the bar was open), with pitch itself looking particularly thirsty. It’ll be okay once it’s been treated to a few downpours.
As the two teams slugged it and the half-time interval approached, it look as if the game was going to remain goalless going into the break, despite the best efforts of Tobias Liversidge, Cameron Johnson and Elliott Durrell who all went close to opening the scoring for the visitors. But Stamford took the lead in the final minute of the first-half when Connor Bartle’s floating right-wing free-kick glanced off the head of a Harrowby defender, under a challenge from Luke Shaw.
Some sources suggested that Shaw had made the incisive last touch, while others claimed it was an own goal. I’m going to sit on the fence as regards this matter. Either way Stamford had a single-goal lead at the interval.
Harrowby made a spirited start to the second half as they pushed for an equaliser, but just after the hour-mark, Johnson set up a great chance that Jordon Cooke netted with ease from close range to double the visitors lead.
The Daniels/Dannies shut up shop and saw the game out from then on in. While Johnson added a third goal with a superb strike in the dying minutes. All told, results don't count for much at this time of the year, but I think both teams will be happy with their work rate and the pace that the game was plated at. As for Harrowby United… it might have been my first time here, but it certainly won't be the last now that I've worked out where it actually is. FT: Harrowby United 0 v Stamford AFC 3.
For the record, Stamford lost 2-1 at Blackstones in their second game of the day.