Words: Dave Proudlove // @fslconsult
These days, I live in Biddulph, a former mining town on the northern fringes of The Potteries. As a dedicated follower of Stoke City, it's heartening that there's a strong local contingent of Potters, most notably the Knypersley and Biddulph Stoke City Supporters Club who put on coaches to games and host players' evenings at the local cricket club.
But it's not all red and white stripes, and a friend - who supports our cousins in Burslem, Port Vale - often reminds me of that. Indeed, he tends to go further, stating that as Biddulph residents, Port Vale are our 'local' team, and therefore that's who we naturally should follow.
I suppose there is something in the argument, but everybody's personal story is different, and that's the case with me. In years gone by my dad - who is sadly no longer around - would watch Stoke when they were at home, and then watch Port Vale when they were at home. This is a common story, and there are many people of a certain age that did the same thing. However, towards the end of the 1960s, Dad decided to stick with Stoke and began to go to away games, giving the Vale a miss.
Eventually, I began to attend Stoke games with Dad, and that's how it all started for me. At the time we were living in the Stoke-on-Trent village of Packmoor, which is even closer to Burslem and Vale Park than Biddulph is. And so, although I always saw Stoke as my local club, on the basis of my friend's argument, it isn't.
So, how local is local in the context of football clubs? Well, I guess that really depends on how far down the football pyramid you are prepared to go.
Tunstall Road, home of Biddulph Victoria FC.
Photo Credit: Football Ground Map // https://www.footballgroundmap.com/
For both my friend and I, our true local club is Kidsgrove Athletic who compete in the Northern Premier League Division One West, the eighth tier of English football. After a long history in local leagues, the Grove entered the North West Counties Football League in the 1980s, and have done solidly ever since. They are seen as one of the local non-league scenes' brighter lights, and a couple of seasons ago enjoyed a very good run in the FA Cup before being knocked out by Hartlepool United.
And almost equally close is Congleton Town who have just enjoyed an incredible campaign in the North West Counties Football League Premier Division, the ninth tier of the English game. The Bears may have only finished mid-table, but they won the League Cup, the Cheshire Senior Cup, and reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase where they went out on penalties. As with Kidsgrove, Congleton have a long history, and can currently count Port Vale's all-time record goalscorer Tom Pope among their number.
And a few years ago, we wouldn't even have had to have gone that far. Until 2011, Biddulph had its own senior football club in Biddulph Victoria, which is where the aforementioned Pope began his senior career. The Vics began life as Knypersley Victoria in 1969 at the Tunstall Road sports ground, but in 2002 the club was renamed Biddulph Victoria to be representative of the town as a whole. In the summer of 2009 - a month after I joined the club's management committee as treasurer and development officer - The Vics were given two years' notice to quit the ground, and with nowhere else to play their football, the club folded in May 2011.
Going back to my childhood days in Packmoor and following Stoke City with Dad, using the above rule of thumb, our true local club would have been Kidsgrove Athletic. Indeed, the club now has a football development centre in Packmoor, utilising pitches that I played on as a kid.
But towards the end of the 1980s, a club was born that was even more closer to home than The Grove.
Congleton Town FC’s Main Stand.
Photo Credit: North West Counties Football League // https://www.nwcfl.com/index.php
At the time I was a student at Chell High School - it was renamed James Brindley High School in 1989 - and alongside the school was Great Chell Cricket Club, which was one of Stoke-on-Trent's great old cricket grounds with a large grandstand, banked seating, and a grand modernist pavilion. It hosted county cricket for a spell, and was often described as "the Lords of The Potteries", while players such as Roy Gilchrist and Wes Hall graced the old turf.
But by the late 1980s, the facilities were in decline, and my own experiences there were limited to school discos hosted in the club - it was there where I had my first kiss, to Boy Meets Girl's 'Waiting For A Star To Fall' - and the occasional shortcut on my way home from school.
And so around the turn of the 1990s, the ground changed hands, taken on by a new owner who had no interest in cricket, but fancied himself as a bit of a mini Jack Walker. He formed the curiously named K Chell Football Club, which gained its moniker from the village and the name of the gentleman's wife, Kay.
K Chell's first season of competitive football was the 1991/92 season when they entered the West Midlands (Regional) League Division Two, and they absolutely tore it up. They lifted the title taking 88 points from 38 games, scoring 128 goals in the process.
Following this success, for the 1992/93 season they joined the North West Counties Football League, and were placed in Division Two, where K Chell found life much more difficult, finishing in 14th place - out of 18 - on 38 points.
K Chell were managed for a spell by local non-league legend Terry Greer - now my chairman at Alsager Town - who enjoyed great success with Rocester, taking them into the Southern League. Terry found his time at K Chell difficult, saying of the owner "he was a nice enough bloke, but he had no idea about how to run a football club." This was perhaps illustrated by the ground's notoriously poor playing surface: it was a cricket pitch and not intended for football, and this was compounded by a poor management regime, with little in the way of maintenance carried out.
The following season was nothing short of a disaster for K Chell as they finished second from bottom, winning just four games. And that was it. In the summer of 1994, the club had crashed and burned, and the ground's owner spent years battling to secure planning permission for housing on the site, something that the city council always resisted.
The former Great Chell Cricket Club, eventual home of K Chell Football Club.
Photo Credit: Reverse Sweeper
During the Noughties, my old high school was demolished, rebuilt and academised, becoming the Ormiston Horizon Academy, and part of the new facility stands on the old Great Chell Cricket Ground. All that remains is an old boundary wall that runs along Uplands Avenue.
Fast forward to 2023, and here in Biddulph, there is a vibrant youth football scene, while girls’ football is becoming increasingly popular, partly due to the recent success of the Lionesses. There are a number of local clubs including Chatterley Vics, Knypersley Victoria - reborn once again - and Knypersley Knights.
The football facilities at the Tunstall Road sports ground where Port Vale legend Tom Pope made his first steps toward a successful professional career are still there, a five minute walk from my front door. So who knows, perhaps my town could support a senior club once more, and my friend and I could consign our Stoke-Vale local club debate to the bin.
Want to contribute? DM us on X or send us an email.
@_footyheritage
hello@footballheritage.co.uk