Last week I sent in an article about our Midsomer Norton Junior Football League. I set it up as a First Year pupil at Norton Grammar School, which played Rugby. The reason I had the will to do this was that I was not able to play football there until much later on. I enjoyed all sports, but football was my passion.

I formulated a little soccer league from local housing estate teams and areas around Norton in 1967, but within a couple of years I knew that I was too young to carry the authority that a good set-up requires. In fairness to the other teams; we all struggled from lack of money for kits, footballs, goal nets, venues and the like.

Our team was Norton Rangers, and we were quite good at fundraising, as we had sponsored walks along the vacant railway lines and garden fetes, for example. The others were not as adept and relied on using school colours, as well as using our football and sometimes our players!

On one occasion, our fundraising went about fifty miles too far. We decided that it would be a good idea to do a sponsored cycle ride to Devizes and back. Why we chose Devizes? Not a clue, but probably because one of us had been there and it was as far away as any of us could think of.

This involved half-a-dozen twelve-year-olds cycling a 52-mile round trip in a day. We didn’t take any drinks or sandwiches, and I remember pulling in to a layby with camper vans parked up. They all had picnic tables out with food and fizzy pop. It was torturous to see them enjoy it all!

When we returned, I had forgotten that there was a meeting at our house in the High Street that evening. We could hardly pedal our bikes by the time we got back and I can remember feeling dog-tired. I dragged up back through Speed’s yard to the house, to be met by a group of adults asking where I had been.

The reason why this gathering was called are still sketchy in my mind, but it was probably at the behest of my parents. Richard Hunt was one adult I remember was there, and he worked for my Dad at Speed’s. They were trying to persuade me to give up the idea of the League, and merge the best players into one group as Midsomer Norton. They would then play in the Bath and

District League.

I was absolutely shattered from the ride. The thought of having to carry on holding a disparate group of pre-teens together in a league that had lost all its gloss. I agreed to the proposal straight away and promptly fell asleep. The next thing I knew, the room was empty, my head was slumped on the table and Mum was shaking me to go to bed.

The Norton team was duly formulated and we went back to playing home games at Norton Rec, which was horrible! Local kids are much better off with the skate park. The team did not last long, as we took a hammering in most of our games.

Bristol City and Rovers had Junior teams in the League, so we were very mis-matched. I was lucky enough to be spotted by Mr Kendall, who ran a team in Radstock called South Hill Park, based at the Technical College. They had a much better side and were more equipped to compete with the big teams.

This coincided with the Grammar School going comprehensive and embracing football. Embrace may be too strong a word, as I was later banned from the rugby team. It was assumed I was earning money from playing for Welton. I was Captain of the rugby team, and loved playing rugby. It was strictly amateur at that time. If anything else, it was a real ‘cut your nose to spite your face’ moment for the school and myself.

When the school became a comprehensive, we merged with Timsbury and Paulton. They were soccer schools, so we started to play football in 1971.

The football team at South Hill Park merged in my own mind with the footballers we had at school. The school was now drawing from a much wider area and had some really good players for both Norton Hill and the Sunday team. By the time I was fourteen, I was playing school rugby on a Saturday morning, Welton Reserves in the afternoon and South Hill Park on a Sunday.

The photo I have included is from around 1971-2. I am not absolutely sure whether it is of Norton Hill School or South Hill park, as a number of players were in both teams. Perhaps readers can help with this and add a couple of missing names?

Simon Wellington