Wednesday 28th April 2021 18.30
Bolton Hospital Cup Quarter Final
Chew Moor Brook Sports Club 2 Old Boltonians 1 HT: 2-0 Att: 103 hc
25,35 : 50

from CMB Sports Ground

Dave and I would normally be heading out to the Peak District on a Wednesday for a Hope Valley League match, their preferred midweek matchday, as we had done several times since lockdown. However, with the weather not so good, Dave found us an interesting alternative; the Peak can be unforgiving in bad weather (as I was to find out the following week!). He’d found CMB FC playing a Bolton Hospital Cup quarter final against Old Boltonians. It sounded like a fixture from Victorian times and its rarity certainly piqued my interest. I hadn’t heard of either side. CMB, whose full name I was to discover, is Chew Moor Brook Sports Club, named after the Chew Moor area of Bolton, play in the West Lancashire League Premier division. Old Boltonians play in the Lancashire Amateur League Premier division.

The Chew Moor area of Bolton, to its west seems to be a hotbed of football. On the main Chew Moor lane within a few hundred yards going north you have the grounds of Tempest United, CMB and then Ladybridge FC. Before that Lostock Sports Club could be another team. This is on top of being between Bolton Wanderers and AFC Bolton, neither far away at all. Lostock Station is not too far away to the north making this a viable venue to get to by train.

I knew there was some sort of pun to be had with the names and so I give you – instead of Bolton down your food, you should Chew Moor – apologies for that, but needs must.

There was no entrance fee for the Hospital Cup, but a donation was recommended to raise funds for the hospital and a man duly came round with a bucket. It proved to be a very popular competition with just over a hundred fans turning up. A great turn out and luckily for us the predicted bad weather didn’t materialise. CMB were founded in 1971 and they play to the north of the small community of Chew Moor which is surrounded by farmland. Indeed the perimeter fence had a very sturdy farmlike quality to it, very different from your circular plastic pipe style normally found in football venues.

As you come in their was a smart portacabin style clubhouse next to changing rooms which sported a corrugated iron roof overhanging in an awning to give some covered standing for spectators.

This was another entertaining game proving that with football you don’t need multi-million pound players to enjoy a great game of football – you get them at all levels and at this sort of level you can pretty much bet both teams will be going for it, no percentage games or attritional football here. I’m guessing CMB were the favourites given their respective leagues but there wasn’t a lot in the game. A defensive error let in CMB for their first and a cracking move was finished off nicely with a sliced second from close range. Old Boltonians scored from a free-kick not long after the break to set up a nail-biting finish but couldn’t find the equaliser.