The Bristol Downs League is unmatched in British football culture, bringing together its 43 teams in the same place, so everyone’s always playing at home. Simon Horsford heads pitch side to tackle the story behind a unique sporting community – which was even the subject of a special BBC Sounds podcast series – championing the beautiful game in a way like no other. 1950s Clifton St Vincent’s Norman
Hardy Cup winners
Football, more than any other sport, brings people together. It offers a common bond. A sense of belonging. That connection is surely no better illustrated than with the 43 teams of the Bristol Downs League (BDL) where every game is a home game with 21 matches kicking off simultaneously on Saturdays at 2pm on the adjacent Clifton Down and Durdham Down. During the season, it’s quite the spectacle: a riot of bright and varied football shirts (for those of a certain age, it’s like the old Subbuteo teams colour chart come to life) and one that obviously works because the league has been going for more than 120 years.
This is grassroots football in its purest form, with the league affiliated to the Gloucestershire Football Association, but not connected to the “pyramid” (i.e. the Premier down to Tier 11 and the various county divisions). In essence, it’s a standalone league that captures the soul and the community of football. Players of varying degrees of competence and skill turning up on the Downs simply for their love of the game and the camaraderie. With everyone in their local team pub by 4.30pm – what’s not to like?
Heading up there one Saturday, it was quickly apparent as to why the league is so popular, with upwards of 450 players of varying ages giving their all across the four divisions of the league. As Gareth Browning, chairman and a player for one of the teams, Sneyd Park AFC, puts it: “The attraction is the sense of community. Yes, you’ve got your own team and club but outside that there’s a wider sense of family and because everyone is in the same place week in week out, you do get to know the other teams and clubs very well. It’s quite unique in that sense. The games are competitive but there is much friendlier feel to it and ease is a big factor as well.” As I walk up to the Downs another player is unloading some kit from his car. Alex, who plays for Ashley FC Reserves, tells me: “There’s a really good standard of players at varying levels, but you come on a Saturday and don’t take it too seriously. It’s a big community of people and a good spirit and then [after the game] you can head down to Whiteladies Road for a drink.”
The history boys
Sneyd Park, named after the adjacent suburb, is the oldest club in the league, having been formed in 1897, while Clifton St Vincents, closely followed in 1899. They both have a strong presence on the Downs, each with four teams spread across the four divisions, while Saints Old Boys (formed in 1971) actually have five (with two in Division 4, the second of which, Saints Old Boys C, is a run independently of the other four). With Torpedo AFC (begun in 1966) also boasting four teams and Portland Old Boys (1956) with three teams and others having a couple, it means there are actually 23 separate clubs across the four leagues. Best names surely go to Sporting Turin (who like their Turin-based counterparts, Juventus, play in black and white stripes) and the two-team Sporting Greyhound. The league also welcomed two new teams last year:
Hazelcare FC, made up of players who work in the local care industry, and Totterdown Hotspur, comprising an enterprising group of 16-year-old friends; by far and away the youngest team up on the Downs.
Elsewhere, capturing the diversity of the city, I learn that originally another of the teams, Easton Cowboys Downs, comprised refugees and asylum seekers from the area, although now the make-up of the team is less exclusive, while the Bengal Tigers also started as mainly comprising players with British Asian heritage.
The odd famous name has graced these pitches too: the future Arsenal and England star defender Eddie Hapgood played for (the now defunct) Union Jack on the Downs in the mid 1920s, while the same team also at one time featured the soon-to-be esteemed Gloucestershire and England batsman Wally Hammond (who also had a brief early spell at Bristol Rovers). Speaking of legends, WG Grace once played cricket up on the Downs for Gloucestershire against Surrey in 1870 – it was the only time the county ever played there.
Pitch (im)perfect
Spread out over some 440 acres, the Downs, the “green lungs” of the city can, in theory, accommodate 32 pitches of varying slope, unevenness and quality, and dotted among trees and bushes – the pitches are not the best, several players tell me, but serve a purpose. They stretch down towards the Sea Walls overlooking Avon Gorge – these tend to be inferior to those on the other side of Stoke Road, hence they host the division three and four games.
I head past the rather run-down and unloved changing rooms next to the old Durdham Down Water Tower and the popular Downs Cafe as the players begin to arrive. The league hopes to improve the facilities, which are far from satisfactory but any possible improvement comes down to funding. That may be easier said than done as Browning says: “the changing rooms are tired and have been there a long time. We have explored some options for grants through the FA and other roots of funding but it’s a lot of money.”
The difficulty, I learn, is that Downs are run by the Council and the Society of Merchant Venturers [which has been the case since an Act of Parliament in 1861] and they have to agree on anything that’s built on the land. But the Council says ‘it remains committed to the redevelopment and is still exploring funding options’.
Little wonder that teams such as Sneyd Park have an arrangement with the ‘team pub’, the nearby Coach and Horses, and utilise a converted garage at the back; while Clifton St Vincents change in the Kings Arms, and All Saints use a nearby school; local pubs have also become associated with various teams for the post-match get-together, such as the Beaufort Arms (Portland Old Boys) and Port of Call (Torpedo).
I make for the pokey referees’ room next door to the changing rooms (there are bags of footballs and lots of post-match snacks) and pick up a handy list of which match is taking place on which pitch – it’s quite the logistical feat. The Downs League president Lee Poole, who has been a referee since he was 16 and dates his association to the league to the mid 1990s, sums up the attraction. “It represents everything that is good about Bristol people from all walks of life regardless of class or ethnicity.
“I’ve been through other leagues and did the Dr Martens [league] as it was once known and the Football League for a short period of time, but was always drawn back to the Downs for the camaraderie. Players don’t tend to cause problems with each other because they know they are going to see each other every week, whereas if you are playing in the suburban league you’ll only see each other twice a season.”
That echoes with Richard Sawyer, the BDL referees’ secretary. “There’s the occasional team that like to push the boundaries and every league has those players but it’s still played within the spirit of the game, it’s very respectful and that’s the whole point of the teams coming here because there’s a camaraderie – even outside the league they still socialise and drink together.”
And Poole adds that for some of the players, their Dads might have played in the league. “There’s a loyalty about it and players who just want to be a part of something and the amateur nature of it means it’s not about money [the players, in fact, pay to play with the amount varying from club to club – usually around £10 per game]. It’s about playing and being here, so you get honesty and competitiveness.
“I reffed a game [recently], a division two game, and there was a player who came on and he was in his 60s. It was only for a couple of minutes as he’d been running the line [being a linesman].” That, I learn, was Jerry, who has been coming up here for 35 years and is linked with Portland Old Boys.
Home turf
In recognition of the BDL’s achievements both as the largest competitive league outside of London and for its role in providing “men in Bristol with an outlet to keep physically and mentally healthy”, last July it won the Gloucestershire Football Association’s “League of the Year” award.
I wonder then if the league has ever considered a women’s team, particularly in the light of the double success of England at the Euros? “It’s an issue that has been brought up over the past couple of years,” says Sawyer, “purely for the fact that when it comes to funding from the FA, they are throwing money at it and it would also future-proof the league if they had a completely separate division up here with, say, five or six women’s teams. We’ve got the pitches, but of course changing rooms would be a different matter and that’s the area that needs looking into.” And as Poole adds, the league “needs to be aware of inclusivity.”
I wander from game to game – it’s a Cup weekend, with teams competing in the league’s Norman Hardy Cup and the All Saints Cup. The scale is immense and at one match, I’m jokingly accused of actually being a scout for Bristol City as I jot down observations in a notepad.
As Browning points out, there is a wide gap between the divisions. “The top division is a pretty reasonable standard, you find you get a lot of players who could play to a ‘higher’ level and could be paid to play [in higher leagues] if they wanted, but actually they just like the convenience and they can be in the same place each week.”
I see what he means about the different levels as I watch, among other games, Sneyd Park Reserves record an impressive win against Jersey Rangers First, while Sporting Turin First ease past Old Cliftonians. Crossing the road, I witness a more haphazard and frenetic blend of sliding tackles, wayward passes and, at one game, a neatly taken penalty. Hazelcare stage a comeback to draw 3-3 against Clifton St Vincents A, while the boys of Totterdown Hotspur go down 4-1 to Helios 1st as their young player/manager Olly tells me the lack of physicality is probably the main issue.
It’s approaching 4pm and the players troop off to change and then head to their various pubs. The social secretary of Sneyd Park is planning a drinking game involving numerous bars on Whiteladies Road, which epitomises the togetherness of the team and the league. And as I make my way to back down to the station, I realise it’s that palpable sense of community together with a communal love of the beautiful game that makes this league a bit special. Home sweet home on the Downs.
bristoldownsleague.co.uk
Listen to the podcast series Always At Home: Bristol’s Beautiful Game on BBC Sounds (bbc.co.uk/sounds)
