Wollaton

You must have come in a taxi

From Nottingham - From Canning Circus, take the A609 Ilkeston Road for 1.2 miles to Crown Island. From here take the 2nd exit for Wollaton Road for 0.8 miles, then take the left branch down Wollaton Road, passing Wollaton Hall on your LHS. The road swings round to the right, and after you pass the Admiral Rodney pub, the Ground can be found 200 yrds on your LHS. There is a small Car Park available, others it's street parking.

M1 Jnc.26 - Take first exit for Nottm A610. At first roundabout take the 4th exit (A6002 Stapleford) for 2.8 miles. Turn left onto A609 Trowell Road for Nottm for 0.9 miles. Turn right into Wollaton Road and the Ground is on your RHS after 100 yrds.

Nottingham City Transport no.30 (Nottm Victoria Centre - Wollaton Vale) runs past the Admiral Rodney Pub in Wollaton Village. From here it's a short walk down Wollaton Road to the Ground.

Nottingham Midland - 3.6 miles

For a map of the location, Click here.

My garden shed is bigger than this

Despite being formed may back in 1953, Wollaton Football Club have waited quite a period of time to announce their presence on the local footballing scene.

They enjoyed their first 36 years of existence plodding along in the Midland Amateur Alliance, where their third and fourth teams remain to this day. However, it took a move to the Notts Amateur Alliance, and a new millennium, for some notable success to finally come the Club's way. An NAA Championship in 2000 was followed in quick succession in 2001 with an NAA Senior Cup victory. A move to the Nottinghamshire Senior League signaled more success with back-to-back NSL Championships between 2004-2006.

If asked to describe the home of Wollaton Football Club in two words a fair reply would be � Quintessentially English. It would be difficult to find a more tranquil setting anywhere else on the Nottingham footballing circuit than that of the Wollaton Sports Association. Despite being firmly within the City limits, one could easily imagine to be frequenting a rural Sussex village, such is the ambiance of the place. This air of gracefulness is complemented by the fact that what we have here is more than just a football ground. The WSA also plays host to Wollaton Cricket Club, the Wollaton Bowling Club and the Wollaton Tennis Association.

Probably the most striking feature of the Association is the Clubhouse, boarded by the Cricket Clubs splendid scoreboard, this listed building's internal facilities are basic, but the exterior, elegant. Another nice touch at the WSA are the wooden benches dedicated to the memory of sport supporters which sit proudly on the south side of the ground. One imagines that the passed souls of the W.S.A. regulars must be looking down in admiration as the Club became the first ever winners of the Nottinghamshire Senior League title in 2005 - and by some margin.

Several dozen white painted wooden stakes surround the football pitch, harnessing a woven electric blue rope. These stakes are removed at the end of the season to make way for the Cricket Club. High netting has been erected not to just to avoid losing footballs in the neighbourhood gardens to the south, but also to protect the carefully nurtured cricket wicket to the east.

At many non-league Nottinghamshire grounds, the taller personal amongst the coaching staff invariably find themselves inadvertently bashing their heads on the roof of their dug outs whilst peering for a better view (there must certainly be quite a few sore heads at Radford). This is unlikely to be the case at Wollaton. Even if one was to come to blows with the roof, the resulting bump would not leave too severe a bruise, as Wollaton's dug outs are rather uniquely made entirely of wood. Thoughtfully coated in a green wood stain in order to blend in with their surroundings, you will struggle to find more roomy dug outs throughout the entire county. That is not to say they offer particularly comfortable accommodation, with just a simple wooden bench housed within. Whilst the dug outs may not offer much in the way of a hazard, be sure to avoid an old roller abandoned on behind the south goal . Shaped like a medieval torture instrument, you would certainly come off the worst.

Future Plans

The insurmountable recent success of the Club must have strengthened the will of ambition for the side to consider pushing their way up the football pyramid. The Club would ideally like to install floodlights as soon as possible, though the close proximately of homeowners on two sides of the ground might lead to objections in this leafy Nottingham suburb. However, should the dream become reality, additional funds have become available to develop the association through an unlikely source. In 2004, The BBC were so impressed by the location that they used the venue in the popular BBC1 drama series "A Thing Called Love".