On the day it was confirmed the reintroduction of fans into professional football grounds will be delayed, potentially for 6 months, supporters were allowed into Seel Park to witness Mossley secure another impressive victory, this time over Ramsbottom United. The Twitter report at half time told of an even game with chances at either end with Mossley ahead by a single goal to nil. Ramsbottom equalised, then:
“Off the bar!! The visitors hit the bar But…..wait for it……”
Mossley breakaway and as football fans are so used to seeing, after a narrow escape at one end, the ball’s in the back of the net at the other and it’s 2-1. So Mossley march on to the Second Qualifying Round and I have my first win of this season’s FA Cup, but what about the opposition, and where is Ramsbottom?
I imagined Ramsbottom to be a rural village somewhere in the Pennines or Lake District, perhaps visited by a travelling vet in a daytime TV drama, but it’s actually a town with a population of close to 18,000 just shy of four miles north-west of Bury.
Excitingly a major tourist attraction in Ramsbottom is its heritage railway where engines include steam. An egg rolling competition takes place in the town on Good Friday and Elbow played their first gig here. All this is mere trivia however when we learn that a major global sports event takes place in this very town. The Black Pudding Throwing World Championships requires participants to toss the local delicacy at a stack of Yorkshire Puddings – see what they’ve done there. The winner is, unsurprisingly, the one who knocks over the largest tower of batter. As reported by the Manchester Evening News, this really is an international contest, with around 1000 hopefuls including visitors from Australia, South Africa and the USA. However in 2019 “Despite the international field, it was Tom Lowten from Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire, who came out on top after toppling eight puddings, two short of the all-time record of ten.” Another great day for British sport.
Of the contests origin the MEN explains “The eccentric contest is said to date back to 1455 when warring factions of the House of Lancaster and the House of York did battle in the nearby village of Stubbins. Legend has it that the troops ran out of ammunition and turned to throwing food – with the Yorkshire side throwing Yorkshire puddings at their enemies, who lobbed black puddings in return.”
Ramsbottom’s FA Cup history only goes back to 1998, with their first season in the competition seeing a run to the third qualifying round and a defeat to Southport.
I may not have followed the fortunes of the Lilywhites of Mossley as closely as I’d have liked this time. A squashed football schedule means a variety of cup competitions are taking place this week: Champions League qualifying, Spurs in the Europa League this Thursday, and the third round of the sports drink sponsored EFL Cup, where Brentford were winning away at West Bromwich Albian. Having agonisingly missed out on promotion from the Championship just a few weeks ago, the Bees are showing they could have brought something to the Premier League with a win last week over a full-strength Southampton side, and now a penalty shoot out success away at West Brom with the spot-kicks taking place at the same time as Mossley and Ramsbottom were in the second half. I may have said cup runs are not something I’m used to as a Brentford fan, times are suddenly different in TW8. I wonder how far Mossley’s impressive start to their season will take them?
Glory Hunting 