FOOTBALL
Curzon Ashton FC
In the Nick of time! T
Curzon Ashton Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester. Founded in 1963 and nicknamed “the Nash”, the club is affiliated to the Manchester Football Association and currently competes in the Vanarama National League North, the sixth tier of English Football
he Tameside Stadium has been the home of Curzon Ashton Football Club since it was officially opened by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2005. The ground has two
covered stands and is fully terraced on all four sides and it currently holds the FA ‘B’ Grading. Total capacity is 4,000, with 527 seated and 3673 standing.
For the first game at the new ground, Curzon played a Manchester United XI which included Gerard Piqué, Giuseppe Rossi, Frazier Campbell and Jonny Evans. Outside the stadium, a statue stands to commemorate three locally born footballers associated with the World Cup; Geoff Hurst (born in Ashton), Jimmy Armfield (Denton), and Simone Perrotta (also born in Ashton). Outside the stadium, I met up with Nick Wild, whom I have known personally for over seven years. I have often wondered and admired how he manages to share his time between being a full-time Head Greenkeeper at Reddish Vale Golf Club, whilst providing a consistent quality surface that anybody would be proud of, in his part- time role has Head Groundsman at Curzon Ashton FC.
Nick has been at Curzon for nine seasons, and he used to play for them fifteen years ago until he went to work for a golf course down South; this is when he stopped playing football entirely at about twenty-nine years old.
After a few years, he moved back up North; at the same time Curzon had moved into their new stadium. Nick explains; “I had spoken to a few people who told me they were having problems with the pitch but didn’t really get involved.” After five years, Nick was contacted by the manager at the time whom he used to play for. Nick had been doing some work for
80 PC December/January 2019
Glossop North End FC, his local team who he played for prior to joining Curzon. “I did eighteen months at Glossop; we had some good success up there. It was an old cinder pitch so, basically, it just needed plenty of verti-draining to get that connection through, and decompacting, and it came good really quickly.”
At this time, Curzon had played Glossop quite a few times and had noticed improvements in the pitch from what it had once been. Twelve months down the line, Curzon contacted Nick, asking if he would look at their pitch, and he was more than happy to see what he could do to help a team he used to play for. He began by giving them advice on ways to improve the quality of the surface and it wasn’t long before he was asked if he would be their head groundsman, to which Nick agreed. As previously mentioned, Nick is also full-time Head Greenkeeper at Reddish Vale Golf Club and must manage his time between both sites. This means a lot of hours spent at work, whether it be at Curzon or the golf club. “But the golf club always takes priority; that is my career,” Nick explains. “If we have problems at the golf club, Curzon gets put on the back burner, it’s as simple as that, Reddish has to come first. We do seem to have everything in order though. It’s rare that we can’t come to Curzon; we might be late or only have an hour on the pitch, but generally, we get it done.”
As Nick gets to make improvements with the general maintenance and drainage work to the pitch year on year, he is finding it increasingly difficult to meet the high standards he sets himself with the limited hours he and his team can put into it. Nick can call on the help of Barry who has been with him eight years, whom he says is
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