Ballingry Rovers FC was a Scottish Junior non-league football club which was based in Glencraig, Fife. The club was formed by Mr Andrew and Mrs Janet Clark of Ballingry Road in 1952, starting out life playing at King George VI Park in Crosshill.
For many years the club played as an amateur outfit before joining the Scottish Junior FA in 2004 by which time they had moved to Ore Park on Clune Terrace; the main road between Lochgelly and Ballingry.
The team were placed in the Fife Junior League before a restructuring of the organisation led to a position in the East Region, Central Division for the 2006-07 campaign. Rovers went on to claim the Central Division title in 2007-08.
Dave Baikie was appointed as manager in January 2012 as cash was thrown at playing resources with the likes of Bobby Linn from East Fife, Kevin Byers from Forfar Athletic along with other stars from the Scottish League including Chris Hegarty, Jonathan Smart and Dougie Cameron arriving at the club.
Promotion to the East Superleague was achieved in 2012-13 after a runners-up spot in the East Premier League before Baikie was replaced by new manager Stevie Kay. The side narrowly avoided relegation in their first season in the top tier.
Kay resigned to be replaced by Lee Dair in June 2014. In turn the new man tendered his resignation in October 2014 as the club was embroiled in financial difficulties. Willie Garner took over the team reigns.
However, his spell was to be short lived. Following a 4-0 defeat at Sauchie on Saturday 22nd November 2014 the club folded, owing a massive tax bill to the HMRC among other creditors after a new committee were unable to resolve the situation.
My visit
Saturday 25th January 2020
It was a bitterly cold and dull early afternoon in Fife as I was near to completing to trek around the football grounds of the Kingdom before I took in the first half of Lochgelly Albert v Stoneyburn on route to Brechin City’s visit to Cowdenbeath.
On the bus to Lochore Welfare’s Central Park home I saw a venue I was previously unaware of out of the window. This naturally grabbed my attention and got my searching the internet on my IPhone.
It had looked a neat and tidy venue, perhaps for an amateur club? However, research gave me the info on Rovers and the slightly surprising news that Ore Park had not been in use since 2014.
With time on my side I decided to walk from Crosshill; taking time to have a look at the Peter Johnstone Memorial Garden; in honour of the local man who made over two hundred appearances for Celtic before losing his life fighting in World War One.
The garden also paid tribute to those who lost their lives working at Glencraig Colliery and was located just further up and across the road from Ore Park. I crossed over and climbed a wooden fence to walk across a small field before exploring the old venue.
The brick sub dug outs along with some outbuildings were down one side, with two small covered enclosures opposite. The top end also had a cover behind the goal. The pitch was overgrown and not easy to walk across, but the structures were still in decent enough nick.
Across narrow Clune Terrace stood the now derelict Rovers clubhouse. Many of the signage was still in place but showing signs of age. It had been a surprise but welcome education. There’s no feeling to describe the sadness of a disused football ground.
A bus arrived within a few minutes to take me the couple of miles to Lochgelly where I grabbed some snacks from the excellent Bayne's the Family Bakers before enjoying a pre match pint in The Old Ship Inn.
No comments:
Post a Comment