New home and a new era for the Crofters
ALL SET FOR THE FIRST LEAGUE GAME AT BATTLESTEAD CROFT
BURTON begin a new season and a new era tomorrow.
They play their first league game at Battlestead Croft as they kick off their Midlands Premier campaign against Sandbach (3pm).
The club sold its home of more than 100 years at Peel Croft, in Lichfield Street, towards the end of 2019 as it moved to a new permanent site in Branston Road, Tatenhill. A Lidl supermarket is now on the old Peel Croft site.
So tomorrow will be a memorable day for the club, and that’s not even taking into account the relief and joy at finally being able to play a league game after being sidelined for so long during the pandemic. This will be Burton’s first league match since March 7, 2020, before the national lockdown.
The pandemic scuppered the club’s plans for a proper farewell to Peel Croft as their Midlands Premier campaign came to a sudden halt.
And the old ground will surely be remembered tomorrow as the Crofters run out at their new home for a return to league action.
“There were so many things planned at the club, as you would for the end of a season anyway,” said Mark Tweddle, Burton’s director of rugby, as he looked back on 2020.
“But with it being our final year at Peel Croft it was going to be extra special.
“At least we were able to play a last old boys reunion game at Peel Croft, it was great that we managed to get that in before the lockdown.
“I drove past the site of the old ground yesterday and you can see the Lidl is almost complete.
“We have played a number of matches – pre-season games, minis, juniors, ladies, girls – already at the new ground but Saturday will be the first league game.
“We have played pre-season games there but we have all been in temporary portakabin facilities.
“On Saturday the clubhouse will be open for our first league game at the new Battlestead Croft site. The paint may still be drying but we will be ready to go!
“For a lot of the long-term supporters turning up for their first league game here and not being at the old Croft in the centre of town, it will be strange.
“It’s all progress but there will be some sadness in remembering the Croft. But it’s really exciting looking ahead to the future and where we are going to be housed from now on.
“It’s fantastic when you are there on a Sunday morning and you see all the kids in one area, we have never had that opportunity before to be all together on one site.
“We have always had a good mini/ junior section, despite the facilities. Now it will be incredible to see what we can achieve with facilities.
“For all the players and management, Saturday will be a momentous occasion. In our 151st year, these will be the finest facilities the club has ever had.”
When the 2019-20 Midlands Premier season was cancelled due to the pandemic, Burton were sitting comfortably above the drop zone in their second season at that level after promotion.
Now they are aiming for more than just staying up and have a new head coach at the helm, Loz Salisbury.
“There are a lot of changes on the coaching front,” Tweddle added.
“Loz played for Saracens and then got into the coaching side. She is in the navy and coaches the navy under-23s.
“She joined us during covid as an assistant coach and then applied to be head coach. She’s had a really good pre-season and the players have really brought into what she is doing.
“There is a whole new coaching set-up which includes former Springbok Thinus Delport, who helps every Tuesday.
“We’re really clear where we want to go. For the first time in my involvement in Burton, which has been 25 years, we have a full set of playing and coaching staff where no-one gets paid.
“We have never paid our players but we have always paid the coaches. All of our coaches are now volunteers as well.
“We have a clear ambition to be the best amateur sports club in the world.
“And our ambition is to play National One rugby, so that is what we are focused on doing. Like all these things, people will says it’s impossible but people also said it would be impossible to get to Midlands Premier and remain in it because we have never been able to do that before.
“We have been in this league to survive before but now we want to compete to win it. That’s the goal of the club and the goal of the players on Saturday.
“There will be three senior teams out on Saturday and 56 people available for selection across those teams. And of that 56, there will probably be 45 who are expecting to be in the first team.
“In terms of selection, this year I have handed it all over to the coaches and they will have the final decision. And I have to say, this year I am delighted I am not involved in that selection process!”