Isle of Man
Floodlights
Manx Ground Tour
Kerry Miller takes us on a tour of some less well-known football grounds
With the possible exception of some areas of Wales and Scotland, football which is played to a
standard that requires the provision of reasonable spectator facilities is well covered by areas of
the media and non-League press. Less well documented and for geographical reasons rarely explored by outsiders, is football and its stadia on the Isle of Man. Mindful of the slow but sure progress of the game at all levels on the island, the Manx FA along with the Tourist Board and the
Steam Packet Company each year promote what is called the Island International tournament,
featuring five professional sides, plus the National Island XI. Always well patronised, the matches
have now began to filter into the national press, meaning more much-needed publicity for the small
island which is not much more than 30 miles long and a dozen wide.
The Island FA run a 27 club league in two divisions supplemented by several cups which can be
roughly compared to Western League standard with the variety of home grounds mirroring that of
the Somerset Senior League. They range from park pitches and recreation grounds, which when
shorn of posts bear no resemblance at all to football grounds, to remarkable purpose-built stadia
with stands and terracing, a comparison which perhaps can be made to the likes of Shepton Mallet, and Stockwood Green or Burnham United in Somerset.
Quaintly, it would seem that there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of stringent rules concerning playing conditions as none of the grounds in the league possess a permanent barrier around
the pitch and only a small handful have any cover, with some simply playing on a pitch within a
communal area.
That being said there are some treasures to be found for the stadium addict and none more so
than at Ballacloan, home of Ramsey FC in the north, without question the best and most interesting
of the grounds. Situated next to
the town’s immaculate Mooragh
Park and lake, it was bought and
fashioned by the club in 1959 after
they had a rent dispute with the
council over their former home, a
park pitch on Leyzaire Road. The
area was in fact the grounds of a
children's home named Ballacloan,
which still stands within the club’s
home and was bought along with
ABOVE—The Ballacloan home of Ramsey
the acreage and quickly levelled,
Groundtastic
page 20
Issue 23