South Devon Football Grounds: The slopes and slides of Barton Downs

The second in our series looking at grassroots football grounds takes us to the spiritual home of Hele Rovers, one of the leading clubs in the South Devon League for many years.

Anyone who has played at Barton Downs will tell you it is not the easiest place to perform, the slopes of the main pitch can test the strongest of calf muscles, and the howling wind sweeping across on a winter’s afternoon makes it an even more difficult place to be on the subs bench.

Arriving at Barton Downs, you are greeted with the Apollo Sports Centre, including a terrific little boxing gym, and ample parking. The changing rooms are perfectly decent for a grassroots ground and there were three passable pitches in the golden days of local football.

The first runs horizontal as you walk on to the pitches and a fairly flat surface, although not the biggest, so wide expansive football was not always on the menu.

At this point, we should mention the delightful views on offer, looking across the local communities and residential areas surrounding Barton Downs.

Walking down the hill, there is a pitch on the left, I only played on that once, but the main pitch on the right was where my footballing memories reside, and it could be a brute on a wet winter’s day.

Playing down the hill, the bottom left corner was like entering a new realm of mud and slodge. If you could deliver a decent cross from that left wing, you were a proper player. And when the ball was booted out for a corner, it felt like a 12-mile walk to retrieve, often making the corner-taker too knackered to whip over a cross.

It was, however, the engine room that brings back the best (and worst) memories. In the summer, it was rock hard, so slide tackles were deemed a danger to life, and when the weather changed, it became a traditional footy swamp, where the ball would become lost in a sea of muddy socks and boots heavier than the moon.

Free-flowing football was never easy at Barton Downs, and yet we loved it, all topped off with the post-match pint and chips drowned in salt and vinegar. Heaven!