Not really the day to go and watch a Humner Premier League game with Storm Austen just passed over us and storm Boelo starting. However having delivered others to the theatre in Hull I found King George V playing fields in the leafy suburb of Hessle.
This park is on the west side of Hull,behind housing and the main Boothferry Road. A small entrance between houses led me to a small car park. This park lined with trees, had a one story changing room and over to the left corner I could see players warming up for the start of their game. The recent and continual rain made it wet and sometimes muddy underfoot and I asked the subs who was who. They were huddled under the large trees for partial cover but that didn’t stop you getting wet through and the temperature of 9 degrees didn’t help either
The umbrella I had was of no use in the swirling, increasing, wind. The grass pitch was quite long, undulating, and sloped from side to side. It was increasingly being bombarded by the autumn coloured leaves being blown from the trees.
The Humber Premier League is the 11th level of English football from which you can gain promotion to the Northern Counties East League if you have the facilities.
Hessle Sporting Club were founded 50 years ago as Hessle Sporting United joining the Humber League in 2006 and gained promotion to the Premier Division in 2009. Since then they have dropped out of the League, regoined and changed their name to Hessle Sporting Club in the last decade. They operate many teams of all abilities.
South Cave FC have a longer history believed to date back to 1908. The junior club was started in 1997 and like their opponents run many teams.
Hessle Sporting Club F.C. 5 South Cave United F.C. 1
Humber Premier League. Saturday 24th October 2026. 1400 pm kick off.
King George V Playing Fields Hessle, 3rd v 5th,
Hessle, Black and white vertical striped shirts, black shorts,
Goalkeeper in all taup.
South Cave in all navy blue shirts with red flashing on the front, Goalkeeper in red top with black jog bottoms.
With the wind and rain not giving up the teams kicked off.
The home side missed 3 easy chances in the first 10 minutes and allowed the blues to settle into the game. They had another chance to take the lead with 17 minutes gone when a header from a corner bounced on the bar and over.
Ten minutes later a through ball was fumbled by the home goalkeeper on the edge of the area and Caves number 8, following up, slid the ball over the line for the lead.
I have to now own up, huddled under a tree I was watching text to see if Villa had beaten City. I looked up and Cave were taking a free kick in the middle of the park, I later found that it was a restart after an equaliser.
South Caves defenders put up some heroic dogged defending but with half time beckoning a Hessle attack from the left resulted in a shot that hit an away defenders raised elbow, leaving the referee to award a penalty. The penalty was despatched with ease, sending the keeper the wrong way and the referee immediately blew for half time.
The referee and players turned round in 3 minutes who could blame them, with the rain still falling, the pitch getting muddy in places and a leaves suddenly falling as if out of party poppers every now and then.
Only a few minutes into the 2nd half a cross along the ground from the left was met at the far post to be tapped in for the home team to be three one up. There was certainly more spring in Hessle’s step as they continually pressed forward however there was some respite for the home team when the goal netting at the Hessle end fell down and it took sometime to repair.
7 minutes after the restart Hessle made it four when out of the blue a Hessle player lifted a right foot shot from outside area that sailed over the away keeper into the top right hand corner.
Could it have been possible for the wind to get stronger, yes it could.
The hone team capped off a fine performance when they made it five after a multi passing move allowed an opening for a player to bury the ball into the right hand corner of the net.
Their emphatic win was marred when with just a few minutes left, their number 9 was sent off after a tussle on the ground. When the Cave player rose off the pitch the left hand side of his face was covered in mud.
I was impressed with the quality of Hessl’s football in this league and although South Cave lost and sit lower in the table they played some good football too. I also enjoyed the afternoon despite being drenched and with soggy feet.
