Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | January | 12
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Wednesday 12th Jan 2005.
Despite losing some of its stature, with three teams dropping out and a Supplementary Cup installed to pan out the season, Division 1A of the Sunday Alliance League is set for an exciting climax to the season.
With the Firth brothers, Sean and Danny, firing on all cylinders, Victoria Rangers are in the mix, and, as expected, so are Silsden and Ventus Sports - the former junior side who have quickly risen through the Alliance divisions.
Paul Devenney is in his second season managing the young Ventus side, and many people will recall the busy midfielder gracing the old White Horse side in the Trevor Parr/Dave Jeng era.
A County Amateur League player with Eccleshill United, Fields and Ovenden, it is only a couple of seasons ago since the midfielder stopped helping Ovenden reserves out. And he can still cut it, scoring a 30-yard goal for Eccleshill former players in their recent testimonial game with Bradford City.
Paul, whose son Liam plays in the side, was merely a spectator when club founder Ronnie Firth was forced to hand over the managerial reins.
Club secretary Kevin Drake said: "Ronnie was involved with the old Ventus United side who played in the first ever Sunday League in Bradford and who reached the FA Sunday Cup semi-final in the 60s.
"Ventus United Juniors was formed under the club's umbrella and when the time came to move up into Sunday open-age, the cream of the junior team amalgamated with a nucleus from Bradford Celtic to join the Alliance bottom division.
"The original idea was to use the side as a second team and promote some of the younger players into the first team to help them stay in the top division and we'd get one or two old heads to help the side in its first season in open age. It didn't work out and the club became independent, changing the name to Ventus Sports. Ronnie had a couple of knee injuries and with other commitments on the East coast he was forced to step down. Paul came to watch his son and he was the natural choice."
The club has risen from Division Four to 1A, the only blip being they needed two seasons to win promotion from the Third Division.
The only recent major signing was midfielder Steve Bromley, who has top-flight experience with East Ward.
The club look to have the ideal front pairing with John France in the bustling orthodox centre forward role and speedster Wayne Campbell, and it is nice to see players like midfielder Saul Peltier starting to earn rave reviews in Eccleshill United's first-team squad.
Tragedy struck three years ago when the club's centre half Timothy Hague had an accident at work and was paralysed from the chest down. Hague had been in Firth's side since he was 14 and because he always wore the number four shirt, the club have never used that shirt number since. Hague is still involved, and when the weather's kinder, is able to watch.
Ventus, who started the season winners of the revamped Eccleshill pre-season cup, beating local rivals and promotion challengers Victoria Rangers in the final, have had to replace Chris Drake - another Eccleshill first-team squad player - and keeper Carl Zabrowski - who has taken a year out in Australia.
Devenney is hoping to break new ground this season with a promotion and a cup winners' trophy.
The club, who have never won a cup competition, are in the semi-finals of the Alliance's Intermediate Cup and currently lie third in Division 1A.
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