Yard Ball: Football's answer to 'crazy golf' launches in Sheffield

Yorkshire Post

Kicking a football at the window of a small council house, chipping a ball into a wheelie bin and then volleying it through the window of an ice cream van - welcome to the yard where all ball games are allowed.   A new retro football experience has opened in the birthplace of the first football club in the world.   Sheffield’s Yard Ball transports people back to the 1980s inside a former Arnold Laver timber factory on Little London Road.

Transcript

00:00We're in the home city of football itself. Sheffield is home to the oldest

00:06football club in the world and now it's starting something else new, Yardball.

00:13Inspired by one entrepreneur's love of the game but not the game as it is where

00:20it's about money and uniformed and being rigid and going to certain clubs every

00:26night and competing, this is where you can have a kick about just for fun.

00:34You can practice your football skills such as kicking a ball into an ice-cream van

00:40and most of all you can have a taste of nostalgia as you're waiting the ball for

00:47those wheelie bin goalies or perhaps you want to legally volley a ball into a

00:53smashed window. For once you're not gonna get in trouble and you're just gonna have

00:59fun for the sake of having a kick about. Yardball is the brainchild of owner Scott

01:06Riley who grew up at a time when football was in its purest form. Back in

01:12the 1980s he said we used to kick a football against a wall or just a

01:17wheelie bin even the general was a goal but this generation just doesn't do it

01:22and this is what inspired him in lockdown to design Yardball. Scott said

01:30it's a place to love the game again I want to give kids an escape it's a place

01:36for kids of all levels and adults do to be together said Scott. Yardball is

01:44inspired by Scott's own childhood growing up in Sheffield inside a

01:49masonette where they used to have a kick about in the yard. Normally there's no

01:54ball games allowed but here in this new yard in Sheffield which is housed inside

02:00the old Arnold Lavers factory on Little London Road on the outskirts of the City

02:06Centre every ball game is allowed here. With the help of the Lavers family Scott

02:14and his creative director Oliver Booth the pair have been allowed to convert

02:19the former factory into Yardball. The backdrop of the factory is a perfect

02:25setting to incorporate the retro theme of Scott's design from the old phone

02:30boxes to the ice cream vans the rows of garages near social housing and the

02:35blue bus stops which people always know about in South Yorkshire not to mention

02:41a taste of football nostalgia. The former Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield committed kits painted on the walls as well as

02:49changing rooms to host children's parties. There's even a karaoke room

02:55inspired by Scott's old working men's club. He grew up at a time where karaoke

03:01was just for fun whether you could sing or not. People would sing all night and

03:07then Sunday they'd walk home drunk often singing past Scott's childhood home

03:13where he'd be woken to the noise of different songs being sung right outside

03:18his doorstep. This really is a place to bring back a love of the 80s. Simple

03:25games such as Kirby and just kicking a ball around in a fun safe environment is

03:32what it's all about. Yes this is Yardball with a canteen a cool menu which is all

03:40themed around football and World Cups so whether you're into football or you're

03:46not this is for everyone to play together or even to sing together.

03:53I'm Meilan Meilin reporting back from my home city again Sheffield

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