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.
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.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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