Daten

Thursday 5th May 2022
Cheshire League Premier

Daten 3 Eagle Sports 2 HT: 2-1 Att: 110

Jupp (pen) 1, 11, Hansley 90 Hayes so : Hutchins 38, Sutton 62

from Culcheth Sports Club

Daten is not a place in Cheshire, despite sounding like one. It stands for the Department of ATomic ENergy, originally a works side from the Culcheth branch of the government department, that at the time were called British Nuclear Fuels.

In 1998, the Culcheth Sports Ground was bought out from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) for £203,000 and is now an independent self-sustaining body, with no ties to the atomic energy industry now. The impressive site boasts a large clubhouse with table tennis, snooker and games room. Outside are a cricket pavillion, tennis courts, bowling green and two football pitches.

Thankfully, the ties to the atomic energy back story are still evident in Daten’s nickname, the Atoms, and the club badge, which is the old fashioned representation of an atomic nucleus, from the days of Ernest Rutherford, when they depicted the electrons as like planets orbiting the sun. I love the two footballs as electrons in their logo – nice touch.

We now know this depiction of the atom to be misleading, as it is more like a central nucleus, surrounded by a probabilistic cloud of electrons, that behave more as a wave than a particle, until they’re measured. Scientifically incorrect as it may be, it has to be one of the best football badges in England.