I believe Laurel Ave is Dual Carriageway as it was intended at one point that it was was going to be the bypass running from the now Friars Bridge through to Glenurquhart Road and out over the Canal.
Plans for that were shelved (I believe) due to the need to replace the Bridge which crosses from Young Street to Bridge Street (what is the official name of that bridge?).
St Valery and Hawthorn Drive have so much space behind them due to issues of seepage from the canal (enter Johndo and his aquifiers) - and test holes are still dug regularly in the field behind me to test water table levels. Whether these checks are being done to ensure no risk to existing houses or whether they have ideas of building on the land at some point I do not know. Interestingly enough if you dig down about 3 meters you get water, but as the soil is quite clay-like it doesn't seem to have posed any subsidence issues with the houses. As kids we would often dig in to the bank looking for clay to build models (and shot for catapults) from.
Games of war/football/rounders/rugby or whatever else could be dreamed up were not uncommon when I was a kid either, and it was not unusual for half the street (parents and kids) to be out enjoying themselves where football involved teams of 20 on each side and a game of rounders involved so many people it was more a case of hitting the ball towards someone who couldn't catch as opposed to hitting it in to a space - something you never witness these days.