Redcar Athletic v Horden CW

Green Lane

Wearside League

March 28, 2015

Ground No 139 revisited (total 167)

 

IT'S never usually in any way beneficial for humans to try and engage in conversation with electronic gadgetry - but I had a firm post-match word with the device in my car that confidently informed me the outside temperature was 18 degrees Celsius.
 

Yes, it was a warm sun and the skies were blue, but boy was it windy! Eighteen degrees? No chance.
 

Green Lane is situated slap bang on the seafront, with only the Coast Road and The Stray separating it from the North Sea. So on a blustery day like this, you're going to know all about it.
 

I had grand plans for today with all manner of options being considered to get a new tick. But after a ridiculously busy and stressful week I decided to stay close to home and pay another visit to my local Wearside League team.
 

I've always enjoyed going there. Kev Fryett, the club secretary, is a top bloke and one of the hardest-working guys you'll ever meet; there's always a programme and a half-time draw; the café - situated outside the confines of the ground and within the building that also contains the changing rooms as it also serves the surrounding junior pitches - offers a lovely cuppa and a selection of tasty hot food. In short they're a club that wants to do things right.
 

They certainly got it right on the pitch today too, beating a Horden CW team three places above them in the table 3-0.
 

As you walk into the ground there's a modest new covered area immediately to your right with some wooden benches at the back, and some portable buildings to the left. Save for some recently added brick dug-outs to the right of the covered area, that's pretty much it to speak of inside the confines of the wooden fence that rings the ground.
 

But in the distance are the North Yorkshire Moors, providing a backdrop to a surrounding area that includes Errington Woods, quarried in the Stone Age, a resting spot for chieftains in the Bronze Age, and now populated by larch, spruce and pine trees, planted on the old spoil heaps planted by out-of-work miners after the world's largest ironstone mine shut down.
 

St Mark's Church in Marske, constructed in the 1860s, is also clearly visible along with the imposing cliffs that jut out from south of Saltburn. You'd see none of that if the ground was built up.
 

Redcar Athletic have made good progress since taking the plunge and forming a senior side to compliment their successful junior operation, then known as Teesside Athletic, and moving on up to the Northern League remains the aim.
 

Bit by bit they're getting there.

 



Brandon United v Chester-le-Street

Welfare Ground

Northern League Division Two

March 7, 2015

Ground No 167

I DELIBERATED for much of the week over which new tick I should get today and, after whittling down a list of possibles to three, I chose Brandon purely on the basis that they had the lowest attendance figures in the Northern League. They could do with my support, I figured.

And the reason they struggle for numbers through the turnstiles may actually have less to do with the fact that they are rooted to the foot of Northern League Division Two and more to the fact that the Welfare Ground is so blooming difficult to find!

For satnav purposes I used the postcode given on the website and although it got me somewhere close, once the words "you have reached your destination" echoed from my speakers I was, in all honesty, still none the wiser.

The map on the website was minus a few roads too, so although I eventually spotted some floodlights, reaching them proved more problematic. Up and down a labyrinth of quiet residential streets I drove, the floodlights in view but still out of reach.

There wasn't even a soul about to ask - if they'd filmed Treasure Hunt here, Anneka Rice would still be wandering around, lost.

After dumping the car on a side street I walked up past some allotments and retirement bungalows to a back lane which thankfully led me to the ground. Phew!

The game had kicked off a couple of minutes earlier while I was still on my impromptu tour of Brandon and the turnstile steward had gone to retrieve a stray ball when I arrived.

On his return I discovered he'd sold out of programmes but, sensing the pain, trauma and anguish this devastating news had clearly caused me, a kindly club official came to the rescue with a spare. Phew again.

The programme incidentally was worth its £1 price tag for the anagrams column alone, Did you know that Leeds United rearranged makes 'I need slut'? Or that an anagram of Charlton Athletic is 'clitoral chat then'? No, I didn't either. And how about 'urine detachments' for Manchester United?

Access to pitchside is up a slight of steps and the ground's lofty geographical position means that when you turn around you peer over the surrounding hills, Durham coast and even Durham Cathedral.

As a result it gets quite exposed up there too and on a blustery day like this the tall, spindly floodlight pylons had a right wobble on.

The steps lead you up to the dug-outs with hard standing all along that side and to the left, behind the goal is more hard standing, but also a row of benches.

The changing rooms in the corner reminded me of an Alpine lodge. I expected a portly Austrian to emerge at any moment wearing nothing but a towel, red-faced and glowing after a hot sauna.

In contrast to the right are the committee room and tea hut, both housed in what were once shipping containers. Still, the tea was lovely, served in a proper mug too, and I'd have sampled a pie or some home-made cake too had I not had a date with my favourite takeaway shortly after my arrival back home.

To the right of those, and dominating the ground, is the West Stand. A basic concave breeze block and corrugated iron structure, it houses breeze block and wooden plank bench seats, with terracing in front.

There's a grass bank on the other side of that, but the plastic chain link fence which rings the standing areas rules that out of bounds, along with the small row of breeze block and wooden plank bench seating in the end behind the other goal.

The steel fence that surrounds the ground has thankfully put a halt to the vandalism that had blighted it and the club are clearly doing their best to smarten the place up and keep it that way.

It's been an up and down ride for them - they weren't even formed when I was born; began as a Sunday League works team when I was still in short trousers and cuddling my teddy; switched to Saturday action and dominated the Durham Alliance around the time I became a teenage punk rocker; won the Northern League Division One title as I clung on to my 40s by my fingertips; and declined steadily as my waist spread and grey hairs started to increase at an alarming rate.

It turned out I picked the right day to visit, however. A competitive and eagerly-fought derby clash with plenty of goals, it was all that makes the Northern League so enjoyable.

"As Gus Poyet once said, miracles do happen," beamed the guy selling half-time draw tickets as his beleaguered Brandon side went 2-0 up with less than 10 minutes gone. They went on to win 5-3 - only their second victory in their last 11 attempts and he was even more gleeful by the end.

Without doubt I was a good omen and my visit had brought them good luck. "You can come again," he said with a grin as wide as the mouth of the River Wear. I enjoyed the visit, maybe I will.

Metropolitan Police v Grays Athletic

IMBER COURT

RYMAN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

FEBRUARY 28, 2015

GROUND No 166

 

 

 

 

I GUESS it was inevitable that "I fought the law, and the law won..." should blast out from the speakers as Metropolitan Police FC and their rivals walked onto the pitch for the start of the game.

 

Considerably more of a surprise were the tall, imposing, old school floodlight pylons that marked the corners of the Imber Court ground (three of them, anyway - there's a new-style skinny one, added 20 years after the others, on one corner). 

 

I really wasn't expecting them, but that's the first glimpse of the ground you get as you walk from Thames Ditton station along the well-to-do Embercourt Road, with its £1m houses, gravel driveways and pristine Porsche Cayennes.

 

With such luxuries to protect, I bet the locals are particularly reassured to have a sizeable local presence from the boys in blue in the form of the Metropolitan Police Sports and Social club, within which the ground is situated.

 

Though the floodlight pylons dominate the skyline, finding the entrance to the ground wasn't especially easy. What looked like the way in was actually a route to the Met's police horse training facility - the original purpose of Imber Court before the sports and social side was developed.

 

In the event we walked through the entrance of the sports and social club and came out the other side which, it transpired, brought us out to an indoor swimming pool which was close to the ground entrance.

 

The bar was back inside the building we'd just exited so, after buying programmes to peruse over a pint from a steward on the other side of the surrounding wall of the ground, we headed back indoors and enjoyed a delightful pint of Old Golden Hen. A special offer meant we could enjoy a second pint for £1.50 which struck me as A) an offer I couldn't refuse and B) rather ironic that we were being encouraged to drink more alcohol by the Police.

 

On entering the ground you find yourself in the covered terrace behind one goal. To the left and straight ahead are shallow standing areas while to the right is a modern grandstand - built in the 1990s and housing around 300 seats - plus a tea bar (at 80p for a cuppa, the cops are definitely not robbers) and loos.

 

In the last decade or so the club has relaxed its policy of only fielding serving bobbies, to the extent that players with jobs outside the force are in the vast majority. They're still true to their law-enforcing principles however - players with a criminal record need not apply.

 

But the team is still the Met's representative on the football pitch - and maybe that's the reason they struggle to attract more than a few hardy die-hards through the turnstiles. It must be difficult to sell the club to the local community when you're effectively the Police Force's works team rather than a team representing a town, village or area. Today's attendance was 108, which was quite decent by their standards.

 

The programme is glossy and a reasonable read, the ground is neat, tidy and well proportioned and the bar, with its comfy seats, Sky TV and real ale, is a delight. A set-up like this definitely deserves greater support.

 

Looking back at the covered terrace, the well-groomed trees peeking out over the top look at first glance like a grass covering, and it reminds you of the way they covered air raid shelters with grass during the War to disguise them from enemy bombers. So perhaps they're trying to hide it and that's the real reason they don't get bigger crowds!





Darlington 1883 v Ossett Town

HERITAGE PARK

EVO-STIK LEAGUE FIRST DIVISION NORTH

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

GROUND NO 165

 

WITH the being ground nestled between a Sainsbury's superstore and a Sainsbury's petrol station, I was tempted to produce my Nectar card at the turnstiles to see if I could get some points added to it when I paid my admission fee.
 

There was never a possibility of getting a discount on my next purchase of eggs, bread and chicken fillets, of course, although the notice at the entrance informed me I'd have got three quid off my admission had I been a season ticket holder at Boro, Newcastle or Sunderland. Nice gesture.
 

The place Darlington call home these days is Bishop Auckland FC's Heritage Park, a modern, out-of-town stadium on the edge of a bustling retail park, opened in October 2010, which finally ended Bishops' own personal Northern League groundhop that followed the closure of Kingsway, where they'd played from 1886 to 2001.
 

Before unrealistic visions of grandeur of a previous chairman had taken the Quakers to the soulless white elephant of the Darlington Arena, they had played at the perfectly adequate Feethams which, save for one side, was certainly good and smart enough for League football. Heritage Park, at which they have been tenants since their draconian relegation down the pyramid because of earlier financial woes, lies somewhere in between.
 

I'm glad I finally got here, having been denied two previously intended visits by the weather.

Heritage Park has a bit of a reputation for drainage issues but today was mild and bright, almost springlike. "It's nice to watch a game and not be frozen," remarked one fan. "It's nice just to watch a game," another quickly added.
 

You can bank on Darlo getting the thick end of 1,000 through the gates on a match day (today's attendance was 959 and I only spotted two away fans) and their current home could easily accommodate more but - in stark contrast to the Arena - provides the right setting for a good atmosphere.
 

Darlo shouldn't be this far down the pyramid. They're paying the price for earlier problems but they are a club that's going places (literally as they recently announced plans to develop Darlington Rugby Club's stadium and move back to their home town) and clearly have the support, vision and determination to play at a much higher level.
 

The ground couldn't be easier to find and after walking up from a decent-sized car park, entry is gained through turnstiles either side of the 250-seat main stand (inside which is a bar that also houses the hospitality area and sells a most agreeable pint of Black Sheep).
 

To the right of the main stand are temporary seats, which were put in by the Quakers and will go when they do, and opposite is a modest grass bank. To the left is a covered terrace which - and the Quakers fans won't like this - reminds me of the Town End at Hartlepool.
 

After playing poorly and losing away to promotion rivals Salford the week before, Darlington got back on track with a thumping 5-0 win, having also rattled the woodwork three times and seen veteran Alan White somehow miss when it looked easier to score.
 

Without doubt, the only way is up for the Quakers



Shildon v Jarrow Roofing

Dean Street

Northern League Division One

January 17, 2015

Ground No 164

I GUESS I'm destined never to watch Darlington play at their current Heritage Park home.

The plan was to watch the Quakers against Prescot Cables but, just as on the previous occasion I'd intended to go there, Mother Nature stuck her size nines in and kicked my plans into touch.

It always pays to have a Plan  B in place though and since this call-off  at 'Heritage Pond' (as someone on the Darlo forum board rather unkindly dubbed it) was hardly unexpected, I had a trip to Shildon up my sleeve as soon as I knew their fixture had passed a lunchtime pitch inspection.

As I pulled up, the Radio Five Live pundits were talking about how QPR's Loftus Road ground is hemmed in by housing on all four sides and, by way of coincidence, Dean Street isn't dissimilar.

With plenty of roadside parking as a result, it was easy enough to dump the car within short walking distance of the ground's solitary turnstile.

Since I was early I decided to call in on the local chippy for lunch, and if my day had involved a change of plan, then the owners had been burdened with even more ripping up of plans and starting again. They'd been broken into overnight and as a result business was conducted through the recently - and forcibly - removed upper half of the door while the damaged half remained stuck in situ.

As I passed on my way back to the car after the game I was pleased to see a shiny new replacement door in place, although the thieves must have been back and nicked the apostrophe out of the signage that read "Erics Fish Bar".

My next purchase was the club's excellent programme, surely one of the most professionally produced in the Northern League, as I entered a new ground for the 164th time.

The first thing you notice is the large and distinctive main stand on one side of the ground. Its pitched roof and squat shape make it look like a house with three of the four walls taken down and all the rooms replaced with rows of seats.

Incorporated within it are the changing rooms and the clubhouse. The latter is well worth a visit and not just because it's a cosy little den that offers respite from the cold outside. It's like a mini-museum.

On the walls are signed shirts (including one from SV Hamburg congratulating Shildon on their 2014 Durham Challenge Cup win), programmes (including one from the Shildon v Manchester United game in 1987 that marked the switching on of the ground's floodlights), pictures and other memorabilia from a proud history that dates back to the 1880s.

Pride of place on the bar - for this season at least - however, is the Durham Challenge Cup itself, a beautiful, hand-crafted silver trophy.

Opposite the main stand is the Lee Hainsworth Stand. Named after one of the club's players who was killed on the way to training in 2004, it offers covered standing out of the glare of the bright sun that blazed behind it.

Next to it are small grass banks with signs telling spectators not to stand there. Two blokes were doing just that next to one such sign and it would have made a great photo but I thought it best not to take one...

The game itself took a while to warm up, not something I was ever likely to do on a chilly January day, but it developed into a keenly fought battle between two teams in the top half of the table. The hosts fought back from a goal down to grab a deserved 2-1 win.

A great set-up, decent game and a ground worth visiting.

North Shields v Marske United

Daren Persson Stadium @ Ralph Gardner Park

Northern League Division One

January 3 2015

Ground No 163

 

 

 

TALK about chalk and cheese. There were easily as many people in the queue to get in at the Daren Persson Stadium when I arrived hot foot for my second game of the day as there were in the entire ground at Washington v Birtley in game No 1 of the afternoon.

Unlike my earlier visit to Washington, it was obvious where this ground was situated. The floodlight pylons were visible from the road, the tiny car park was full so there were plenty of vehicles parked by the side of the road and there was a steady throng of people heading in the same direction.
 

And the line of people waiting to get in for this battle of the Northern League title contenders had trebled by the time I'd got to the point of handing over my six quid at the gate.
 

All of this triggered one chilling thought: They were bound to have run out of programmes by the time I got to the point of being in a position to buy one.
 

Sure enough my fears were realised. Now, not getting a programme at a match is as big a catastrophe for me as eating curry being outlawed or being shut in a room with Hugh Grant.. I can't lie, it's a big deal.
 

Fortunately Marske United, my local team having lived in the village for almost ten years, did me a massive favour. Their 4-0 trouncing of a side that hadn't been beaten at home for 16 months not only sent me home happy but also led to one frustrated home fan heading off in such a hurry and no doubt so stung by the way his side's proud home was being dismantled that he left his programme behind.

Needless to say (after first asking around the nearby fans if anyone could lay claim to it or was willing to part with it) I gave it a good home.
 

Daren Persson Stadium @ Ralph Gardner Park (to give it its full title) has been home to the former FA Amateur Cup winners since 1997 and is a compact ground, enclosed by a wooden fence with a wooden 100-seat stand on one side and some covered areas on the far side.
 

The 'Curva Nord' terracing on the left as you walk in is home to the club's Ultras, but even they were no match for Marske's vocal band of travelling fans on this occasion.
 

The stadium has been nicknamed The Morgue since a sponsorship deal with Daren Persson funeral directors, the United fans ensured it was very much alive and kicking inside the ground.
 

Accompanied by a drummer, they were in fine voice throughout and, I know I have an affinity to Marske, but "Let's all do The Poznan" after every goal as something special. The team was a credit to its fans and the fans were a credit to their team.

The attendance was announced as 452 which created an electric atmosphere and despite being down to ten men after 15 minutes against a good side on top form, the Robins gave it a good go in the second half.

They fashioned some decent chances and provided us with the miss of the century when sub Denver Morris managed to somehow managed to divert the ball into the hands of Seasiders keeper Robert Dean when you'd have put money on my mum, 81 years old with a replacement hip, scoring.

By all accounts the North Shields fans were extremely hospitable to the visiting supporters before the game and in Northern League terms, this had 'big match' written all over it. A very enjoyable visit. Especially since I managed to get hold of a programme!

 

Washington v Birtley

Nissan Sports and Leisure Complex

Northern League Division Two

January 3, 2015

Ground No 162

 

 

 

I'LL be honest, being handed a pair of overalls and bolting exhaust pipes to new Nissan Qashqais on the production line while working the 2-10 shift seemed a more likely scenario than watching a football match when I approached the ground.

Washington have had a somewhat nomadic existence since the boys from F Pit first swapped their miners' lamps for football boots in 1947 and are currently based at the Nissan Sports and Leisure Complex, in the shadow of the giant car plant, having quit their previous some at Albany Park in 2010 after being targeted by vandals, arsonists and thieves.

As a result arriving at their current ground involves driving past a raised barrier and through the Nissan workers' car park before arriving at the entrance.

The sports complex is clearly signposted but even so, it felt more like turning up for a shift on the factory floor than going to a game.

The ground, it has to be said, is nothing remarkable - although if it's keeping a club in business after problems at its previous location, that shouldn't be sniffed at.

There's a modern, functional stand on one side with some terracing in front but, save for the Penshaw Suite and incorporated changing facilities behind one goal, that's about it really.

Because the ground is part of Nissan's sports and social complex it isn't hemmed in and - although they don't of course - the training pitches on the opposite side seem to stretch all the way past the wind turbines to the hills in the distance with the Penshaw Monument perched majestically atop.

I'd attended the match after reading the club's message on the Northern League website, urging fans to take advantage of the 1pm kick-off by using it as a starting point for a double dose of action. With the North Shields v Marske United match kicking off at 3pm just a few miles away, it seemed like a great opportunity.

I subsequently discovered another hopper had thought likewise (albeit heading to a different match afterwards) but I counted no more than 45 spectators in the ground so it's fair to say interest in high-flying Washington's derby date wasn't enormous.

A glance at the NL website showed that such attendance figures here aren't unusual. The heavy covering of moss on the tarmac path that rings the pitch confirmed that mine were among a select group of shoes that had trodden this route in recent times.

To be brutally honest I'm not entirely surprised. The ground is out of the way, there was no Tannoy (if there was I  couldn't hear it), and though those who were present were enthusiastic enough, the open nature of the venue doesn't lend itself to creating a crackling matchday atmosphere.

I was also, given the lunchtime kick-off, hoping to grab a pie or suchlike at half-time. But although the Penshaw Suite (named after aforementioned monument which, for me, will always be remembered as the place where the Toy Dolls shots the video I got as a 21st birthday present a good many years ago)  is smart, warm and serves a decent cup of tea, the only food available was crisps and chocolate from the vending machines downstairs.

On the plus side it was a decent game (won 1-0 by Washington), the programme contained some good reading and was included in the £5 admission price, and there's clearly an appetite and willingness by those involved to carry this club forward. I wish them well.