My None Matchday - not 144 Southend Road

27th August 2007

Penrith Town’s Southend Road ground is the furthest journey in the Northern League, not only for me but for most of the clubs playing within the league; they are the only club in Cumbria, situated in the Eden Valley, touching distance from the bootiful, bootiful Lake District.
I took advantage of Bank Holiday Monday to make a major tick off my Northern League list, the Smid family set off and headed west along the A69, then south down the M6 to combine the groundhop with a trip to one of the nearby lakes. After arriving at 12.50, we parked up at the ground and had a look around the town centre, went for a drink and headed back to the ground at 2.35, on arriving we were unable to gain entry, then a group of tracksuited Thornaby players appeared boarding a mini-bus, they informed ourselves as well as another two groundhoppers (who arrived just after us) that the game had kicked off at 12.00. …..aarrrghhhhh!
I checked the fixtures on the Northern League website on Friday and I noticed a couple of games with an early kick off, but Penrith wasn’t one of them, I meant to check before I set off (but didn’t) so there goes my “major tick”, with any luck I’ll have another attempt to get to Southend Road sometime this season, but I’ll ring the club first to confirm the kick off time.
It wasn’t a wasted journey after all, we took a detour to Keswick and had an enjoyable day out, I’ve never been there before, but it truly is a stunning part of the country, me and the breadknife wouldn’t mind going back for a weekend away, maybe it could coincide with Penrith Town being at home, now that’s a canny good idea!

For the record the score was; Penrith Town 1v0 Thornaby.

My Matchday - 143 Welfare Park

Horden Colliery Welfare 1v1 Team Northumbria
Arngrove Northern League Division 2
August 25th 2007
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Horden is a mining village in County Durham, the colliery was constructed in 1900 and was one of the biggest in the country, at its peak the mine employed over 4000 men and producing 1.5 million tons of coal a year, hundreds of workers in the colliery helped fund the local football club by deducting money each week from their wages.
Formed in 1908 as Horden Athletic and playing in the Wearside League, the club became Horden CW in 1928 and after four league titles moved on to the North-Eastern League in 1935, apart from a brief spell in the Midland League in the late 1950’s the club stayed in the NE League until the league folded in 1964, having been champions on two occasions in 1937-38 and 1963-64.
The club then returned to the Wearside League where they added an additional six titles as well as further success in cup competitions including the treble in 1973 (League, Shipowners and Monkwearmouth Cups) until they joined the Northern League in 1975, since then they’ve twice finished runners-up in 1980 and ’83 and won another pot with a League Cup final win against Blyth Spartans in 1984.
In 1985 the Colliers were relegated, on top of this the club lost its main sponsor and Horden colliery closed, the club managed to survive and keep its Northern League status, they again won promotion in 2002-03, but sadly were relegated last season narrowly losing out by one point to Bedlington Terriers.
Thanks to a Football Stadium Improvements grant, Welfare Park looks in great nick after key improvements and upgrading, in particular the HCWFC Grandstand, which dominates the ground with its red external appearance and white roof, the raised seating area is divided into three sections of red seats, in the middle is the Stan Anderson Enclosure, to the left the Bobby ”Punchy” Naisbett Enclosure and to the right the Sylvia & Bob Wood Enclosure, underneath is the refreshment bar and toilets, with the new changing rooms to the side.
The clubhouse is in the corner of the ground with a white covered seating area outside, which on closer inspection I realised is a smoker’s area for clubhouse patrons, behind the bottom goal is the turnstile with a hard standing area with the Workingmens club and the Horden Social Welfare Centre looking into the ground (guests at the wedding reception were glued to the window) the other two sides of the ground have good views with steps leading up to a grass verge.
The game finished in a creditable draw which on reflection was a fair result, Horden CW won the ‘Performance of the Week Award’ after knocking Sunderland Nissan out of the FA Cup last week, while Team Northumbria crashed, banged and were truly walloped out of the cup with a 0-11(eleven) home defeat to Consett, so I suppose they’ve been working on their defending in training this week. The clean sheet looked on the cards until a goal from Ross Galley just before half time gave the Colliers the advantage at the interval, this looked the decisive moment until a late equaliser from centre half Mark Tye with a powerful header from a corner gave TN a share of the spoils.
The local cricket pitch as well as the park is behind the Grandstand, today there was a cricket match being played at the same time as the football, when I sat in the stand at the beginning of the second half there was an almighty thud, as if a bomb had landed in Horden, I then realised that a batsman ‘hit a six’ against the back of the stand, there was also many cries of “Howzat” with the only shouting coming from the football ground being from the players moaning at the officials, but also the canny little lady who sold the programmes with her constant screams of “whorre…den!” which if you didn’t know where you were, sounds more like some sort of bordello than the local football team.
Links-
Match Report - http://www.hordencw.com/1stteam/fixtures_table.pl?action=report&id=241448


Ground no.143 Welfare Park – Matchday Web album (17 pictures)

My Matchday - 142 Hebburn Sports & Social Ground

Hebburn Town 1v3 Tow Law Town
FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round
18th August 2007
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Hebburn is a small town in the district of South Tyneside, the towns’ biggest employer Reyrolles formed a works team in 1912, playing in the Jarrow & District League up until the First World War, between the two wars the club played in various leagues on Tyneside, winning their only championship in the Tyneside League in 1938-39, as well as success in winning many local cup competitions.
In 1960 the club began playing in the Wearside League, where they had 28 unbroken seasons including winning the title in 1966-67, they didn’t add Hebburn to their name until 1986 when the club raised their ambitions, making ground improvements and hopes of stepping up into the Northern League, this was achieved in 1989-90, as they became the first club from South Tyneside to gain entry (South Shields and Jarrow Roofing were to follow) like the factory the famous Reyrolle name by then was no more, just basic Hebburn until the Town bit was added in 2000.
The club won promotion in their third season, their first of two spells in the First Division resulted with a best finish of 11th, ‘The Hornets’ last relegation was in 2001 and have remained in the Second Division since, but today it wasn’t about league action, only 90 days have gone by since the FA Cup Final, so it’s time to get this seasons competition under way with the Extra Preliminary Round.
Hebburn Sports & Social Ground is exactly that, it’s a Sports Ground with a Social Club within the complex, as well as being the home of Hebburn Town FC there’s a cricket field, all weather 5-a side pitches, tennis court and even a bowling green which are all situated bordering the football pitch, the ground has one covered main stand, which has approx 100 blue flip seats and behind each goal are small narrow standing areas.
The main part of the social club (the drinking bit) is up a flight of stairs and has a great window view, looking down on to the cricket pitch and across towards the football ground, the exterior is also used as the cricket scoreboard, the changing rooms are further back near the main car park, which favours the cricketers but is a bit of a walk for the footballers. The ground could do with making the grounds bordering walls a bit bigger, the number of times the ball got kicked on to the main road which runs past the ground or towards the neighbouring houses, had the clubs officials and committee men’s piss boiling, it’s funny but with one side of the ground adjoined by a cricket pitch I can’t remember seeing the ball booted in that direction.
Wembley may well be at least a million miles away for these two teams, but the game was just as competitive as any game you’ll see in the 3rd round in January, played on a lush Wembleyesque pitch, Tow Law came away with a place in the next round with a fabulous second half display, leading but a single goal at half time thanks to a free-kick by Craig Tate on the edge of the box and a missed penalty from Hebburn’s Garry McCartney, the Lawyers overcame the setback of allowing Hebburn’s Michael Younger to equalise in the 52nd minute to totally dominate the last half hour. The victory was achieved with a brilliant individual effort from Craig Tate, who made space for himself on the edge of the box to fire past the keeper before setting up Peter Watling to give Tow Law a 3-1 win, but it should have been at least six if it wasn’t for their Arsenal type ‘fancy-Dan-like’ finishing.
With the Toon v Villa game kicking off at 5.15, I was able to attend this game and get into Newcastle just in time for kick-off, seeing the black and whites stripes of Tow Law winning may as acted as an omen for what lay ahead in my first Premier League attendance of the season, but I’m afraid it wasn’t to be, as that game lacked a Man of the Match display and a moment of magic to win the game, maybe someone in the Craig Tate mould could have done the trick.

Ground No.142 Hebburn Sports & Social Ground – Matchday Web album(15 pictures)

My Matchday - 141 Meadow Park

Sunderland RCA 3v4 Seaham Red Star
Pre-Season friendly
28th July 2007
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Formed in 1961, when the original players of Ryhope Youth Club reached 18 they decided to stay on and form a senior side, initially they played all games away until finding a home at Colliery Welfare, changing their name to Ryhope Community, the club had immediate success playing in local leagues within the Seaham area, winning many titles and cup competitions.
Their first step on the football latter came in 1978 when they gained admission into the Northern Alliance League, though the club were desperate to find a ground after playing on a local school field, the clubs ambitions were finally granted thanks to backing from Tyne & Wear Council and the Sports Council to build Meadow Park on unused derelict land.
Founder members of the newly formed Northern League Second Division in 1982, the club finished runners-up the following season and enjoyed a brief spell in the top division until they were relegated in 1988; the club had a name change in 1999 with the amalgamation with Wearside League club Kennek Roker, thus becoming Kennek Ryhope Community Association, that was until last season when the club added the towns name, becoming Sunderland Ryhope Community Association F.C.
It looked likely that it was going to be another football free Saturday for myself, it was a busy day in the Smudger household and with the breadknife needing use of the car, I give up on the hope of getting a footie fix before I went on holiday, however after a review of the fixtures and a check on the bus times website, (even though it meant entering mackemland, I could just keep me gob shut!) I realised the possibility of getting to a game in just over an hour, so I caught an express bus to Sunderland and then a connection to Ryhope, thus meaning I could tick off Sunderland RCA off my Northern League list.
Being a stranger in a strange land I told the bus driver where I was going and asked him to let me know when it was my stop, this he thankfully done and then pointed me in the right direction but warned me it was “a canny walk” so after walking up a long and winding road and back again I eventually found the entrance, which is tucked inside a private housing estate and is less than a 2 minute walk away from the bus stop, so thanks unhelpful local bus driver, I knew I should have kept me gob shut. ;-)
The first impression of Meadow Park is that there’s no doubting which town you are in, as everything is decorated red and white, after entering the ground from behind the goal you notice the slope of the pitch running towards you from the top goal, where in the background is the graveyard from the local church, these two ends as well as the dugouts and car park side of the ground are open standing using a pathway and lawn areas.
The main stand is the rather neat looking ‘Baines Stand’ named after one of the clubs life presidents Ray, who has been involved with the club since the 1970s, this has five rows of red benches with white pin stripes, the back wall has red and white panels and red interior roof, neighbouring the stand is a half sheltered standing area (the other half of the roof is missing) and to the other side is the changing rooms, football bog and the clubhouse, which served a refreshing cool can of Stones Bitter which I was in need of after working up a thirst, after spending 20 minutes looking for the grounds entrance.
Ryhope CA like their visitors for the afternoon Seaham Red Star wear the Sunderland strip as the club colours, this was a proper Wearside derby with the two clubs only a mile and a half apart. Seaham wearing a changed strip of all blue showed the good form from where they left off last season, going in at half time with a comfy two goal lead with a header from Jennings and a good 20 yard strike from Lumsden and looked likely to build on their lead after the break, but the game swung in favour of the home side in a 7 minute spell midway through the second period, with a soft foul followed by an even clumsier one allowing Crew to score two penalties which he blasted past the keeper with confidence, minutes later he completed his hat trick latching on to low cross to put Ryhope 3-2 up. The game looked to be heading towards the proverbial game of two halves until two late strikes from Byrne and then a well taking effort from Newby put Star 4-3 ahead, their was just enough time for Crew to miss a sitter with literally the last kick of the game which would have giving the hosts a well deserved draw.
For a friendly match it was very competitive and thoroughly entertaining, Ryhope CA have struggled over the last few seasons, but there were one or two signs of maybe some progress ahead, while Seaham won’t have any trouble scoring goals this campaign but it’s conceding goals which may be their problem, although I do expect them to finish in the top six.
The bus trip was only £4.20 with a Super-saver-thingy, it was only £2 admission including programme team sheet and raffle, and the Stones went down great guns at £1.30, so not a bad day out for seven and a half quid, me thinks I won’t get a cheaper entertaining matchday in 2007-08.Ground no.141 Meadow Park – Matchday web album.(18 pictures)

Ground Image Of The Month

The football 'off season' is a time for forgetting about football and taking a rest from the game we love, a time to recharge your batteries and reflect on the season gone and to look forward to what may lie ahead, after spending those autumn and winter months trying to keep warm in those cold drafty football grounds, the summer gives us a break from all that and to enjoy the warmer climate, but certainly not this year, the summer of 2007 has been a total washout with the wettest May-July on record.
One way or another the floods have affected the majority of the country, but the first area to be badly hit by the weather was Yorkshire and especially Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough, the heavy rain resulted in the River Don which flows past the ground bursting it’s banks and leaving up to six feet of water (that’s Row F) this also affecting the electricity supply and telephone lines in the surrounding area.
After a horrendous summer with a bit of luck we can be compensated by a much milder winter, which means a reduction in match postponements, late trains and one of my football pet hates, footballers who wear gloves, after an off season which will be best remembered for these three spoken words, “It’s raining again” or “It’s F***ing raining” or maybe it should be ‘Carloz Tevez affair’ then let's have a long, dry and enjoyable 2007-08 season.