✔880 King George V Recreation Ground(Ferryhill)

Ferryhill Athletic 7-2 Northallerton Town Reserves

Pre-Season Friendly

Saturday 8th July 2023

I visited Ferryhill twice last season, for a pre-season friendly at Mainsworth Recreation Ground and a Wearside League cup game at their Dean Bank home. The club are playing the majority of their warm up matches this season at King George V Playing Fields, which is a sloping park pitch east of the town centre. 

Last Saturday Ferryhill Athletic started off their pre-season with an 8-1 win over Wynyard Village and they racked up another big score this week against Northallerton Town Reserves. 

Athletic totally dominated the first half, scoring two penalties with Kieron Richardson hammering home a free-kick in between to make it 3-0 at the break. 

The visitors pulled a goal back through Turnbull straight from the kick off, but the home side restored the three goal lead minutes later with a Kyle Quinn header. 

On the hour mark Adam Morland fired in from close range, then Marco Linhart raced through on goal to grab his second. A good interchange of passing was finished off by Chris Devine for number seven, and with time running out, Northallerton scored a second with a clever back heel by Woods at the near post from a corner kick.

 

Ferryhill Athletic 7(Richardson 23pen 31 Linhart 43pen 72 Quinn 48 Morland 61 Devine 73)

Northallerton Town Reserves 2(Turnbull 46 Woods 87)

2pm ko 

Att.40hc

 

#Heedhopper 

20 mile drive door-to-door 

I intended to venture further afield today, but the weather forecast of thunder and heavy rain showers put me off. After much debate, I decided to do a double in County Durham, with a revisit to Esh Winning at noon followed by this entertaining match in Ferryhill. 

✔779 The Dave Clark Arena

Richmond Town 1-1 Northallerton Town

(5-4 on penalties)

The Darren Poole Memorial Trophy

Saturday 17th July 2021

Described as the most romantic town in the north, Richmond is a market town and administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire in North Yorkshire. It is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park on the River Swale and is the most duplicated UK place name and one of 57 Richmonds worldwide.  (population:approx 8,400)

Richmond was founded in 1071 by the Breton Alan Rufus, on lands granted to him by William the Conqueror. The town’s main feature is Richmond Castle, completed in 1086, which consists of a keep, with walls encircling the cobbled Market Place - one of the largest in England.

Richmond Town were elected to the Wearside League in 2012 after an exceptional four trophy haul in their final season in the Teesside League, winning the league title, MacMillan Bowl, Lou Moore Trophy and the Saturday County Cup. The club finished 3rd in their debut season, behind champions Stockton Town and runners-up Willington, their highest placed finish so far. 

The club has had a few name changes throughout the years, known as Richmond AFC in 1945, then in the 1960s under the handle of both Cameron United and Young Conservatives before reverting to the town’s name with the added Town suffix.

The Dave Clark Arena

Richmond School

Darlington Road

Richmond

North Yorkshire

DL10 7BQ

After leaving the much loved Earls Orchard, the club relocated to Richmond School. The main pitch within the complex has been named ‘The Clark Arena’ after Mr David Clark, the Deputy Head of the school, who tragically passed away in September 2020. This is the perfect name for this venue, as it treasures his memory and reflects his love for sport. The 4G pitch has a spectator section down one side with the team dugouts opposite. 

#Heedhopper

42 mile drive door-to-door

Total Non-League grounds visited 481

My eighth trip to Richmondshire over the last few months and probably my last venture into this part of north Yorkshire for a while. 

Richmond Town 1(Gilroy 84)

Northallerton Town 1(Jackson 66)

Richmond win 5-4 on pens

Att.46hc 

Admission £3

The Darren Poole Memorial match is played each year between the two Towns. Darren was a tremendous "keeper who is fondly remembered and sorely missed by both clubs. 

A closely fought contest on a sweltering hot day was finally settled by a penalty shoot out(not more bliddy pens… Ed) Northallerton took the lead half way through the second period when a quick break was slid in by Cieran Jackson. Richmond responded six minutes from time, when a long throw-in reached Tom Gilroy who fired home for the equaliser.

The penalty shoot out saw nine successive successful attempts, but the tenth was missed by Northallerton to give Richmond the Poolie Memorial Trophy. 

 

My Matchday-147 Ainderby Road

Northallerton Town 3v1 Pontefract Collieries

FA Vase 1st Round

6th October 2007

att.104

Northallerton Town lies in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, the most southerly based club in the Northern League, having been members of the league since joining the newly formed 2nd Division in 1982.
The precise date of the clubs formation is unknown, but a trophy donated by local MP Sir George Elliott ‘The Elliott Bowl’ has the name of the club engraved, being the first winners of the trophy in 1895, the club has also been known as Northallerton, Northallerton Alliance as well as Town.
Ainderby Road was renamed The Calvert Stadium in 1997 and is the clubs second home, after being forced to leave their original quarters at the Bluestone Ground in 1974. The local council placed a compulsory purchase order on the ground, with plans to extend the neighbouring County Hall, this work never took place and the old football ground still remains today. The council then reallocated the club to the present site, which including a clubhouse, changing room facilities, car park and two pitches and was officially opened in August 1976.
The club have played in numerous leagues throughout North Yorkshire and won an array of cup competitions, the Town took the big step up to the Northern League from the Harrogate & District League after the club raised almost £150,000 to upgrade Ainderby Road up to Northern League standards.
The most successful season for the Town was in 1993-94, finishing 6th top in Division One and beating Blyth Spartans in the League Cup Final, but a bitter blow was to follow in the summer, the High Court declared the club financially insolvent and the club folded, but thankfully a new committee was set up and the club were able to kick off the 1994-95 season as Northallerton FC 1994 and the club were later able to reinstate Town as their surname again in 1996.
The ground now has a sponsored name, the Regency Stadium, but to avoid any perplexity I’ll remain to call it by the street the ground’s found on, inside the ground the majority of the facilities are on the same side, the turnstile is in the corner of the ground, with a small programme/souvenir shop to your immediate left, the impressive 400 capacity covered terrace leads to the smart looking clubhouse, next is the main stand which has a capacity of 150 red seats divided into 6 rows, which is split by the changing rooms/players entrance, one side has 23 seats for use of press and officials only, while the other side is for the rest of the spectators. Behind each goal is a built up 3 stepped terrace with white crash barriers and on the far side is the dugouts with flat hard standing made up of a pathway and stones.
Today is the 1st Round (proper) of the FA Vase, Towns best performance in the competition is the 4th Round in 2002-03 and their opponents today are North East Counties League Division One side Pontefract Collieries, a club I’m familiar with having seen them crash out of the competition last season at Jarrow Roofing
On a glorious Indian summer’s day, both teams played out a dire first half, with limited clear cut chances, the half time announcement of extra time if the teams are level after 90 minutes filled me with dread, the few who chose the option of watching the Rugby World Cup in the clubhouse instead of the action out on the pitch made a wise choice. (Australia 10 England 12 get in!!!)
The Northallerton team must have taking heed of whatever Town manager Andy Toman said at half time, because by the hour mark they were three up and well on their way to the 2nd Round, with a brace from Paul Hinton with a goal in-between from Craig Toman. Pontefract got back into the game with a goal from Kevin Duckworth (any relation to Jack?) on 69 minutes which lead to an entertaining last 20 minutes with Collieries trying their best to grab another to get right back into the tie, whilst the home side threatened on the break, so it was a surprise that no more goals were added to the 3-1 score line.
I was pleased to tick off the longest trip south in the Arngrove Northern League, the trip down the A1 was made more enjoyable by the lovely weather as well as the sociable and friendly staff at Northallerton Town, good luck in the rest of the Vase and hope they can go one or two rounds better than 2002-03.

LINKS -
Northallerton Match Report

Ground no.147 Ainderby Road – Matchday web album. (19 pictures)