Sunday 5th April 2026 ko 14:30

Northern League Division One

CROOK TOWN 1 (Rose 41)

SHILDON 2 (Posthill 35p Darville 50og)

Att 717

Entry £7

Programme £2

In groundhopping terms there are grounds, and then there are grounds that you drop everything for. As I’m sure dear reader you are aware there are no end of arguments to be had over all kinds of facilities, but if you walk into the Millfield and don’t immediately fall in love with the place, then I wonder why you started groundhopping?

For me the appeal is a mixture of terracing and two wonderful old stands, the seated one dates back to 1925, the covered terrace in 1960. 17,500 watched Crook play here against Walton & Hersham in the 1951-52 FA Amateur Cup, a competion the club won 5 times. That is only part of Crook’s illustrious history. They played ten games against Barcelona between 1913 and 1922 some of which were for the Barcelona Cup. That came about as Barcelona and future Spain manager Jack Greenwell had played for Crook and apparently had guested for West Auckland during their World Cup triumphs too! And for a real treat the club allowed us to get our photos with the Barcelona Cup too.

Then there was the time Crook played the Indian national side at Eden Gardens in Calcutta during 1976 in front of a crowd of 100,000… the superlatives just keep coming. Boxing was staged here former heavyweight champion Brian London (from Hartlepool) topping the bill in the late 1950’s!

It is worth commenting that we could have easily not been here. The original plan was to go to Shildon, and their stand is a thing of beauty, but this fixture was called off on Boxing Day due to a waterlogged pitch, so the league simply played the reversed fixture, and the hop headed here instead. You could say it was an inspired substitution!

Shildon’s time will come, and they will certainly have had a good steer on what to expect. They picked up a win too, but unless you happened to be fan of either side, the star of the show was unquestionably the ground!