Tag Archives: Northern League

Marra

17 Monday Jan 2022

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Saturday 7th January 2022 ko 15:00

Northern League Division Two

HORDEN COMMUNITY WELFARE 3 (Maskell 19 Wright 62 Ellison 77)

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY 1 (Butler 2)

Att 100

Entry £5

Programme £1.50 (they print 10 per game so if you want one I’d advise letting the club know in advance)

You could say coal made the County Durham village of Horden, and equally you could say coal destroyed it too. Horden Colliery was sunk in 1900 to extract coal from underneath the North Sea. That’s an easy enough sentence to write, but just imagine working the seams- both underground and (literally) under water. Horden was built up to service the colliery on the beach; lines of miners’ cottages in streets numbered from 1 to thirteen, each parallel to the sea. Continue reading →

Roofer Madness

11 Thursday Feb 2021

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Saturday 19th January 2008 ko 15.00

Northern League Division One

JARROW ROOFING BOLDON COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION 4 (J Gibson 3 Tate 43 Hutchinson 70 Logan 74)

TOW LAW TOWN 0

Att 67

Entry £4

Programme £1

So if I were to tell you I watched Jarrow Roofing FC back in the day presumably you’d assume that  I was visiting Jarrow? And let’s face it, 99 times out of a 100 that logic would be correct, but Jarrow Roofing never did quite fit in.  The fact of the matter is that 13 years ago I was heading to Boldon Colliery near Sunderland, and yes and it may be only 3-and-a-half miles between the two places but the distance between the two wasn’t a matter of semantics.

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Wheatsheaf

19 Sunday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell.

Saturday 28th April 2007 ko 15.00

Northern League Division One

NEWCASTLE BLUE STAR 0

WEST AUCKLAND TOWN 3 (Bromley 15 Fairhurst 57p Middleton 87)

Att 42

Entry £4

Programme £1

“Northern Ventures, Northern Gains” 30p

It’s fair to say the Northern League has become good at keeping clubs within its ranks. Few clubs leave upwards, and the league was never an enthusiastic supporter of the footballing “Pyramid” to the extent that it turned down repeated invitations from 1979 and during the 1980’s to become a feeder league for the Alliance Premier League, now the National League. They could have been a Step 2 league, but when they finally entered the pyramid in 1991, it was at Step 5, but even the best part of 30 years later the Northern League is, for my money the strongest league at its level. Continue reading →

The Alhambra

10 Friday Apr 2020

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With the football season over prematurely due to the Coronavirus Pandemic I’m in the unusual position of actually having this blog up to date! So to keep the content coming, and for something to do, I’ll do some old grounds and games where there’s a story to tell. And there certainly is a story behind today’s entry!

Saturday 2nd September 2006 ko 15.00

Northern League Division Two

PENRITH 10 (Douglas 7 9 29p 39 54 82 Rooke 25 Reed 49 64 68)

CROOK TOWN 1 (Bailes 73) 

Att 78

Entry £4

So let’s set the scene. It was 14 years ago and I was on the first full day of a holiday with my now ex-wife between Appleby and Tebay, near the Lake District. It was a typical day of a holiday of the time, in that I’d been told I wasn’t finding a game, and it was hammering down with rain. All things considered it wasn’t the most promising looking day.. Continue reading →

Esh, winning

28 Thursday Feb 2019

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Saturday 23rd February 2019 ko 15.00

Northern League Division 2

ESH WINNING 5 (Donaldson 4 Arnott 32 Marley 35 63 Mole 67)

EASINGTON COLLIERY 2 (Pounder 14 71)

Att 64

Entry £5

Programme £1

It had been an odd way to visit. I’d dropped off the other 3 members of my party at West Auckland Working Men’s Club, for some Thomas Lipton Trophy history before they headed to West’s FA Vase game. I’d met the Northern League committee there, and it was lovely to catch up with Mike Amos, the inventor of the organised groundhop, and Harvey Harris the organiser of the league’s re-union hops a couple of years ago. The sense of anticipation there was obvious, so did seem a little counter-intuitive as I headed north, further into the North Pennines in County Durham. There was method in my madness though. Continue reading →

Red Roar

20 Sunday Jan 2019

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Friday 28th December 2018 ko 19.30

Northern League Division 2

REDCAR ATHLETIC 1 (Callender 90)

BILLINGHAM SYNTHONIA 1 (Kelly 37)

Att 319

Entry £5

Programme £1

“Hello, what’s your name?”

“Would you like a go?”

It was half-past midnight at a god-forsaken service station less than half-way back to Oxford. We were sat eating a barely digestible burger each and someone had forgotten to switch off the nearby Peppa Pig children’s ride, and every single minute it advertised itself. To three hoppers far from home it seemed to taunt rather than attract. I allowed a grim smile, you do need a common sense bypass to be a hopper! Continue reading →

But It Was Gone

10 Sunday May 2015

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Saturday 9th May 2015 ko 15.00

FA Vase Final

GLOSSOP NORTH END 1 (Bailey 55)

NORTH SHIELDS 2 (Bainbridge 80 Forster 96)

After Extra Time

Att 9,674 at Wembley Stadium

Entry- Complimentary (Many thanks to the Wessex League)

Programme £4

I do enjoy my annual trip to the Vase final, even though on this occasion I found myself photographing the same people I did a few years ago! There’s something touching about the trip to the hospitality seats and seeing all those officials from Step 5 leagues. These people aren’t the career administrators from the higher echelons, these are the people who do it for the love of it, and I do wonder whether when the event will switch to a joint Trophy and Vase day that flavour will be lost in a sea of professionalism? Continue reading →

Hill Farmer’s Blues

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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Saturday 15th September 2014 k0 15.00

Northern League Division Two

TOW LAW TOWN 1 (Lee 85)

THORNABY 1 (Clarke 27)

Att 40

Entry £5

Programme £1

Badge £3.50

Such is the reputation of Tow Law’s Ironworks Road Ground I had no difficulty in filling a car to pay it a visit. In fact, the only issue I had was my presence each Saturday in the Masons Arms pub quiz. So to the rest of team “Hoof Hearted,” you have my apologies, but have a look at what follows and I sure you’ll understand my tardiness! Continue reading →

You Are Only Coming Through In Waves

14 Wednesday May 2014

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Saturday 10th May 2014 ko 15.00

FA Vase Final

SHOLING 1 (McLean 71)

WEST AUCKLAND TOWN 0

Att 5,341 at Wembley Stadium

Entry to Bobby Moore Lounge, Programme, and Team Sheet – Complementary (Thanks to the EMCL and the NCEL)

 

So, a third visit to the Vase final in three years, for last year’s final click here, and the method is more or less set in stone. You park at Hillingdon Tube station for £2, then buy a six-zone travelcard for £8.90 for the Metropolitan Line trip to Wembley Park. I could park at Bicester North and take the train to Wembley Stadium, but that’s £22, or drive but it’s £30 (£15 for Blue Badge holders) to park at Wembley. I’ve yet to find a cheaper way of doing it, and yes I did try an unofficial car park for a rock concert here once. I  drove home with no driver’s window or sat nav! Yes, Wembley is an expensive place to visit, and I get the feeling that’s part of the reason why the stadium has been close to empty each of the 8 Vase Finals held at the rebuilt stadium. Continue reading →

Thoughts

25 Friday Apr 2014

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Monday 21st April 2014 ko 18.00

Northern League Division One

NEWTON AYCLIFFE 1 (Hedley 4)

SHILDON 1 (Wood 68p)

Att 446

Entry £6

Programme £1

Badge £3

Its felt like the end of an era as the cavalcade reached the Newton Aycliffe Sports Ground. There were a few tired legs and still more tired faces, including organiser Harvey Harris. I managed to spend a few minutes with him and thanked him for his efforts, organising one hop a year isn’t easy, 4 including this hop, a monster 4 day 11 game epic is tough, very tough. He seemed pleased to be hanging up his boots, and I don’t blame him for that, the League will organise a staggered kick-off day, not a hop, next season so that people can keep up with new teams and grounds to the league. That day will be in co-operation with the hopping diary, so I’ll look forward to seeing, once again my friends in the North.

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