I Can't Hear the Grass Grow

This week I saw a tweet from Percy Main amateurs, bemoaning the dry weather we've had in June, as their pitch is parched. Rather ironic considering how late the season ended, on account of the endless wet weather in the winter. I do feel there is a solution though, which is contained in the following article from issue #26 of Stand, which came out this week and that you really ought to buy -:

These days, I’m probably as much as a fan of grassroots cricket as I am of football. Aged almost 54, time has caught up with me and I’m no longer able to play eleven a side football, but cricket still offers a chance of team sport for all but the most decrepit, so I’m turning my arm over again in the Thursday Evening Midweek League; a dozen overs a side and a similar number of pints post-match. As regards the First Class game, I take a strong interest in test cricket, but eschew such fripperies as the IPL, Big Bash and the ECB’s suggested 100 ball fiasco. When it comes to counties, my support is firmly behind Northumberland in the Minor Counties East Division, but my real cricketing passion is for my local club Tynemouth, who play in the North East Premier League. On Saturday May 19^th, we were away to Felling; it’s a contest I normally relish as I was brought up in Felling and, despite moving away in 1983, still harbour a degree of affection for the team from High Heworth Lane. Sadly, I couldn’t make the clash that Tynemouth won by 101 runs, as I had both a wedding and a cup final to attend…

Before accusations of bourgeois conformism are thrown at me, I’ll just point out that I was one of a grand total of 4 guests at Grahame and Tracy’s fairly secret nuptials that surmounted a modest 17-year courtship and cohabitation, at North Shields registry office. From there, I left the happy couple to bask in the sunshine of their love and biked along the north bank of the Tyne on a glorious summer late morning until I reached Sam Smith’s Park in Walkergate, home of my beloved Newcastle Benfield FC of the Northern League Division 1. I’ve followed Benfield since we reached the Northern League in 2003 and edited the programme for the past 5 seasons, but the reason I was heading for the ground wasn’t to see my team in action. It was because we were hosting the Tyneside Amateur League Challenge Shield final between the clubs from the former Northumbrian pit villages of Ellington and Stobswood. In addition to my Benfield duties, I am also the volunteer, unpaid Chair of the Tyneside Amateur League (a competition that stands a mere 11 successive promotions away from the Football League); therefore, using Sam Smith’s Park to host the season ending TAL cup finals is a symbiotic no-brainer.

For those of you without a secure working knowledge of the non-league pyramid, Benfield are at step 5, which is 4 levels below the National League, or the Conference as I still call it. Other teams in our division include Whitley Bay, Bishop Auckland, Penrith (of whom more later) and Stockton Town. The latter outfit finished one place above us in 2017/2018; 6^th to our 7^th, on account of more goals scored (91 trumps 90), but their real achievement in this campaign just ending was to reach the FA Vase final, where they were to lose 1-0 to Thatcham Town at Wembley the day after, Sunday 20^th. It was a great accolade just to get that far; Benfield went out of the Vase in the last 16 in a replay away to Coleshill Town, on penalties, after conceding an equaliser 7 minutes into stoppage time. Frankly, I’ve not recovered emotionally from that disappointment yet, nor the fact we also went out of 2 other cup competitions at the semi-final stage and the FA Cup a mere two ties away from the first round proper. During 2017/2018, Newcastle Benfield played a total of 61 games; 42 in the league and 19 in 4 separate cup competitions. Our centre forward Paul Brayson, formerly of Newcastle United, Swansea, Reading, Cheltenham, Northwich, Gateshead and Blyth, turned 40 last September and played in 59 of them. He’s been with us 6 seasons now and has grabbed a minimum of 40 goals in each year. He scored 49 this year, the best of which was an instinctive lob from 30 yards out, almost on the touchline, at Whitley Bay in a 2-0 win in the Preliminary Round of the FA Cup on September 2^nd. It was a goal so good that the FA selected Brassy as one of the 137 players who’d scored in this season’s cup to have their names etched on the ball used at Wembley in the 137^th cup final.

A nice gesture, but we’d rather have some money if you don’t mind. Considering we exist on crowds of 100, paying an average of £5 a head admission, the tasks of plugging the shortfall by attracting willing local sponsors, who are being similarly targeted by our geographical rivals and their begging bowls, not to mention attracting new fans is of paramount importance. Additionally, finding committee members ready to give up their free time is also a struggle. It gets harder to balance the books and move the club forward each year, despite the magnificent progress manager Mark Convery and his evolving squad of talented players who are skilled exponents of the brand of attacking football played on the floor he has brought to Benfield, with the dominance of the professional game and a certain club down the road attracting 52,000 every home game, seemingly regardless of Mike Ashley’s continued presence. Therefore, winning 4 games in the FA Cup and a similar number in the FA Vase was a godsend, in terms of the prize money garnered for such progression. However, every penny counts, and the money made from renting the ground out for cup finals, especially on boiling summer afternoons when thirsty supporters almost drank the bar dry, is essential because, let’s face it, the FA aren’t going to bail out struggling non-league outfits any time soon. Hence the Stobswood v Ellington final was played on the hallowed turf of Sam Smith’s Park.

As someone who has been involved in grassroots football for quarter of a century now, I always find it amusing when someone alludes to the FA's masterplan for the game. While initiatives like the Respect campaign attract publicity and schemes such as the bureaucratically exhausting Charter Standard gain funding, most of the direct interventions made by the FA at our level are financially burdensome and of questionable provenance. After years of speculation, the FA has now introduced compulsory promotion from this season on; hence Northern League champions Marske United and runners-up Morpeth Town will play in the new Northern Premier League Division 1 East next season. For Morpeth, this will involve an extra 5,000 miles of travel per annum. They’ve got to find that cash themselves. The FA, in attempting to implement a one-size-fits-all pyramid structure of leagues on a 1 – 2 – 4 – 8 - 16 basis, where the 1 is the National League and one of the 16 is Northern League Division 1, are looking to impose lateral movement to iron out geographical anomalies. At Northern League level, this means Cumbrian side Penrith may be forced against their will to move to the North West Counties League and Yorkshire outfit Northallerton Town could be transferred to the Northern Counties East at some point in the future.

Ground grading is similarly a joke; the onerous burden of providing covered seating for 200 and hard standing for 1,000 when clubs attract barely 10% of that creates unnecessary expenditure that would be far better spent on things the clubs actually need. Of prime importance would be a decent playing surface. Clubs at steps 5 and 6, as in the Northern Leagues Division 1 and 2, have their own grounds and must maintain them to an acceptable standard. In the Northern League, only 3 teams have 4G pitches; Stockton Town, Consett and West Allotment Celtic. While any heavy fall of snow put paid to games on artificial surfaces, they at least stood up to the incessant rain that made this season one of the wettest ever. Even allowing for the hideous backlog of games, the FA refused to sanction step 5 leagues playing beyond May 7^th Bank Holiday. To put this in context, at Benfield we were rained off every Saturday in March, resulting in us playing our final 15 games in 30 days, with the last 3 weeks of the season involving games every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. It was insane. The players were shattered. The spectators unable or unwilling to afford so many fixtures. The pitch was rutted, and committee members worn out.

 At lower levels, it is even worse; the Northern Alliance acts as the bridge between the Northern League and the Tyneside Amateur. As teams in that league don’t have floodlights, midweek games are impossible from early September until mid-April. Consequently, the final game in that 3-division league will see Killingworth Town face New Fordley on Wednesday May 30^th. Ideal for groundhoppers, but an utter farce for everyone else. The vast majority of clubs in the Northern Alliance and Tyneside Amateur are teams who hire pitches from the local council or at high schools. Unless they’ve managed to find one with a 4G surface as standard, most clubs have either had to fork out the extra cash to book a synthetic surface or remain inactive for months until decent weather returned, then have half their season concertinaed into a few crazy weeks. Unsurprisingly, many teams are calling it a day, as the endless struggle for players, volunteers and cash is a thankless task. In the Tyneside Amateur, we’ve lost 4 clubs with only 2 newcomers to replace them. Even the Northern League saw Jarrow Roofing, FA Vase semi-finalists as recently as 2005, tender their resignation.

How do we stop this seemingly inevitable erosion of the grassroots game? Money and pitches is the short answer. The fact that every secondary school in the country does not have 2 full-size floodlit 4G pitches is an absolute disgrace. Such facilities would provide a decent surface and the chance for all levels of the game, from youth sides to veterans and clubs at Tyneside Amateur and Northern Alliance level, across the whole country, to play at a regular, timetabled slot. This could be from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon, with midweek slots for training, not to mention providing the perfect surface for school PE lessons; whatever the age, level, ability or whatever, the game would be on. I realise the FA are starting to plan for game hubs in certain cities, one of which is Newcastle, with several synthetic pitches available in one area. Great idea, but possibly too little and too late.

For clubs from Benfield’s level upwards, who may not wish to abandon a traditional grass surface, grants for 4G pitches or regular input and expertise from professional, full-time ground maintenance and preparation experts would go a long way to reducing fixture pile-ups. Drainage, new turf, covers and so on cost a pretty penny, so remain beyond the pocket of most amateur clubs. However, there is one huge white elephant in the room that might come in handy. If the proposed sale of Wembley goes ahead, wouldn’t it make sense that, instead of funding Dele Alli’s 27^th Ferrari, the money could be used for the greater good and spread out among the grassroots game. All we want is a level playing field; the sale of Wembley could give every player that. Equally important, from my point of view, we could get the football season over and done with by early May, so I can concentrate on cricket.