Benfield are
my team. I must admit I’ve not followed the Walkergate Brazilians from birth,
mainly because we weren’t formed until 1988. In fact I first saw us in action
at home to Newcastle Reserves in the NFA Senior Cup in February 1995; we lost
3-0 and I didn’t set foot in Sam Smith’s Park for another 8 years, until we
joined the Northern League. However, the 4-1 win over Thornaby on 27th
September 2003 made an indelible impression on me and I was hooked on The Lions
from then on. I love the club and I’m proud to say I am the programme editor,
as I intend to follow Benfield for the rest of my life. On Saturday 11th
February 2017, on a filthy afternoon, I saw us go 2-0 up away to Bishop
Auckland, concede 4 in 8 minutes, then grab a point with an outrageous fluke
and an unfortunate own goal. It was a magical afternoon; Newcastle’s subsequent
1-0 win away to Wolves later on was a good result, but it didn’t have me
punching the air the way the Benfield game did.
If you’re in
any way romantically inclined, or believe in sport as a force for good in the
community, you really should be following a non-league side. We all know the
reasons why, but suffice to say the intangible emotional rewards you feel once
a club gets under your skin make it all worthwhile. Certainly nothing in the
sporting arena will ever compare to the joy I felt on Tuesday 5th
May 2009, when Stephen Young’s 86th minute winner in the last ever
game at Penrith’s old Southend Road ground put us top of the table for the
first time that season as we clinched the Northern League title. Mind I didn’t go for a pint to celebrate as
Penrith used to go back to the local Conservative Club; you know what I’m
saying, right? The double was achieved 10 days later on the ground of our old
rivals West Allotment Celtic, when keeper Andy Grainger produced the finest
performance I’ve ever seen by a Northern League keeper, to foil Penrith as we
ran out 2-0 winners on another amazing night.
Somewhat
ironically, that final was the last I saw of Benfield on a regular basis for
around 4 years, though my plan had been somewhat different. In summer 2009,
after Newcastle were relegated, my dad died of cancer the day after Bobby
Robson. My son was then a devoted egg chaser, whose games would now be on
Saturday afternoons rather than Sunday mornings. Consequently, the 3 season
tickets I had maintained at SJP all seemed somewhat superfluous, so I decided
not to renew. I haven’t had one since and I never will again, though I still go
to the odd game (4 cup ties and 3 league games in 2016/2017 at the time of
writing). The idea had been to follow Benfield home and away, but then fate
intervened.
As well as
Benfield, I’d developed a soft spot for Percy Main Amateurs of the Northern
Alliance. As they played, effectively, 3 divisions down from Benfield, there
was little if any chance of divided loyalties, so when Benfield were away
somewhere inaccessible, I used to take myself down to Purvis Park. The first
time I’d been to see Percy Main was in May 2005; Benfield’s season had ended
the week before and Newcastle weren’t playing until the Sunday, so a little bit
of groundhopping was in order. Living in High Heaton, one of the closest teams
to my house was Heaton Stannington. I’ve never really supported them, though
I’d been to Grounsell Park to see them a few times; this was my first away
trip. On a pleasant, sunny afternoon, they won 3-2 in a decent game, played in
a relaxed, end of season way. The next encounter between the two teams was very
different in every imaginable way.
On Saturday
11th February, while Benfield were losing 2-1 away to Squires Gate
in the FA Vase and Newcastle were winning 2-1 at Aston Villa, there was little
in the shape of live, local football to keep me entertained. In those, heady
pre-internet days, fixtures below Northern League level were almost impossible
to source, so it was only walking past Grounsell Park and seeing the corner
flags in place that told me there was a game on. The visitors? Percy Main. The
attendance? About a couple of dozen. The score? 0-0.
However,
that doesn’t tell the full story; on 86 minutes Percy Main’s legendary hard man
Alan Ryder became involved in a pitch side altercation that soon developed into
the kind of scrapping you’d normally see in a taxi rank on Christmas Eve at
chucking out time. When the 21 man brawl had been underway for the best part of
quarter of an hour, as the sound of fist on face mingled in the frozen air with
oath-edged talk and grunts of anger and endeavour, the referee abandoned the
game. Being a lifelong coward and pacifist, I watched in disbelief as what has
become known as the Battle of Grounsell Park unfolded; utterly unbelievable. A
bloke near me looked on in even more wide-eyed astonishment, shaking his head
in horror at the raging torment in front of us. He was Norman de Bruin; one of
the finest men I’ve met in my life, not to mention the long-time secretary of
Percy Main Amateurs FC and the bloke who got me involved with the Villagers.
When I
became chair of the Tyneside Amateur League in 2014, I maintain it is because
fixture secretary Paul Mosley couldn’t think of anyone else who’d do the job.
Similarly, when I was asked to become Assistant Secretary at Percy Main in
summer 2009, I have no doubt it was because I was stood around doing nowt,
rather than because of my fantastic administrative and interpersonal
skills. The reason I took on the job was
because it was nice to be asked, though Benfield vice Chair Dave Robson
immediately tried to poach me as soon as he’d heard, but I refused as I’d given
Percy Main my word. It is a decision I’m glad I made, but I’m delighted that I
could finally come home to Benfield.
I had 4
seasons with Percy Main Amateurs which, on the whole, I fully enjoyed. Almost
immediately I learned that to cope as a non-league club volunteer, you need to
develop a thick skin and never expect any thanks for what you do. You have to
be prepared to muck in and do your best; sometimes that’s good enough, but
sometimes it isn’t. As time went on, I realised my skillset, such as it is, was
not what was required by the Villagers.
During my first season, 2009/2010, a revitalised Percy Main team won
promotion to the Alliance top division, finishing just behind champions
Rutherford, lost in the final of the Northumberland FA Minor Cup to Morpeth
Sporting Club and, in the last game of the season on 28th May, won
the Combination Cup. All of those events are included in a book I wrote about
Percy Main, Village Voice, which I
had vainly hoped would raise enough funds to help pay for the redevelopment of
the pavilion at Purvis Park. Sadly, I barely broke even and still have about
200 copies of Village Voice left in
the spare bedroom. Drop me an email if you’d like a copy, free, gratis and for
nowt.
Being
selfish, I am delighted that I have had a book published, though I do recognise
that the kudos associated with this event is greater for me than for Percy Main
Amateurs. As my time with the Villagers
drew on, there was an unspoken realisation on both my part and the rest of the
committee, that I wasn’t really much help or much use. Percy Main didn’t need a
wordsmith or scribe and, though I was happy to write the programme and do the
match reports, it became clear my activities were of minimal relevance to the
club in the grand scheme of things. I was, frankly, more of a hindrance than a
help and when I moved on, to take on the role of Benfield programme editor, it
was of benefit to all 3 parties involved. What PMA needed was either a skilled
craftsman, preferably a roofer, tiler or electrician, to keep the ground in
decent nick, or a proper administrator, who understood the labyrinthine rules
relating to applications for funding from outside agencies. They still do. If
such a person is you, please read on.
You see,
there is an essential difference between Northern League clubs and almost all
of the Alliance sides; in the Northern League, there are established clubs with
grounds, some historic, some pristine new, all with seats and covered sheds,
with floodlights, clubhouses and supporters. Not only that; many clubs have
substantial numbers of volunteers on their committee, who do an array of tasks,
from the practical to the prosaic. Everyone has their part to play and does it
in a way that plays to their skills. When you’re getting a few hundred through
the gate, you need a social media contact and press officer. In the Alliance it
is different; with a few notable exceptions, the participants are sides and
teams not clubs. By this I mean that often a team will hire a pitch and name
themselves after sponsors, or the first team will be the product of a junior
side that has grown up; all well and good in both instances, but there isn’t a
great deal of history there. Rutherford may well be the oldest club in the
north east, but they are also the pivotal point in a network of youth and
community sides, all of whom are maintained by a combination of subscriptions
and grants. Frankly, it’s more about participants than spectators at this
level, as almost all of those volunteering have had some family or other long
term connection with the club.
Without
being controversial, I look at the Alliance and see 3 clubs that stand out from
the rest, because they have their own, wonderful, grounds and exist purely as first XI football teams, not the apex of a
community development project. The three clubs are; Seaton Delaval Amateurs,
Wallington and Percy Main Amateurs. You could do a lot worse than taking in
games at Wheatridge, Oakford or Purvis Parks; three of the most atmospheric,
scenic and historic grounds in our region.
Hopefully, they’ll all still be in use this time next year, but the
signs aren’t good.
On Saturday
11th February, 11 years to the day since the Battle of Grounsell
Park, Percy Main’s home game against Rutherford was called off because of a
waterlogged pitch. Later that evening, without warning, the club posted an
alarming statement on their website warning that almost 100 years of tradition
and memories, having been formed in 1919, could be consigned to the dustbin of
history. If new blood wasn’t forthcoming to help behind the scenes, either as a
match day volunteer, or as the kind of bureaucratic whiz kid who can open the
lid of the money pot that’s so closely guarded by the FA and other outside
funding agencies, then the club would cease to exist at the end of the current
campaign. See for yourself; http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/percymainamateursfc/news/percy-main-amateurs-fc-face-possible-imminent-clos-1753081.html
This is
quite alarming as Percy Main are a club utterly without enemies; everyone has a
good word to say about the Villagers. However, it is action that is needed. The
irony being that the club isn’t skint; it could continue along in the current
fashion for a while yet, but to secure the long-term future of the club, the
ground and specifically the pavilion, needs a major injection of cash to take
it to the next level. The club have arranged an open meeting in the clubhouse
on Sunday 26th February at 6.00pm and all interested parties are
asked to attend. Encouragingly, the first few days have seen a flood of offers
of help, some more practical than others. If you have a practical skill or a
practical mind-set, please consider giving a bit of your time over to one of
the best football clubs in our area; you won’t regret it and your efforts will
be appreciated, just don’t expect to have your ego massaged and prepare
yourself for some incredibly bad language on a regular basis.
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