Venue: Whitworth Park School Annexe, Tudhoe Village, near Spennymoor, Co Durham DL16 6JY.
Kickoff: 13:30 Sat 16 Nov 2013
Weather: cloudy with sunny spells, dry, light wind, 11℃ but felt a bit colder with windchill.
LOCATION REPORT
FOR SPECTATORS
SatNav: DL16 6JY.
Staff: none from venue, but Spennymoor contingent was strong and seemed well-organised (if all the training kit, refreshments and first aid/physio kit was any indicator)?
Parking: school carpark, 50+ spaces, plus the grass and kerb along the service road into school. Most cars (approx 20?) parked on grass, though probably not advisable in wetter conditions.
Public transport: Bus service #6 (Durham-West Auckland) stops on North Road, Tudhoe, just metres from the school gates.
[For Spennymoor Town FC itself]
The #X21 (Bishop Auckland-Durham-Newcastle) stops on Durham Rd, as does the #6, incidentally. Which is ideal for Brewery Field stadium and a short walk to the nearby pitches.
[For Tudhoe]
Or else, to reach Tudhoe itself, #8a (Darlington-Ferryhill Village-Spennymoor) serves Tudhoe Green. This is an unnecessary extra walk, but Tudhoe is a pretty little place if you like that kind of thing, and the Green Inn is a lovely pub.
Refreshments: nowt, try Spennymoor town centre or Tudhoe village.
Toilets: none.
Kids: nothing but plenty of space for kickabouts with four other pitches on same fields. (Unless the classrooms were open, and they wanted to swot up on algebra? As if?).
Weather protection:
Rain: zero.
Wind: zero
Sun: zero
Cold: zero
(Secondary education budgets well-spent, no comforts at all!)
FOR PLAYERS
Pitch: grass; pretty well kept, perhaps a bit chewy underfoot but still green not mud-brown.
Floodlights: none
Changing: none on-site as the school building was locked-up. Everyone set off afterwards to change elsewhere (with the home team presumably steaming their car windows less due to a shorter journey?).
MATCH REPORT
Approx crowd: c. 75+ persons, making for a nice atmosphere of talk and clapping. (This may have included a few of Spennymoor subs/trainees, however I deliberately didn't count anyone in a full kit!).
A few people popped out through the hedgerow occasionally, seemingly there's a gap to reach Walkworth Lane (ie through the estate towards the main ground), but I couldn't see one. (You perhaps have to be a local to know the way?).
The crowd was mixed-ages and comprised a fair number of youths, either non-playing team members or else their mates.
I'd say 95% were male, only a handful of mums & girlfriends.
For the record, I spotted only the one dog.
Full-time [h/t] score (colours):
1 [0] Spennymoor Town Reserves (white, black)
0 [0] Coxhoe United FC (yellow/black halves)
Bookings: 3 x Spennymoor
Sent Off: 0
Official Match Report:
www.durhamAllianceLeague.org.uk/
(Note: This was not a league match, but a League Challenge Cup Round 1 match instead)
NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS:
Mistakenly, at first, I went to Brewery Field stadium itself. It was obviously very quiet, certainly no game on. But some activity around suggested it wasn't 'game off'.
It turns out the Reserves play in a school field around the corner.
It's 60 seconds by car or 5 minutes walk via Durham Road (or maybe Walkworth Lane?) to Whitworth Park School Annexe on St Charles Road, Tudhoe Village (follow signs).
Today, it stayed mercifully dry throughout but a cold wind did get into your bones. I can well imagine students lumping around these fields in similar weather, moaning to Sir, just as we did as kids.
On the pitch, it was a fairly competitive affair. All the players (and the respective entourages) were up-for-it, there was certainly nowhere to hide.
Good to hear lots of positive encouragement between players, on both teams.
A fair amount of shouty banter was also directed toward every refereeing decision, however seemingly innocuous or contentious. This appeared to emanate especially from the Spennymoor fans/bench.
In fact, almost at the final whistle, the diminutive but authoritative referee even threatened to send someone off from the Spennymoor "bench"!
It was evident that a few of the Spennymoor boys fancied a crack at their first team, and certainly had the desire to play at a higher level than this. For their part, the Coxhoe boys were equally committed and organised, and the Spennymoor lads certainly knew they had to be on their mettle to get a result.
Personally, I got the feeling that Spennymoor (albeit their Reserves) are a 'scalp' at this level.
Technique-wise, there was a bit of long-ball now and again, mainly a 'clear-the-danger-first' tactic, however when they got the ball down there were some lovely moves from both sides and some cracking saves. Notably the Coxhoe keeper, resplendent in pink, pulled off a couple of nice stops.
Alongside the line, the big chunky linesman seemed to be coughing his guts up every time he broke into a trot down the touchline. He managed to survive the 90 minutes and still have some breath left to share some observations with the Coxhoe players.
As did the Coxhoe #12, who needed a tab immediately after leaving the pitch!
GBA rating: Unlikely here. But I have yet to visit Brewery Field itself.
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