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Saturday, 20 October 2018

Ryton and Crawcrook Albion v Billingham Synthonia

Hosts: Ryton and Crawcrook Albion FC

LOCATION REPORT

Venue: Kingsley Park, Stannerford Road, Crawcrook, Tyne & Wear, NE40 3SN

SatNav: NE40 3SN
Parking: on-site carpark for c50 (parking on nearby roads not advisable due to fast passing traffic)
Public transport: Wylam rail station (20mins walk), Tynedale Links 686 or R3 along Greenwell Terrace

Club information:
Twitter = @RACAFC1970
Club Website 

Entry: £5
Refreshments: licensed clubhouse; pitchside "Scran Van" (tea £1.20, chips £1.50, cheeseburger £2)
Toilets: in clubhouse
Other Facilities: n/a
Programmes: £1

Covered Stands/Terraces:
Main stand = safe seats for c60 max
Covered standing on opposite flank.
Open Terraces:
Picnic tables outside clubhouse;
open hardstanding to all sides, including elevated section;
lean-on barriers allround.
Floodlights: 8 (random)

MATCH REPORT

Kickoff: 3pm Saturday 20 October 2018
Competition: Ebac Northern League Division Two 
Weather: dry, light breeze, sunny glimpses

Team colours:
Ryton and Crawcrook = blue/black stripes
Billingham Synthonia = green/white squares

Official crowd: 47
Final [h/t] score:
0 [0] Ryton and Crawcrook Albion
1 [0] Billingham Synthonia
Bookings: 2 x Ryton, 1 x Synthonia
Sent Off: 0



NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS

Ryton has been a football area for decades, it is the birthplace of Everton legend Howard Kendall and Norwich's Stan Ramsay.
By way of contrast, it's also the birthplace of furniture-maker George Hepplewhite, Charles Thorp, the original Warden of Durham University, and Thomas Secker, 18th-century Archbishop of Canterbury.

Set in the beautiful countryside of the Tyne valley, the Kingsley Park ground clings to the northern banks leading down from Crawcrook towards Wylam. It's an exposed location in the open yawn of the valley, opposite some cement works and next to a massive housing estate currently being built.


 


Today the breeze is subtle, but still enough to blow my fiver out of my hands and across the car park! I rescue it and get my entry and programme from Danny's Den.
Once inside, you can imagine the wind  whipping up like a frenzy on the occasion of winter's fury and the protection for the shivering fan being limited to the steamy windows of the clubhouse.

I am relieved of a quid for club raffle tickets, as the two enthusiast young girls helping to sell them are very persuasive! 
As ever, the visitors are well represented and Synners' green flags are draped over the fencing. 



A row of random flip-up seating is cemented into the ground at one end, it's all rusty but passers-by do stop to use it occasionally. 


What passes for a 'main stand' is a somewhat dilapidated structure which is on the point of being unsafe. There are around 60 of the 100+ seats still usable, with seats torn up or falling/fallen off and others drenched in stagnant water or caked in guano. A couple of kids (ie the lightest bodies you can get) are making the entire row wobble just by wriggling innocently.




The "Scran Van" is popular and the cup of tea is just how you need it: big and hot!



A row of reclaimed bus shelters doubles for rain protection. It may have originally been a smart idea, but these are honestly not really any use anymore as some panels have roof sheets completely missing!



The clubhouse is small and neat with a friendly bar serving local bottled brews amongst others. Sky Sports is on. As I  mentioned earlier, you can watch the match snugly sat at the large windows or else outside from an elevated patio of picnic tables. 



The viewing choice is all round, so there's no shortage of vantage points depending on your preference. People watch from all sides but mainly from along the main flank, the southern side, where the clubhouse is. This has a nice walled grass bank and wooden fencing. 


There are floodlights, but oddly there are three on one flank and four on the other plus one extra behind one of the goals. 

The dugouts are tatty, another couple of recycled bus shelters. To be fair to the hosts, the away one is at least still intact, so fair play to the club for courtesy to their visitors. 




The pitch is incredibly bumpy: I mean crazily so. There's not a square metre anywhere on the pitch that is flat. The home team - kitted out like Internazionale Milano - definitely has an advantage in knowing the idiosyncrasies of the turf. This is no San Siro, I've seen better playing surfaces in Step 9. Even my back garden is flatter and I live on a hill!



On the opposite side of the pitch, there's a neighbouring private home with a greenhouse and glass conservatory, all visible through a collapsed fence panel. It's very vulnerable to a stray shot and some smashed up vegetables, and during the game a club helper has to nip off to reclaim a ball from the garden. 



At the other end, it's 13 minutes until a high shot from a 'nerazzurri' striker flies way over the Synners goal, and the tatty stand behind it, and into the road beyond. Or maybe the cement works beyond that? Soon after, a high clearance lands in the car park on someone's windscreen. 


There's a rusty old barbecue made from an oil drum. I wonder how often it gets used, as a warmer if not for food?


Just before half-time, a thunderous shot from the Ryton right-winger flies over the Synners net and crashes against the corrugated iron stand behind. It flashes past the head of a young boy, who is momentarily stunned. A few seconds later, he bursts into tears from the shock and his Dad picks him up for a hug. He spends the next period sat snugly on his Dad's lap.


In the covered shelter on the far side, there's a dart board, set into a vertical plank. I guess if you get really bored you can entertain yourself?

The sound of planes taking off from Newcastle airport rumbles above periodically, but today the cloud cover means you hear but don't see.


There are tractors rumbling past the far fencing constantly, seemingly to-and-fro an adjoining farm. 

Some resourceful person has left a pop-up angler's chair in the seat-less shelter but nobody ever came to claim it.


On the pitch, after 84 minutes, there's a breakthrough: a Synners' free-kick is  turned-in at the near post through a crowded penalty area by Ben Pollock, the away manager's son. Ryton shoulders droop. This is a big last five for both sides. 


Game over: 0-1.



The shudder of traffic is audible again as the shouting players and bench trudge off. 

The sun makes one final appearance, hanging low, deep into the valley to the east, and the air itself turns orangey. The shadows of grey stretch languidly across the lush turf. The wind drops completely, as the afternoon folds itself away and the Autumn evening slowly swallows Tynedale and the crumbling cuteness of Kingsley Park. 

MORE INFORMATION 

Crawcrook 
Howard Kendall





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