Crook Town v Billingham Synthonia

Hosts: Crook Town AFC

LOCATION REPORT

Venue: The Sir Tom Cowie Millfield, West Road, Crook, Co. Durham DL15 9PW

SatNav: DL15 9PW
Parking: car park across West Road (A690) for c.30 + nearby carparks/streets in town (NB: please respect residential area)
Public transport: buses incl #X46 (Crook-Durham), #1 (Crook-Tow Law)

Entry: adults £5, concessions £3, under 16s £1 or free with paying adult
Programmes: £1

Refreshments: "Only Foods & Sauces" snack bar (eg £1 coffee, £2 for chip butty)
Licensed bar: clubhouse bar
Toilets: in clubhouse bar

Covered stands/terraces:
(W) main stand with c.300 seats (numbered benches)
(W) covered terrace, incl row of dozens of office chairs
Open standing:
(S) 3 x wooden picnic benches = 18 seats
(S) stepped standing x 100s
(NESW) hardstanding/lean-on barriers all round

Floodlights: 6 (3 per flank, each with multiple lamps)

MATCH REPORT

Kickoff: 3:00pm Saturday 5 January 2019
Competition: Ebac Northern League Division Two
Weather: chilly (7°c dropping to 2°c), still, dry, clear

Team colours:
Crook Town = amber shirts, black shorts
Billingham Synthonia = green/white quartered shirts, white shorts

Official crowd: 101

Final [h/t] score:
1 [1] Crook Town
0 [2] Billingham Synthonia 

Sent Off: 0

Official League Report

NORVENMUNKI's COMMENTS

Generations shall remember
proud men striving, in pits or in war;
and the boys in black-and-amber
shall celebrate them when they score
and grace this place for evermore.

The Millfield occupies a prominent position on the main road into Crook, its mighty floodlight frames glinting in the shreds of afternoon sunshine breaking through the darkening sky.

Slowly, the faithful arrive, drawn by a soundtrack of Saturday afternoon seemingly unchanged in decades.


At the town end, the flight of steps from the turnstiles up to pitch level are half barriered-off. Stood on the crown of the kop, the full vista is delightful.

A sign says to keep off the grass.

The stepped terrace is empty now, save for groundhoppers taking photos.


Beside a cluster of picnic tables, the upper tread of the steps bears a dog's cute pawprint, now set eternally in the cement.

The crowd is sparsely dotted around the ample space (indeed, I later learn that our own presence today served to tip the crowd over into three digits: from 99 to 101!). 

Like us, there are a few other groundhoppers in attendance, smartphones in camera mode.

Crook fans are in good humour, hoping for a result to arrest a recent poor run and a kickstart to a new calendar year.

The visitors, in turn, are looking for a victory to break a run of recent draws. Usually they would drape their massive Synners flags over the barriers but I can't see them around today. 

Walking past the covered terrace with its row of reclaimed office chairs, we are drawn by the painted white arrows towards the fantastically-named 'Only Foods & Sauces' snack bar: the hot chocolate gets our vote.

Cups in hand, we pick ourselves a spot in the main stand, where the long wooden benches have numbers painted into them, and find a roost in the twenties.

Entirely by choice, it's one that's partly obscured by the quirky floodlight that goes through the main stand roof.

It's dry today, but the stand's mighty overhanging roof suggests it would offer outstanding cover on a rainy day. I have certainly visited many 'major' grounds over the years where fans would be extremely jealous of such protection.

From up here, you can see over the grassed outfield beyond, towards the hills in distance and the rooftops of the town centre set in the bowl-like valley. Against the treetops, there's the incongruous sight of one solitary windmill, its blades stationary throughout: is it disabled or is there simply no wind today?

The PA hut is set high up in the rear of the stand, behind what looks like my house front door, with leads trailing to a speaker vibrating amongst the stand benches.

Today's playlist is somewhat dated: nothing later than about 1995 (and not much after 1965?), with some Fifties crooners, Motown, Ben E King, Duran Duran, The Proclaimers, Alanis Morrisette. Even as a self-confessed old-fart, I would respectfully suggest someone needs to get a copy of any NOW! album from #30 or above!

The teams emerge, seemingly from separate directions but merged into the customary phalanx. Handshakes over. It's game on!

The floodlights are on from the start, the winter gloom hovers and it feels more like an evening match..

The locals are soon rewarded with any early goal. The home-team captain pops up with ten minutes gone: 1-0. Under the canopy, the ripple of applause echoes back down from the steel rafters and magnifies; outside, scattered around the flanks, the cheers drift up into the clouds.




With a quarter of the match played, the sunshine tentatively pokes through behind us, making tiny patches of yellow on the edges of the green turf. As players flit through these segments, they cast grey shadows along the touchline.

It's only four minutes to the break, but a Synners' defender cannot wait to be replaced and a young sub is readied. In his over-exuberance, he runs enthusiastically on to the pitch without having been properly admitted by the linesman, who calls him back by repeating his number over-and-again until he realises. A local grump in the stand remarks, swearily, that he should earn a yellow card for that. The away coach casts him an awkwardly disapproving glance.





Half time: 1-0. The dulcet tones of what-sounds-like Van Morrison kick in. My daughter points out that the music is in fact the very same playlist as earlier, on repeat.

We shiver as the temperature drops: two more hot chocolates required.

Both teams are back out. Curiously, the exits from each changing room are at different points of the stand.
The second half begins and, within ten minutes, it's all square. The visitors bench has been increasingly vocal and they are back on even terms thanks to a goal by the manager's son.



Out of the corner of my eye, I see a chap in a red coat and white hat - for a second, one inevitably thinks of Santa Claus.

On the hour mark, the visitors score again and now Synners lead. A beautifully-taken left-footed free kick curls around the wall and nestles in the far corner beyond the purple keeper's grasp. It's a very good goal indeed....albeit a somewhat rubbish celebration: the worst knee slide ever.

From the snack bar, plumes of smoke billow into the evening air.
An away substitute potters around the bench area with his yellow bib pulled awkwardly over his anorak and his fluffy hood sticking through: he looks like he's got a fox stuffed up his back!

Game over.

We exit stage left, out through the bar: the temperature clash between indoors and outdoors mists my spectacles.





Into the dark streets and away again across the hills.



The winter may be coming but the Millfield will light up again soon, drawing the faithful to another game, and with it hopefully restore some hearty warmth into the loyal folk of Crook's black-and-amber army.

MORE INFORMATION

Club Twitter: @crooktown_afc
Club website: www.crooktownfc.co.uk