15. Bootham Crescent-York City

York City 0-1 Hull City
Pre season friendly
Saturday 17th July 2010

Ground: Bootham Crescent
League: Conference National (match was a pre season friendly)
Admission: Adults: £10 Children: £5 (On league matchday, Adults: £14-£17 Children: £6-£11)
Programme: £2
Attendance: 2,550
Capacity: 7,900
Seated: 2,400
Covered: 5,200
Town/City: York
Club shop: yes
Floodlights: yes
Step: 5

York as I have already covered before is a large city with a population of 195,400. The number one thing to do in York is obviously visit the minster. Which towers above everything in the City center. This is open on matchdays between 9:15 and 17:00. It costs between £5.50 and £9 to get in. Nearby to York is Castle Howard. By many said to be England's grandest stately home this will certaintly take a few hours to explore. The house is open March-October and late November to mid December every day from 11:00-17:00. The grounds are open all year from 10:00-17:00. It costs £10 but £7.50 for just the grounds. Jorvik is the other site that provides interest. It provides a simulation ride through a Viking York with sounds and smells to go with it. It is open daily from 10:00-16:30 and costs £7.95. Also associated is Dig! which lets you dig artifacts up for yourselves. This costs £5.50 or £11.20 with Jorvik. You must pre book for this.
York holds every sport with City being its main one. York Knights RLFC play in the Co-Operative Championship 1 and play at Huntingdon Stadium in Northeast York. York RUFC play at Shipton Road Northwest of York centre. They play in the Yorkshire Division One. York CC (who I have already visited) also play at Shipton Road. They play in and are holders of the Yorkshire ECB Premier Division.

York City were founded in 1922 and joined the Midlands league. They spent 7 seasons here before being elected to the Football League Division 3 North. In 1955 they were FA cup semi finalists after beating Notts County in the Quater final. They lost to Newcastle United on a replay at Sunderland. In 1959 they were placed in Division four. They were promoted to Division 3. This was followed by relegation in 1960. They were promoted twice more the first was followed by relegation again. In 1984 they won the Football League Division 4. in 1993 they were promoted to Division 2 after winning the play offs. In 2004 they were relegated to the Conference. Here they have waited since. They lost last seasons play off final 3-1 to Oxford United. In 1962 they reached the Quater finals of the Football League cup where they lost to Rochdale. The club lost the 2008-2009 FA trophy final against Stevenage Borough.
York first played at Fulfordgate, this was demolished in 1932. The highest attendance was 12,721 when York played Sheffield United in an FA cup match. York then moved to their current ground Bootham Crescent. In 1938 28,123 fans squeezed in to see York play Huddersfield in the FA cup sixth round.

When we arrived in York we saw police milling about everywhere. First thoughts were football hooligans, but I soon dismissed this as it was only a pre season and instead presumed that it had been a bomb scare. I arrived at the ground in time for kick off and sat in the main stand. I paid my £5 admission and picked up the thin 8 page programme for a miserable £2. The match started slowly with neither side looking to make the break through the fans were looking for. Hull hit the underside of the bar with 10 minutes remaining of the half to the annoyance of the 900 Hull fans. The break through was made on 80 minutes when a free kick was guided into the box for Daniel Cousin to head home. The full time whistle went and both sets of fans applauded their teams. I left through the narrow exit and made my way back to Marygate car park.
That night I checked the news and found out that 50 Hull fans had started a riot in York centre just before I got there. That would explain all the commotion. Some people say pre season is a waste of time and isn't worth seeing, and then there's these fans who take it to the other extreme and are risking being arrested and fined just at a friendly match. What would they be like at the Champions League?

Bootham Crescent is located in the Centre of York. There is no parking at the ground so your best bet is to either park at Marygate about 3/4 of a mile away, or park and ride. There are turnstilesat the main stand and the corner of the North Stand. Away fans can enter through the turnstile at the South stand. Fans wanting to access the Popular stand have to pay at the North stand turnstile, walk through the North stand and pay £1 at the other side to get into the Popular stand. You'll need to collect a ticket if you want to leave the Popular stand and get something to eat from the snack stand in the North stand. However on days like this when it isn't a league game. It may be there is no extra fare to enter the Popular stand and no ticket needed to go in and out. Its the same for away fans. They pay at the South stand turnstile and then pay £1 extra to get into their section of the Popular stand.
The main stand is on the East and holds 1,800 seats and covers 2/3 of the pitch length. Half the seats are wooden tip up and half are red plastic tip ups. The stand has windshields at both sides.
In front of the stand are two Perspex dugouts. Opposite the main stand is the Popular Stand which contains 1,700 seats all red plastic tip ups. One block is designated to away supporters.
The North Stand is completely terracing and is covered and holds 2,200. The opposite end is also terracing but is uncovered, it also holds 2,200. There are 4 floodlight pylons, one on each corner.

The programe for the match was awful. It was 8 pages long and most of it was welcomes for the new season from lots of different people. We only need one or two. There is also news on the youth academy, full season fixtures and team lineups (with no Hull squad numbers). All this was £2, rip off.

York City matchday pictures

14. Moore Lane Park-Newton Aycliffe FC

Newton Aycliffe 2-3 Bishop Auckland
Pre Season Friendly
Saturday 10th July 2010

Ground: Moore Lane Park
League/Competition: Pre season friendly (Newton Aycliffe are in the Northern league division two)
Admission: Adults: £4 Children: £2
Programme: £1 (brilliant)
Attendance: 180
Capacity: 1,200
Seated: 120
Covered: 120
Town: Great Aycliffe
Club shop: yes
Floodlights: yes
Step: 10

Newton Aycliffe is a medium sized town in County Durham. It has a population of 26,000 with the nearest large town being Darlington.
Newton Aycliffe RUFC and CC both play on Moore Lane Park's premises. The Rugby club are in the Durham/Northumberland Division 3. This is at step 9 of the Rugby Union pyramid. The Cricket club play in the North East Durham League Division 1.

Newton Aycliffe started out life in the Wearside League in 1984. Their first season ended up with them finishing near the bottom in 17th out of 20. In 1988 they managed to finish the season in 13th out of 20 with 45 points. In 1988 the league become the Wearside league Division 1. In 1990 they managed to finish 3rd out of 15. The clubs record was destroyed before the 1993/1994 season when they resigned from the league. Until 2008 the club went around playing in local leagues. The last of which was the Durham Alliance, before they finally applied to join the Wearside League again for the 2008/2009 season. This was followed by instant success as the side were promoted to the Northern league Division 2. They played in this in 2009/2010 under the condition they had to install seating by March 2010. They did this in late winter. The clun got a ninth place finish out of 20.

This match was set to be a local derby with Bishop Auckland about 10 miles away.
Bishop Auckland are 1 division above Newton Aycliffe.
I set off on Saturday morning to get the 12:20 train from Northallerton to Darlington. Here I switched to a train which took me to Newton Aycliffe station. I didn't quite know what to do with the couple of hours I had, so I wandered round the town. At 15:00 the match kicked off and I positioned myself by the corner flag so I could get a good view of the action.
Newton Aycliffe opened the scring on 6 minutes with Hawkins curling a shot home. Bishop Auckland equalised on 27 minutes through an Emson header. John Close sliced a free kick from Jake Richardson into his own net just two minutes later. Into the second half Garner chested a cross and volleyed home. With 6 minutes left Salvin headed home a long free kick to win the match for Bishop Auckland.
I made the 35 minute walk back to the station where I did exactly the journey I did before. I managed to get home by 20:15.

Moore Lane Park is situated in the East of Newton Aycliffe, in the Great Aycliffe area.
It shares the premises with the Rugby club and the Cricket club so it needs a lot of space. The ground is enclosed by a wooden fence. There is a small wooden turnstile when you go into the ground. The changing rooms are on your left as you go in. Thses are portakabins.There is also a food van selling hot dogs and pies on the right. The ground is fully railed off and has hard standing all the way round. There are two perspex dugouts on the North side. The South side contains the seater stand. This holds about 120. It is an Audience System stand (groan!) and is decked with blue seats. There is an empty concrete space next to it exactly the same to that underneath the stand. Could they be planning on putting another one in?

The programme at Newton Aycliffe is excellent. It is 32 pages long and is all in colour. An example of what it contains is: a message from the manager, posters of the players, profiles on the away players and details of what's available from the club shop. It is totally worth the amazing £1 you pay for it and is almost worth visiting the ground just for it.

Newton Aycliffe matchday pictures

New Season

I am already excited about the new season even with it still one month away.
There's so much to look forward to, World Cup Final, The FA cup, giantkillers, The Championship, relegation battles, the chase to go to the football league, new grounds, Farewells (Church Lane of Hayes & Yeading), local football, the Northern league, Teeside League, Harrogate & District League and so much more, so much that I thought I'd create a list of what I'm liking and what I'm not liking in the new season.
What I'm liking:
Another season in the Northern league for Northallerton Town
The FA cup
Newton Aycliffe's programme and ground
A trip to Norway and Sweden to see some foreign grounds
Train trips to get me further round the country
Northern Rail trains
A trip to Griffin Park
Northallerton v Middlesbrough
Visiting the peculiar stand at Bedale
Pre season
Darlington v Newport County
The new Evo Stick League
Leigh Genesis have finally got their own ground
Trip to Elland Road
Turf Moor
Accrington Stanley's tiny Crown Ground
Goals!
My new digital camera
Don't have to climb all the steps to get to the away end at Newcastle United
Transfer fare to get to the main stand scrapped at Harrogate Town
Wensleydale RUFC in the Rugby Union pyramid at the Yorkshire Division 5
More children watching non league football

What I'm not liking:
Audience System stands (I'm looking at you Newton Aycliffe, Haverfordwest County and Histon)
Still a fortune to get into York City
Trips to see Northallerton at Whitehaven and Morpeth
Lack of stands in the Teeside League
Lack of football in my home County North Yorkshire
Neither Scarborough side has got a ground in Scarborough yet
Bowl stadiums
Teams groundsharing at Athletic tracks
St Helens Town will be relying on the Rugby League side for a home at the next ground as well rather than finding their own
Lack of teams from step 7 in the FA vase
The stands have all gone at Feethams
Darlington Arena
Prospect of a new stadium for York City
Lack of interesting grounds in lower Rugby League
The death of Saltergate