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2000-2001

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NVNG 74

NVNG 74 - Easter 2001

Promotion favourites Ashington have won the League’s programme competition for the first time. “An excellent programme with lots to read and a very impressive cover” wrote one of the four judges. Newcastle Blue Star were second, Chester-le-Street third - despite being given top marks by two judges - and Horden took the award for the best second division runner-up.

There were a record 22 entries - nine from the first division, 13 from the second. Guisborough, the defending champions, haven’t produced a programme for most of the season and didn’t enter. They hope to resume normal service next year. Judges were again greatly impressed with the quality and effort, though one felt that more thought should go into the four issues which are submitted for the competition. “I’ve seen much better from the same clubs than some of those which were entered” he wrote. Blue Star’s programme was said by one judge to be “go on provocative editorial”, Chester-le­Street’s to be “a superb production, amazing value for money”, Marske United’s to have “probably the best club notes in the League”, Horden’s and Tow Law’s to have a “tremendous community feeling” and Penrith’s to have an excellent cover and “easy on the eye appearance and lay-out.” Admired features included players’ average Sunday Sun marks for the season and reproduction of the League management committee minutes (Marske), a television highlights section (Horden), referee profiles (Penrith), Shotton’s cover, Whitley Bay’s “Seahorse” column, South Shields’ unmissable affection for the club, Esh Winning’s promotion of forthcoming fixtures and Billingham Town’s club officials’ columns.

Not for the first time, judges urged all clubs to have at least one regular column from the manager or chairman and also cautioned against an over-dependence on computer graphics. The judge who complained that a programme had too many ads was thought to be missing the point!

The competition, in its ninth season, was sponsored by Shildon president John Atkinson of C R Atkinson (Stairs), Newton Aycliffe. John, League chaplain the Rev Leo Osborn, Martin and Denise Haworth jointly and Mike Amos were the judges. The League chairman’s promised £50 for the best newcomer will be shared between Evenwood, Murton, Prudhoe and Shotton Comrades, in the hope that it might buy a drink for all of them.

A 200 page history of Crook Town - five times Amateur Cup winners, long time Northern League members - will be published in the summer. "Reading through it, the club always seems to have lurched from highs to lows, either fantastic or down in the depths," says club secretary Alan Stewart. "This season has been a perfect example of the latter".

Alan has written the book with fellow lifelong supporters Michael Manuel and John Phelan. John not only played briefly for Crook in the 1970's but scored the third goal against Bishop Auckland in the Rothman's sponsored days when victory by three clear goals brought a £40 bonus.

The Bishops, it transpires, are still regarded by many as the enemy - still blamed for shopping their neighbours in the great Tea Money Scandal of 1927-28.

"Its not so pronounced among my generation but there's a chap in his 70's on the committee who still obsessively hates them," Alan admits. Michael, apparently, has been talking about doing a book for years. John's initiative in securing £5,000 worth of grants has made it possible. "People have been stopping us in the street offering scrap books, old photographs, all sorts of things" says Alan.

Plans for the launch to coincide with the centenary of the first Amateur Cup win - a 3-0 replay success over Kings Lynn on April 13 1901 at Ipswich - have been changed after the Norfolk club didn't even acknowledge an invitation to play a friendly around that date. The previous season Crook had also been drawn at Kings Lynn but, unable to meet transport costs, conceded the tie. The season after their final victory, "virtually bankrupted" by the cost of two trips to the south, they failed even to enter the competition.

The book also recalls Town's several trips to Spain, the first in 1912, and has even talked to a woman in her 90's who recalls local lad Jack Greenwell going to play for the Spaniards in 1911. "I still can't work out how they could afford it" says Alan, who was six when Crook last reached Wembley in 1964 - "I remember seeing my brother and father off at the railway station" - recalls more vividly being in the 6,229 Millfield crowd for the FA Cup victory over Carlisle the following season and reckons his boyhood hero was centre forward Albert Clapperton. "I think it was the name".

The book, richly and evocatively illustrated, is available from Alan Stewart at 52 High Street, Howden-Le-Wear, Crook, County Durham DL15 8HA. It costs just £4.99, plus £1 postage.