Today though, I’m seeing none of the sea. I’m at The Vibrant Doors Stadium, part of the Mo Mowlam Memorial Park, for the Mo Mowlam Memorial Cup. For those of a younger vintage, Mo was the MP for Redcar and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who was pivotal to the peace talks which culminated in the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, but who sadly died in 2005. How time flies. As a mark of her enduring legacy, Belfast too has a park named in her honour.
The Vibrant Doors Stadium is on the Trunk Road leading into Redcar and today was very easy to spot with the parked cars in the fields adjacent. I turned into the main car park, to be asked whether I was playing or spectating. I wish! At 47, I should have called her bluff, but instead was pointed in the direction of a field which had been taken over for the weekend’s footie.
Redcar Town, the hosts, are a relatively new team, having only been formed in 2014. Their ascent has been speedy, as they have progressed from local leagues to becoming members of the Northern League second division this season. This weekend their guests were Northern League 1st division sides Redcar Athletic and Guisborough Town, as well as upwardly mobile neighbours Marske United, currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One North West.
Today’s entertainment kicked off at 12:30 with the losers from yesterday facing each other – the Redcar derby. With other responsibilities this morn, I arrived with about 10 minutes left, in time to see Town nick an 84th minute winner, 4-3. Sounded like a cracker. I looked around, there were maybe 100 people watching. A bit disappointing, but I overheard an official later say ‘between 650-700’ had come in the 2 days play. I’d say there were 200+ for the final, Marske v Guisborough, as Marske fans came in numbers. Smaller than Redcar, but near enough that Athletic’s ground is closer to Marske’s than it is Town’s, Marske appear to be a club on the up. Flags put up, shirts and scarves in attendance, and even their own ultras, the ‘yellow warriors’, complete with drum and what looked like a vuvuzela. Luckily, the instruments weren’t played too often.
Mind, the ultras did have one unintended effect. They’d homed in on the only cover in the ground (save for a gazebo bizarrely covering the trophy and plinth). As someone who struggles with the sun, I edged in, but even though we were inbetween games, the teenagers were keen to holler their support. I took my Coke and had a wander to the opposite end. I wondered how Redcar Town were allowed in the Northern League with their lack of seating. ‘Standards have dropped’ I was told.
The match was surprisingly zesty, considering both sides had played the previous day. Marske edged it throughout and won 2-0 with a near post finish and a 20 yard stunner as the protagonist cut in from the left past 2 or 3 defenders. An early contender for goal of the season. Certainly goal of the month (July). And I saw a trophy lifted for the first time since yesterday. Well played, Marske!
*possibly because of a conversation I was having with an old timer, on the way home I popped in to see where South Bank used to play, a detour of about 200 metres from the main road. What a pity a legendary Northern League club closed down because of constant vandalism to their ground. Now it’s a park and community centre, Golden Boy Green, named after local Boro all-time great Wilf Mannion.
The Damage:
£7 ent £1 Coca-Cola = £8
The Tunes:
Classics (Aphex Twin)
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