In 2005, the original Spennymoor United (who also used to play at the Brewery Field) went out of business in their centenary year.
The club was reformed a year later as Spennymoor Town.
Around the same time Evenwood Town had also been looking to move in to use the empty Brewery Field ground on Wood Vue.
Both clubs met and it was jointly decided to merge together using the name Spennymoor Town.
My last trip to the Brewery Field and the town of Spennymoor was an unmitigated personal disaster for me, however ... despite how I felt about it at the time (pretty phucked off, as I recall), at least I managed to get a few pictures of how the signs and main entrance looked prior to them being modernised during the summer of 2009 before I aborted that trip ... and those pictures are preserved for posterity here ---> http://the66pow.blogspot.com/2009/04/moor-moor-moor-how-do-you-like-it.html
The club was reformed a year later as Spennymoor Town.
Around the same time Evenwood Town had also been looking to move in to use the empty Brewery Field ground on Wood Vue.
Both clubs met and it was jointly decided to merge together using the name Spennymoor Town.
My last trip to the Brewery Field and the town of Spennymoor was an unmitigated personal disaster for me, however ... despite how I felt about it at the time (pretty phucked off, as I recall), at least I managed to get a few pictures of how the signs and main entrance looked prior to them being modernised during the summer of 2009 before I aborted that trip ... and those pictures are preserved for posterity here ---> http://the66pow.blogspot.com/2009/04/moor-moor-moor-how-do-you-like-it.html
Saturday 22nd August 2009. Northern League Division 1.The Brewery Field, Spennymoor.
Spennymoor Town (2) 3 (Waite, Rae, Peacock)
Chester le Street Town (1) 2 (Fisher 2)
Admission £5. Programme £1.
I was going to ask a few searching questions of the locals, such as:Where did Evenwood Town play?
Where did the UNITED AFC disappear to from the old sign?
Am I going to need to take another photo in the near future if they're planning to add TOWN AFC in it's place?
Is there a club shop?
But unless anybody in the ground could 'sign' my attempts at opening any lines of communication were thwarted by the ear splitting volume of the music aurally assaulting me from the distorted tannoy system. It was a truly horrible experience.
I don't even mind Rhianna and Lady Ga Ga, but the match day announcer and his defective equipment did them no favours today "Howay! X Factor's back tonight I'm sure we'll all be glued to our TV sets" - Trust me, if I could have found a strong enough solvent he probably would have been!
Apparently today was the first day this 'bijou' facility was open to the general public. The décor is very modern, but it gets quite cramped once there are a few dozen people in, so I grabbed an handful of nibbles from the regularly topped up bowls on the centrepiece table and headed out to find a spot on the terrace behind the goal away from where the substitutes were warming up and thundering hard but inaccurate shots at the frequently missed target.
Talk about running the gauntlet.
Note in the picture below, the shutters in the public bar (left) are closed at 3PM sharp, those in the 'Prawn Sandwich Brigade bar' at the other end of the stand aren't.
Note, it's not actually called that by the way.
Spennymoor were quickest out of the blocks and they got into 'the Cestrians' from the off.My watch (a very accurate timekeeping device) and the clock on my mobile phone both said 15:02 when a Karl Richards corner from the right found 'the Brewers' centre half perfectly timing his run to power home a header for the first (and golden) goal.
Woo hoo!
His name was Waite, my ticket said two minutes, the omens were good and I began to wonder what kind of grand prize I might have won, I couldn't hear the ticket seller for the music when I'd handed over my quid.
And here comes that already annoying announcer confirming the news that ... "First goal scored by Spennymoor's number six Gareth Waite. The golden goal time is 3 minutes!!!"
Grr, me and this guy could quite easily fall out today methinks.
The Chester le Street full back slams a clearance away with such ferocity that the ball disintegrates into a cloud of dust (I just made that bit up).One thing I don't especially like about all the Northern League grounds I attend, is the amount of people who swan around in Newcastle Untied shirts like they own the place.
I understand that they are like a religion in the area (and credit where it is due incidentally to the many Spennymoor fans wearing their own club's black and white stripes) but if they're not actually watching the Mags in action, they shouldn't be strutting their stuff at other local grounds and continuously rambling on about NUFC while there is another game of football taking place right in front of them.
I think clubs should be deducted points or have to start from two goals down if more than a dozen of their fans turn up wearing Newcastle United shirts. Seriously!
To compound my annoyance - and to make me like him even less than before - in the 8th minute, while the game was actually in progress and the ball in play, the match day announcer gleefully blurted out over the PA that Newcastle were winning at Crystal Palace ... A bit insulting to the players from both teams I would have thought - and personally I would have sacked him on the spot for his belittling disregard of today's game.
Maybe somebody 'had a word' because there were no more live updates from elsewhere while the main event was taking place.
Perhaps the referee (from Sunderland) had similar thoughts to mine about penalising clubs for their Magpies over indulgences, because shortly after the score flash, he turned down as blatant a penalty as I will see all season when Craig Ruddy was pushed off the ball with only the Chester le Street keeper to beat ... the visitors went straight on the counter attack and hit home an equaliser through Nathan Fisher.
It was completely against the run of play.
I understand that they are like a religion in the area (and credit where it is due incidentally to the many Spennymoor fans wearing their own club's black and white stripes) but if they're not actually watching the Mags in action, they shouldn't be strutting their stuff at other local grounds and continuously rambling on about NUFC while there is another game of football taking place right in front of them.
I think clubs should be deducted points or have to start from two goals down if more than a dozen of their fans turn up wearing Newcastle United shirts. Seriously!
To compound my annoyance - and to make me like him even less than before - in the 8th minute, while the game was actually in progress and the ball in play, the match day announcer gleefully blurted out over the PA that Newcastle were winning at Crystal Palace ... A bit insulting to the players from both teams I would have thought - and personally I would have sacked him on the spot for his belittling disregard of today's game.
Maybe somebody 'had a word' because there were no more live updates from elsewhere while the main event was taking place.
Perhaps the referee (from Sunderland) had similar thoughts to mine about penalising clubs for their Magpies over indulgences, because shortly after the score flash, he turned down as blatant a penalty as I will see all season when Craig Ruddy was pushed off the ball with only the Chester le Street keeper to beat ... the visitors went straight on the counter attack and hit home an equaliser through Nathan Fisher.
It was completely against the run of play.
It was just before half time when Spennymoor regained the lead, my new worst enemy in the whole world had just informed us "There will be one extra minute to play", when Michael Rae narrowly beat the Chester le Street keeper to a fifty-fifty challenge and neatly put the ball home. You can just about make out that piece of action and the ball heading towards the goal by left clicking on the above picture to enlarge it.The home side could have been three or four goals in front by this point but had lacked the end product to finish off a lot of possession.
Rae has recently joined Spennymoor from Whitby Town, he's a good capture for them.
They've also signed six Durham City players since the end of last season. Three in the summer and three more during City's current mass exodus.
Two minutes into the second half Keith Graydon hit a 25 yard free kick past the Chester le Street defence, keeper Jonathan Carmichael got behind it and blocked the shot, but as the ball rebounded back into open play Tony Peacock smashed it home (see above), his performance and effort this afternoon deserved a goal.
It looked as though a comfortable home win was on the cards and as the game entered the last few minutes, Spennymoor were more or less keeping the ball up the business end of the field and frustrating their visitors.Chester le Street's one hope all afternoon seemed to be pumping long balls to try catching the advanced Spennymoor defence flat footed. On several occasions Andrew Spence in the Brewers goal, had to run from his area to loft the ball back upfield to safety, but with the game drawing to a close, one of those clearances hit his own player and deflected to Nathan Fisher who gratefully ran on to put his second strike of the afternoon into an empty net.
Spennymoor were hanging on a bit at the end, but on the balance of play got the result they deserved.
Man of the match - Waite
That has a nice ring to it ;-)
P.S. I went to a cash machine before I set off to Spennymoor today ... and this week my favourite LP of all time is the Lee 'Scratch' Perry "Arkology" box set.
