Losing your social club can be disastrous for a semi-pro side. John Bourn reports on a fire that cost Spennymoor dear and plunged the Unibond League into crisis
Whoever discarded a cigarette end behind a fruit machine at the Brewery Field social club on Christmas Eve 2003 has a lot to answer for. They began a chain of events that were to wreck a long-established north-east club and left the Unibond League in chaos this spring.
For Mike Whalley, Northwich avoidinng relegation would be one of the most remarkable escapes of all time
The result attracted little attention as the final scores came through on Saturday, February 19. Yet Northwich Victoria’s 2-0 win over Farnborough was a significant moment in one of the most remarkable relegation escape attempts in living memory.
As Arsenal announce that they are calling their new home after a rival's current sponsors, Neville Hadsley looks at the still-bleaker future offered by 'naming rights'
Many people can recall where they were when they heard that John Lennon had been shot. I can’t. But I can remember exactly where I was when word came through that Bradford City’s ground had been renamed The Bradford And Bingley Building Society Stadium. I was in the offices of the Bradford Telegraph & Argus where, at the time, I was employed on the sports desk. The news did not impress the then-sports editor who, in a rare moment of decisiveness, said that we would continue to call the ground Valley Parade. Unsurprisingly, the Bradford supporters opted to stick with Valley Parade as well. It’s tradition – you can’t change it just by handing over a wad of cash, can you?
Non-league football has traditionally been full of bald players. Simon Bell wonders if that is still the case
Anyone who picked up a local newspaper in Surrey in the week after Woking’s 2-1 FA Trophy semi-final win over Stevenage Borough would have been greeted by an uplifting sight: planning permission has been granted for a new public toilet in Chobham. And this isn’t all. If they’d turned to the back page, they’d have seen Woking scorers Clive Walker and Andy Ellis in a joyful, idiot-grinning, gloriously hairless embrace.