Trail of the Lion King

The night before this game Jen and I broke our journey home from the Northern League game at Alnwick to watch War of the Worlds at Newcastle Arena. It was ok, I suppose, but I wasn’t too taken with anything that differed from the original. There’s no need for new songs or guitar solos full of twiddly bits in the original tracks.

It’s probably the least-cool gig that I’ve ever been to, both content and crowd-wise, but that’s ok. I wasn’t ever a cool kid, and I’ve carried that into adulthood. Whilst I’ve so far managed to resist being a two-strapper or a four-striper, perhaps I’ve found my tribe.

I continued my uncool behaviour the next morning when I drove up to Peterlee to watch some football at Helford Road. Peterlee Catholic Club were taking on Horden JDB Wanderers in the second-tier Division One of the Peterlee and District Sunday League.

The Peterlee and District is an easy league for groundhopping. Most of their pitches are listed on the futbology app and the league’s website is well-maintained. The catchment area is just far enough from Teesside to be unfamiliar without requiring me to drive for any more than half-an-hour or so.

The area around Lowhills had a mix of housing including some of those flat roof houses that date back to Peterlee’s new town origins, and which have subsequently been converted to let the rain run off properly.

Horden went into the game in second place in the table, with the Catholic Club fifth in a nine-team division. The goal posts were old school, without stanchions and with the nets fixed to the ironwork with tape.

Horden held the advantage early on and the Peterlee manager had to instruct his keeper to feign injury so that he could reorganise his side. It wasn’t enough though and Horden took a first half lead with a goal that the home side vehemently protested was offside.

Both keepers were having decent games and there wasn’t a second goal until the hour when a Horden striker lobbed the advancing keeper to double their lead. Peterlee hit the bar and post before Horden broke quickly and sealed the points with twenty minutes to go.

The third goal provided an opportunity for both teams to give some of their fringe players a run out and with five minutes remaining a mazy run from deep resulted in a fourth and final goal for Horden.

Tags: Four-stripers, Peterlee flat roof, Two-strappers, Unnecessary twiddly bits, War of the Worlds

This entry was posted on April 13, 2025 at 7:46 am and is filed under Football, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.