The day’s main event was the Gathering Sounds music festival in Stockton, which starts early afternoon and goes on until late evening. I’m not one for knocking back the beer for hours on end these days and so thought that if I took in game with a two o’clock kick-off first then I could be in town for around 5pm. It all went to plan, and Jen and I saw a few bands before meeting up with friends a couple of hours in.
Most of the early bands that we saw were ok, but nothing special. O’Phantom in Arc2, Risco in Ku Bar and End Credits in The Social Room. Highlight of the day for me was The Kairos, I’ll certainly look into them a little more. Paul had come primarily to see a young Sheffield band, Cruz. I thought that a couple of their songs were foot tappers, but they didn’t really grab my attention. Mark steered us back to The Social Room for Carsick, a band that I’ve seen before, and thought were decent last time. I was less impressed with them on this occasion, maybe they’ve changed direction a little.
We ended up in The Georgian, primarily for their tables and chairs than for any of the bands, and it was a good end to the evening.
The football earlier in the day was in the eleventh tier Premier Division of the North Riding League. North Ormesby were hosting Redcar Town Reserves on the far pitch at the Unity City Academy. That’s a school in old money. The North Riding League is a feeder to the Northern League. Despite the trek across the fields and the lack of any seating or even hardstanding, thirty-five people had turned out to watch.
One of the linos was late and so we had the unusual situation where the one who had turned up just loitered by the halfway line until the other one arrived. The Redcar manager seemed to have the ear of the ref and regularly persuaded him to make North Ormesby move their free-kicks back a few yards. This infuriated the home side, but I suspect that they would have achieved similar results if they had agitated for them in the same way. Instead, they spent their time shouting on the ‘doggy boys’ with rallying calls such as ‘doggy organise’ or ‘doggy focus.’
The standard was poor and maybe ‘doggy shite’ was more appropriate. I doubt that any of the players on show would have looked comfortable one step higher. Very few moves lasted more than a couple of passes before breaking down and it seemed for a while that neither side would even get a shot on target.
The Doggy Boys broke the deadlock just before half time with a penalty. They looked as if they might hold on to their lead, but a Redcar equalizer five minutes from full-time gave the visitors a share of the points.
Trail of the Lion King 