RTPI North East Football Tournament, for the Fabian Gray Memorial Shield,
held at Soccarena, Durham, 11th January 2010

Snow Joke

The harshest winter in living memory had threatened this year’s tournament, but although York City found the long journey to the frozen North was too much to take on, a late thaw meant that the RTPI event survived. It was played out on the famous indoor permafrost, with Soccarena answering the shambles of the Copenhagen Climate Summit by gallantly taking energy conservation to its extreme.

Once again the tournament saw the classic newcastlegateshead© encounter rekindled, the third time that the two Tyneside rivals/partners have met in the tournament in the last four years. This time the opening match of the night was a more muted affair; one that both sides maybe wanted to avoid losing. (Photo: Julian Ringer presents Stockton with the Fabian Gray Shield)

A rejuvenated Government Office side, led by veteran Gareth Hunter, who looked solid as a rock in goal, were the surprise package of the tournament, their youth policy finally paying off. Their stand-out player was Ed Green, who finished as the Player of the Tournament and also won the NLP top goal scorer trophy.  (photo: RTPI NE Chair Julian Ringer with stand-out player Ed Green)

We all know that many planners in both the public and private sector are finding life hard in these tough economic times, but it was encouraging to see one or two consultants picking up work filling in tricky positions for those teams unable to field a team from their own resources.

Middlesbrough, not one to miss a marketing opportunity, were kitted out in promotional t-shirts and went for a safe pair of hands in goal with the experienced Kevin Parkes. Experience also met youth in Group A, where Scott Wilson were paired with the Young Planners. On this occasion, the old adage rang true – there is no substitute for youth.

Last year’s winners, Newcastle, looked strong again but were unable to repeat the feat this year, losing in the semi finals to GO-NE by virtue of a bizarre own goal, off the post and then the head of goalkeeper Phil Harrison- an audacious attempt to lay claim the Own Goal of the Tournament prize.

Before the tournament, many wondered whether this would be the year that one of the teams from the new unitaries of Northumberland or Durham would take advantage of their newly pooled resources and mount a challenge but, although South Durham reached the semi-final stage, it is clearly going to take some time for things to settle down. An ill-advised chicken madras from an unscrupulous establishment clearly affected North Durham player manager Pete Ollivere; clearly a risky pre-tournament decision. Things might have been worse for North Durham had it not been for the heroics in goal of Stuart Timmiss, the newly installed Head of Planning, after a summer transfer from Gateshead.

Instead it was left to two perhaps unfancied sides, Stockton and Government Office North East, to storm to the final. Stockton had defeated a strong looking South Durham team 2-0 in the semi-final, with both goals coming from John Dixon after a game-changing substitution. A closely contested final was decided on penalties, with Stockton running out 3-1 winners.

The Scott Wilson Fastest Goal trophy went to Northumberland’s Phil Horsney, who scored within 29 seconds. The trophies were presented by Julian Ringer, this year’s the RTPI Branch Chair.
RESULTS AND TABLES

GROUP A
SCOTT WILSON 0 V 1 NEWCASTLE GRADUATES
GVA GRIMLEY 1 V 0 ENGLAND & LYLE
STOCKTON 4 V 0 NE YOUNG PLANNERS
SCOTT WILSON 0 V 2 GVA GRIMLEY
NEWC GRADUATES 0 V 1 STOCKTON
ENGLAND & LYLE 1 V 0 NE YOUNG PLANNERS
SCOTT WILSON 0 V 2 STOCKTON
ENGLAND & LYLE 0 V 0 NEWCASTLE GRADUATES
GVA GRIMLEY 0 V 0 NE YOUNG PLANNERS
SCOTT WILSON 0 V 2 ENGLAND & LYLE
GVA GRIMLEY 0 V 0 STOCKTON
NE YOUNG PLANNERS 0 V 0 NEWCASTLE GRADUATES
ENGLAND & LYLE 2 V 2 STOCKTON
SCOTT WILSON 0 V 3 NE YOUNG PLANNERS
GVA GRIMLEY 1 V 3 NEWCASTLE GRADUATES
GROUP A
W D L Pts
1 STOCKTON 3 2 0 11
2 ENGLAND AND LYLE 2 2 1 8
3 NEWCASTLE GRADUATES 2 2 1 8
4 GVA GRIMLEY 2 2 1 8
5 NE YOUNG PLANNERS 1 2 2 5
6 SCOTT WILSON 0 0 5 0

GROUP B
SUNDERLAND 3 V 0 REDCAR & CLEVELAND
NATHANIEL LICHFIELD 2 V 2 WARD HADAWAY
SOUTH DURHAM 2 V 2 NORTHUMBERLAND
SUNDERLAND 1 V 3 NATHANIEL LICHFIELD
REDCAR & CLEVELAND 2 V 2 SOUTH DURHAM
WARD HADAWAY 2 V 0 NORTHUMBERLAND
SUNDERLAND 1 V 3 SOUTH DURHAM
WARD HADAWAY 5 V 1 REDCAR & CLEVELAND
NATHANIEL LICHFIELD 0 V 2 NORTHUMBERLAND
SUNDERLAND 1 V 2 WARD HADAWAY
NATHANIEL LICHFIELD 0 V 3 SOUTH DURHAM
NORTHUMBERLAND 1 V 0 REDCAR & CLEVELAND
WARD HADAWAY 0 V 3 SOUTH DURHAM
SUNDERLAND 0 V 3 NORTHUMBERLAND
NATHANIEL LICHFIELD 0 V 1 REDCAR & CLEVELAND

GROUP B
W D L Pts
1 SOUTH DURHAM 3 2 0 11
2 WARD HADAWAY 3 1 1 10
3 NORTHUMBERLAND 3 1 1 10
4 SUNDERLAND 1 1 3 4
5 NAT LICHFIELD 1 1 3 4
6 REDCAR AND CLEVELAND 1 1 3 4

GROUP C
NEWCASTLE CITY 2 V 0 GATESHEAD
NORTH DURHAM 0 V 1 GO-NE
GATESHEAD 1 V 2 MIDDLESBROUGH
NEWCASTLE CITY 1 V 0 NORTH DURHAM
GO-NE 3 V 1 GATESHEAD
NEWCASTLE CITY 2 V 0 MIDDLESBROUGH
NORTH DURHAM 0 V 2 GATESHEAD
NEWCASTLE CITY 1 V 1 GO-NE
NORTH DURHAM 2 V 1 MIDDLESBROUGH
GO-NE 2 V 1 MIDDLESBROUGH

GROUP C
W D L Pts
1 NEWCASTLE CITY 3 1 0 10
2 GOVERNMENT OFFICE NORTH EAST 3 1 0 10
3 MIDDLESBROUGH 1 0 3 3
4 GATESHEAD 1 0 3 3
5 NORTH DURHAM 1 0 3 3

SEMI – FINALS
NEWCASTLE CITY 1 V 4 GOVERNMENT OFFICE NORTH EAST

SOUTH DURHAM 0 V 2 STOCKTON

FINAL
STOCKTON 1 V 1 GOVERNMENT OFFICE NORTH EAST
STOCKTON WIN 3-1 ON PENALITES

Author:

Kay Lough

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

18-Jan-10

Categories:

Nations & Regions 

Sections:

Join the RTPI

This article has been read 2801 times.