Andy Potts
Bio
Community focused sports fan from Northeast England. Tends to root for the little guy. Look out for Talking Northeast, my new project coming soon.
Stories (87/0)
Hope in East Durham's 'Black Hole'
This story was originally published on Groundhoppers.blog in November 2018. Two years later, happily, both Shotton and Murton have Saturday football back at their grounds. Shotton Colliery FC, newly formed for the 2020/21 campaign, plays in Wearside League Division 2, one level below a reborn Horden CW. Among their opponents, Ryhope CW U23s have moved into Murton's ground. Peterlee is still home to the local rugby club.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
Reinventing the High Street
There are bright spots on the High Street – if you know where to look for them. While the old certainties are disappearing, local producers are taking the chance to boost their presence. And Discovering Durham, in the Prince Bishops Centre, is at the heart of that process.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Journal
Ploughing on
Sheffield is a city steeped in football history – and part of that heritage has been preserved against the odds. The Plough Inn, overlooking the historic Sandygate ground in the western suburbs of the South Yorkshire city, was scheduled for demolition. Even the local planning officers supported a scheme that would have seen the 19th-century watering hole levelled and replaced by housing. However, the city council rejected the proposal, in no small part due to the pub’s place in the birth of the beautiful game.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
Fussball unplugged
German football is often held up as a model of how the spectator experience should be. From the vast, swaying yellow wall of terracing at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion to the self-styled anarchy of St. Pauli, the Bundesliga and beyond reflects the football many in England wish they could remember.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
Making yourself at home
West Allotment Celtic, a non-league football team from North Tyneside, announced over the summer that it was moving back to its roots to play Northern League football at Palmersville Community Centre. Three years ago, I saw the team play its first game at Druids Park, making an emergency landing near Newcastle Airport after a rent hike forced it out of the Northumberland FA ground at Whitley Park. This text first appeared on Groundhoppers.blog. More images of West Allotment, at Druid Park and Whitley Park, can be found here.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
Fishes, wishes, boats and hopes
It started with a fish. And a wish. Then a boat of hope. And, gradually, a stretch of the Durham Heritage Coast turned into an unlikely art gallery – conceived and curated by anyone who was inspired to contribute to a growing collection of transient creations using the flotsam and jetsam on the shores of the North Sea.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Wander
Positivity in crisis
Social distancing doesn’t have to mean isolated. At lunchtime in Bean Social, a lively café on Durham’s North Road, the tables may be spaced out, but conversation still ebbs and flows between them. A couple of weeks after returning from lockdown, it feels appealingly normal; a space to meet and eat.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Feast
Typical York
This weekend should have been Bootham Crescent’s swansong. Typically, though, things didn’t go to plan. York City, predictably unpredictable, saw the final season at the club’s much-loved old home turn into a characteristic roller-coaster. Top of the league when coronavirus struck, the Minstermen missed out on promotion from National League North via a points-per-game calculation that put them behind King’s Lynn. Next came a vociferous appeal to ‘promote two’, via a playoff if necessary, and York returned to action on July 25 against Altrincham. City hadn’t played a game since March 7 Alty defeated Chester in the previous week’s eliminator and recent form made the difference in front of a deserted Bootham Crescent. So, instead of a final showdown against Boston United, the season ends in Lincolnshire as York’s fans contemplate the club’s retained list and hope that next time – at last – the team might start climbing the football pyramid once again.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
A retro football experience
Four years ago, when ‘lockdown’ was merely an adaptation of the notorious catenaccio tactic beloved of Italian defenders for decades, the football season was getting underway just now. On July 30, I was off to Shildon to see the curtain-raiser for the Northern League season. Shildon, defending champion and league cup winner, took on Marske United, runner-up in both competitions, for the Cleator Cup. League action would resume the following weekend.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Cleats
Emerging from lockdown
When lockdown struck, Teesside singer-songwriter Amelia Coburn was on the point of getting back to the recording studio. Nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards in 2017, she put the music on pause to complete her studies in Modern Languages at Nottingham University – only to re-emerge into a very different cultural climate.
By Andy Potts4 years ago in Beat