Grassroots International: Northern Leagues United

                                  

Northern Leagues United will take place from 11.30am on Saturday July 9th 2011 at the Birtley Sports Ground near the Angel of the North.

 

Birtley’s Under-17 and Under-18 sides will start the day off with an hour-long friendly, followed by a Football Writers vs Northern League Fans match for the Onagawa Cup at 1pm.

 

Among those planning to take part are Simon Bird from The Mirror, Mark Douglas (The Journal and Sunday Sun), Joe Daunt (Metro Radio), Simon Pryde (BBC Radio Newcastle), Richard Mason and Scott Wilson (Northern Echo), Iain Macintosh (The New Paper and Sports Illustrated), Mike Grady (Morning Star), Grant Russell (STV), Ian Cusack (When Saturday Comes), Stuart Fuller (The Ball is Round), Jeff Livingstone and David Hartrick (In Bed With Maradona), and Paul Chow and Paul Robinson, two of Whitley Bay’s Wembley heroes.

 

The Fans’ team will be coached by Ian Chandler, a four-time FA Vase winner as Whitley Bay player and manager. At 3pm Birtley Town will be playing fellow Northern League side Ryton and Crawcrook Albion.

 

Entrance is £3 for adults and £1 for those aged over 65 or under 16. All proceeds will go to Cobaltore Onagawa and Birtley Town, a local football club which, despite having no major sponsor, has an FA Charter Standard award for its work in the community and maintains youth teams at every age group (Chelsea’s Northern Ireland under-21 international Carl Magnay and Hartlepool United’s Michael Mackay are both products of Birtley’s junior teams).

 

July 9th also marks the official opening of a new volunteer-built clubhouse at the ground. Food and drink will be on sale and we’ll be announcing lots of extra entertainment between now and July.