Newcastle University Intramural League

Division 1

Wednesday 9th March 2022

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.04

BusSoc 3 Barca-Law-Na 3, attendance 5

5’ 1-0

11’ 2-0

13’ 2-1

21’ 2-2

32’ 3-2

69’ 3-3

@ Cochrane Park Sports Ground, 3G Pitch 2

Etherstone Avenue

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE7 7JX

No Admission or Programme.

This certainly wasn’t what I had planned this afternoon. I had originally intended to watch the South Shields versus Frickley Athletic game in the National League U19 Alliance, which was scheduled to be played at Wallsend Boys Club. However, on arrival, there was a game already in progress, but it was a Colleges F.A. game. Apparently, the South Shields game had been moved to the Washington Football Hub, although the F.A. Full Time website didn’t show the change and even still has the venue as Wallsend Boys Club on their results page!

My main choice for today was to see Newcastle University host Nottingham Trent University in the B.U.C.S. National Championship Semi Final, which was kicking off at 4 o’clock. I wouldn’t have made it from Washington anyway, unlike Wallsend, which was only a six minute drive. I arrived back at Cochrane Park (I called in there on the way to Wallsend Boys Club, to suss out the parking situation in case I was cutting it fine between matches) expecting a long wait for my game. There are three 3G pitches here. Pitch 1, next to the impressive pavilion and having a rail along part of that side, which was hosting back to back rugby union matches and Pitch 2 and 3, which run the opposite way to Pitch 1 and are parallel cages with no spectator areas, although it was no problem to stand inside the fence. There were two matches scheduled for 2 o’clock. One had already started, but the other was running a few minutes late. Luckily, for me at least, it was the game on Pitch 2 that was about to start, as the Newcastle University game was going to be on Pitch 3, so it offered a chance of a double after all.

The Newcastle University Intramural League has three divisions, with 8 teams in each, this game being in the top division. It was 4th versus 5th in the league table and was ’Business v Law’ as far as who the teams represent. It was a far better standard than I was expecting and although it isn’t something I would plan on watching again, it was certainly better than not getting a game.