Part V: Why people get involved - their story

Fans and volunteers are the backbone of any Northern League club. The clubs rely on them for everything, revenue, selling of programmes, pitch maintenance, turnstile operators and much more. It takes a lot to keep a Northern League Club running.

Most volunteers now have been at their clubs for years, helping anyway they can.

A volunteer at Bishop Auckland FC (BAFC) has been a volunteer and lifelong fan for nearly 60 years. David Illingworth started following BAFC when he was just 6 years old when his dad took him to his first game. He now helps with ground maintenance and is the Chairman of the BAFC Supporter’s Club.

“It’s my hometown club, in those days there was big crowds, and I got the bug and followed them ever since.”

“The current supporters club was reformed at Heritage Park to try and raise some funds and help the football club in whatever way we could.

“At the first meeting they were struggling to find officials so I said I would do the chairman’s job.

“The aim was so that the directors or manager could come to the supporters’ club and ask for help with things that maybe wasn’t in the budget as well as being a forum for supporters, every member has an equal say.”

Taking early retirement in 2014, David wanted to help his local club and began helping with ground maintenance. Prior to this though, whilst BAFC were playing at Kingsway David was on the committee at the club for over 10 years, he was also gateman, sold raffle tickets, met with the sponsors on a match day and sorted supporter’s kit sponsorship.

Gavin Hadden has also been a lifelong fan at BAFC and volunteered at the club for many years.

“I was only 8 years old and remember starting to take an interest in the results coming through on the old Grandstand vidiprinter on a Saturday afternoon.... long before the days of social media and the internet being widely available!

“My dad took me to my first game not long after at Kingsway and I was instantly hooked. 

“I distinctly remember sitting at the back of the main stand for my first few games - which in them days had benches before the seats were installed - taking in the sounds, smells and everything unique about non-league football.”

Gavin is the secretary of BAFC Supporters Club and does the programmes for match days. When asked why he started to volunteer Gav replied: “I think the realisation and awareness of how much work and how many jobs there are to do at a club like ours made me think what I can do to help. 

“Joining the new supporters club that was formed around 10 years ago naturally got me into the voluntary role of secretary of the supporters’ club when Nick Postma stepped down to become chairman of BAFC.

“When the previous programme editor vacated his role at the end of the 2017-18 season it was advertised and I offered my help, initially on a temporary basis. 

“I have remained ever since and actually enjoy doing it while knowing I am taking the pressure off existing volunteers. 

“I have a large collection of BAFC programmes dating back to the early 90s when I started going to games and always enjoyed reading some of them back for nostalgic reasons, so this also spiked my enthusiasm for taking on the role.”

A small survey shows how some fans started following their northern league clubs.

A lot of fans started following their Northern League team as it is their local town.

Some fans had only been following their club for a few years whereas others had been following for 40 to 60+ years.

Pamela Cowey has been a fan and volunteer of Bishop Auckland FC around 20 years. “The club needed people. When we left Kingsway money and volunteers became a hard to acquire commodity. John (my husband) stepped up and joined the board, later bringing his accountancy and business skills to bear on the work needed with TH to secure the new ground. I stepped up in my small way to help with match day fundraising. When everything began happening with HP's development, I agreed to help...and have been helping ever since.”

She has had various roles whilst volunteering at the club. “When we were sharing at other grounds in the area before we moved to HP, my match day duties usually comprised a bit of fundraising through selling of raffle tickets. When Terrace Hill came on board with Bishop and the development of HP began, I sat on the committee with TH representatives, Bishop board members and other supporters with "useful skills" to work on the day-to-day design of HP. It was as part of this that I began more fundraising in the form of the original "Supporters Wall" - now in the foyer - raising thousands for the club.”

She has since been involved in developing several projects at Heritage Park. “The Barrington art project on the stairs/foyer at HP, the big photography project in the function room, sourcing furniture for the function room, the HP clock and memorial plaques, and the new supporters' wall. Now on a match day I am the PA announcer for both Bishop Auckland and for Middlesbrough when they play at HP.”

Andy Macfarlane and Adam Cayless are volunteers at Newton Aycliffe FC.

Andy has been a part of the club for six years, joining the committee to start with and he is now kit man and handles social media for the club. “I knew a lot of the lads as they rose up through the leagues. And then one day, Dan just said, look, why don't you get on board and jump on the committee and join in that way. So that's what I did. So, I started that way, just got onto the committee.”

Adam volunteering started with coaching at Newton Aycliffe youth teams when his kid was 4-years old. He then became the chairman of the juniors and carried on his volunteering up to the first team. “We merged the two sections about, officially, about two and a half years ago, we sort of talked about it for a while, and that was one of the biggest aims when I took over as chairman was to get the two closer and we now have  four lads from the under 18s playing in the first team squad and the committee here has grown instead of four or five there’s now about seven or eight of us all getting involved and it’s just good to put something back into your local club rather than to just watch.”

Adam also helps with the announcing of the teams etc. on match days.

Peter Jackson has been a lifelong BAFC fan and is also takes photographs at the Bishop games. He has photographed nearly 500 BAFC games and nearly 600 events at the club. Peter also used to help as grounds man.

Peter started following BAFC in 1951 with his parents. “We would drive down to Kingsway, and park in, I think it was, Spoors Carpark, close to the ground. I was always excited going through the turnstiles before going up to our seats in front of the press box in the main stand. My mother was the first lady to hold a season ticket for The Bishops, and if you had a season Ticket, you were called a Vice-president.”

1955 saw Bishop Auckland FC take a trip to Wembley for the final of the FA Amateur Cup. Peter was lucky enough to attend.

“I managed to get in a trip to Wembley to watch the Bishops’ beat Hendon 2 – 0 with Derek Lewin scoring both [I think] goals, and Bobby Hardisty getting his first Amateur Cup Winner's Medal. There is a photograph at HP of some of the Bishop supporters at that game, and accidentally caught on camera, are my mother and myself, up towards the back right of the picture.”

People start following their clubs and volunteering for many different reasons. All of them just want their clubs to do well and succeed.