FOOTBALL


Wallsend Boys Club


The life of Riley! I


Wallsend Boys Club in North Tyneside has gained a formidable reputation for the early development of many professional footballers, including Alan Shearer, Michael Carrick, Steve Bruce and Peter Beardsley, to name just a few. Lee Williams met up with Site Manager Ian Riley who, along with his other responsibilities, is also the club’s groundsman


n June 2011, Wallsend Boys Club opened its first football centre alongside the Wallsend Sports Centre. Prior to this, they had been playing on park and local authority pitches. The new centre provided two senior grass pitches, five junior grass pitches, one mini-soccer grass pitch and a changing pavilion. It was funded by grants of £850,000 from the Football Foundation, £150,000 from The FA and £301,000 from North Tyneside Council, with the club itself raising £114,000 towards the scheme. Ian Riley’s first involvement with the club was as a player at the age of fifteen. Later in life, he found himself back at the club with his grandsons and fell into the groundsman’s role. “I worked for Imperial Tobacco,” Ian explained, “and took early redundancy when I was fifty years old. I then


started working for myself, as a handyman fitting kitchens and bathrooms and general repairs, whilst volunteering as a coach at the club.”


Then, in 2010, the club suddenly realised that they needed a groundsman! “You may get all these grants to improve pitches but, at the same time, they need to be looked after,” commented Ian. “So, I started cutting the pitches part-time, getting paid twenty- five hours a week, but working seven days a week! But I do it because I love it. I also run the canteen, but we have recently employed some extra staff as there was just too much for me to do. Also, I coach here, and I successfully took my under-eights up to under-elevens; we have won the league each year and remain unbeaten. This has led to me becoming lead coordinator for the football section, so I’m now organising the


54


PC April/May 2020


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