South Shields Veterans - Harton & Westoe MW Club

South Shields Veterans

Harton Welfare Club

Low Lane

South Shields 

Tyneside

NE34 0NA

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Ground Number: 1484

Saturday 20th September 2025

South Shields Veterans 4-2 Seham Harbour Cricket Club

Sunderland Over 40s Premier

HARTON & WESTOE MW / SOUTH SHIELDS VETS HISTORY

The first traces of a side playing at Harton & Westoe Miners Welfare is SOUTH SHIELDS HARTON & WESTOE. They joined the Wearside League Division 2 in 1994, with the league becoming a single division two years later. It briefly returned to two divisions with the club achieving a 5th placed finish at the turn of the millennium. They resigned midway through the 2008/09 season. HARTON & WESTOE COLLIERY WELFARE joined the Northern Alliance Division 2 in 2011, finishing 4th. They spent the remainder of their history in the Wearside League, finishing 6th in their last season of 2018/19.

 SOUTH SHIELDS VETERANS currently play in the Sunderland Over 40s League Premier Division. They were only recently promoted, having finished 3rd in Division 1 last season. They had previously played in the Premier Division up until 2022, when they were relegated after a few seasons of struggle. Before that, they had been promoted from Division 1 as runners-up to St Mary's College Old Boys in 2019. Before 2016, they spent since 2009 in the Premier Division with two 4th place finishes in 2012 & 2013, their best showing.

MY VISIT

Back when organising this trip, a visit to a Sunderland Over 40s League game was a must. It had provided great entertainment in the past and ensured that I got good value for all my expenditure. Initially, with Blyth Town in mind, I selected a basic pitch near there. I then looked for something that could be doubled up with a 13:30 kickoff at Morpeth Town FC, but could find nothing. Back to Blyth Town as my second game, it boiled down to two decent grounds. With me having been to the Blue Flames Sporting Club on Thursday for the Newcastle v Barcelona Youth League game, it would be Harton & Westoe Miners Welfare Club for South Shields v Seham Harbour Cricket Club, with plenty of time to travel between the two.

From our game at Seaham, we were back at our room by 10, and I used the time to upload my blog. There was a brief hitch when my USB plug gave out and knocked out the plug sockets in the room. A visit to the reception got things back in order, but it was ridiculous having only one plug socket for the entire room. Colin's charger powered all our devices for the time being, although it wasn't powerful enough to charge my laptop while also being used. I got a night's sleep of sorts, waking at 7. I was debating whether to post my bag home to save carrying it as I did in Darlington previously, and packed accordingly. I would be sure to use Evri this time as Royal Mail were overpriced and you couldn't print an address label there. We left our room at 8.30, having a few minutes wait for the bus to South Shields. We were near the ground at 9.35 and popped to a local shop where I had a breakfast of Coco Pops cake, hula hoops and Irn Bru. It was then a ten-minute walk to the ground, and we saw the South Shields team coach heading off to Curzon Ashton. There was a kids' match in progress when we got there, so we headed to the patio of the clubhouse, where I carried on with my blog.

South Shields were in 7th place, having won two, drawn two and lost two of their games so far. In their last game, they lost 11-0 at home to Marden. Seaham Harbour Cricket Club were in 3rd, having won five and lost one of their games. Last game, they beat Washington Keelboat 2-0. Seaham Harbour had the first few chances, but then South had a good spell around the half-hour mark, forcing a couple of good saves out of the keeper. From this, the visitors swiftly broke and took the lead with a low shot on 33 minutes from just inside the area. A couple of minutes into the second half, it was all square, a great lob over the keeper made it 1-1, though it may have been intended as a cross. South Shields also hit the bar during a good spell of football. Just before the hour, South Shields took the lead, a header at the back post from a cross. Two minutes later, it was 3-1, a 25-yard lob was the goal of the game. The #19 missed an easy opportunity to make it 4-1 when given plenty of time to beat the keeper; however, he hit the right-hand post. The same player did make it 4-1 soon after, on 70 minutes, when he finished a similar chance. Seaham Harbour went straight up the other end and made it 4-2 on 72 minutes when they rounded the keeper.

THE GROUND

HARTON AND WESTOE MINERS WELFARE is an excellent venue with a large standing area that stretches almost the entirety of one side. There is also hard standing on three sides and a clubhouse although I didn't visit there. Parking is plentiful and the ground is well linked by buses with Tyne Dock Metro Station 20 minutes walk away.