The Club - A History
We are entering our twelfth season and have evolved from a Club originally founded to get Falcons supporters’ from the North East to away games, into a multi-faceted organisation. The SC continues to offer Supporters discounted travel to all UK based games, and also offers many varied social events to its members and non-members alike.
The Creation of the Supporters Club
A stalwart of the Supporters Club for ten years, and possessor of the loudest voice in the South Stand, DICK GODFREY recalls the origins of the Supporters Club…
The open meeting was being held in the old downstairs bar in the clubhouse. It invited anybody interested in discussing the formation of a ‘Newcastle Falcons Away Supporters’ Club’ to attend.
The membership era had drawn to a close with the acquisition of what had been Newcastle Gosforth RFC by Sir John Hall after the businessman was approached by senior committee men who recognised that without money, the club was going nowhere in the professional age.
There had always been a core of supporters who travelled to away games in the olden days on coaches hired and organised by volunteers from the members’ committee.
It could be enormous fun. In those now far-off days, old traditions were zealously maintained. I well recall the delight when I travelled on my first trip _ to West Hartlepool if memory serves – when I found that the songs of my playing days – even further off – were still being sung. Remember “If I Were The Marrying Kind” and “One Red One, One White one...”?
But sometimes organisation could go wrong. On a return trip from Waterloo, for instance, there was a hastily organised whip-round to pay for the coach when it was belatedly realised that takings didn’t reach the required amount.
Then there was the Moseley game that ended the season which saw Gosforth get promotion to the old Division One. The title was already in the bag, so the fact that _ ominously for the next season – we had lost to the Birmingham side didn’t matter too much.
So we were still in the mood for a bit of celebrating on the way back to Tyneside. However, whoever had booked the coach hadn’t allowed for a refreshment stop. There was much grumbling from the back seats.
A new professional approach was needed to match the new age. This was in the mind of the man who summoned us together, Keith Irving, a Club stalwart in the membership era.
It was a well-attended meeting, abuzz with excitement of what might lay ahead for the re-named club. My contribution was both negative and positive. Why, I asked, did we need to have such a cumbersome name. “ Wouldn’t the ‘Falcons Supporters’ Club’ be simpler and better?”
There were murmurs of approval and the revised name was adopted. After a bit more discussion, Keith asked for volunteers willing to stand for election to the committee. I shoved my hand up and was duly elected, probably on the grounds that I had said something sensible and so was likely to be a sensible bloke.
Other volunteers appeared and we soon had a full committee. Ken Lockerbie, a very senior figure indeed in the old club, agreed to write our constitution. We were up and running.
In spite of the name change, organising coaches to away games was at the heart of what we intended doing. It still is, of course. Keith Irving’s original intention was spot on.
Not surprisingly, Keith became our first Chairman and I was his Deputy. Slowly, but surely, membership grew as the first professional season got underway.
But progress wasn’t totally smooth. There was tacit opposition to our formation from Sir John’s colleagues at the Sporting Club he had set up as an umbrella for his interest in soccer, rugby, basketball and ice-hockey.
With a background at St James’s Park, their experience of supporters clubs was of mass-ranks on the terraces baying for directors’ blood. Organised supporters could only be bad news.
There were times when this lack of encouragement and a sometimes downright obstructive attitude made us feel inclined to jack it in. But we decided that if we showed that our sole interest was in supporting the team, the negative forces would be won over.
After a few games when players enjoyed the comfort of some friendly voices in often extremely hostile environments _ our access to the Hall millions was a source of serious antagonism in many less well placed clubs – the powers-that-be at Kingston Park acknowledged that we were quite useful and our relation become stable and positive.
Our coming of age, really, was the first Cup Final at Twickenham in 1999. The Supporters’ Club organised and filled all the coaches without any involvement from the Falcons’ management. We even found sponsorship to keep prices down.
With the evidence of this ability and willingness to organise, the Falcons Supporters Club firmly established its place in the Falcons set-up. We haven’t looked back. My only concern all these years later is that there still might be some people around who think I am sensible.