Antony Daly
We lived in Hampshire Place. Growing up it felt like a safe place to live, with any number of places to go and have an adventure. We were very fortunate to have fields on one side of the street and a play park on the other. The play area had a climbing frame, rocking horse, roundabout, slides and swings. I remember rubbing candle wax on the slides, because you thought it made you slide faster down them! The slides themselves were metal and could get very hot on a sunny day. My favourite though was probably the monkey bars. I lived right next to ‘the ET’, which was a local spot for all the BMXers in the mid 80’s. It’s where I first met people like Steve Maddison, who I’m still close friends with to this day.
Antony Daly
Back row L-R: Robbie Stephenson, Antony Daly, Stephen Musgrove, Andrew Bainbridge, Lee Curry, Darryl Burns. Front row L-R: Gary Saxby, John Bendelow, Noel Baker, Dean Nesbitt, Michael Wiffen, Steven Fannan, Ronald Simpson.
Despite living right next to Acre Rigg School, I went to Howletch Infants and Juniors and from there onto Shotton Hall Comp. In my first year of Junior School I had trials for the school football team, and I went on to become a regular in the team. In my final year at Howletch we made it to the final of the Sunderland Echo and Hartlepool Mail Cup, although we lost that game 2-1 to Horden & Easington RC Juniors.
Around this age, as well as playing for the school team and Easington District Boys, I was also involved in a five-a-side league on a Sunday, which was at Lowhills Road Sports Centre where they had all-weather pitches. A little bit later they started a five-a-side league at Peterlee Leisure Centre on a Saturday evening, so there were lots of opportunities to play football. In 1986, Peterlee Boys FC was formed, and I started playing for their Under-13’s side.
Antony Daly