Shearer's former youth club celebrates 120 years

The Wallsend Boys Club was formed 120 years ago to keep young apprentice ship builders out of trouble. Having helped generations of young Tynesiders - including some world renowned footballers - and overcome many adversities, the club is still going strong today (and it's not just for boys anymore).

It was 14 November, 1904, when builders from the Swan Hunter's shipyard opened their new club for their boys.

"They got fed up with the police knocking on their door every Monday saying 'this one's been drunk, this one's smashed a bus shelter'," chairman Steve Dale says.

"They opened up mainly to keep their apprentices off the streets and do something more creative with their time.

"And I don't think anything has changed."

He says the club is there to help young people burn off energy and "find their way", adding: "If they haven't got something to direct them positively, it's easy to do it negatively."

Today, thanks to its 120 volunteers and the recent opening of its new Peter Olsen Community Hub, the club operates much as it always has.

Working with children from as young as five, the club offers a wide range of activities including walking cricket and martial arts.

It is best known for its football though, with 93 of its youngsters going on to have professional careers.

It's most notable alumni include Peter Beardsley, Michael Carrick and Alan Shearer, so how has it been so successful?

President Peter Kirkley, 82, who started the club's first football team in 1969, says it's down to rules and regulations which drilled discipline and the ethics of hard work into the youngsters and helped them reap the rewards of playing the beautiful game.

"You had to [follow the rules] if you wanted to play," he says, adding: "If you didn't do it, you were out."

Shearer, who is Newcastle United's all time goalscorer and notched 30 goals in 63 England appearances, is full of praise for the club which was all about "learning about life" and "finding out about yourself".

"That's the most important thing and what the boys club prides itself on," he says.

There has been a dramatic increase in women's football within the club as well with female teams now outnumbering the male ones.

One of those both benefiting from the club and helping its next generation, is 18-year-old Daisy Crossley.

As well as playing for one of its teams she also coaches on its Wildcats programme, which encourages girls to take up the sport and is currently seeing an average of four new players join each week.

"The club has invested a lot of time and effort in to the girls section making sure there are enough resources and enough staff so that we can give equal treatment to the boys," Daisy says.

But the club is about more than football according to John Percival, 38, who has been its general manager for six years.

"Football is a massive part of what we do and that won't change," he says, adding: "But actually what we deliver is more than football - this is massively important."

He says the key ethos is to engage local families to keep them "active and happy" and "make them feel safe in a warm and welcoming environment".

Over the years the club has survived fires and weather damage, but despite it's building being burnt down and rebuilt, then damaged and demolished, the heart and soul of the club has lived on.

"The key elements of what we did in 1904 are still here," Mr Dale says, adding: "It's about sport and coming into a community environment.

"It's great for a whole host of things in life like making friends, and a lot of them they'll have forever.

"It's part of our DNA."

Looking to the future, the team at Wallsend Boy's Club has some big dreams.

There is no hesitation in Mr Dale's answer when asked what his bucket list ambition is for the club.

"To make it a centre where once the kids turn 16 years old, we're offering them the chance of apprenticeships and internships," he says.

"Even if they're not into football, they can still be a product of Wallsend Boys Club but they've gone on to be a plumber or a joiner.

"This is as good a place as any for them to learn it."

Will it be here in another 102 years time?

"I hope so," Mr Kirkley says, adding: "It would be lovely wouldn't it?"

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