Fishburn Community Football Club U9s is looking for a couple of players to add to the squad. The club and coaches’ main aim and ethos is to give kids the opportunity and environment to enjoy their grassroots football and make new friends with a focus on player development and teamwork.

Key information:
- The team plays on Saturdays in Division 7 in the Russell Foster Youth League
- Current winter training is on Tuesdays from 7pm-8pm, at Sedgefield Community College
- UEFA C qualified coaching with a structured training programme.
If you are interested in finding out more, contact the club on its Facebook page “Fishburn Community FC U9s”.

Sedgefield has a new national champion! Our boccia star Lee Maddison, along with ramp assistant Kalab Yohans, has been crowned BC3 UK Boccia champion, winning the title in Antrim, Northern Ireland recently.

Lee wants to thank Kalab, England coach Lauren Kianchehr and Chris Foster for all their help and support throughout the year, with a special thanks to Chris for holding the fort and running the North East Boccia Hub while Lee was away competing for the title. If anyone is interested in playing boccia or volunteering with Tees Valley Tigers Boccia Club, please contact the 'North East Boccia Hub’, which you can find on Facebook. Congratulations to Lee – what brilliant news to end the year!

Core Reformer Pilates Sedgefield is a new enterprise that will be of interest to sports people. It is based in the old telephone exchange building, next to the Methodist Church and close to the centre of Sedgefield. More class information, prices and booking are all through www.classfit.com or the Classfit app. Just search for Core Reformer Sedgefield online, or find it on Facebook or Instagram for more updates. I’ll have more about this next month.

With The Ashes now in full swing over in Australia, and in spite of the huge rivalry, it's fair to say that Sedgefield Cricket Club's links with the land down under go back a good few years.

Back in 1993, Sedgefield began the season in the Durham County League with the 1st XI including a young Australian in the ranks. Richie Power from Perth was a hugely popular figure at the club that year, and played a big part in the team winning the league for the first (and only) time.

So, it was a wonderful reunion in late October when Richie returned to Sedgefield for the first time in 32 years. A tour of many of the opponents' grounds revealed Richie's fond - and at times photographic - memories of the matches he played, and many former players met up both at the club and in the village to reminisce over a beer or two. With a promise not to leave it so long before returning once more, Richie headed off home with plenty of laughs and stories recalled and shared.v The cricket links between Sedgefield and Australia remain strong today. This year, the club welcomed Aussie Hayden Wrigglesworth to its ranks for the season, and as I type this, three lads from Sedgefield are playing in Australia – Ben Swindale, William Hampson and former club member Freddie Lower.

As he is on the other side of the world, Ben wasn’t there in person at the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket Awards, to accept the Division 1 batting award. It was a great night for Sedgefield, with two other winners – George Hampson, who won the Sunday Conference North bowling award, and Ollie Johnson, who won both the Sunday Conference North batting and junior batting awards.

Sedgefield’s 1st team have reached the quarter finals of the County League Cup and are the club’s only remaining team left in this competition. Matches will recommence in the New Year. For the first time in the club’s history, Sedgefield has two teams in the top Division.

While this is a real challenge for the 2nd team, they are holding their own against some strong opposition. Sedgefield 1st team, last year’s runners up in the Durham & Cleveland Leagues, have had a slow start due to injuries and Newcastle United’s participation in the Champions League.

The 3rd team, promoted last year into Division 2, are also going to have a challenging season and are currently sitting eighth out of nine teams. The 4th team was promoted last year into Division 3 and have made strong start with four wins out of four, currently sitting second in their division with a game in hand. The 5th team are sitting comfortably mid table in Division 4, with some strong performances right across the squad. Sedgefield’s ladies’ team have only played two matches.

They are still without a win, but there are plenty of fixtures left to play. The club’s 10 internal leagues have been well supported by members, proving very popular for players of all standards, and providing the means to meet new people while keeping fit and having fun.

Club members past and present, together with their friends and families, are welcome to gather in the Herd & Herb bar on Saturday 6 December from 6:30pm onwards for drinks, food and music, to celebrate the up-and-coming festive season together. Wishing all the best for Christmas to everyone.

Back in 1995, Dave Goad took over the Nag’s Head pub. Dave was a keen golfer and set up Sedgefield’s very first golf society – initially calling it the Nag’s Head Golf Society. The idea was to get together once a month from April to October, visiting different golf courses up and down the country for a round of golf in the Stableford format. Interest soon grew and before long, over 20 members signed up – including John Adcock, Mick Thompson, John Forster, Ian Thompson, Dave Garood (original captain), Richard Grey, Billy Teesdale, Phil Fellows, Grayden Makepeace, Neil Hocking, Wayne Henderson, George Alderson, Dereck Jepson, Tony Cullen, Jimmy Seymour, Ray Hodgson, Craig Yetman, John Stokell, and others.

Dave Goad ran the society for about five years before Neil Hetherington took over as landlord, and started hosting the society in 2000. By this time, the group had grown in size to over 30 members, including Kevin ‘Keg’ Jones, Paul Archer and Micky Price, who was (and still is) in charge of keeping track of each member’s handicap to keep everything fair and allow players of all abilities to compete with each other.

For several years, the society was successfully run from the Nag’s Head before being taken on by John Hannan. It was at this time that the members decided to rename it simply Sedgefield Golf Society and host it in Sedgefield Social Club. This carried on until eventually John Adcock took the reins alongside Micky Price (handicaps) and Kevin ‘Keg’ Jones (admin/fees).

The society runs a variety of competitions for its members through the year, with trophies and prizes. The final outing of the year is always played at Hartlepool Golf Course, and is a ‘Yellow Ball Team Game’ format, where members are split into teams of four with a total handicap of roughly the same in each team. Each player must take turns using the yellow ball which allows the user to double the amount of points earned on that particular hole. The best two scores from each team are added together and the team with the most points after 18 holes wins the competition. This competition was always Keg’s favourite and following his untimely passing last year, the society decided to dedicate it to him, with Steven Defty kindly donating the Kevin Jones Shield in his memory.

During 2025, in honour of Keg, the society decided to use the longest drive competition to try and raise some money for Cancer Research UK which has affected many of the members, most recently Ian Thompson who sadly passed away last month and was a much loved member of the society. Every single member took part in the competition, which raised £170 - 50% was due to go to the eventual winner Mark West, but he kindly re-gifted the winnings to cancer research.

Kevin Jones and Ian Thompson were both much loved members of the society and will be sadly missed by all. Members are aiming to raise more funds for Cancer Research UK in their honour during the upcoming season and appreciate any support from those who would like to get involved. Contact Lewis Archer on 07875 755690 if you’d like any further information about Sedgefield Golf Society.

This year’s presentation night took place at the Dun Cow Inn in Sedgefield where the following winners were presented with their trophies:
New Season Shield - Daniel Archer
Henderson Shield – Shaun Evans
Ian Thompson Shield – Lewis Archer
Craig Yetman Trophy – Don MacLennan
Dave Goad Cup – Harold Jones
John Foster Shield - Mark West
Kevin Jones Shield – S Brown, M Thompson, S Evans, S Gerry (team).

Sedgefield Harriers is preparing for two events early in 2026. First up will be the winter handicap race on Sunday 11 January, starting and finishing at Bishop Middleham Village Hall. The race is approximately 10k on a two-lap multi terrain route along path and trails surrounding Bishop Middleham. It is free to enter for members of clubs who are affiliated to England Athletics. There is a £2 charge for others. All entries take place on the day and handicapping for the event is based on each runner’s best 10k time in the previous 12 months.

Then, on Saturday 21 February, for the first time, Sedgefield will host the English National Cross Country Championships in East Park. Organised by the English Cross Country Association in partnership with Sedgefield Harriers and supported by Durham County Council, the championships will include 10 separate races for junior and senior runners, and are sponsored by SportsShoes.com. The event was last staged in North East England in 2013 and will be returning to County Durham for the first time in 25 years. Thanks to some additional financial support from the office of the North East Mayor at the North East Combined Authority, Sedgefield Harriers will be able to put more resources behind promoting the championships, and staging an event that showcases the area positively to the rest of the country.

The ‘Nationals’ is the most prestigious event in the winter athletics calendar and has been the proving ground for some of the nation’s greatest athletes, including North East stars such as Brendan Foster, Mike McLeod, Charlie Spedding, Steve Cram, Aly Dixon and Laura Weightman. Look out for more information about the event next month, but in the meantime, organisers are recruiting volunteers to help stage the championships. You can join the event delivery group on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/xc2026volunteers, or send me an email (chrisjlines@aol.com).