Sunderland Ryhope Community Association Football Club are an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

club, based in

Ryhope Ryhope ( ) is a coastal village along the southern boundary of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, North East England. With a population of approximately 14,000, measured at 10.484 in the 2011 census, Ryhope is 2.9 miles to the centre of S ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcast ...

, currently playing in the

Northern League Division One The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division ...

History

Sunderland RCA FC started its life as Ryhope Youth Club FC. Its first season was in the Seaham & District League in 1963. The first game was against Seaham UDC at the Seaham CW ground, now home to Seaham Red Star, and it was a 3–3 draw. The first seeds had been sown three years earlier, in 1960, when the Ryhope Youth Club Centre opened in the Welfare Hall. In 1965 the club moved to the Colliery Welfare ground and in 1971 changed its name to Ryhope Community Association. Competing in the Seaham, then Houghton & District Leagues, the club enjoyed success with nine cup wins and four league titles. Rejected by the Wearside League because a Ryhope team already played in it, the club folded after the 1974–75 season. Re-formed three years later, the club joined the Northern Alliance in 1978 and won the League Challenge Cup at St James Park in Newcastle, in only their third season. Ryhope CA were also league runners up that year, even though they were reduced to playing on a school field. After some persuasion, the club convinced the council to lease then some derelict land - Meadow Park was underway. Financial help was obtained from Sunderland and Tyne and Wear Councils and the Sports Council to build a football ground. The club members and community joined together to carry out the building work, resulting in the enclosed ground where football games are played and enjoyed today. In 1982 the club was a founder member of the Northern League Second Division, achieving promotion as runner up in the 1983–84 season. Despite achieving a league placing of tenth the next season, survival proved difficult and the club was relegated in 1988. In 1999 a new era commenced with the amalgamation with Kennek Roker of the Wearside League to form Kennek Ryhope Community Association. The seasons from 2003 onwards were tough, but for the season 2006–07, the club joined forces with Springboard Sunderland and a new era as Sunderland RCA FC began. Progress continued to be made both on and off the pitch and after finishing fourth in the previous two seasons Sunderland RCA FC were promoted as runners-up to Stokesley FC in season 2009–10.

Club records

*Best league performance: 4th in

, 2011–12 *Best

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

performance: Third qualifying round, 1984–85, 1997–98 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: First round, 1985–86 *Best

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footb ...

performance: Fourth round, 2018–19

Honours

Northern League Northern League may refer to: Sport Baseball * Northern League (baseball, 1902–71), a name used by several minor leagues that operated in the upper midwestern U.S. and Manitoba from 1902 to 1971 * Northern League (baseball, 1993–2010), an indep ...

Division 2 Runners-Up 1983–84, 2009–10 *

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

Runners-Up 1980–81 *Northern Alliance Cup Winners 1980–81

References

* * *

External links

Official website
{{coord, 54, 52, 02.27, N, 1, 22, 06.08, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Football clubs in Tyne and Wear Association football clubs established in 1963 1963 establishments in England Northern Football Alliance Northern Football League Sunderland