Whitley Bay Football Club, also known as The Seahorses, or simply The Bay, are an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in the

seaside town A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

Whitley Bay Whitley Bay is a seaside town in the North Tyneside borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It was formerly governed as part of Northumberland and has been part of Tyne and Wear since 1974. It is part of the wider Tyneside built-up area, being around ...

, in the

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

. Initially founded as Whitley & Monkseaton Football Club in 1897, the club took its present name in 1958. The team plays its home matches at Hillheads Park, which is adjacent to the

Whitley Bay Ice Rink Whitley Bay Ice Rink is an ice rink located in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, England and is the home of the Whitley Warriors ice hockey team. An additional team played out of the ice rink, the Newcastle Vipers, who are now disbanded. It is one o ...

and has a maximum capacity of 4,500. Since 1958 the club has spent the vast majority of seasons in the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a British men's association football, football league in North East England, north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Footb ...

's Division One. The Seahorses first competed in the division for 30 years between

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

and

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, before rejoining for the 2000–01 season, where they have been ever since. Whitley Bay are the most successful club in

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

history, the national

cup competition A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

for more than 600 teams in the 9th and 10th tier of

English football Football is the most popular sport in England. Widely regarded as the birthplace of modern football, the first official rules of the game were established in England in 1863. The country is home to the world's first football league, the oldest ...

. They have won the competition a record four times, including three consecutive victories at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. The club has also won twelve Northumberland Senior Cups, three

championships, and a

Northern Premier League Division One The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system. Geographically, the league ...

title.

History

Origins; formation and early years (1896–1958)

A football club has existed in Whitley Bay since 1896. The first team was known as Whitley and Monkseaton F.C; later renamed Monkseaton FC and then again to Whitley Bay Athletic in 1950. In 1958 a limited company was formed, with 'Athletic' dropped from the title. From 1950 until 1955, Whitley Bay Athletic were members of the Northern Alliance League, winning the League Championship, League Cup (twice), and in 1952–53 became the first amateur team to win the Northumberland Senior Cup in sixty years, beating rivals

North Shields North Shields ( ) is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom cens ...

in front of 17,000 fans inside

St James' Park St James' Park is a Association football, football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Newcastle United F.C., Newcastle United. With a seating capacity of 52,305, it is the List of football stadiums in England, 8th la ...

. In 1955, The Seahorses briefly joined the

North Eastern League The North Eastern League was an association football league for teams in the North East of England. The league was founded in 1906 and was initially successful, with teams defecting from the rival Northern Football Alliance to play. Although ...

wholly made up of professional sides,

First appearance in the Northern Football League (1958–1988)

Initial success (1958–1973)

Whitley Bay was elected to the Northern League by a winning vote of 11–3 on 14 June 1958. It was here that the club won two league titles (in 1964–65 and 1965–66) and two Northern League Cups (in 1964–65 and 1970–71). In addition, the Northumberland Senior Cup was won eight times in twelve years between 1961–1973. In the

FA Amateur Cup The FA Amateur Cup was an English football competition for amateur clubs. It commenced in 1893 and ended in 1974 when the Football Association abolished official amateur status. History Following the legalisation of professionalism within footb ...

(the predecessor to the

), The Bay twice reached the semi-finals, and quadrice the quarter-finals; A 1965 quarter-final appearance of which holds the club record attendance (7,301) in a 3–1 loss to

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

. On 18 March 1968, floodlights were installed around Hillheads Park; marked by a friendly match against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

Decline and then recovery (1973–1988)

Fortunes began to fade from the mid-1970s before having to re-apply to the Northern League as a result of coming last in the 1979–80 campaign. Success remained limited in the aftermath of re-election, with successive finishes of 19th, 19th,

13th In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the Musical note, note thirteen scale degrees from the root (chord), root of a chord (music), chord and also the interval (music), interval between the root and the thirteenth. The thirteenth is m ...

, and 9th—during the early 1980s. Former player, Bobby Graham, was appointed first team manager in 1986. Graham's first season marked Whitley Bay's highest league position in 15 years ( 5th), their best-ever FA Trophy campaign (reaching the final sixteen) and their first Northumberland Senior Cup since 1973 (beating

Newcastle Blue Star Newcastle Blue Star F.C. is a association football, football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It was established in 1930 and joined the Wearside League in 1973. In 1978, the club won the FA Vase. They won promotion to the Northern Prem ...

, 2–1, in the final at Hillheads Park). The team then sustained a title challenge for the majority of the following season before finishing 4th in midst of numerous injuries.

Northern Premier League members (1988–2000)

Division One (1988–1991)

Whitley Bay left the

after 30 successive years in the division, applying for promotion to the second tier of the Northern Premier League (NPL) at the end of the 1987–88 season. In their debut season in the NPL Division One, The Seahorses finished 5th. The team then followed it up with 4th place the season after, in a campaign that also saw them record their best–ever

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

run, when they reached the Third Round Proper, beating

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

of the fourth tier and

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

of the third, before losing 1–0 to

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

. In only their third season, Whitley Bay became champions of the

, gaining promotion to the

Northern Premier League Premier Division The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system. Geographically, the league c ...

Premier Division (1991–1995)

Whitley Bay only spent four seasons at the club's zenith. 17th in both the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

season, the highest-ever final league position to date of 11th in the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

, before 21st place relegation in the fourth sent the club back to

Division One (1995–2000)

Following relegation at the end of the 1994–95 season, Whitley Bay returned to the NPL Division One, finishing 8th in their first season back. The Seahorses then followed it up with 12th in the second season, 13th in the

, and 19th in the fourth. The Bay then finished 22nd and bottom in 1999–2000, being relegated back to the

Return to the Northern Football League (2000–present)

Following a second relegation in six seasons in 1999–2000, Whitley Bay returned to Northern Football League Division One after a 12-year absence. In 2005, Whitley Bay ended an 18-year barren run without a Northumberland Senior Cup title. The Bay won their third-ever Northern League title in 2006–07, 41 years on from their back–to–back titles in 1964–65 and 1965–66, however they did not apply for promotion. In 2010, The Seahorses won a twelfth Northumberland Senior Cup.

Three appearances at Wembley Stadium and four FA Vase trophies

Whitley Bay first won the FA Vase at

Villa Park Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...

in 2001–02. The Seahorses then maintained a 100% record in finals as they went on to win three consecutive trophies at the

new Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

in 2008–09, 2009–10 and

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, becoming the competition's most successful club both in the total number of titles and most won consecutively.

Current squad

Club officials

* Chairman: Paul McIlduff * Vice Chairman: Peter Siddle * Football Secretary: Marc Cox * Treasurer: Mark Burnett * Joint Commercial Manager: Duncan Howell * Joint Commercial Manager: David Hall * Pitch maintenance: David Styles * Commercial Director: Anna Salkeld * Media Correspondent: Julian Tyley * 1st Team Manager: Jay Bates * 1st Team Assistant Manager: Barry Rizza * 1st Team Physiotherapist: Kevin Chapman * 1st Team Coach:Paul Pescod * 1st Team Kitman: Tommy Davies * 1st Team Kitman: Jay Weldon * Reserve Team Secretary: Joe Murphy * Reserve Team Manager: Derek Forrest

Finishing positions

*League Results:Northern League Archives
Northern League Official Website, 2010.Rundle, Richard.
Whitley Bay
Football Club History Database, 2006. ImageSize = width:600 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/2010 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1991 Colors = id:nl1 value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.6) id:npl1 value:rgb(0.8,0.8,1) id:nplp value:rgb(0.6,0.6,0.8) PlotData= bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:21 from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:8 from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:19 from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:22 from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:10 from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:10 from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:10 from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 color:npl1 shift:(0,13) text: " NPL Div. 1" from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1995 color:nplp shift:(0,13) text: " NPL Pre. Div." from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/2000 color:npl1 shift:(0,13) text: " Northern Premier League Division 1" from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2010 color:nl1 shift:(0,13) text: " Northern League Division 1" ImageSize = width:600 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1990 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1971 Colors = id:npl1 value:rgb(0.8,0.9,1) id:nl1 value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.6) id:nl value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.7) PlotData= bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1971 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1972 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/1972 till:01/07/1973 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/1973 till:01/07/1974 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 shift:(0,-4) text:12 from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1976 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/1976 till:01/07/1977 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/1977 till:01/07/1978 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1979 shift:(0,-4) text:15 from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1980 shift:(0,-4) text:20 from:01/07/1980 till:01/07/1981 shift:(0,-4) text:19 from:01/07/1981 till:01/07/1982 shift:(0,-4) text:19 from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1983 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/1983 till:01/07/1984 shift:(0,-4) text:9 from:01/07/1984 till:01/07/1985 shift:(0,-4) text:13 from:01/07/1985 till:01/07/1986 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/1986 till:01/07/1987 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/1987 till:01/07/1988 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1989 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1990 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1982 color:nl shift:(0,13) text: " Northern League" from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1988 color:nl1 shift:(0,13) text: " Northern League Division 1" from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1990 color:npl1 shift:(0,13) text: " NPL Div. 1" ImageSize = width:600 height:60 PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/07/1950 till:01/07/1970 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1956 Colors = id:nel value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.8) id:nl value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.7) PlotData= bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center from:01/07/1955 till:01/07/1956 shift:(0,-4) text:16 from:01/07/1956 till:01/07/1957 shift:(0,-4) text:18 from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1958 shift:(0,-4) text:18 from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1959 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/1959 till:01/07/1960 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/1960 till:01/07/1961 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/1961 till:01/07/1962 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1964 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1967 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1968 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/1968 till:01/07/1969 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/1969 till:01/07/1970 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/1955 till:01/07/1958 color:nel shift:(0,13) text: "

" from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1970 color:nl shift:(0,13) text: " Northern League"

Honours

**Winners 2001–02, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 *

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

**Division One Champions 1990–91 **Division One Cup Winners 1988–89, 1990–91 * Northern League **Champions 1964–65, 1965–66, 2006–07 **Runners-up 1959–60, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70 **Challenge Cup Winners 1964–65, 1970–71 **Runners-up 1967–68, 2013–14 * Northumberland Senior Cup **Winners 1953, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1987, 2005, 2010 **Runners-up 1954, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1977, 1986, 1991, 2003, 2013

Records

Cup runs

* Best

performance: Third round, 1989–90 * Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

performance: Third round, 1986–87 * Best

performance: Winners, 2001–02, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 * Best

performance: Semi-finals, 1965–66, 1968–69

Attendances

*Record Attendance, (Hillheads Park) – 7,301 (v. Hendon – FA Amateur Cup, 1965) *Record Attendance, (St James Park, Newcastle) – 17,048 (v. North Shields – Northumberland Senior Cup Final, 1953)

Results

*Record Win – 12–0 (v.

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...

, 1961) *Record Defeat – 9–0 (v. Hebburn Town, 2019)

Goals

*Most goals scored in a season – 112 (1964–65) *Fewest goals scored in a season – 31 (1979–80) *Most goals conceded in a season – 97 (1994–95, 2014–15) *Fewest goals conceded in a season – 26 (1969–70)

Player

*Record Appearances – Bill Chater – 641 *Record Goalscorer – Billy Wright – 307 *Most goals scored by a single player in a season – Billy Wright – 51 (1964–65) *Most goals scored by a single player in a match – Ken Bowron – 6 (1961–62) *Record transfer fee received – £10,000 for Kevin Todd to

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

*Consecutive league games goals – Jack Foalle 12 Games

References

External links

* {{Coord, 55, 02, 04.93, N, 1, 27, 16.61, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Football clubs in England Northern Football League Football clubs in Tyne and Wear Association football clubs established in 1897 Whitley Bay Northern Premier League clubs 1897 establishments in England North Eastern League Sport in the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside