It was on the evening of the 27th April 1988 that the last rugby match on the Northumberland Rugby Union’s County ground at Gosforth was played.
The Northumberland Rugby Union (NRU) had been the only county in England to own its own ground.

Seventy- six years before, in September 1912, the NRU had taken a 15-year lease on what was then the Gosforth Cycling Track, for £80 per year. Before that they had used several grounds; the Royal Grammar School at Eskdale Terrace, Jesmond, Northern RFC’s old ground at Burdon Terrace, Jesmond, and also the Percy Park and Tynedale grounds.
Apart from acquiring the lease the NRU also bought assets, which included a two-storeyed pavilion with verandah and the south stand, for £375. Then, in 1923, the County purchased the ground for £5,250, and erected the north stand, seating another 1,200, at a cost of £2,828.

Ten years later, when the speedway track-racing, which had taken over from the cycle racing which went into liquidation, the property was sub-let to the National Greyhound Racing club. This provided the County with a steady rental income for many years. However, when the greyhound racing company moved away, with the last greyhound races being held on the 7th August 1987, the ground became a liability for the NRU.
The County therefore decided to sell the ground and assets to Asda, whose superstore still occupies the site.

From 1912 until 1988 world famous teams had played on the ground - South Africans, Canadians, Italians. Americans and the Fijians. It was the Fijians who took part in one of the most memorable matches when they beat the Barbarians 29-9 (when a try was only worth 3 points) in a spectacular display, in 1970.

Because of its design the County ground made TV coverage almost impossible. Also, biting cold winds would sweep through, making kicking difficult. Players and spectators found the atmosphere impersonal, as the crowd had a greyhound track between them and the pitch.

However, the stadium had served a useful purpose for many years. Northern FC played there until 1937, and Gosforth RFC until 1955. Many great matches took place on the ground. Representative matches and England trials were staged there and the stadium hosted Northumberland RFU Cup-finals for 70 years.

The last match there, that finale in 1988, was the 95th final of the Northumberland Senior Cup and was contested by the holders, Gosforth RFC, and Tynedale RFC. It was a match which Tynedale won 13-6.

From 1960 until that game in 1988, of the 28 finals played, Gosforth had won 24 times and were beaten finalists on three other occasions – so Tynedale’s win, the club’s first for 40 years, was remarkable in many ways. Did it also foretell the end of Gosforth’s long-time domination of Northumberland rugby?
The teams that day were:-
GOSFORTH RFC
Jonathan Whisker; Tony Elliott, Ross Wilkinson, Richard Petyt, Ian Chandler; David Johnson, Tom Cleghorn; D. Nunn, Richard Parker, P. Flowers; Kevin Westgarth, Terry Roberts; D. Davidson (Capt.), Giles Smallwood, Neil Frankland. Replacements: Gordon Dingwall, D. Morley.
For Gosforth, Richard Parker the hooker, known as RP2 when he lived in Hexham, had previously played for Tynedale. Later, Kevin Westgarth’s son Alex was to play for Tynedale first team, as did Neil Frankland’s two sons, Ben and Louis.
TYNEDALE RFC
Gordon Dodd; John Rutherford, Mark Winham, Gary Taylor, Mark Richard; Chris Leslie, Gary Rutherford; Richard Parker, Alan Gledson, Martin White; Steven Dunn, Angus Murray; Fred Dickinson, Graham Yates, Mickey Lee. Replacements: Chris Dixon & Adrian Tallantyre.

John Rutherford, Alan Gledson, Martin White and Angus Murray (2) all had sons who played for the Blue and Whites for years, and Robert Parker, son of Richard, and Graeme Dunn, son of Steven are still in the Tynedale 1st. XV squad.
Gary Taylor and Graham Yates are now Vice-Presidents of the Tynedale club, whilst Mark Richard was recently, in season 2019/20, President of the Northumberland Rugby Union.

TYNEDALE 13 GOSFORTH 6
In the match itself the Tynedale front five completely dominated their opponents in the set scrums, whilst the back-row created havoc amongst a hesitant Gosforth side.
Gary Taylor landed three penalties as a result of that pressure, to one penalty from Gosforth’s David (Banty) Johnson to make the score 9-3 at half-time. In the second half Graham Yates grounded the ball for a Tyne scrum pushover try, and with another Johnson penalty for Gosforth being the only reply the final score was 13-6.

After 76 years the sporting life of the stadium, showcasing speed in what Shakespeare would have described as “infinite variety,” came to an end, with a fitting finale. The variety of speeds had been provided by racing cycles, motor bikes, greyhounds and Fijian Flyers.

D.F.HAMILTON