The North East T.P.O. Football team was a marvellous adventure, and one that myself or my good friend Gerry Purcell would not have missed for a moment.

For a very long time, the North East T.P.O. F.C. was a major part of our lives, and in our hearts, the Club will live on, long after the playing days are over.

We can honestly say that our Club was unique, and we based our principles on making friends and in sportsmanship, above winning at all costs. We prided ourselves that our club achieved all the objectives that we set out to achieve and that effectively, we were able to run our affairs despite playing 95% of our matches almost 300 miles away from our registered base in Willesden North West London.

Under the acknowledgements page, we have listed those who have made major contributions to the smooth running of our club over those glorious years. For anyone not listed, please accept out grateful thanks, for without you it would not have been possible.

The last T.P.O.F.C. match played in Carlisle typified all the Club stood for. It was a great day out and the way we would have wished this marvellous adventure to have ended, going out at the very top.

Our president Graham Kelly would have been proud of the team and its marvellous supporters on this day, and all the past triumphs that the Club recorded.

It was not an easy decision to end our Club’s existence, but both Gerry and myself knew that some day the time would come to end this adventure that had been marvellous for us all.

The reasons for ending were many and varied, but the major reasons were that we were struggling to put out the teams that we wanted, and the logistics of running a club such as ours had become increasingly harder since the Royal Mail’s decision to move our T.P.O. base from the Central Station Newcastle, to the Team Valley.

It was also our view that things had gone so well for so long, we did not want our luck to run out.

We are very grateful that Roger Wood who has shown such love and commitment towards the North East Travelling Post Office F.C., has done what we dreamed of, recording the great days we have spent together so that the North Eastern Travelling Post Office Football Club (London Section) will never be forgotten.

Thanks to you all for great days spent in each others company. 

The North Eastern Travelling Post Office was founded in 1988, by Dave Griffiths, and Gerry Purcell. With their first game in February of that  year when they lost 9-0 at the Lightfoot Stadium, Newcastle Upon Tyne on  Astro-turf to a Royal Mail team from Newcastle. The club was formed with a primary purpose of giving the over night travelling lads a game of football before their evening return South. The North East Travelling Post Office Football Club does not play in any league; all their matches are friendlies, normally played on Wednesday afternoons, and the club is
affiliated to the Northumberland Football Association. Early in its development it was decided as club policy that the club should be involved with helping local charities on Tyneside, and since 1988 the club has helped raise in excess of £10,000. The club recently celebrated its 100th game, on 14th October 1998 at Heaton Stannington Football Club in Newcastle Upon Tyne where they were beaten 1-0 by a team from Tyne  Wear Metro. This occasion was also marked by the presentation to the club of a new strip by the Royal Mail's London Community Action Unit. The
Club has attracted both media and celebrity interest with several features on BBC North and Tyne Tees Television, Mike Elliot's show on Century radio, F.C. Magazine, July 1999. The Club has also secured support  (through its association with Newcastle Playhouse and Live Theatre), from
the playwright Tom Hadaway and actor Tim Healey. All matches are reported by Bill Mc Gurk in the Grass Roots section of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, and by Nick Loughlin in the Northern Echo. The team has played Rod Stewart's Vagabond Old Boys Eleven, a total of five times, having played the last game on 23rd May 1999 losing 3-2. And a Newcastle United select eleven in the 89-90 

For further information please contact

Dave Griffiths                 23 Wentworth Drive Bishops Stortford Hertfordshire CM23 2PB

Phone                           01279 505260

Mobile                           0589849648

e.mail                            [email protected]