Andy Potts
Bio
Community focused sports fan from Northeast England. Tends to root for the little guy. Look out for Talking Northeast, my new project coming soon.
Stories (173)
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The snake and the seeker. Top Story - June 2025.
“Coming! Ready or not!” Trouble is, I’m not ready. Not for this. When they drew the snake, I took too many guesses. My count was huge. And we always play hide-and-seek in the dark. That was what we called it, often hyphenated, sometimes even rushed into a single word: hidenseekinnadark.
By Andy Potts7 months ago in Fiction
The Bench
This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub. See here for the original. Translating sport onto the stage is a thankless task. It’s impossible to top the natural drama of last-gasp goals and underdog triumphs without veering into cliché. The Bench, which begins a month-long tour of northeast England this weekend, manages a discreet nod to the tradition with one plot device, but wisely ensures that the action takes place far away from the field.
By Andy Potts7 months ago in Geeks
William Martin, Marratide: Selected Poems
“I draw a snake upon your back ...” It’s one of many lines derived from children’s games that lives on in William Martin’s poetry. Yet it also leapt of the page when I read it in Anna Marra Missa, one of the verses included in Marratide, a newly-published anthology to mark Martin’s centenary year.
By Andy Potts7 months ago in BookClub
Mine's a pint: The Oxford Bar
Where would literature be without the pub? Chaucer’s pilgrims set off for Canterbury from a London tavern. Shakespeare had Falstaff declare that “thin drink doth overcool their blood” when complaining of a “sober-blooded boy” who “drinks no wine”. Writers around the world have found cause to hail the ale, or lament its deleterious effects.
By Andy Potts9 months ago in Proof
Family football
As this statue outside the Stadium of Light suggests, football is a family affair. My love of the game, and especially of Sunderland, my hapless hometown team, was nurtured by my father. Although he was never a die-hard, seen-every-game-since-he-was-in-nappies kind of fan, he was the man who introduced me to the game. Watching Football Focus together on Saturday lunchtime, resuming in front of the TV to see Final Score, then walking to the corner shop together to buy the Football Echo, distinctive pink newsprint and the miraculous condensation of the day’s action in your hand barely an hour after full time.
By Andy Potts10 months ago in Cleats
Sunderland sporting heritage
At its zenith, Ashbrooke Sports Ground thronged to crowds of 25,000 to witness a touring Australian cricket team take on Durham. Despite the struggles of the General Strike across the northeast’s industrial communities, the chance to see a top-class visiting team in 1926 was too much for a sports crazy region to miss.
By Andy Potts10 months ago in Unbalanced
Playlist: Cove, coal, concrete
Palma Louca – The Cove Working from home is one of those topics guaranteed to get readers of tabloid newspapers foaming at the mouth. So it might be a bad idea to mention that Palma Louca’s most recent single, The Cove, owes much of its gentle vibe to band members quietly tinkering in their bedrooms. After all, if rock musicians are going to renounce debauchery and excess in favour of WFH, we really might be approaching the end times.
By Andy Potts11 months ago in Beat
The contemporary temple of Apollo
In the heart of a County Durham housing estate, the Apollo Pavilion is rare example of uncompromising public art. Since its unveiling in 1969, Victor Pasmore’s piece of brutalist constructivist design has prompted much head-scratching. Is it architecture? Sculpture? Both? Neither? Do the stark concrete outlines enhance Peterlee’s Sunny Blunts estate, or is it simply an eyesore? Is it the kind of artwork beloved only of those who don’t have to live with it, or does it have a role to play in its community more than 50 years after it was built.
By Andy Potts11 months ago in Wander
Football from the Morgue
With the kind of gallows humour typical of non-league fans, they call it the Morgue. Officially, North Shields’ home ground in Ralph Gardner Park is the Daren Persson Stadium. Since Daren Persson is a local undertaker and club sponsor, the jokes write themselves. Visiting teams might find themselves buried, hopes of victory turned to ashes. The atmosphere tends to the raucous side of reverent, the weekly ritual brash and beery.
By Andy Potts11 months ago in Cleats
Playlist: Singing in the new. Top Story - February 2025.
Pit Pony – Cut Open One of the most exciting releases scheduled for early 2025 is Pit Pony’s second album, Dead Stars, is set to be one of the most exciting releases scheduled for early 2025. Their debut, World to Me, emerged from the wreckage of lockdown back in 2022 with a noisy blast of indie rock. But the new stuff shows signs of greater breadth.
By Andy Potts11 months ago in Beat
