Darlington Town - The Reynolds Arena

11^th October 2003

Darlington Town 0-4 Bristol Rovers

Having attended the final match at Darlington Town’s Feethams ground, I had intended to try to be present at the first at their new ground: the grandiose white elephant that was the Reynolds Arena.  However, circumstances intervened, and it was October of the club's first season in the new home before I was able to make the trip down.

The stadium was named after George Reynolds, the then club chairman, who had apparently funded the £20M, 25,000 capacity ground himself and, in true Fitzcarraldo tradition, had intended to use it as a springboard to bouncing Darlington into the Premier League.  The inevitable financial difficulties ensued, the club entered administration and Reynolds quit the scene in January 2004, just five months after the ground had opened.

Exterior to The Reynolds Arena in 2003

Now The Darlington Arena in 2024 
(and the bloke driving by has upgraded his wheels.)

The game itself, acted out to a smattering of souls (just over 4,000) scattered around the arena was a travesty of a sporting occasion.  The four goals apart there was an almost awed hush throughout the entire 90 minutes, with each shout and squawk from the players echoing around the arena.  I almost asked a couple behind me chattering away about nothing in particular if they could “keep it down a little”.  

One could plainly hear kiddies unwrapping their sweetie wrappers rows away.  Quite what the locals thought of it all as their former home, the trim character-filled Feethams ground sat decomposing a few miles away, I cannot imagine.  It was all so unbearably sad.

The visiting Bristol City fans in the East Stand (2003)

No need to use the area in 2024.

A slice of action from 2003...

...and from 2024

Darlington, perhaps fittingly, were dreadful, although they could point to the loss through injury of top scorer Barry Conlon early in the second-half.  But, even by that point, they were 1-0 down and clearly on their way to a bashing.  Rovers' goalscorers were Lewis HALDANE (38) and David SAVAGE (64), with substitute Andy RAMMELL heading in a brace in the 77^th and 90^th minutes.

The Reynolds Arena (2003)

Now The Darlington Arena (2024)

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Darlington Mowden Park 14-28 Rams

24th February 2024

Under normal circumstances, I probably would never have found myself within 100 miles of this English National League 1 (rugby union) fixture.  But I had, of course, visited this venue before, in its guise as a Football League ground - Darlington FC having called the place home from 2003-2012.  

So, some twenty-and-a-bit years after I last visited, I though I may drop in to repeat my pics from 2003, and see what changes two decades has brought.  Well, the most obvious change is that Rugby Union is now played in the stadium, the venue having been bought by Darlington Mowden Park once the football club moved out.

To the stadium itself, very few changes could I see - other than the judicious moving around of black seats to change the names spelt out on the stand.  And the vivid scarlet of the then newly installed seats now faded to a pale pinky puce, by two decades exposure to the Darlington weather.

The Darlington Arena.