Billingham Synthonia Football Club is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

club based in Stokesley,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. Nicknamed the "Synners", they are currently members of the and play at the Stokesley Sports Complex in Stokesley,

History

The club was established in 1923 and was named after an agricultural fertiliser, Synthonia being a contraction of " synthetic ammonia", a product manufactured by ICI, with which the club was affiliated.Club History
Billingham Synthonia F.C. They initially played in the South Bank & District League, later joining the

Teesside League The Teesside Football League was a football competition based in northern England. Established in 1891, it was dissolved in 2017 when it merged with the Eskvale & Cleveland League to form the North Riding Football League. At the end of its exist ...

. They won the Teesside League Cup in 1934–35, the league title in 1936–37 and the League Cup for a second time in 1938–39. In 1945 the club joined the Northern League. They reached the first round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

for the first time in 1948–49, losing 5–0 to Crewe Alexandra at

Gresty Road Gresty Road or the Alexandra Stadium, currently known as the Mornflake Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Crewe, Cheshire, England. The home ground of Crewe Alexandra, it has an all-seated capacity of 10,153. History Cre ...

. The following season saw them finish as Northern League runners-up and reach the first round of the FA Cup again, this time losing 3–0 at Stockport County. After finishing as runners-up again in 1950–51, a season in which they did not concede a goal during their home league matches, the 1951–52 season saw them win the League Cup with a 1–0 win over

Tow Law Town Tow Law Town Association Football Club is an English non-league football club from Tow Law, County Durham, currently playing in the Northern League Division One, in the ninth level of the English football league system. The team, nicknamed " ...

in a replay, finish as runners-up for the third consecutive season and reach the FA Cup first round for a third time, losing 5–0 at Scunthorpe & Lindsay United. They won the Northern League for the first time in 1956–57, a season which also saw another FA Cup first round appearance, resulting in a 6–1 defeat at

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

. The following season they reached the first round again, losing 5–2 at

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is known ...

. In 1985–86 the club were relegated to Division Two after finishing second-from-bottom of Division One. However, they made an immediate return to Division One by winning Division Two at the first attempt. The 1987–88 season saw a second League Cup win with a 2–1 defeat of

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 ...

in the final, as well as another FA Cup first round appearance – a 4–2 loss to Halifax Town in a home match played at Hartlepool United's

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

. They went on to win back-to-back Division One titles in 1988–89 and 1989–90; The 1989–90 season also saw a third League Cup win, beating

Whitby Town Whitby Town Football Club is an English football club based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. The club participates in the Northern Premier League, the seventh tier of English football. Founded in 1880, Whitby are one of the oldest clubs from the Nor ...

5–2 in the final, as well as a seventh appearance in the FA Cup first round, this time losing 1–0 at Lincoln City. A fourth Northern League title was won in 1995–96. In 2006–07 Billingham reached the semi-finals of the

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, usually referred to as the FA Vase, is an annual football competition for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English National League System (or equivalently, tier 9 or 10 of the overall English footbal ...

; after beating AFC Totton 2–1 away from home, they lost the home leg 2–1, with Totton winning the penalty shootout 5–4. At the end of the 2014–15 season they were relegated to Division Two after finishing in the Division One relegation zone. A third-place finish in 2016–17 saw them promoted back to Division One. However, in 2017–18 the club finished bottom of Division One and were relegated back to Division Two.

Ground

The club initially played at Belasis Lane, which was part of the ICI sports complex. The first ground was on the south side of the road, with the club moving to one on the north side of the road prior to joining the Northern League in 1945. The Belasis Lane ground saw the first floodlit game in northern England on 11 November 1952 when Billingham defeated an RAF team 8–4 in front of a crowd of 3,000. In 1958 they moved to the Stadium on Central Avenue in Billingham; the new ground was opened on 6 September 1958 by Lord Derby, with the first game ending in a 2–2 draw against

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

; the crowd of 4,200 remains the club's record attendance. In the same year, the stadium was used for an England 'B' international athletics meeting; the stadium's 2,000 capacity cantilever stand was the longest in the country at the time. The Stadium was also used by the Billingham Athletics club and hosted

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

reserve matches until 2011 In April 2017 the club left the Stadium due to the cost of upgrading works, initially agreeing to use the Norton Sports Complex in Norton for two seasons. In April 2022 the club announced that home matches in 2022–23 would be played at Stokesley Sports Club.

Honours

*Northern League **Division One champions 1956–57, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1995–96 **Division Two champions 1986–87 **League Cup winners 1951–52, 1987–88, 1989–90 *Teesside League **Champions 1936–37 **League Cup winners 1934–35, 1938–39 * Durham Challenge Cup **Winners 1988–89, 1990–91, 2008–09, 2009–10 *

North Riding Senior Cup The North Riding Senior Cup is the county cup in the North Riding of Yorkshire. It is administered by the North Riding County FA. According to the current rules of the competition, it is open to all clubs whose first affiliation is with the NRCF ...

**Winners 1966–67, 1971–72, 1978–79

Records

*Best

performance: First round, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1951–52, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1987–88, 1989–90 *Best

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 footba ...

performance: Quarter-finals, 1948–49 *Best

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

performance: Quarter-finals, 1993–94 *Best

performance: Semi-finals, 2006–07 *Biggest victory: 11–0 vs Seaton Carew, Durham Challenge Cup first round, 8 November 2014 *Most appearances: Andy Habron, 648 (1977–1996) *Most goals: Tony Hetherington, 243 (1964–1979)Top Goalscorers for Billingham Synthonia
Billingham Synthonia F.C. **Most goals in one match: Arthur Rhodes, 8 vs

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

, 25 December 1945 *Record attendance: 4,200 vs

, 6 September 1958

References

External links