When 20,000 people turned up to watch Australia play cricket in Sunderland

Keith Gregson was runner-up in a contest which asked people to write about their local neighbourhood and something that happened there in the 1920s.

Read more: 9 stars of the 60s who came to Sunderland

Keith chose the visit of the Australian cricket team to Ashbrooke in 1926 and  impressed the judges who had 150 entries to sift through.

The remarkable sight of 20,000 people at Ashbrooke

He said: “It was a remarkable sight. The match took place soon after the General Strike and while miners in the North East were still on strike. Special arrangements were made to ensure all people who were interested could see the match.”

A crowd of well over 20,000 crammed into Ashbrooke sports ground to watch Durham County Cricket team take on the touring Australians.

As a reward for his writing efforts, Keith – who has looked after the archives at Ashbrooke Sports Club for nearly 40 years – got to choose a couple of books from the shop at the National Archives.

Four decades of dedicated research

The competition was organised jointly by the British Association for Local History and the National Archives.

Other writers covered topics such as women’s football and its 1920s popularity, and the lives and careers of three young women who worked together in a Watford department store.

Find out more at these Wearside talks

Keith will be giving a talk about the Ashbrooke archives at the club on Monday, May 22, from 7.30pm as part of a city wide venture to share local heritage. He will talk at the Foundation of Light on the same topic on Friday, June 23 as part of the Coalfields regeneration scheme.

To find out more, email [email protected] or visit his website at http://www.keithgregson.com