Soaps, socials, and scraps: inside the lives of Steve and Johnson, intramural football's most devoted servants

Learn more about two icons of Newcastle University sport...

Arthur Ferridge
18th March 2024
Image: Steve Catchpole
The names Steve Catchpole and Bryan Johnson have a special place in the hearts of any Newcastle University student to have set foot on an intramural pitch. With 42 years of officiating experience between them, the pair have become icons of Newcastle’s sporting community, keeping student athletes in line with a no-nonsense approach and a good sense of humour. With an eye to celebrating the pairs’ legacy, Steve and Johnson sat down with The Courier over a Wetherspoons latte to talk over their intramural careers, the off-pitch scandals, appearing on Vera, and plans for a testimonial match.

Steve’s legacy amongst Newcastle students can be quite neatly summed up in his most recent mention in The Courier, which came eight years ago in the “Intramural Insight” column as manager Jim Stacey wrote that at the culmination of his seven-a-side career he “simply [hopes] to shake the hand of… Steve Catchpole, [who is] integral to intramural football at Newcastle.”

The line largely speaks for itself and is a clear marker of the unlikely relationship which has developed between referee and player, a union which tends to bring far more animosity than attachment.

Since taking charge of his first IM match on a frosty Benton morning in 1993, Steve has touched the lives of countless students, forming connections both on and off the pitch.

In his career, which has now spanned four decades, Steve has watched the intramural system balloon from one division of 14 teams to the six division, thousand player organization we know today. Over the years, he has been consistently impressed by the level and character of players involved, also enjoying watching players grow personally from first year to final.

“You see lads come in as Freshers, as kids, and by the time they’re leaving they’re men,” he said. “They improve year on year, and by the time they leave you get some quite good footballers. We love to see the old boys come back too, that’s absolutely great.”

His forgiving style of refereeing can be easily explained by his formative experiences with football, which came fighting his way around the country following Newcastle United and playing as a striker for a Sunday league side managed by Kenny Wharton, who recorded 290 league appearances as a left back for Newcastle United.

Bryan Johnson, the Abbott to Steve’s Costello, had a comparable start, playing at county level alongside Peter Beardsley, who scored 121 goals for Newcastle United, and now lining up with Chris Waddle, another Magpie great, in a walking football team, where the pair have achieved European glory at an annual tournament in Mallorca.

Bryan Johnson poses at a tournament in Mallorca with teammate, Chris Waddle (Image: Bryan Johnson)

Despite always appearing aloof behind his whistle, Steve has something of a penchant for the dramatic. In 2011, he caused a minor scandal after being filmed drinking champagne with Medics FC shortly after officiating the match in which the team secured the Division One championship, a fiasco he has cutely dubbed “Champagne-gate.” His relationship with the club clearly didn’t take much of a hit, though, as he later presented awards at their end of year social.

That love of the dramatic has also manifested in an off pitch acting career, a passtime shared by Johnson. Their TV resumes are impressive, with Johnson having featured as an extra on Vera and in a Ladbrokes advert, while Steve has been seen on Byker Grove, Spender, and The Bill.

The Courier reports on Champagne-gate as an "Intramural Scandal" in May 2011 (Image: The Courier)

The love of drama certainly shows through in Johnson’s often unconventional refereeing style.

“I’m a thespian,” he claims. “We’re doing theatre on the football pitch. My hero is Mike Dean, so I like to get a bit of a laugh out of it. We love when supporters are there and you can get them involved.”

Where Johnson claims to be an actor, Steve maintains that he’s “just an attention seeker,” but agrees that the intramural game is at its best when it focuses less on the competition and more on entertainment factor.

“I take my football seriously, but you have to have a bit of a laugh with it,” he says. “We may not always make the right decision, but at least you know it’ll always be an honest one.”

It is that ability to not take oneself too seriously that has helped Steve and Johnson to develop such a friendly rapport with Newcastle University’s student body. Throughout our interview, the pair repeatedly reminisced on the players and teams of years gone by, highlighting the Medics side talented and populated enough to compete in both intramural and Corinthian leagues, bringing in six trophies in one season.

With uncharacteristic solemnity, they remember Aidan Brunger and Neil Dalton, medical students who were murdered while on work placement in Borneo in 2015. They add, with disappointment, that the pairs’ memorial game, formerly an annual institution played between Newcastle University AFC and Medics 1s, became one of the many victims of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They were two smashing lads, they used to cross over pitches to come and chat with us,” Steve recalls. “I used to referee the memorial game every year, the parents would come up, but COVID came along and they’ve stopped it.”

“We’d love to revive it, but not many students will remember Aidan and Neil now,” Johnson adds, this rare moment of serious conversation again bringing to the forefront the depth of the connection forged between player and referee.

While on the topic of testimonials, Steve and Bryan are both looking forward to their own retirement parties, despite neither having plans to hang up the whistle any time soon.

“I’ve got a few more years in me!” Steve laughs. “When I do go, they can put my statue outside St. James Park, between Bobby Robson and Alan Shearer.”

“We do expect testimonial matches,” Johnson chuckles. “We can referee each other’s, or maybe Steve here can work the bar if his knees have gone.”

Bryan celebrates Wentworth Wanderer's victory at the Mallorca Walking Football Tournament (Image: Bryan Johnson)

As much as they like to crack jokes about the standard of intramural play, both Steve and Johnson make a point of noting its better qualities.

“Nobody outside of the University knows what intramural football is,” Johnson says. “They don’t know you play as much football as you do.”

Steve agrees that intramural football doesn’t receive the acclaim it might deserve.

“My lad gave football up when he was 13, but I wish he could have come [to Newcastle University] to experience it,” he says. “Between the competition, the camaraderie, it’s a great thing. I’ve loved being a part of it.”

The job, as so many do, has its perks and its shortcomings. For all his happy memories of Cochrane Park, Bryan will never forget the evening he “got called a knobhead 15 times” over a game of seven-a-side. While Steve contends that “you can’t book someone for telling the truth,” the fact that either man chooses to keep spending their Saturday mornings at Cochrane Park despite the abuses of hungover students is testament to their attitude and the quality of the intramural community.

As frustrating as Steve and Johnson’s shin pad pedantry and post-match fee collection can be, their legacy on Newcastle sport defies debate. Jim Stacey certainly will not be the last intramural manager wanting to shake their hands at season's end.

AUTHOR: Arthur Ferridge
Head of Sport, 2023/24. @rthur_ferridge on Twitter/X

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

ReLated Articles
magnifiercross
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap