NEHL - A football ground has stood just south of the village since 1893, when West Auckland FC were founded. Within 3 years, they were inducted into the Wear Valley League and later played in the South Durham Alliance, Mid Durham League and the Northern League after renaming themselves West Auckland Town.

The ground in the 1890s was austere - an enclosed maintained pitch of grass with no clubhouse nor facilities. This remained the case until at least the 1920s. By 1939 the ground had a small pavilion on its western side though that was it. Since then, modest stands have been erected and now has a capacity of 2000 with 75 seats. According to aerial imagery from 1946, the pavilion appears to have been demolished. We can speculate the pavilion was an iron hut so could have been required for the war effort. Either way, the ground appears unmaintained at this time.

The club is known as the two time winners of the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, when they were inducted into a European tournament between Torino, Stuttgarter Sportfreunde and Winterthur of Switzerland in 1909. In 1911 they beat Juventus, Torino and FC Zurich.