Crooks’ tour

IT was a passing paragraph in July, a brief recollection of how Bearpark boys Sammy Crooks and Lewis Stoker – the former very much better remembered – played football together for England in the 1930s.

Tommy Crooks, himself back in Bearpark, wrote straight afterwards generously offering further information on his Uncle Sammy. It’s just that some things take a little longer.

Bearpark’s a couple of miles west of Durham, its name said to be from the French “beau repaire”, meaningful beautiful retreat. Bearpark Colliery, still indicated by a fingerpost in the village centre, may have been rather less congenial. Opened in 1872, it employed more than 1,000 men at peak production in the 1920s and still threw 456 out of work when it closed in 1984.

Among those who had toiled there was Sammy Crooks’s father, another Tommy, himself once described by the Durham Chronicle as an enthusiastic goalkeeper who feared no foe and a man who, demands of coalface and of football notwithstanding, fathered 17 children.

Ten were boys, seven girls, though six of the boys – it was a long time ago, another age – died before reaching maturity.

At their lovely little bungalow on a grey November morning, Tommy and Joan Crooks still marvel at the birth rate. “She was just a little woman, not much more than 5ft tall, took a size two in shoes.”

The house down at Bearpark Colliery had had only two bedrooms – “big bedrooms, mind” – and an attic.

Water came from a tap in the pantry, heating and cooking from the fire.

However, they still wonder, did they manage?

Unsurprisingly, Bearpark seemed to have Crookses on every corner.

“When I came here there were hundreds,” Joan recalls.

“There are still quite a few, cousins and half cousins and things, still a lot people in the villages round about who remember Uncle Sammy.

“He had some wonderful achievements in football, but the great thing about Uncle Sammy was that he just remained so ordinary. He was a lovely man, Uncle Sammy.”

Footballer Sammy Crooks, who played for Durham City, Derby County and England

SAMUEL Dickinson Crooks was born on January 16, 1909, an addition to an already crowded household. Some of his sisters, it’s reckoned, were themselves giving birth before their parents had finished family making.

Young Sammy inevitably worked at the colliery. Some stories say that he had to stop underground work because of the rheumatism: at any rate he was an 18-year-old working on the coal lorries when his life changed suddenly.

He’d played football for the colliery and for Brandon Juniors, signed for Tow Law Town in the Northern League and then, in 1926, for Durham City – a Third Division North side.

There, he was spotted by George Robey, manager of First Division Derby County, who intercepted young Crooks at the end of a shift, offered City £300 for his signature and urged all concerned to say nothing because at least five other clubs were interested.

“He wanted to put one over on them,” Sammy once recalled.

He arrived at the Baseball Ground with his boots in a brown paper bag, remained a player for more than 20 war-interrupted years, was converted by Robey from diminutive inside right to flying right winger, won 26 England caps – more than anyone between the wars except for Arsenal man Eddie Hapgood – made four Football League appearances and had a spell as chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

He also persuaded several family members to follow him to the East Midlands. “My Aunty Nellie lived right opposite the Baseball Ground,”

Tommy recalls. “Footballers were different then, none of these posh cars and special diets.

“Uncle Sammy and his mate, Raich Carter, would often park their bikes in the back yard and come in to ask Auntie Nellie if the kettle was on. I expect she fed them up. He was a very humble man, never changed, but at Derby he was treated like a king.”

Carter, his memory treasured at Sunderland, once wrote about Sammy Crook’s special qualities, thought him brilliant, speedy and elusive, but saw much more. “His success lay not really in the mastery of his craft, but in the character of the man.

“Sammy was a happy, jovial and ever-alert fellow, a great mixer and a wonderful team mate. He had a burning pride in his soccer.”

War prevented his winning further caps, though Sammy returned to County colours in the 1945-46 FA Cup campaign, determined to make a final bow. Sadly, he was injured in the sixth round and hadn’t recovered before Derby’s triumph over Charlton Athletic.

“Even when he was playing for England he never, ever forgot his roots,” says Tommy. “Every month he’d send my grandma £4, a lot of money back then “They had a nice house in Derby, a bit different from Bearpark Colliery, but nothing really changed. Uncle Sammy never forgot where he belonged.”

HE became Derby’s chief scout, managed Retford and was then secretary/manager of Shrewsbury Town - “the worst secretary in the world,” Sammy observed, though he still helped guide the Shrews into the Football League.

He left in 1954, became player/ manager at Gresley Rivers – regularly turning out at the age of 45 – had spells in charge at Burton Albion and Heanor Town and then returned to County as chief scout from 1961-67. His wife, Freda, was an Olympic swimmer and well-known coach until her 80s, his sons Howard and Stewart are still alive.

There’s a Sammy Crooks Lounge at Durham City’s ground, a cap and England shirt on display, still a Sammy Crooks bar in Belper.

Sammy died in 1981, leaving Tommy’s mother Cilla as the only surviving sibling. She died the next year. “Crooks was a vintage winger whose affection for Derby lasted until he died,” wrote an obituarist.”He didn’t have an enemy in the world.”

TOMMY Crooks was born in Bearpark, and is very happy to be back. He was raised by a grandmother in Darlington – the town still has a Tommy Crooks Park, though they are not related – and spent his life in the licensed trade.

Sammy Crooks with his wife Freda and son Howard

He was steward at Old Shildon Workmen’s Club, won a car for selling more beer than anyone else in the North-East, and had 14 years at East End club in Darlington.

When folk find out that he’s a Crooks from Bearpark, he says, folk still sometimes wonder if he’s any relation to Sammy. “I’m very proud to tell them that I am.”