THE column three weeks ago not only broke the news that the Quakers would be moving to Blackwell Meadows – officially “revealed” almost a fortnight later – but that dismantling had begun of the familiar Tin Shed at Feethams.

The back of it, of course, was used as a sight screen by the neighbouring cricket club. John Briggs recalls a conversation during which Aussie test match batsman Dean Jones, then with Durham, supposed it to be the biggest sight screen in the world.

John, who also sends a photograph of IT Botham batting at Darlington, is unable to find proof on the internet.

Background information, can anyone help?

TO Evenwood Cricket Club’s junior presentations, a happy evening. The village side still fields under-13s, 15s and 18s, youthful names often echoing the seniors – Jessica Maughan enthusiasdtically among them.

Inevitably, there are also Teesdales, 11-year-old Thomas banned from the second team by ECB edict – too young – but not before he’d taken eight wickets.

The bairn appears greatly to be a chip off the grandpaternal block.

“Just wait till he’s 13,” says Bulldog Billy. “He’s going to be absolutely fantastic by then.”

FROM Thailand, where long he has been self-exiled, lifelong Gateshead football fan and former reserve team goalkeeper George Alberts is prompted to recall a wintry Saturday afternoon in 1955.

George would be taken to Redheugh Park by his dad. On the day in question, however, he was lying poorly by the fire when the wellguarded 3pm news arrived that the day’s second-half Light Programme commentary would be on the match between Gateshead and Chester.

Only a few weeks earlier, Gateshead had attracted 18,840 for an FA Cup third round tie with Spurs.

Against Chester the crowd was 887.

“It was incredible how interest dropped when there was nothing to play for,” says George, former manager of the Durham Milburngate shopping centre, now The Gates.

The match ended 0-0. “Bloody awful,” reported Alberts senior upon his return, a view with which Raymond Glendenning wholly agreed, though not necessarily in the same terms.

George mentions it because, after a bit of twiddling the other night, he was again able to hear Gateshead v Chester, broadcast via BBC local radio to Bangkok. “There are folk who think I’m mad,” he adds.

AT Norton and Stockton Ancients v Tow Law we bump into the admirable John Hope, once a goalkeeper for Newcastle United and Sheffield United, and his son Chris, who made more than 500 Football League appearances in Scunthorpe and Gillingham’s central defence.

John, Shildon lad originally, lives valiantly and cheerfully with Parkinson’s disease.

Chris is coaching football at a public school in the east Midlands.

Every year they play Eton – “so many pitches,” says Chris, “that there’s a Costa Coffee in the middle of them all.”

It’s how the other half lives.

RECENT references to Willington FC prompt Steve Leonard to drop off the programme from a little-remembered fixture – Welsh Amateur Cup holders Caerau against Willington, the FA Amateur Cup holders, on January 20, 1951.

It proved a good day for the Principality, Caerau winning 5-2 and Wales beating England 22-5 down the valley at the Arms Park.

“Another shattering blow to English rugby’s waning prestige,” reported the Echo, though we said nothing at all about the Willington game.

Much the day’s most sensational news, however, was that in the Durham Amateur Cup tie between Lumley Rovers and Harraton CW, the entire Rovers team had been sent off by Sunderland referee J Butler for refusing to restart the match after a disputed third goal.

The crowd was about 700. “There was much argument, but the decision was received without any kind of demonstration,” said the Echo. The Rovers fate is, sadly, unknown.

SPEAKING of the Rovers, and for reasons to which we may return, does anyone recall Havannah Rovers, who may have been a pit team in the north Durham area in the early 20th Century? The internet offers a link to Billy Jonas, who joined Leyton Orient, but nothing else. Further information gratefully received.

...and finally, the last column before a fortnight’s holiday asked what Everton became – in 1958 – the first football club to have. It was under-soil heating, and none was even warm.

Readers are today invited to identify the only player to have scored in the Champions League final, UEFA Cup final, FA Cup final and League Cup final.

In the hope itself of scoring, the column returns next week.