IN early 1905, Middlesbrough shocked the football world by making Alf Common the first £1,000 footballer. It was a scandalously large amount and Boro, becalmed at the foot of the First Division, were accused of buying their way out of relegation.

Their arch rivals Sunderland, who sold the aggressive forward, were accused of downright greed for asking such an extravagant sum.

Questions were asked about the immorality of it all in the House of Commons.

But it worked. Common’s goals hauled Boro out of trouble and they beat the drop.

Those were very murky footballing times, particularly at Ayresome Park, where Boro’s books never tallied, there were allegations of illegal payments, they were even accused of bribing opponents so that their chairman would win an election the day after the match, and in September 1907 Common – who played three times for England – was stripped of the captaincy and fined £10 for “drunkenness and violent behaviour".

He eventually left the club in 1910 – he was given a free transfer to Woolwich Arsenal so long as he forgot about the £250 benefit money that Boro owed him.

Common’s career came to an end at Preston North End in 1919, and he retired to Cockerton in Darlington, where he ran a pub – the Alma, later renamed the Brown Trout and now a fancy florist’s – until he died in 1946.

But, of course, everyone knows the story of the first £1,000 footballer.

What of the second? He was Robert Frewen Turner – known to his teammates as “Bob” – who also has a Darlington connection. In fact, he featured in last week’s Sport Archives where his grand-daughter, Lorna Moss, spotted him on the Quakers’ team photo from the 1912-13 season.

Bob was born in Leicester in 1885, where his parents worked in the shoe trade and, aged 15, he was employed as a “shoe clicker”. He made his first team debut for his hometown club in 1907-08, and starred the following season in the First Division, despite Leicester being relegated.

In fact, they were already down when, on April 21, 1909, they were hammered 12-0 by their Midlands’ rivals, Nottingham Forest. Their performance was so abject that the Football Association ordered an inquiry, which concluded that many of the Leicester players had still been hungover having celebrated Bob’s wedding the previous day.

Such behaviour didn’t deter Everton who, as the season ended, made Bob – nicknamed “Leggy Turner” – the second £1,000 footballer.

However, he never fulfilled his potential at Goodison Park – in three seasons, he played 34 times and scored one goal. In the 1911-12 season, he turned out for First Division Preston North End eight times, but the start of the 1912-13 season found him plying his trade with Darlington in the North-Eastern League.

But Darlo were good. As last week’s Sport Archives noted, they won all four of their matches in February 1913, scoring 15 goals and conceding only three, and they won the title by five clear points. The Quakers that season were free-scoring, with Healey, Harker and Hopper finding the net at will. Bob only managed two, but his clever wing play created the chances for his team-mates.

Darlington were not so good the next season, but they did have an interesting match in the FA Cup fifth qualifying round against Port Vale. Bob netted in the first match at Vale, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

The replay, on December 17, 1913, was at Feethams in front of 10,000 spectators. It went to extra time but, with Vale leading 2-1 and six minutes still to play, it suddenly became so dark that the referee couldn’t see the ball. So he abandoned play.

In the replayed replay at Sheffield United’s ground, the Quakers lost 1-0.

Then the First World War intervened, and Bob never played football professionally again. But he was also a top class cricketer – he had represented Leicestershire in the county championship, and he turned out for Darlington CC when not playing on the other side of the Tin Shed.

In 1913 in Darlington, a new cricket club had been formed: the Railway Athletic (RA), but because of the war, it didn’t play any competitive matches until 1919 when it hired Bob as its first professional. In its first match, on April 26, 1919, amid a swirling snowstorm, he struck exactly 100 against Bishop Auckland.

He is one of the RA’s greats: he scored four centuries and returned best bowling figures of 9-38 against Thornaby. Aged 47 in 1932, he captained the club to the North Yorkshire South Durham championship without losing a match.

Once he’d retired from professional sport, he worked as a driller at the North Road railway workshops, and he died in 1959, leaving two daughters and a son. One of his daughters, Madge, is Lorna’s mother, while the other, Bette, married into the famous Zissler family of butchers.