WHEN it comes to talking about the big hitters of a cricket ball in South West Durham the conversation generally comes round to Gordon Franklin at Etherley, who like his father before him, could send the ball over the boundary with monotonous regularity.

Gordon's father, William S.Franklin was known as 'Billy the Hitter' and it is said that he earned his nickname for his ability to smite the ball out of the ground and into the front car park of the Dog and Gun pub 50-60 yards down the road, where after one bounce it would land amongst the drinkers at the bar. On July 29 1929 in a Mid Durham League fixture against Esh Winning Gordon's father, batting at number 4, smashed 105 runs in 24 minutes while his partner at the other end scored 1. William S Franklin's innings included twelve 6's, six 4's, two 2's and only five singles! A century in twenty five shots.

Gordon himself got near to that record when he hit his first century for the Etherley 1st team against Evenwood in 1951. Opening the batting with Fred Thompson the pair put on 67 for the 1st wicket with Fred contributing 20. Gordon and T.Harrison put on 95 for the 2nd wicket with Harrison contributing only 5. When Gordon was the fifth man out at 171 he had scored 138 runs which included nine 6's, seventeen 4's, two 2's and twelve singles, a total of only 40 scoring shots. In the next 7 days Gordon scored a further 225 runs, 75 not out against Shildon LNER, 83 for Harry Pratt's X1 against Bobby Davison's X1 and 67 not out against New Brancepeth at an average of 121.

Gordon played his first game for Etherley in 1923 and he played his last in 1978. In between he scored another century for Etherley in 1938 but it was for a composite Etherley team against Rockcliffe Park in the Final of the Christie Cup. In that particular game Gordon scored his first 50 in two consecutive overs 066664lb44446.

In 1935-37 when Etherley completed a hat-trick of Northern Echo Cup victories Gordon hit 72 in the 1935 Final, took 7 wickets in one game in the 1936 campaign, and in the 1937 Final against Shildon LNER bowled unchanged for 25 overs to take 4-51.

In 1938 Gordon became the first Etherley player to take 100 wickets in a season, a feat not emulated by a 1st team player again until 1968. In that year Gordon also hit 84 runs and took 6-44 against Shildon, hit 77 runs and took 4-42 against Wheatley Hill as well as his century against Rockcliffe Park. In the final game of that year Etherley played Horden CW who were expected to win the Mid Durham Senior League at their first attempt. Gordon not only top scored with 24 runs out of an Etherley total of 86, but took 5-12 as Horden crumbled to 19 all out.

In 1947 batting at number 8 with Donny White the pair put on 83 runs in 20 minutes with Donny hitting 7. Still going strong in the 1950's he took his third hat-trick against Wolsingham in 1953 and in 1956 scored 72 not out to help Etherley recover from 62-7 to 162 all out. In 1961 he hit 39 not out to help Etherley 2nd's win the Ferryhill Midweek Cup and in 1962 shared a club record stand of 98 for the 8th wicket with Terry Tunnicliffe, Gordon hitting 92 with six 6's and eleven 4's.

Harry Allen, another Etherley legend featured in this column only a few weeks ago said, "Quite honestly I never knew a man who put so much time and effort into Etherley Cricket Club. When Gordon went on holiday the One Armed Bandit takings went down by £25 - £30, that was his way of putting money into the club. He would also slip £5 into someones hands if they did a bit of cleaning etc., he never asked for the money back. With regard to his batting Gordon was not a great puller of the ball, the majority of his runs were hit straight down the ground, but he was a big man in his younger days and strong with it, that's how he got the power for his big shots."

In July 1990 Ian Botham, one of England's greatest all-rounders, visited Etherley Cricket Club to watch his son Liam play for the Yorkshire schools Under 13 team against Durham and he was introduced to Gordon. At the end of the day an Etherley member asked Gordon what it was like to meet the greatest. Gordon paused and replied modestly, "He never said."