Hail and farewell?

9:23am Tuesday 25th March 2008

THE wind had woken us during the night, not least because the Lady of This House, having just spent £6,500 on double glazing, insists upon sleeping with the window open.

Franks for all the memories

9:50am Friday 21st March 2008

LIKE Arbroath smokies or Edinburgh rock, recent columns have had a Scottish flavour. Albert Franks - born in Boldon Colliery - continues it.

Why Eddie steered clear of the Nock

11:00am Tuesday 18th March 2008

FIRSTLY, a word of explanation: Scottish "junior" football is played between consenting adults in public, like English "nonleague"

Ex-keeper is happiest Sassenach in Scotland

11:05am Friday 14th March 2008

BARNSLEY, Portsmouth and (whisper it) Cardiff City aren't the only surprise semifinalists: Queen of the South are in the last four of the Scottish FA Cup for the first time since 1950 and they're dancing on the streets of Bishop Auckland.

Magpies are keeping their goals – and bait boxes – in Reserves

9:06am Tuesday 11th March 2008

THE first team apparently having forgotten how to do it, almost 1,000 turned out last Thursday night to see if Newcastle United Reserves could manage so much as a goal.

Scrum mothers do have ‘em

9:58am Friday 7th March 2008

ABIGAIL Mowbray (may her tribe increase) is leaning exhausted over the perimeter fence, blood seeping through her blonde hair, one or two pertinent observations about the state of play and the way of the world faintly audible through her distress.

Wembley beckons as Baywatch continues into Vase’s last four

8:53am Tuesday 4th March 2008

HUNGERFORD'S a town of 6,000 or so on the River Dun in Berkshire.

Masochism in Massachusetts

10:36am Friday 29th February 2008

IT'S an awfully long way to go, and a great deal of agony to get nowhere fast, but Jill Prescott returned from Boston, Massachusetts this week with a gold medal from the world indoor rowing championships to add to her British and European titles.

Cons survive the Sunday slumbers

8:56am Tuesday 26th February 2008

COUNDON Conservative Club played their FA Sunday Cup quarter-final at the weekend, scored after eight minutes and for the rest of the half it was exactly like Sundays used to be. Nothing much happened at all.

Oval memories by book or by Crook

11:30am Friday 22nd February 2008

ANOTHER 50-year anniversary, another golden goose. It's five decades today since Crook Town beat Corinthian Casuals at the Oval and if that's a case of what goes around comes around - as they may almost observe at the Oval - the bonus is that the elliptical route leads also to the Big Book of Football Champions.

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