What a great week for North-East sport - Boro's Carling Cup parade (has the town ever witnessed such scenes?), Hartlepool into a Second Division play-off spot and Darlington an incredible 9 points away from relegation and almost half way up the table!

Its been a similar story for our Local Heroes - the stories of people taking part in sport simply for the sheer love and passion of it never fail to amaze me.

I must say congratulations to Sedgfield 75 under-17s Water Polo team who won the ASA National Perpetual Shield in Manchester. I gather they are the first North-East team to win the tournament and given they overcame teams from Birmingham and London, who have a much larger area of talent to choose from, extra credit should be given to the lads.

Equally admirable was the performance of the Durham and Cleveland County squash side who, despite nearly not entering a team, still came home with the men's over-35 Premier Division title. Well done to all involved and for flying the flag for the North East so successfully!

And its not only Boro who are playing in Europe - good luck to the Darlington Spraire football team who are off to Amiens in Northern France to take part in a youth tournament. Spaire are one of just two non-pro clubs taking part which is an achievement in itself - all the other sides are academy teams of professional sides across Europe.

Finally, I was sad to read Martin Walker's piece on Paul Stevens who sadly died recently. 'Stiv' was clearly a well-liked and dedicated guy to his team and sport. The loss is an indication of how our teammates become a big part of our lives, and when we turn up for our sports be they tennis, rugby, squash, football, swimming, its the people we play with and the relationships we forge through playing with them, week in, week out that make the experience so enjoyable.

Good luck to you in your sports this week, and if you're around on Saturday afternoon don't forget to tune in to TFM's new Saturday afternoon football coverage.

I'll be live from Boro's game at Charlton with former Boro hero Terry Cochrane, and we'll be hearing from Pool's big game at home to QPR and Quakers' match with Cambridge. All the action starts at noon.