Durham's best

More of Flamingo Land in a moment, but after his roller-coaster ride as manager of Middlesbrough, Robbo must be hoping to get his career back on track by throwing Bradford City's helter-skelter into reverse.

The fear is that the club is not really in the doldrums at all but, like Wimbledon, simply in the throes of returning whence it came. We have seen others like Barnsley, Swansea, Northampton and poor old Carlisle, who once topped the old First Division, sink almost as swiftly as they rose because they didn't have the tradition or the support to sustain life at the top.

Under a previous chairman whose dreams of glory clouded whatever business sense he possessed, Geoffrey Richmond, City signed Benito Carbone in an effort to stay in the Premier League then found they still had to pay him £40,000 a week when they sank into Division One and went into administration.

They are now next to the bottom and the new chairman is, at 28, the youngest in the League. His name is Gordon Gibb and we can only assume he's the new Don Robinson because he also runs Flamingo Land.

I gather it's rather more of a theme park now than in the days when Robinson mixed flamingoes with football by being chairman first of Scarborough then Hull City. In 1992 he also launched a floodlit cricket competition at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium involving Yorkshire, Durham and two other counties. They played for the Flamingo Land Trophy but hardly anybody went to watch. There were just over 10,000 at Valley Parade to see City come from 2-0 down at half-time to snatch a 3-2 win at the death in Robson and Todd's first game in charge against Millwall.

Not the sort of crowd to sustain two high-profile managers, especially as Robbo is reported to have priced himself out of a couple of jobs, most recently as coach of Nigeria, during his three-year sabbatical.

Reports suggested Nigeria had agreed to his demands but couldn't find a way to finance them, whereas Gibb has found a benefactor who will ensure that the managers' salaries will not bankrupt the club again. So presumably the flamingoes can rest easy as well.

FROM two of the best footballers to come out of Durham to one of the best cricketers. Paul Collingwood is the tenth from the county to play in a Test for England, and I am delighted for him, having watched his progress since he was in the county under 15s

He was more of a bowler then, and was overshadowed by the likes of his current Durham teammate Neil Killeen and Dominic Williamson, who spent a few years on the Leicestershire staff.

Batting is now very much the main string to Collingwood's bow and it was unfortunate that he was up against the prodigious spinner with a bent arm as soon as he went in to bat yesterday.

Six of the Sri Lankan team played against Durham at Riverside two years ago when Collingwood made his best first-class score of 190, but Mutthiah Muralitharan was not among them.

Muralitharan seems certain to become the first bowler to take 600 Test wickets and some of us believe that not one of them should be considered legitimate. But his action has been cleared and he is at liberty to prey on what suddenly looks a frail England middle order without Hussain and Stewart.

That's not to take anything away from Collingwood, who is a glowing example of what can be achieved through hard work and dedication. No-one in those under 15 days would have tipped him to play Test cricket. In fact, his dad said: "I just wanted him to play for Shotley Bridge."

He's done rather better than that, and always remained the same amiable, polite Durham lad. As good a role model, you might say, as Jonny Wilkinson.

HOPES that our footballers might take some heed of how the England rugby team did not contest a highly dubious decision which could have cost them the World Cup were quickly dashed by Roy Keane.

There was no question that he committed a foul to concede the penalty which gave Chelsea their 1-0 win on Sunday, yet he was instantly haranguing the referee. It has always been beyond me why referees should tolerate such nonsense. Personally, I'd have sent him off immediately.

AS World Cup euphoria slowly subsides people keep asking what's the next big event we've got to look forward to? Well, quite apart from the Olympics next year, on July 4 you won't know where to turn.

Televised events that day include the Euro 2004 final, the Wimbledon men's singles final, the British Grand Prix and a one-day cricket international between England and New Zealand. Never can there have been such a case for consulting the neighbours about who's taping what.

Published: 05/12/2003