The not so easily dismissed case of Childs' red card

Not so easily dismissed, we return almost two years later to the story.

Arthur, born in York but settled in Darlington, was playing for second division strugglers Hull City against the mighty Arsenal.

The first match had been drawn; before the replay a curious thing happened.

City manager Billy McCracken, the Irishman said to have devised the offside trap while at Newcastle United, told his players that one of them was going to be sent off.

Arthur Childs proved the victim, allegedly for kicking Alex James though most observers thought he was yards away at the time. Arsenal - lucky Arsenal? - beat the ten men by the only goal and in Hull there was hell on.

"Getting sent off cost Arthur his chance of an international cap," insists his brother Les. "Maurice Webster of Middlesbrough got his place and never made another England appearance.

"There was a lot of talk about it being fixed. So far as I know, the referee never reffed another match."

Arthur Childs, the eldest of five sporting brothers - headlines about "Childs play" may many times have been written - played subsequently for Exeter City and Darlington, was landlord of several Darlington pubs, became steward of Whitley Bay Golf Club and died on a golf trip with Frank Brennan when just 58.

Fred, Harold and Charlie - who played football for Luton Town and cricket for Darlington RA and Darlington - all died at 65. Les, despite suffering double pneumonia as a two-year-old, knocks up an undefeated 90 next month.

"My mother would sit up all night with me, applying bread poultices. That's what pulled me through," he says.

Les, 43 years working at the Whessoe, also played for the RA before moving to Feethams. "A stock bowler" he insists, though the stock answer exhibits undue modesty.

In the first team he claimed 265 wickets at 13.05, with the seconds he had 352 at 9.34.

Bob Hattersley's stupendous club history records that he scored ten successive ducks - "I played war, he never mentioned the five catches in one match" - but also the solitary century, for the seconds at Saltburn.

"Geoff Gillow was the captain," he recalls. "He kept us out there until I made it. I was never the best of batsmen."

His finest hour, however, came when Darlington had been skittled for 60-odd and the captain - the Rev George Holderness, Vicar of St Cuthbert's and later Bishop of Burnley - put himself on to bowl at one end and Les at the other. Thornaby were all out for 34.

The Vicar, said by Bob Hattersley to be the sort of cricketer who in his private dictionary would underline the word "aggressive", thereafter bought the beers.

"He was a great feller, always first in the bar" recalls Les. "Many a time he'd take off his collar and ask who was going to the pub."

None if it was paid, save for the time when taken literally from the dole queue - "this chap just said he wanted me" - to represent the South Durham Hunt in a two day cricket match at Guisborough.

There was Les and Salt Henderson, a wicketkeeper from Cockerton, and neither quite sure of right from wrong 'uns. "We got £5 each though, a lot of money in those days."

He himself still drives every day, is trying to stop playing bowls - "I told them only when they were short" - will be up all hours to watch the Cricket World Cup on Sky and lives in sheltered housing where the balcony overlooks Darlington RA's cricket ground, save for an inconsiderately placed garage roof.

In the Spring he'll be back out there with his binoculars, a bit impatient (he says) because he'd still love to be playing.

"I can't grumble, though, I've always had a fair crack of the whip. You could never say that about our Arthur."

Fred Richardson played in the Football League for Chelsea, West Bromwich Albion, Barnsley and in two spells for Hartlepools - 36 goals in 150 games.

"The only lad belonged Middlestone Moor ever to play professionally," he insists, though Mark Tinkler comes pretty close.

It's about his early days at Bishop Auckland that Fred rings, however. Still just 20, he was in the Bishops' side which lost the 1946 Amateur Cup final 3-2 to Barnet, despite Harry Teasdale's two goals.

Long in Coxhoe, he'd love a team or action photograph from that match. There's nothing in the library here but we'll gladly copy other pictures. Can anyone help?

Philadelphia, as everyone knows, is a former pit village up the bank from Houghton-le-Spring, chiefly comprising Shop Row, Chapel Row, Electric Crescent and Voltage Terrace.

The first two may be self-evident, the others acknowledge a sub-station nearby. Etymology unknown, Raglan Row may also qualify.

The village takes its name from the American city of brotherly love, said also to have more lawyers per head than anywhere else on earth. The English version is infinitely smaller, has lawyers only unto itself - though David Tindale converted his coalhouse into a lovely little police museum - and boasts a much better cricket team.

Durham Senior League champions six times in seven years in the 1970s, they now hold a determined end in the North East Premier League.

It was the third team dinner, however, a middle-aged spread of cricket's undiminished enthusiasts, to which we were invited in the clubhouse on Saturday night.

The ground's called Bunker Hill, named after an American War of Independence battle in the wiping up after the Boston Tea Party. We won. The Post Office, hors de combat, directs cricket club mail to "Back Shop Row" instead.

Former Durham men like Brian Lander, Frank Greenshields and Henry McLaren joined ex-county colleague Tommy Clish, Philly's skipper in the sun blessed seventies and who also played football for Ferryhill.

Tommy had recently been sent the programme pen pictures from an Amateur Cup game against Hitchin. "A dainty player, sometimes shirks a tackle," it said.

"I'll get them for that," said Tommy.

They also talked about the umpire who called "Nee baal - and that's over" and about Mr David Greener's ever more bounteous beard.

Mr Greener, raconteur and local leagues professional, now bears an alarming resemblance to Charles Bronson.

There, too, was David Carr, whom we'd not seen since long lost school days in Bishop Auckland - known then as Noddy, because of an alleged batting style similarity to Geoffrey Pullar of Lancashire and England.

Dave was a prodigy at North Bitchburn, opened for Philly in the glory years, still plays for the thirds and still denies the nickname - possibly because Geoff Pullar was left handed, more likely because he thought it something to do with Enid Blyton.

The guest speaker was big Norman Graham, 13 years with Kent, three with Philadelphia and now living somewhere high up on the Northumberland/Durham border.

His two claims to fame, said Norman, were that he was the only bowler to dismiss Boycott for a pair (Bradford Park Avenue, 1969) and one of three men alive to drink Oliver Reed under the table.

The second achievement, he said, was very much the harder.

Hails of Hartlepool, once an unconquerable member No 1066 of Horden Comrades Club, wishes to add Jack Hather's name to the list of Horden's heroes in Friday's column.

Though born in Annfield Plain, Jack had his browtings up in Horden, died a couple of years ago in Peterlee but achieved immortality in 12 years on Aberdeen's left wing, where he became known as the Durham Heelander.

For much of the time he was the only Sassenach in Scottish soccer. "I couldn't understand them and they couldn' t understand me," he once said.

Ron Hails recalls that at the end of his career he turned out, ten bob a match, for Blackhall Colliery and was asked if it were worth it.

Jack, lovely man, was indignant. "Of course it is," he said, "I'm a professional."

...and finally

The only Ripon-born footballer to play for England (Backtrack, February 7) was West Brom's Derek Kevan, 68 next month.

"Ah yes, The Tank," writes Albion fan Steve Smith - from somewhere in the Cotswolds - though he had to look it up in his Big Book of Baggies.

Alan Archbold in Sunderland today seeks the identity of the six players who left Newcastle United and went on to win a European Cup winner's medal.

The column's on the move again on Friday.

Published: 11/02/2003