A bit of unexpected football business for the St George Hotel at Teesside Airport over the next couple of weeks - and an enlightening example of how lucky we still are to live in Blighty.

First to check in will be members of North Korea's 1966 World Cup squad, as part of their much- publicised return.

"The hotel opened three weeks early for them in 1966," says co-organiser Peter Hodgson. "They still call Middlesbrough home."

A fortnight later, the RAF football team touches down, staying at the hotel before a Remembrance Day (November 10) match at Billingham Synthonia to mark the golden jubilee of the inauguration of Synners' lights.

The Albany Northern League club reckons to have been the first non-league outfit in the country with lights, though the Echo's reporter the following morning claimed still to have been pretty much in the dark.

Billingham's opponents on November 10 1952 were also an RAF team, billeted at what was then RAF Middleton St George.

Golden jubilee organisers have tracked down eight of Synners' 1952 XI. Average male life expectancy in North Korea is only 51, however. Thirty six years later - "considered really old men," says Peter Hodgson - only seven of their gallant 22 survive.

Billingham Synthonia's programme from that rain-soaked night 50 years ago was adamant that they were the first club in the North to play under floodlights. Though conditions were murky, the rest of the local press saw their way clear to some luminous prose.

"Synners' sparkle matches the floodlights," said one headline - information thanks to Synners' present programme editor, the energetic David Lealman - whilst another reporter claimed that the Northern League side "outshone even the brilliance of the lights."

That good, eh? "From a spectator's viewpoint there could have been some improvement," conceded the Billingham Post, whilst the Gazette admitted that it was "far from perfect" and the Slazenger All White ball - "used in the 1951-52 FA Cup and Amateur Cup finals" - proved less than all white on the night.

The RAF team was drawn from stations at Middleton St George, Thornaby and Seaton Snook - near Hartlepool, memory suggests - and included Bob Kerr of Third Lanark and Darlington and several other National Servicemen with Football League experience.

Pilot Officer Bill McQuarrie, an amateur at Queens Park, so greatly impressed Billingham that they signed him on, got him a job at ICI and loved him for a free-scoring decade. He'll touch base again for the Remembrance.

With a caveat that tickets would quickly sell, Friday's column reported Sir Bobby Robson's return to Tow Law for a sportsmen's evening on November 1. Readers heeded the warning.

"The first call arrived at 7.17am, from Oakenshaw or somewhere, after that it was just unbelievable," reports event organiser Charlie Donaghy who, unlike his dutiful daughter, was abed at the time.

By quarter to ten he'd sold out; by the end of the day he'd fielded 103 calls. "I could have sold £13 tickets for £50 each," says Charlie. "All I need now is a couple of JCBs and a gang of men so we can treble the size of Tow Law community centre."

The good knight's supported by pie and peas and a comedian. The unlucky ones will just have to read about it in the column.

Were further proof needed that the Backtrack column is the place to be seen, it came at Richmond Cricket Club's presentation dinner on Saturday.

The Layfield family again proved much among the honours, Andy Day won the award for "least technically correct batsman" - in less conservative clubs it's known as "Most sixes" - and the table talk was of the new professional.

On September 6 we carried a note from Neil Edwards, secretary of Acomb CC in York, seeking more gainful employment for their successful Sri Lankan all-rounder Shanuka Dissanayake - he who succeeded Prince Bradman Ediriweera.

Richmond saw it, spoke to him and were impressed. "We needed a pro who could both bat and bowl," says Mark Layfield, whose side finished second bottom last season.

Situation no longer wanted, Shanuka will be in the NYSD next season.

Earlier that day we'd been to Dunston Fed v Marine, FA Cup third qualifying. Haring onto the sodden pitch, the visitors' trainer slipped, fell in a heap, hurt himself and was a passenger - as they used to say - thereafter.

Several minutes later, however, the match was again stopped and the trainer appeared once again - he'd lost a contact lens.

More remarkable is the achievement of Marine manager Roly Howard, occasionally seen to pop his head from beneath the dug-out like a cautious tortoise from its shell.

Roly's been manager of the Merseyside club for 31 years, even longer than Vince Kirkup at Stanley United. A record, surely?

On Sunday to the World Conker Championships at The Royal in Trimdon Colliery and at once into a dilemma. Though Harry Pearson's column in The Guardian sports section devoted a virtual page to conkers, there are those who would suggest that it's not, strictly, a sport.

The big match report has therefore been transferred to Thursday's John North column.

Among Trimdon lads present at the global event were 36-year-old Andrew Strong, who made his Middlesbrough football debut as a 17-year-old but played just six games, and John Tinkler, a couple of years younger, who appeared often in Hartlepool stripes. Neither proved conkering heroes.

There, too, was our indomitable old friend Owen Willoughby, the man who sent many south-east Durham lads into professional football and at 84 still scouts for Spurs.

Owen laments that many failed to make the most of their opportunity. A little too much Trimdon culture may be to blame.

Fraternal as ever, we promised details on Friday of brothers who've scored centuries in the same match. Cricket historian Jack Chapman in Hebburn offers four.

A B and H S Crosby for Norton v Barnard Castle in 1894, C C and W C Wood put on 240 for Burnopfield's first wicket against Burnhope in 1911, Jonathan and Chris Barnes for Darlington RA against Thornaby in 1990 and Shaun and Tony Birbeck for Eppleton v Durham Academy in 1999.

The Thomas brothers from Grenada may have a still more remarkable claim, Jack suggests: Dennison, pro at South Moor, hit 134 on April 27 1991 whilst on the same day his brother Wesley, Blaydon's pro, smashed an undefeated 215 just hours after attending a church service as part of Blaydon's centenary.

And finally...

The ironic thing about Skol's sponsorship of the Scottish League Cup in 1984 (Backtrack, October 11) was that alcohol was barred from Scottish grounds at the time.

Brian Shaw in Shildon recalls that in 1991 FIFA imposed a clearly understood requirement on all international referees.

What was it? The answer on Friday.

Published: 15/10/2002