Geoff Wedge, for whom the clock ticks on double time, sounded remarkably chipper, nonetheless.

"Tell George Reynolds it's an incredibly generous gesture and I want to be alive to take him up on it," he said.

We told Geoff's story in Tuesday's column.

He is 56, a Darlington fan since Reid Street schooldays, still remembers the 11 black and white heroes of his childhood.

Clish, Devlin, Henderson; Furphy, Greener, Rutherford; Clark, Bell, Morton, Davis - "big fat Dickie Davis," he recalls - and Tommy Reynolds, the former Sunderland left winger.

Geoff has cancer of the lung and liver. Last August he was given 12-18 months, nurses the ambition before he dies to hire a box for himself and his mates at the Quakers' 25,000 capacity new stadium.

"I don't feel too bad at the moment but I'm looking thinner and thinner," he says. "The doctors aren't often wrong."

There are, admittedly, two further problems. One is that the stadium has fallen behind schedule, the other that the pension companies with whom he invested are refusing to pay up until he's 65. Geoff has no dependants.

The second difficulty, if not the first, is being raised in Parliament.

"It can't do me any good because there's not enough time, but if it stops insurance companies swallowing people's money then it will have been worthwhile."

George Reynolds, approached by the Backtrack column, at once offered to lay on the VIP facilities free.

Geoff, who now lives in Manchester, is undergoing immunotherapy in Germany - "if it gets me a few more months it's a result" - but admits that when he's not supping Joseph Holt's celebrated bitter for £1.24 a pint in the pub round the corner, he's drinking in the last chance saloon.

In the time which remains, he urges the chairman to get the whip out.

"Like a lot of people I don't know exactly what's going on," he says, "but tell George he's got to be up and running before I pop my clogs."

Richard Daniel Davis, otherwise the big fat Dickie Davis of Geoff Wedge's affectionate memory, retains a place in the record books at Sunderland, too.

Born in 1922, the English schools international went to Roker Park as a 17-year-old from Birmingham Works League side Morris Jacobs FC but had to wait until after the war for his first team debut.

All the Lads, the invaluable collection of potted Sunderland biographies, records that he was 5ft 8ins and 11 stones 2lbs, exactly the same as George Herd, who might never have been called a fatty. Bobby Kerr, by comparison, was 5ft 5ins and 9 stones 3lbs.

Before moving for what was described as a "three-figure" fee to Darlington - 32 goals in 93 Football League games - he had weighed in with 79 in 154 appearances for Sunderland.

His 25 first division goals in 1949-50, when Sunderland finished third behind Portsmouth and Wolves, made him the division's top scorer - the last time, alas, that a Sunderland player has achieved the distinction in top flight football.

Kenneth Wolstenholme enjoyed his shoots at Tyne-Tees Television - "like Bobby Moore leading out Hartlepool United" recalled Roger Tames in Wednesday's paper - though the station's equipment "left a lot to be desired."

There wasn't even a slow motion machine, Wolstenholme wrote in his 1999 autobiography.

The giddiest heights were achieved trying to reach the vertiginous television gantry on top of the Clock Stand at Sunderland - "it absolutely terrified me" - the most convivial occasions were at Darlington.

After the match there'd be a couple in the board room, followed by a "quick dash" for another couple in the cricket club and then another dash, a quarter of a mile by taxi, for the train back to London.

John Arlott, for some reason, was often in the dining car, too. "It would mean a generous amount of claret before arriving at Kings Cross."

Wolstenholme's most memorable autobiographical commentary may have been on Jack Chalrton's decision to quit international football after the 1970 World Cup defeat in Mexico.

Seeing an empty seat next to Sir Alf Ramsey on the homeward plane, Jack finally stuck his neck out.

"Alf, I've enjoyed playing for England but I'm well into my thirties and I think it would be wise if I called it a day."

Sir Alf slowly laid down his newspaper. "I totally agree, Jack," he said, and picked up his paper again.

The last time the column backed a horse, you could still bet a tanner each way. On Wednesday we laid £5 to win on Michael's Girl, 2 20pm at Catterick.

If the reason were fairly obvious, the logic was impenetrable. The form guide indicated only noughts for the comfort.

"Showed nothing in handicaps, remains best watched," said The Racing Post by way of flesh on lazy bones.

It was to the credit of the lady in John Joyce's that she retained a fairly straight face, indicated the correct end of the pencil and swiftly grabbed fool's gold.

Michael's Girl was never so much as mentioned; the few other punters watched in silence. We departed with soi-distant dignity, mugged once every 30 years.

Tomorrow's FA Carlsberg Vase semi-final between Durham City and Whitley Bay will, as we'd hoped, host something of a reunion for the City side of the late 50s.

Among those present will be Raymond Ayre, whose football career took him around half the clubs in the Northern League - including both Durham and Whitley Bay - but who spent more than a quarter of a century playing cricket for Ushaw Moor.

"There used to be hell on at Ushaw Moor, I'd never finish a season," he recalls.

He'd joined Durham as a 17-year-old, was Shildon's combative right half when they reached the Amateur Cup quarter-final ("the nicest club I was ever with"), also appeared for Ferryhill Athletic, Evenwood and Crook Town and was in the Durham County side when the late and much lamented Lol Brown scored nine against the East Riding.

"Lol was being marked by a little feller about 5ft 8ins," he recalls. "He couldn't have reached him if Lol had stood still."

These days Raymond plays golf, reached the last four of The Northern Echo's Irish tournament a couple of years back. "After that," he says, "all that's left is bowls."

Ushaw Moor's 21st century sporting heroes are the world class gymnasts springing forever forward from Deerness Valley comprehensive.

Under Karl Wharton's guidance, the centre of excellence turns out abundant champions - 11-year-olds Josh Robinson and Michael Burrows the latest in a lissom line.

At the weekend they won gold in the British Sports Acrobatic and Tumbling championships at Stoke - barely a year after John, from Bishop Auckland, had seriously taken to the sport.

"You have to include a broken collar bone in that as well," says Lynn, his mum. "John was in the local club and Karl came to look at him. They've been absolutely brilliant."

There are plenty more on the springboard: onward and upward, as probably they say at Deerness Valley comprehensive.

In time for the new season, Belmont Cricket Club's irreverent annual account has arrived, a match by match chronicle of epic encounters against Simonside, Hunwick and Washington II.

They played at Burnhope, too. "The teas are excellent at Burnhope and the picnic tables give it the air of deepest Provence, even if the temperature isn't quite the same.

"The big dogs and tattooed and ear ringed locals aren't exactly Juan les Pins, either."

The tome appears to be the work of demon bowler Pete Welsh, whose figure included 8-18 in 16 overs against Kelloe.

"Anyone who's looking for a club and is inspired by the wit, sagacity and depth of knowledge should give us a ring," he says.

"If they think it's puerile nonsense, they shouldn't be pu t off, either."

The Echo's cycling column on Wednesday mentioned the successful scienceinsport.com team, Bishop Auckland based. Appliance of science, we visited the website, discovered that the company makes nutrition drinks.

One product, for example, offers "sustained release protein", "anti-catabolic nocte formula" and a "protein kinetic system."

In case all that scientific say-so is a bit hard to swallow, it's "Devon toffee flavour", an' all.

AND FINALLY...

The six post-war Football League managers who have competed in more 1,000 games as team boss (Backtrack, March 26) are Alec Stock, Brian Clough, Jim Smith, Graham Taylor, Dario Gradi and Dave Bassett.

Since Dickie Davis was the last Sunderland player to be the top division's leading scorer, readers may today like to consider the last two Newcastle United men to achieve the feat.

The score, again, on Tuesday.

Published: 29/03/2002