The Northern League, the world's second oldest and among its most respected, has produced a remarkable value 530-page history with which to mark the millennium.

Richly anecdotal, overflowing with information, full of often rare photographs, the book is an update and complete revision of Northern Goalfields, the League's centenary history - published in 1989 and now a collector's item.

Like the original, Northern Goalfields Revisited has been meticulously researched and compiled by Brian Hunt - Durham County Cricket Club's scorer and statistician for the past 25 years - and edited by Mike Amos, Northern Echo columnist and Albany Northern League chairman.

Even the cover - showing a sole spectator at Shildon's Dean Street ground in 1959 - is evocative of times past, and of winters when it actually snowed. In other ways, however, the book which Brian Hunt took eight years to compile helps prove that there really is nothing new under the sun.

Right from the League's first day - September 7 1889 - for example, the match between between Newcastle East End and Darlington was delayed for 45 minutes because the visitors' train was late.

As early as 1893 there was a mass pitch invasion and an FA enquiry after all 22 players had exchanged blows in a Northern League match at Darlington; in 1929-30 no fewer than 341 players were suspended by Durham FA because of alleged financial irregularities; in 1993 armed police swooped on a Northern League second division match at Norton, Stockton.

On that occasion, however, a well meaning vigilante had mistaken a hot dog for a sawn-off shotgun.

The region's severe weather has always played its part, too. Four Chilton RA players left the field, unable any longer to stand the cold, in 1929, though it was only when a fifth collapsed unconscious that the referee thought it advisable to check the thermometer.

Four Stanley United players were similarly frozen out during an Amateur Cup tie in 1948, though the Great Flood of West Auckland is a different story entirely.

The Northern League began with ten clubs, though Darlington St Augustine's - the first champions - were considered "too small fry" and weren't even invited to the inaugural meeting. Other members have included Newcastle United, Sheffield United, Middlesbrough, Darlington, York City and Scarborough, though the most successful of all was Bishop Auckland.

Thanks chiefly to the Bishops, Northern League clubs won the FA Amateur Cup in 24 of the 71 seasons in which it was contested and frequently saw off Football League teams in the FA Cup - Blyth Spartans' memorable march to a fifth round replay in 1978-79 the most celebrated.

Former Northern League players have included North-East legends like Raich Carter and George Camsell, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough, Gary Pallister, Chris Waddle and former Grandstand presenter Frank Bough. Hunt even discovers an Esh Winning player who taught Maurice Chevalier to speak English in a prisoner of war camp.

Lawrie McMenemy began his management career with the Bishops, Alan Durban and Malcolm Allison both managed Willington.

Thousands of other players are no less affectionately recalled in Brian Hunt's masterwork. A chapter is devoted to every season, a potted history to every club in the League's 111 years. Mike Amos - hoping soon to be back Backtracking after unexpected medical problems - has also written several feature length articles for the book.

It forms both a sporting and a social history of the North-East of England, a fascinating chronicle of changing times but constant values, a superb tribute to the men who made the Northern League.

l Northern Goalfields Revisited, compiled by Brian Hunt and edited by Mike Amos, costs £8.99 and is sponsored by East Durham and Houghall Community College.

Saddle stitched to last a lifetime, it is available from Northern Echo offices in Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Durham, for sale from Durham County library branches or by post (plus £3 p&p) from Joe Burlison, 4 Carrowmore Road, Chester-le-Street, Co Durham.