From The Editor's Chair
Peter Barron was born in Saltburn, and raised in Middlesbrough. He joined The Northern Echo as a reporter in 1984, rising to become the paper's editor in January 1999.
England – just going to the wall
I DON'T profess to be a football expert. My experience
is confined to playing in midfield for St
Peter's school team in South Bank in the 1970s
and as the much-maligned goalkeeper for The
Northern Echo's Sunday morning team for much
of the 1990s.
But something struck me in the wake of the
Chelsea versus Manchester United title showdown
and the post-match shenanigans, which led to an
FA inquiry last week, along with an assortment of
lurid headlines.
Rio Ferdinand, who has been earmarked as one
of England's best players by national coach Fabio
Capello, had to send a Chelsea stewardess a bunch
of flowers because he'd accidentally kicked her
shin in frustration after the match. He'd actually
meant to kick a wall.
Now I accept that I may be naïve in the finer
points of the game, but if one of our best players
can't even kick a wall without missing, is it any
wonder England aren't the force they used to be?
GADFLY, alias Mike Amos, has beaten me to it
over our recent headline which referred to "throws
of passion" instead of "throes of passion".
But it is my duty to thank Peter Elliott, who
emailed me about the error.
The story, bizarrely, was about a 17-year-old girl
appearing in court because her electronic tag was
broken during a "romp" with her boyfriend.
A great word "romp". These days, it only appears
in newspapers and Carry On films.
Anyway, the boyfriend is said to have pulled her
trousers off and the tag came with them, which
must have been quite a shock for the poor lad.
Still, it could have been worse. I can't stop thinking
about that unfortunate German farmer who
discovered on his wedding night that his internet
bride was a fella called Ralf.
Apparently, the farmer was so stunned, he
chucked Ralf out of bed. Now that's a throw of
passion.
QUOTE of the week comes from Judge Guy
Whitburn, who was sitting at Teesside Crown
Court last week when a greedy salesman called
Benn Grainger appeared before him charged with
stealing £35,000 from his Darlington-based
company.
The defending solicitor, Rod Hunt, said of his
client: "He expects to be sent to prison."
To which the judge replied: "Well, I'm not going
to disappoint him."
ENJOYABLE engagements last week included
talking to Sinderby Over 60s Club, near Thirsk -
where all the talk was about the forthcoming closure
of Denise and Peter Burgess's village shop -
and presenting the sports prizes at Queen Elizabeth
Sixth Form College in Darlington.
In between, I attended a lunch to honour Alsadair
MacConachie OBE, who was recently
awarded an honorary doctorate by the University
of Teesside.
Alasdair is many things, including: chairman of
Darlington Partnership, chairman of St Teresa's
Hospice in Darlington, chair of governors at Darlington
College and Durham School, and Vice-
Lord Lieutenant of County Durham. Somehow,
he also manages to run Sherwoods motor dealers.
I have come to know him as a man who never
stops thinking of others and it is right that people
like him, who do so much to improve their communities,
are properly recognised.
TALKING of motor dealers, I've come across a
fading memo from a former managing director
in the 1980s.
It refers, crossly, to an advertisement in the motors
section which was supposed to read: "Our best
value for money model, with mock mahogany interior,
and available in aquamarine, sunrise red or
plain white."
Except the w' in white' was replace with an s'.
10:12am Monday 5th May 2008
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
