Many will know that Crook Town twice travelled to Barcelona, 1913 and 1921, the games said to have been part of a drive to usurp bull fighting as Spain’s national sport.

Not everyone approved. King Alfonso is said to have been keen to attend all three matches but to have been advised against because of feared attempts on his life.

Now we learn that Crook weren’t the pioneers everyone supposes: football historian Harold Stephenson – Crook lad, Middlesbrough fan – discovers that West Auckland Wanderers played Barca three times between December 26-28 1912.

Who on earth were West Auckland Wanderers? The Northern Echo carried nothing of their nomadic ways, content to report that on December 28 1912 Sunderland beat Newcastle 2-0 (“conditions which must have been really breathtaking”), that Hartlepools United put six past Hebburn Argyle and that Darlington beat Carlisle United 0-2 – “a Feethams fiasco,” we said. Not a word on the Wanderers.

Undaunted, Harold’s been sent six cuttings by the Barca press office, and no matter that they’re in Spanish. Our boys won, drew and lost.

The team may well have been formed for that purpose, the catalyst former Peases West miner Jack Greenwell who later managed the Catalans. West’s team was J Alderson, Morgan. Hedley, Fairs, M Alderson, Drew, Robson, Robinson, Appleby, Bowerbank, Gielder.

Harold’s determined to discover more. How did they get there? How did they travel? How did they celebrate Christmas and New Year? The cuttings await a Spanish speaker: nothing will be lost in the translation.

Speaking of West Auckland, we hear that Tot Gubbins’s 1909 “World Cup” will be auctioned at Anderson and Garland in Newcastle on June 13, the guide price £4,000-£6,000. A dip into Martin Connolly’s 2014 book The Miners’ Triumph reveals that Gubbins was a railway shunter from Shildon who came back from Italy to a double celebration. He had a new baby. Martin got much of his information from the Italian press, translated at Durham University: as with the Wanderers three years later, the Echo left them to it.

Ambling innocently through Brompton, Northallerton, I’m assailed by Dave “Fingers” Morrison, a true legend in North-East club cricket. Now stood down after 50 gnarly years standing up, the old wicket keeper fears he’ll be seeing less of the golf course, too. “I just popped out for a pound of sausages and came back with a caravan,” he explains. Fingers is rueful. “I didn’t even get the sausages,” he adds.

Exactly 40 years since the latest of several incarnations, the lads of Gateshead FC plan a reunion on July 7.

Infamously relegated from the old fourth division after finishing third bottom in 1960 – Hartlepool and Oldham below them – the Tynesiders (with whom were subsumed South Shields) folded in 1973.

There followed Gateshead Town and, after one season, Gateshead United (with whom South Shields had similarly become incorporated.) When United in turn went belly up, a “new” Gateshead applied to take their NPL place and were successful by one vote.

“There were ructions on,” recalls Bill Gibson who led the campaign and was chairman for 17 years. “Tonest I didn’t blame them. When you try to explain all the things that have gone on in Gateshead football, people look at you as if you’re daft.”

The new club was managed by familiar North-East non-league due Ray Wilkie and Billy Bell. Bobby McLeod, who’d been Brian Clough’s first signing for Hartlepool, became skipper.

“It was the Queen’s silver jubilee year so we played in red, white and blue. The whole thing was lunacy, really,” says Bill.

The evening reunion is at Gateshead Bowls Club, off Prince Consort Road. Bill’s just glad to be able to organise it, having suffered serious leg injuries 18 months ago after being hit by a Mercedes – driven by a Gateshead player – in an accident at Saltwell crematorium.

“I’ve so many steel plates, I’d never get through an airport gate,” he supposes. He can be contacted on 0191-256-7533 or 07867 943148.

At Wolsingham parish church the other Sunday, the Rev Geoff Lawes mentioned in his sermon that the following day marked the feast of St Rita. It prompted Backtrack reader and Durham County Cricket Club member John Maughan to ask if she might intercede with the ECB about getting their 48 points back. Rita, it should be noted, is the patron saint of the impossible.

After global acclaim for Kynren the theatrical production, look out for Kynren the racehorse. “We’ve asked Jonathan Ruffer and he was quite happy about it,” says owner John Elliott, boss of Aycliffe-based fridge and washing machine manufacturer Ebac. The three-year-old is expected to make his maiden appearance very shortly.

John also owns Daniel’s Flyer, a recent 25-1 winner at Newmarket. He was there, interviewed by the telly, asked how he felt. “Not as good as Sedgefield,” he said.

….and finally, the three footballers with North-East clubs who’ve won the Premier League’s golden boot awards (Backtrack, June 1) are Andy Cole, Kevin Phillips and (of course) Alan Shearer.

We’d noted on the page opposite that Huddersfield Town were promoted with a negative goal difference. Gavin Ledwith in Durham today invites readers to name the only Football League side – financial irregularity aside – to be relegated with a positive one.

Accentuating the positive, the column returns next week.