TOM Stafford, the wicket keeper with the WD40 knees, has to his great delight been named the NYSD League’s third division wickey of the year. The old stumper is 71.

“It was a real surprise, the only disappointment that the chap who presented the award was younger than I am,” says the retired newsagent and ardent Arsenal man, 50-odd years with Yarm.

The trophy, he insists, bears little resemblance to himself – not what you’d call a pot model.

Yarm’s outfield is being flattened and resurfaced during the winter. Once more contemplating a level playing field, Tom insists he’ll be crouching again come April – and, double whammy, he made the Emirates for the North London triumph on Saturday.

THE crowd rather smaller but the pies probably better, the column took itself to Dunston UTS v Penrith – where Penrith striker Martyn Coleman is in his sixth spell with the club, most recently having returned from Shildon. In the Northern League or anywhere else, is this a record?

FORMER Bishop Auckland FC captain Tommy Farrer, who died last week, was remembered not just for his three FA Amateur Cup final appearances and 20 England caps but for a match between Bishops and a largely barefoot Nigerian X1 in 1949.

The photograph of the opposing skippers at Kingsway is still familiar. Perhaps less well known is that the referee standing between them was a chap called Paddy Power, a PE teacher at St Peter’s School in York where, earlier, Guy Fawkes had gone through the hoops.

Power, a Football League official, had once reffed a Sunderland match in which – like others – he found Len Shackleton a bit of a handful. Finally he demanded his name.

“You know my name,” said Shack.

Paddy persisted; eventually the Clown Prince gave in.

“Never heard of you,” said Paddy, and added another name to his book.

The Northern Echo:

FOR Mary Reveley, above, the greatly successful racehorse trainer who died on October 30, the notion of a drink was nothing stronger than a cup of tea in front of Coronation Street, her favourite television.

“Mary was too puritanical to sample alcohol,” said an obituary in The Times last week.

Her gallops on the cliffs near Saltburn were reckoned Britain’s coldest. One morning, it’s recalled, a young apprentice returned perished from riding out and asked if he might have a whisky instead of the usual coffee.

Mary knew nothing of the customary short measures favoured by spirit drinkers, raided the unopened stash given her by grateful owners and simply filled the glass to the brim.

The story’s told by former jockey Peter Niven. “The lad was drunk for the rest of the day,” he says.

Separately, we learn of the deaths of Matty Hogg and of Colin Valks, both greatly familiar on the North-East cricket scene. Matt, 76, was also a pro footballer with Newcastle United and Darlington, but failed to make the first team with either.

Both played for Norton and for Shildon. Matty also for Burnopfield, Thorp Perrow, Synthonia and the dear old Doghouse and Colin for Normanby Hall and Thornaby.

At Shildon, Colin opened the bowling with the column’s old friend Brent “Bomber” Smith, still bagging wickets for Stafford Place though accepting that his “searing” pace may have become a little more lukewarm.

Matt was a spin bowling batsman – “famous for his sharp sense of humour and self-confidence, the fiercest competitor I ever played but an absolutely first class guy,” says David Lewis, his captain at Norton.

David also recalls that, in the days when NYSD clubs employed formidable overseas professionals, he’d throw the ball to Matt in the pretty sure hope that he’d get them out – “and then firmly point them in the direction of the pavilion.”

PERHAPS hoping for an associated change in fortune, Billingham Synthonia – just one win all season and at the bottom of the Ebac Northern League first division – have new home and away strips. The club website describes the new look as “sublimated bespoke.” Whether this is from the sublimated to the ridiculous remains, of course, to be seen.

….AND finally, the improbable handicap endured by Alf Bond, who refereed the 1954 Amateur Cup final between Bishop Auckland and Crook (Backtrack, November 16) was that he only had one arm – the other lost in a rubber factory accident when he was just 19.

“Known to us Bishop lads as the one-armed bandit,” recalls Arnold Alton, a reference to Crook’s contentious winner in the second replay at Ayresome Park. Bond also had charge of the 1956 FA Cup final, just eight years after his first Football League match. He died in 1986.

The Stokesley Stockbroker today invites readers to suggest what was so special – even more special than Ruud van Nistelrooy’s hat-trick, or that it sent United top for the first time in almost a year – about Manchester United’s 3-0 over Fulham on March 22 2003.

  • Special rates, the column returns next week.