Barnes stormer

Among them is our old friend Ian Barnes, back from a breakfast-time run in South Park – its organisation part-funded by the NHS – and joined by more than 200 others every weekend.

Ian is 79, in training for the British Vets’ championships in Glasgow in a couple of weeks, anticipating another milestone birthday in December.

The retired legal executive hopes that his times will qualify him for another England Over 75s vest before the years overtake him once again.

The next birthday means a new age group and fresh opportunities.

“It would be nice to set an English record or two,” he admits. “It’s just another date on the calendar. You don’t grind to a halt because you’re 80, do you?”

THAT night to Tudhoe Cricket Club, near Spennymoor, again to present the annual awards – though possibly as a last minute substitute for Mr George Courtney and Mr Jeff Brown. Both senior teams did well in the new Durham Cricket League, the firsts also winning the Tom Burn Cup.

Five players scored maiden centuries, an achievement once rewarded with a new bat but in more straitened times acknowledged with a little trophy.

Shaun Findlay, for four seasons an outstanding pro, has left to seek his fortune down South. Mighty smiter Simon Davies remains, still averaging over 60.

The most enthusiastically received award, however, may have been that given to Joe Hardaker, who in a 15/15 match with Mainsforth became the first player in Tudhoe’s long history to be timed out.

Poor Joe, it’s reckoned, was so greatly caught short by a quick collapse that he came to the wicket in the manner of Diddle Diddle Dumpling My Son John. “I was a bit surprised when they appealed,” he said.

Tudhoe gave him a clock.

• Tudhoe Cricket Club stages a sportsman’s dinner with former England and Durham batsman Graham Fowler on Friday March 14. Tickets are available from John Davies on 01388-816044 or 07773-395808.

SPEAKING of milestone birthdays – and, indeed, of Mainsforth cricketers – we hear that Len Walker hits 70 next Tuesday.

Ferryhill lad and former colliery electrician, he played twice for Newcastle United, about 600 times for Aldershot and after becoming Darlington’s manager in 1978 – they paid him £6,000 a year – was subsequently the first football manager to sue for unfair dismissal.

We hope to raise a glass with him in the coming days: more, with luck, quite shortly.

FOLLOWING the death of Sir Tom Finney, David I’anson in Darlington is pretty sure that the great man played in a Feethams benefit game of some sort in the 1950s, but can find no record of it. Can any reader help?

THE inaugural meeting of the Isle of Man branch of the Middlesbrough Supporters Club went ahead last Saturday, though not altogether as planned.

It was meant to be in the Victoria Tavern in Douglas, coinciding with the home match against Leeds United, until the landlord discovered that Chelsea v Everton was on the other side and they were redirected to The Thirsty Pigeon instead.

The Thirsty Pigeon had ordered 40 pies, which seemed a mite optimistic until they realised the stash was for the rugby fans, numerously expected later.

Organiser David Carter was eventually joined by Owen Scrivens, a Redcar lad who’s a junior doctor on the island, and at half-time by Owen’s fiancee, who manages the local Oxfam shop and was wearing a Boro fleece.

“I don’t know if she got it from Oxfam,” says David, recently retired as the BMA’s man in the North-East.

Numbers reached five when Lee Hutchinson, a Boro fan from Hartlepool, was discovered hiding behind a pillar and added his girlfriend. “We made as much noise as is feasible during yet another goalless draw,” reports David.

The Thirsty Pigeon, he adds, takes its name from one of Aesop’s fables, in which the bird (aforesaid) flies into a sign painted with a goblet of water.

The moral, says Aesop, is that zeal should never outrun discretion. The Boro, says David, appear to be adhering rather too closely to the script.

READING up his First World War, Martin Birtle seamlessly notes another epochal event in 1914 – the Cricket Ball Makers’ Association went on strike in search of a living wage. Martin doesn’t say which way things swung thereafter.

...and finally, the team which former Boro captain Nigel Pearson led out at the new Wembley (Backtrack, February 20) was England Under 21s, of whom he was assistant manager. It was the first competitive game between professional teams at the stadium.

Fred Alderton in Peterlee today invites readers to suggest Joan Bazeley’s pioneering football role in 1976.

By no means for the first time, the column returns next week.