FINALLY, irrefutably, last week’s column established that the great Tom Finney did indeed play at Darlington, an otherwise less than All Starsstudded night in 1961.

Now, probably from the same year, a yet more intriguing question arises: did German legends Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer turn out at Crook Town?

The Northern Echo:

Franz Beckenbauer

It was the big issue lapping the Millfield ground last Saturday and – as usual on these occasions – the question master was Crook’s nearomniscient historian Michael Manuel.

Michael carried a photograph of a West German Under-16s side – some say it was Westphalia – which played against the Crook-based Glenholme Boys Club. The teams were lined up to meet Councillor RW Coates, chairman of Crook and Willington Urban District Council.

Many of the visitors are turned to face the chairman. None is obviously Muller, the man they called der Bomber, or Beckenbauer, der Kaiser.

“You just can’t tell, but there are folk at the match who insist that they played,” says Michael.

Muller – 62 goals in 68 international appearances, 66 in 74 European matches – was born in Nordingen in November 1945. Beckenbauer, born two months earlier, was capped 103 times and twice named European Footballer of the Year.

Whatever the odds, the Crook lads won 4-3. Barry Dolphin, nearest the camera on the right and one of four brothers later to play for Crook Town, scored a hat-trick. Tony Butterfield, next to him, was to become a Crook Town player for many years but, alas, hasn’t been contactable.

So once more we turn to readers for help, which Michael Manuel would appreciate, too. “There are 80- year-old men in Crook who swear down that they saw Beckenbauer that day.” he says. “I’m just glad that, 15 years after the war ended, they were able to play a friendly.”

BIRDS and stones, the original reason for heading to Crook Town v Guisborough Town was to learn more about Arnold Lockey, whose recent passing is mourned in a letter from Stan Gibbon, in Wolsingham.

Arnold, Fishburn lad and Army PTI, played for Crook for several seasons around 1950 – so good, it’s recalled, that the working men of the town would gather at the Royal Corner to inquire if Lockey had a weekend pass and was playing. If he was, they went. If he wasn’t, they’d spend the shilling on an extra pint in Belle Vue Club.

“They all thought he was great and so did I,” writes Stan, himself a former Crook junior. “He’d play all day without getting a sweat on, and when he played, he lifted everybody.

He was like a goal start. I wish that Crook had somebody like him now.”

Inevitably, it offers more Manuel labour. No less inevitably, Michael comes up with answers and bonus points simultaneously.

The Northern Echo:

Gerd Muller

Arnold signed for Crook in December 1948, made his debut in a 3-3 draw against Bishop Auckland, scored 23 goals in 108 games. Crook reached the FA Amateur Cup semifinal that season, the spoils an appearance in the first Amateur Cup final at Wembley. At Roker Park, they drew with Romford in front of a 24,215 crowd; at West Ham in the replay they lost 3-0. The crowd was just five short of 25,000.

The Echo not only carried a photograph from Upton Park, but boasted that it had been transmitted from London to Darlington by the “new picture-by-wire installation”.

Arnold also appeared in a 1-0 Amateur Cup replay win over Pegasus the following season after a draw at Crook. Peter May, soon to become England’s cricket captain, played in both games. On February 16, 1952, he was in the Crook team, again against Romford, in what was one of the first matches – “possibly the first ever,”

says Michael – to be broadcast live on television. “Not many folk had sets in those days. Those who did had folk crammed into their front rooms.”

A week later, without the distraction of live television, an estimated 20,000 somehow shoehorned though the Millfield’s eye-of-a-needle gates for the fourth round tie with Walton and Hersham.

Arnold played in that one, too. He was 85 when he died.

THE Millfield masses have long gone, 100 or so remain. Those with alternative agendas missed a tremendous match on Saturday.

Perpetual subject of supermarket speculation, the old ground survives for now. Across the road, a possible relocation site has been commandeered for a new fire station – community fire station, in the modern argot. Once kids stared at the fire engines, now they’re entranced by the firefighters’ gym.

“You should see it,” someone says.

“Duncan Bannatyne hasn’t anything as flashy as that.”

Guisborough goals from formidable strike partnership Danny Johnson and Mikey Roberts bring a 2-0 half-time lead and raise their combined competitive total to 100 for the season. With thanks to Yvonne Narker, here’s a ton-up photograph.

Johnson, still only 21, was at Hartlepool United and, according to the programme, has also played for Real Madrid. He’s expected to move up a few steps in the summer.

“There’s a new set of floodlights in that lad,” says one of the Guisborough committee.

Crook’s second-half revival is remarkable, their 3-2 victory deserved.

They even have two goals disallowed by impressive referee Rebecca Welch, from Washington. “Ye knaa what,” a diehard demurs, “that referee has nee balls whatsoever.”

JACK Greenwell was a Crook miner’s lad, too – Peases West, anyway, and not a thick seam away – played for Town and for West Auckland in their first World Cup win in 1909.

He later starred for Barcelona, managed the Spanish side for seven seasons and then the Peruvian national team which won the South American championship for the first time in 1939.

Either side of the Great War, Jack also helped organise three Crook tours to Spain – “the best side seen here since football has been played,”

the Spanish press concluded.

King Alfonso is said to have been keen to attend one of the matches, but stayed away for fear of being impaled by the bull fighting lobby. Football was becoming too popular.

All that and more is embraced in a 20-minute production by Backscratch Theatre, to be performed by pupils of Bishop Barrington School, in Bishop Auckland, next Thursday at the school.

Backscratch and friends hope to turn the Greenwell story into a fullscale professional touring show. This one starts at 5.45pm; all welcome.

Members of Jack Greenwell’s family are also expected to be present when the famous old club holds a 125th anniversary reunion on the evening of May 2 in a marquee at the Millfield.

That’s just about where we came in.