A Close encounter

With the possible exception of the late Bobby Thompson, he was the only man who could speak and smoke simultaneously – as the column, sitting beside him, quickly discovered.

The courageous cricketer, famed for having a lotta bottle, clearly had a lotta dottle, too. “It was a Close encounter of the furred kind: ashen if not pale-faced,” we wrote.

He’d made his England debut exactly 50 years previously, aged 18 years and 149 days and not even capped by Yorkshire, played again in the Ashes series that winter – having contentiously been given leave from the Royal Signals at Catterick, not least because he was confined to barracks at the time.

At Romanby he proved familiarly ambidextrous – drank large whiskies with his right hand, smoked Capstan with his left – presented a profile from three feet below his left eyebrow which rather resembled Derek Nimmo.

The indestructible Close told also of the occasion when, fielding at forward short, the ball had bounced off his head and onto the pavilion roof for six. None present dared suggest exaggeration, nor whisper that it might only have been four.

At Acklam Park in 1970 he’d had a police escort after death threats; at Darlington magistrates court 15 years later he escaped a drink driving ban after former teammate Ken Biddulph admitted spiking his grog.

He’d also been in the region to open a housing development in Hurworth, not best pleased to discover it called Bryan Close.

Chiefly, he told the table tennis players, cricket lacked entertainers. “How can you expect people to come and watch when there are no characters,” he said – word for word what he’d told Northallerton Rotary Club, according to the Darlington and Stockton Times, when singing for his supper nearly 40 years before.

Ever consistent, estimating that he’d smoked two million cigarettes in his 84 years, the great D B Close died on Sunday from lung cancer.

REINVIGORATED thanks to the arrival of local businessman Geoff Thompson as owner/chairman, supporters of Ebac Northern League second division side South Shields – now with Julio Arca – have taken to wearing Geoff Thompson masks.

“They’re a very good likeness. It says on the back that they’re made by someone who was on Dragons’ Den,” reports club secretary Philip Reay.

Unfortunately, adds Philip, it doesn’t say if they won.

AN extraordinary example of a railway lunacy familiar to regular travellers, former Northern League referee Ted Ilderton fancied a trip to Blackpool to watch his son Eddie take the match at Bloomfield Road. Online, he priced the journey from Newcastle via Carlisle and, with a senior rail card, was quoted £45. He then tried to book from Newcastle to Carlisle and Carlisle to Blackpool and was quoted £14.15p – using exactly the same trains. “Bonkers,” says Ted, inarguably.

UNANSWERABLY summoned by Bulldog Billy Teesdale, the column again attends Evenwood Cricket Club’s junior presentation night. They’ve had a good year.

The Under-13s, captained by one Thomas Teesdale – chip off the grandpaternal block – won their section of the Durham Cricket League. The Under-11s might have emulated them, had not a crucial match been abandoned to rain.

They tossed a coin and lost. “Fair enough,” says the Bulldog (who’s clearly maturing.)

Much credit is given to this season’s pro, the splendidly named Aneker Redkar (and to Craig Hewitt, plumber, the sponsor.)

The lads gave him a T-shirt. “Thank you, Redcar” it said, though none has yet asked Aneker to visit the seaside town which homophonously shares his name. “He’s had enough excitement for one season,” says the Bulldog.

UNPRECEDENTED news from the Crook and District League (division two) where our old friends at Darlington Travellers Rest – an explanation in a moment – have enjoyed a six-win start to the season.

The team began as Darlington College Students Union, uprooted when authority learned that none was actually in further education, and have since been the Cricketers, the Greyhound, the Hole in the Wall and, latterly, the Model T.

The Travellers Rest’s nearer to their pitch at Branksome School. Secretary Alan Smith hopes it may prove a symbolic end to their years on the road.

Alan’s been in office 25 years, still produces a programme, has never before been able to employ the phrase “table topping”, except to describe the opposition. The column’s tenure as president is almost as long.

Does this mean they can start looking at the Pyramid? “Only if we get sponsored by Toblerone,” says Alan.

….and finally, the column on September 3 sought the identity of three former Darlington goalkeepers who’d played in the Championship the previous weekend.

Answers swiftly arrived, all of them naming David Stockdale (Brighton), Jordan Pickford (Preston) and Andy Lonergan (Fulham) – the only problem that Lonergan had been replaced by Dean Gerken (Ipswich Town) in the original answer.

Remarkably, all four are correct. Brian Dixon, who provided the question, discovers that Lonergan played twice on loan for the Quakers. Gerken made seven appearances, keeping four clean sheets.

Chris Orton, in Ferryhill, one of those who managed the Lonergan division, today seeks the identity of the manager of a top flight Danish football club who left to take over at Darlington and, after leaving, went back to the same club in Denmark.

Back where it belongs, the column returns next week.