WILLIE Carr, known variously as the Samson of England and the Hercules of the North, was an 18th century Northumberland blacksmith of immense physique and prodigious strength.

Wandering Willie was something else entirely, though they’re commemorated within a few miles of one another and encountered on last Saturday’s Last Legs walk from Blyth to North Shields.

Carr, said to have stood 6ft 4in and to have weighed 24 stones, is reputed to have “slaked his thirst in a big manner” at the Delaval Arms in Hartley. Outside the pub still sits the Old Hartley Blue Stone, which he alone could lift. His statue stands in the Keel Row shopping centre in Blyth.

Thereafter we hoofed down the coast through Whitley, past the former Spanish City, where the fabled dome still stands, but seats from some of the former rides now provide a resting place for promenaders.

One’s called the Social Whirl: what goes around comes around.

In Tynemouth we called for a livener at the Turks Head, known locally as the Stuffed Dog because it’s there from a glass case that Wandering Willie retains a baleful eye on proceedings.

Willie was a sheepdog, owned by a Cheviot farmer. The two became separated after herding a flock to the boat. For months the dog remained on the spot where last he’d seen his master, sustained by scraps from strangers, until taken aboard the Tyne ferry and thrown overboard.

He swam to South Shields and for years to come was a familiar, usually playful, figure near the terminal.

The walk was otherwise uneventful. Last Legs – half to the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, half to community-based charities – stood at £19,000 before yesterday’s dander to Bishop Auckland.

NOT quite as either/or as the two-team Scilly Isles football league, our friends at the Feversham Cricket League are diminished yet further. The annual meeting heard of the resignation of Gillamoor – a lovely spot to watch cricket. “Another significant facet of village life disappears,” says league secretary Charles Allenby.

It leaves them with just three clubs: they vow to bat on.

The Feversham’s based in rural North Yorkshire, Helmsley way. The remaining clubs – Slingsby, the vertiginous Spout House and the ever-undulating High Farndale – will play eight games and also contest the Lady Feversham Cup, with three others, and the Supplementary Cup.

Charles isn’t giving up yet. “Are we in the proverbial death throes?” he asks. “Maybe, but you know what they say about where there’s life.”

ON Good Friday to the Durham Challenge Cup final, Newton Aycliffe v West Auckland, at Hetton-le-Hole.

Since it’s a distinctly holy day, conversation turns to the Roman Catholic practice of novena, and to its perceived benefits.

“You mean like skinchies?” asks Mr Alan Courtney, man about Newton Aycliffe, though scholars may interpret it differently.

In his programme notes, Durham FA secretary John Topping records that “both teams have recorded excellent results in previous rounds”, though one team perhaps more than the other.

In the preliminary round West Auckland were exempt, in the first they had a walkover after Darlington withdrew and in the semi-final they lost 3-0 at home to Whickham, but were reinstated after Whickham were found to have included an ineligible player.

Sadly for them, West lose on this occasion, as well.

JOHANN Cruyff’s death last week stirred for retired Darlington newsagent Alan Cooper memories of a wonderful day in June 1971.

Alan and his son Neil had witnessed Derby victory for Mill Reef – “still the best horse I ever saw” – before deciding to miss the last race, catch a train into London and take in the European Cup final at Wembley.

That they hadn’t tickets worried them little. “A nice Dutch chap on the Tube sold us a couple at cost price,” Alan recalls.

The game was between Ajax and Panathinaikos, the referee Jack Taylor and the two linesmen both Billingham boys – Pat Partridge in his first major international appearance and Kevin Howley in one of his last.

Ajax won 2-0, the goals from the splendidly named Dick van Dijk and from Ane Haan. One man stood out, however.

“Cruyff was immaculate,” says Alan. “Mill Reef and Johann Cruyff on the same day. Absolutely unforgettable.”

….and finally, the former Football League club which began life as Belmont (Backtrack, March 24) was Tranmere Rovers. Paul Dobson in Bishop Auckland was first up with the answer.

Martin Birtle in Billingham today points out that only 25 batsmen in first class cricket have scored 100 centuries – who are the only three, he asks, to have achieved the feat in fewer than 600 innings.

This innings complete, the column returns next week.