THE two-blue line ever thinner, Bishop Auckland’s footballers from the dear old days have held their annual reunion.

Only Derek Lewin and Bob Thursby made it from the Amateur Cup winning days, Derek in all three victorious teams between 1955-57 and Bob an 18-year-old right half in the side which beat Wycombe Wanderers in 1957.

Two fellow England amateur internationals, local lad Billy Roughley and Mike Greenwood, from Harrogate, were also back on parade.

That the do is customarily held at the Shoulder of Mutton in Middleton Tyas, not half a mile from home, made it all-but obligatory that the column should be part of the reunion.

Elderly conversation ranged from the days when the committee picked the team to debate over the full words of “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man in snoring.”

Derek, 87, has an incorrigibly bad hip – “I’m just buggering about,” he said, which is what used to be supposed of Cockfield band – and is also limping through an attempted autobiography.

The problem may be of balance. “I could write several books on Seamus O’Connell, a few chapters on Harry Sharratt but not much on some of the others,” he said.

Outstanding centre forward, O’Connell also had a reputation of a bit of a ladies’ man, reputed once to have walked naked from the shower through a London society party. A lady, quite likely a proper lady, glanced downwards. “Hung like that, you should trot,” she said.

Pondering what to include, Derek was assured that it’s not possible to libel a dead man. Lawyers may disagree.

DEREK Lewin had also been on target – “a brilliant goal” said The Northern Echo – when the Bishops beat Northern League colleagues Durham City in the FA Cup first round, November 19 1955. A 7,050 Kingsway crowd forked out £532 between them.

Two other Northern League clubs, Crook Town and Shildon, had also reached the competition proper. Shildon lost 3-0 at Scunthorpe United – “the Railwaymen amazed the home crowd by their speed and enthusiasm,” said the Echo – while 9,818 thronged the Millfield at Crook for the visit of third division Derby County.

Two down after 17 minutes, Crook fought back before half-time with goals from Jimmy McMillan and Ken Harrison. Might have won had not dear old Bobby Davison put a second half penalty wide.

The point of this paragraph is that the twopenny programme from the Crook match has just gone on sale on eBay. The starting price was £149 99. Inexplicably, there’ve been no offers.

NOVEMBER 19 1955? Darlington and Carlisle drew 0-0 – the replay the first FA Cup tie under lights – while Easington, then in the Wearside League, lost 2-0 at home to Tranmere Rovers. Four thousand crowded the Colliery Welfare. George Luke scored twice in Hartlepools’ 3-0 win over Gateshead, Workington manager Bill Shankly was said to be contemplating an offer to become assistant at Huddersfield and first division leaders Sunderland went down 8-2 at Luton Town. It wasn’t quite a record – Sunderland have four times lost 8-0 in the league, most recently at Southampton in 2014.

THE year after the Bishops were finally present at Wembley, the last debutantes were presented at court.

Remember the debs? Wikipedia does: “a girl or young woman from an upper class or aristocratic family who, having reached maturity, came out into society at a formal debut.”

Basically all they did was spend fortunes on a frock and curtsy to the monarch. The young Queen Elizabeth abolished the absurd anachronism in 1958.

It’s recalled because Alan Smith, diehard secretary of Darlington Travellers Rest FC (President: Backtrack) reports a hat-trick by a “debutante substitute” in the 4-1 win over Evenwood Town.

The Travs have had a great start to the season: as for the debutante, Alan blames the spellcheck.

IT may never be said that things are quiet around the Northern League, but if they’re a bit quieter than normal it’s possibly because the incorrigibly vocal Mary Hail is in hospital after being found unwell at home.

Mary has tormented referees and visitors to Tow Law Town for most of her 80 years, the strength of her lungs matched by the size of her heart.

Most memorably, she endured a sponsored silence in the clubhouse, monitored by Fifa referee Mark Clattenberg and raising several hundred pounds for Lawyers’ funds.

A letter in the Darlington and Stockton Times from our old friend Eddie Roberts reveals that he, too, has been laid low, both in Darlington and Northallerton hospitals and now convalescing at The Friary, near his Richmond home.

Lovely lad, retired teacher, Eddie devoted much of his working life – and his retirement – to promoting schools football in North Yorkshire.

Both he and Mary are wished a swift return to full and inimitable vigour.

ALMOST coincidentally, my blog on Monday had cause to recall Tow Law’s FA Vase quarter-final at Sudbury Wanderers, deepest Suffolk, February 28 1998.

Just ahead of the blizzard, Lawyers had decamped the previous afternoon – “we’d never have got past the road end otherwise,” said club chairman John Flynn.

A goal down for much of the game, they equalised with eight seconds remaining. That they then comfortably survived extra-time may have had something to do with the fact that it had also started snowing in Suffolk. The chairman knew the secret: “we’re acclimatised,” he said.

FOURTEEN years later the Railroad to Wembley followed West Auckland to a rather ill-tempered Vase semi-final second leg at Herne Bay, in Kent, which prompted the FA urgently to review issues of crowd control and segregation. Perhaps John Heslop in Durham has found the outcome on the Internet – the sign says that no footballs are allowed on the ground.

CLIFF Tunstall watched the World Cup qualifiers, checked ticket prices, found the cheapest to be £35. It compared unfavourably with 1966 (and all that).

For around a fiver he was able to buy a ten-match package that included seven games shared between Sunderland and Middlesbrough and three at Wembley – we still had an Empire Stadium back then.

The final ticket, west standing enclosure, was ten bob. Those for a semi-final and third/fourth place play-off were 7/6d. “It probably costs more than a tenner to watch Darlington these days,” says Cliff.

He also found his coach travel ticket: £2 11s, return.

IN passing, the column a couple of weeks back had cause to mention affectionately remembered player and manager Billy Ayre – Durham lad, Hartlepool defender, Scarborough boss – who died in 2002. Lance Kidney sends a link to a wonderfully moving blog, written in 2012 by Billy’s daughter – just 12 when he died – which describes him as outgoing, charismatic and absolutely hilarious. The post’s headed “Daddy or chips? Daddy every time.”