A year in the life of Backtrack

Mike Amos looks back on 2008 – distinctly wet, but a good vintage, nonetheless.

LOCAL HEROES

Len Green, former Darlington QUOTES full back who stood down after 57 years with Middleton St George Cricket Club; Bulldog Billy Teesdale – and his brothers – at Evenwood; Bishop Auckland FC chairman terry Jackson; the Beardless Wonder; K R Hopper, still skiing at 75; Brent "Bomber" Smith, still bowling along; Harry Dunn – Bishop lad, Blyth manager, great bloke. Ken Thwaites - greyhound breeder, racehorse trainer, cricketer and footballer.

TEN THINGS ONLY BACKTRACK READERS MAY HAVE KNOWN

Botany Bay is near Newark; Canada is an area of Liverpool dockland; threequarters of all players in the 1966 World Cup finals wore Adidas boots; Lowestoft was the most bombed town per head of population, in World War II; when Etherley Cricket Club was formed in 1850, players could be fined sixpence for swearing and a shilling for entering the field other than by the gate; Foreign Secretary David Milliband made his three security men pay when they went to watch Northern League South Shields.

Substandard Liege and Bayern Bru are five-a-side teams in Glasgow; US president Theodore Roosevelt held the world hand-shaking record, 8,513 in eight hours; Norman Collier won a standing ovation at the 1971 Royal Command Performance; Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Cliff Richard and plain Oor Wullie were all Boys’ Brigade members.

OUTINGS

Poole – the world’s second biggest natural harbour for the FA Vase match with Consett; Lowestoft, twice, and with no more luck either time; Hungerford – also in the Vase; Llanberis v Pwhelli, where they spoke in Welsh and swore in English; Dumfries, to see former Stanley United goalkeeper Allan Ball, record holder and still a director of Queen of the South; Anfield – FA Sunday Cup final.

Camelon, FA Cup final escape committee and said to have Arthurian connections; Newport, to see Jimmy Goodfellow, retiring at 65 after a lifetime in football; Formby, red squirrel capital of England (there was a football match, too).

WINNERS

Durham County Cricket Club; John Armstrong, named Etherley cricket second team’s player of the year despite being flattened by a flying sightscreen; Hetton Lyons Cricket Club – at football, below; Arthur Puckrin, 70-yearold Middlesbrough barrister, ultra-athlete extraordinary; Esh Winning FC, finally living up to the name after 26 years in the Northern league.

Kimblesworth CC openers Stephen Meek and Paul Craig, 316 for the first wicket; Simon Davies, 269 for Tudhoe II against Mainsforth; Dave Pearson, world pool trick shot champion, Sunderland lad; Alan Courtney and Page Bank Maggie, winners of the UK Breeders Cup at trotting.

Hole in the Wall FC from Darlington – celebrating an 11- week unbeaten run, their longest ever. That they’d only played once was, the column concluded irrelevant.

Darlington GSOB, points deducted, whose 401 win over the Hole in the Wall took them up to the dizzy heights of no points at all.

England darts international Doug McCarthy from Crook, given the cancer all-clear and still taking trophies; evergreen champion cyclist Steve Davies, from Darlington; the weather.

MINORITIES – SPORTS WHICH ONLY THE BACKTRACK COLUMN MAY HAVE COVERED

Gym-acro, Subbuteo, tug of war, triathlon, bridge, static rowing, speedway, stone skimming, stock car racing, trotting, deer stalking (as pursued by the Squire of Ravensworth) ultra fighting and – of course – 5s and 3s.

MILESTONES

Brendan Foster, 60; Durham FA and Northumberland FA, both marking their 125th anniversaries; Harry Clarke, still the only man to have played both cricket and football professionally for Darlington, 87; 50 years last January since Darlington beat Chelsea 4-1; Hartlepool United, 100.

Dave Morrison, the wicket keeper with the most gnarled hands in Britain, 65; ten years since Tow Law reached Wembley . . . and especially Peter and Claire Charlton, married in bitter- sweet circumstances in Bishop Auckland hospital a year ago on December 24 – a very happy Christmas.

GOODBYE TO

Portland Park, Ashington FC’s home for a century, before a last match crowd of 1,954 – "all these people just to see Seaham Red Star," said visiting president Brian Mayhew; the Trimdon and District Sunday league, the Stokesley and District League; regional sports programmes on Tyne Tees Television – "bloody tragic," said Soccer Night producer Ken Pollard; Gretna FC.

LOSERS

Local league cricket; Coundon Conservative Club in the FA Sunday Cup final – "People have written off the Conservatives before," - manager Paul "Pele" Aldsworth had said; Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth, though he did hit 34 for Sunderland II; Doug McCarthy – see Winners – not so good at dominoes Castle Eden Cricket Club, below, – but didn’t they do well; Seaham Red Star goalkeeper Paul McSween who dutifully turned up for training but forgot his first wedding anniversary the same night; Harton and Westoe footballer Brett Wilson, cautioned during a Wearside League match for kissing his girlfriend – that wasn’t the offence, referee George Liddle from Darlington helpfully explained, it was leaving the field without the ref’s permission.

OLD FRIENDS

Kip Watson, at 91 still the inspiration behind the Over 40s league; Paul Hodgson, resigned as Spennymoor Boxing Academy secretary and took to sunflower growing instead; Hails of Hartlepool – incomparable; Jack Watson – indefatigable; the Demon Donkey Dropper of Eryholme, happily on the mend after a queer do; Jack Chapman, whose Christmas card confirms that the summer of 2008 was the biggest washout since North-East league cricket began in 1883.

Tom Harvey, 75-year-old Hartlepool football referee and administrator who after a cataract operation was again whetting his whistle; Phil Owers, keeping goal for West Auckland at the age of 53; George Alberts, late of Gateshead Reserves, still ,keeping in touch from Thailand; Kevin Chisholm, aged 70 and otherwise known as The Aged Miner, still playing Over 40s League football for Wearmouth, John Dawson, king of the groundhoppers; the Feversham Cricket League; Alf Hutchinson – good friend, moderate dominoes player.

QUOTES

"I keep saying that I’ve had my share, but I consider myself lucky" – Sir Bobby Robson reflects on the fact that he’s five times fought cancer while his four brothers all escaped.

"All that and they’re going to charge me 5p for a carrier bag" – Whitley Bay FC secretary Derek Breakwell, after the team bus was delayed for two hours behind an overturned Marks and Spencer’s lorry.

"They think if you’re an artist you’re a bit, well, you know" – former Hartlepool United centre half John Bird, on why he didn’t talk about his hobby in the dressing room.

"I hate A’s, detest E’s, absolutely loathe I’s" – Mr Peter Sixsmith diagnoses irritable vowel syndrome.

"The signs are that they will have difficulty in retaining their ascendancy" –

Big Book of Football Champions, 1958, on Bishop Auckland.

"A chair’s a piece of furniture, a chair’s inanimate" – Darlington Building Society chief executive Peter Rowell on becoming chairman, definitely not chair, of Sport England’s North-East regional committee.

"There was a player who threatened to put all my windows in. Some of the other players heard and put his in first. It can be a bit tough on Teesside" – football referee Ray Dowle.

"You can tell he’s a Lua Lua, skinniest legs in football" –

spectator at a Newcastle Reserves’ match on Lomara’s younger brother Kazenga.

"We don’t have any twin towns but we do have a suicide pact with Dewsbury," – former British Lion John Bentley, Cleckheaton lad.

"Match off, seagulls on pitch" – Sunday Sun on Great Ayton CC’s first match of the season, a portent of wetter things to come.

CHURCH TIMES

Backtrack got the editor fixed up as racing tipster on the Roman Catholic newspaper Northern Cross; Tow Law had the first doubled glazed vicarage in Co Durham; the Durham diocesan team, ever underachieving, dropped out of the Church Times cricket cup; Newcastle Falcons flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson has found religion, something to do with Schrodinger’s cat; the Bishop of Durham’s wife opened the batting for Southport Grammar School.

DISTAFF SIDE

Sharon Gayter – 45, asthmatic and uncatchably still the country’s top female ultra runner; Vera Selby, 78, twice women’s world snooker champion and now to be the first female Master in 400 years of the Fellmonger’s Guild in Richmond; Elaine Collings, wife of Durham City FC manager Lee Collings, whose countless superstitions include never cutting his toenails during a winning run – "He’s mental," she said. Sandra Gordon, Tow Law FC chairman, anticipating a visit by fans from Genoa –"I think they may be in for a surprise," she said; Darlington Mowden Park Sharks all-conquering women’s rugby team – they did ladylike, too – Nicole Burlinson, 14, champion hurdler and all-round athlete from St Mary’s college, Darlington; Charmian Rawlings – Miss Welsh, Thornley lass, when she trained at Dawdon pit pond and dived for Great Britain; former Wilbledon champion Ann Jones, appeared at Burneston Hall and signed autographs for a 103-yearold fan.

TEN MORE QUOTES

"If Clyde went to Parkhead I was called an Orange ******* and if we went to Ibrox I was called a Fenian *******. I was just pleased to get away from Scotland" – former forward George Herd, 72, on why he joined Sunderland.

"It’s to deter burglars. They’d want to steal my Subbuteo team but I doubt if they’d want to pinch John Milton" – Dave Butler explains why he keeps his mini-marvels inside a hollowed version of Paradise Lost.

"Crime’s terrible round our way, we even have to take the doorstep in at night" – comedian at the Crook Games league presentation.

"I know that people laugh when they see the stuff about utter genius on my business card, but I’m going to prove it once again" – former Darlington FC chairman George Reynolds, 73, wafts into the perfume business.

"It’s not about catching them, it’s about seeing them" – big Jack Charlton, 73, explains why he doesn’t mind returning empty-handed from the river bank.

"It’s one of the weirdest names I’ve ever come across" – Durham FA secretary John Topping after a Bishop Auckland pub team registers as The Sausage FC.

"My wife likes her peace and quiet. If I retired she’d kill me." – Consett Sunday league referee of the year John Lee, 61.

"SAFC – no Magpies" – carved above a bird box for a crafts exhibition at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. They declined to display it.

"I wouldn’t say I was the best manager in the business, but I was in the top one" – inscription on the new statue of Brian Clough in Nottingham.

"If they don’t want me to referee again they only have to say so" – Martin Bunting after he and his assistants were locked in the dressing room at Birtley, after everyone else went home.

A long and lugubrious litany, the Backtrack column has at times in 2008 almost resembled the deaths column, too – some of the very best people in North-East sport. Sadly, gratefully and frequently with a wry smile, a toast to absent friends.

Gordon Bradley: went from Easington Colliery to New York Cosmos and became a pioneer of US soccer. Aged 74.

Tom Burlison: former Hartlepool United winger who became a leading trades union official and peer, watching Chelsea when Pools weren’t in the area. “Funnily enough I never see John Major and David Mellor,” he once told the column. “They mustn’t stand in the same place as me.”

George Elliott: tireless official at Shildon and West Auckland football clubs and world champion ticket sellers. “People will be able to afford second holidays with the money they’ll now save,” someone wrote, with the utmost affection.

Eric Ferguson: Northern League footballer, basketball player and lifelong Ushaw Moor cricketer.

Ray Grant: scout master, the Boro talent spotter who discovered Brian Clough, Tony Mowbray and Stan Cummins. Aged 87.

Brian Hogg: director, supporter and lifelong helper of Shildon FC, 74.

Mal Hughes: international bowls player, umpire and team manager from Hartlepool – “a walking encyclopaedia of bowls,” said Ron Hails.

Brian Hunter: indefatigable athlete and talker, champion of diabetic sport. Sedgefield lad.

Johnny Johnston: Made 101 appearances for Durham CCC in minor counties days, almost equally familiar on the racecourse. Aged 55.

Norman Kent: best dominoes player ever, swore that when beer was in brains were out, but once had to take a fitness test before playing. Aycliffe lad, aged 75.

Peter Metcalfe: chairman for 25 years of the Durham County Cricket League, maintained his sense of humour even when seriously ill. Peter’s son Andrew recalled in his eulogy that his dad had been given suppositories. “These pills are so useless,” he told the nurse, “I might as well shove them up my arse.”

Brooks Mileson: uniquely munificent former Sunderland lad and international cross country runner, best remembered for the Gretna fairy story, for supposing Marlboro Lite and Lucozade to be a balanced diet and for his half-million pound sponsorship of the Northern League. Aged 62.

Bill Moore: Coundon Cricket Club president and sports quiz supremo, aged 68.

Bobby Moxon: aged 76. Richmond Cricket Club’s scorer for 51 years. “It’s never been a job for me,” he said, “it’s always been an honour.”

Michael Potts: described in the column as “one of cricket’s great missionaries and its eternal, unquenchable enthusiasts.” Former RAF man from West Rainton, devised and nurtured the European Cricket festival in Durham.

Gordon Renton: former professional wrestler – he was The Farmer’s Boy – and Northallerton FC committee member.

Harold Stephenson: Haverton Hill lad and former Billingham Sythonia sportsman who played cricket for Somerset from 1948-64, reckoned England’s best uncapped wicket-keeper.

Bert Steward: Crook Town left back in two winning FA Amateur Cup finals and an outstanding league cricketer in north-west Durham.

Tony Thomas: Lifelong Norton-on-Tees cricket player and enthusiast. “My father died at 83,” said his son Chris in his eulogy. “It was by far the highest score he ever made.”

Bob Welsh: aged 92, a stalwart of Mainsforth cricket club since riding the groundsman’s donkey at the age of four.

Billy Wright: Whitley Bay’s all-time top goal scorer, a centreforward of the sort that used to be called bustling, terrified goalkeepers for 20 years.