Bishops get to the root of problem

Known in England as Hancock’s curse, fleeceflower, monkeyweed, elephant ears, pea shooters and several things very much less printable, the bamboo-like plant is an obdurate, insidious and invasive foe.

It has featured in both the Echo’s gardening and legal columns in recent years, the latter at greater length and more worrying length.

“If you are a developer,”

wrote Andrew Nixon in August 2007, “Japanese knotweed on a site can result in significant removal costs and extensive delays to your proposed development, as the Olympic Delivery Authority in London has discovered.

“As a property owner you should be concerned that Japanese knotweed may potentially result in damage to the foundations of your building and any surrounding pavements.”

The knotweed was introduced to the UK in the mid-nineteenth century as an expensive and much envied ornamental plant. Brits soon saw it in its true colours, however. The invasion had begun.

Now it’s been discovered on the site at Tindale Crescent, a mile out of the town, where the ten-times Amateur Cup winners plan their new home as part of a larger leisure and retail complex.

No matter that its roots were said to be used by the Orientals as a laxative, that’s the last thing club chairman Terry Jackson needs just now.

Nor is he likely to violate the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act which makes it an offence to “plant or otherwise encourage”

knotweed – one of only two terrestrial plants thus outlawed.

“I just saw on one of the council reports that it was present. It’s a cause for concern without a doubt, we’re definitely not going to encourage the blighter,” he says.

The plant has become such a menace that, ten years ago, the Japanese Knotweed Alliance was formed – partners include Defra, the Environment Agency and Network Rail – to try to tackle it.

It can grow up to four metres high at the rate of a metre a month says the Alliance website and is famed for pushing through concrete, tarmac and drains. “A recent estimate puts the cost of control, were it to be attempted UK-wide, at £1.5bn.”

The chairman has been trying to stay rooted within reality, warning in the programme for last Saturday’s match against Northern League leaders Consett against eating the stuff.

“Even though times are tough, I hope that no one’s tempted to top up their recommended five-a-day fruit and veg ration with this monster. Best stick to broccoli.”

A Durham County Council spokeswoman said that they were still investigating the location and extent of the problem. “I gather that Japanese knotwood can be a bit nasty,” she added.

There’s still a green shoot among all the knotweed, however. Despite earlier fears, the endangered great crested newt – so rare that it appears to jeapordise half the new developments in the land – is not, after all, at Tindale Crescent.

THOUGH goodness knows it was an excellent win, the BBC’s Ceefax service may have been a little kind to Darlington’s Rob Purdie after the 5-1 thumping of Luton on Saturday. Not only was he credited with the opening penalty – quite rightly – but Rob Purdie was said to have headed the second from a Rob Purdie corner. That one was Liam Hatch. Still, the BBC managed to change it later on. He’d become Richard Purdie by then.

FURTHER to Tuesday’s column on Spennymoor Town’s visit to Coalville, in Leicestershire, readers point out that both Arsenal and England half back Eddie Clamp and Leicestershire fast bowler Les Taylor – reckoned the last coal miner to play cricket for England – were Coalville lads. Taylor was actually from nearby Earl Shilton, but may consider himself adopted.

The skilltrainingltd Northern League magazine, meanwhile, reports that Tigger – the Spennymoor mascot pictured in Tuesday’s piece – has become an endangered species.

It’s said that the poor creature had to be rescued from the Stokesley supporters’ bus following an earlier FA Vase match at the Brewery. Field. “We’re mounting extra security,”

says Neville Goulder, Tigger’s guardian. “For a tiger he’s really quite timid.”

ON THE grounds that it’s when life begins, Stephen Baker missed the Crown at Pelton’s Over 40s League match on Saturday – down at Dryburn Hospital in Durham, attending the birth of his son. By the time the rest of the lads got back to the pub, they’d beaten the Vane Arms from Sunderland 6-1, Owen Daniel Baker had safely been delivered and Stephen had been on the phone to order drinks all round. The baby’s head, we are assured, was wet in style.

SAID in last Friday’s column to have been sledging when others thought it meant going downhill in the snow, former Barnard Castle wicket keeper Stephen Brenkley – The Independent’s new cricket correspondent – adds icing to one of the anecdotes.

We’d told how, in Barney’s weather-beaten days, an opposition batsman complained at the sight screen constantly blowing in the wind. “Don’t worry, old chap,” said Brenks. “I’ve looked at your record and your form. It won’t be bothering you much longer.”

Steve, who began in journalism on the Darlington and Stockton Times, adds the PS that, the following over, the batsman nicked one and was caught behind. “I gave him a bit of a send off.”

He also recalls winning the NYSD League B division wicket keeping award, league chairman Chris West presiding. “Steve Brenkley,”

he announced, “45 victims and another 45 talked out.”

Ah, says Steve, happy days.

A WINE and savoury lunch at Bishop Auckland Cricket Club on Sunday February 22 will raise money for the cardiac unit at the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough and toast its care for former Warwickshire and Bishops fast bowler Bill Blenkiron.

Born in Newfield, just outside Bishop – as was FA Cup final referee Peter Willis – Bill, now 68, claimed 287 first class wickets at 28.29 during 11 summers at Edgbaston.

Usually, it’s recalled, he was asked to bowl uphill or into the wind. Less successful, his batting style was described as “complicated.” He also played Northern League football for Stanley United.

“Bill’s come on really well.

He’s really grateful to James Cook,” says a friend.

Tickets are £8 from the Peter Lorimer sports shop in Bishop Auckland, on 01388 605153 or 01388 661370.

Magpie-chasing Monty sees the Light

THOUGH it all ends happily ever after, as the best children’s stories still should, there’s a book just out about Monty the cat – the Black Cat, of course – being scared by a couple of nasty magpies.

Two for joy? Not at Sunderland Football Club.

Asked to support publication of the book, aimed at five-year-olds, the club insisted that the type of bird should be changed – as the inclusion of two magpies would be “detrimental” to the relationship between Sunderland and Newcastle United.

They also wanted to change the cat’s name to Samson, the same as the Sunderland mascot.

“Changing the cat’s name was fair enough but not having magpies in the story was just silly,” says retired teacher Ken Gambles, the author.

“I don’t like the nastiness between the clubs, some of the message boards are horrible, but I don’t think anyone could be offended by a story like this.

“The club acknowledged it, put it on the back burner and after 12 months I gave up. I don’t think their heart was in it.”

Ken has now privately published Monty sees the Light, appealingly illustrated by his daughter Claire, a 31- year-old international conference organiser. Both are Sunderland season ticket holders.

“I thought that it would perfectly complement the outreach work the club does, especially with national literacy schemes,” he says.

“It could have served as an early reader or, better still, for Sunderland supporting parents to read to their children.”

Though born in Barnsley, Ken has been a Sunderland fan – and particularly a Jimmy Montgomery fan – since first seeing them play, at Leeds, in January 1965.

“My granddad took me. I think it was the best thing anyone ever did for me,” he says. “The cat just had to be called Monty, he’s still the finest footballer I ever saw.”

Claire’s first match was York v Northampton – after which she insisted, says her dad, on being taken to Sunderland.

The present team, he believes, is good enough to avoid relegation. “In the past you could understand us struggling, but there are some damn good players there now. It’s just turning into a typical Sunderland season.”

The book sees the timid Monty find self-belief after inadvertently wandering into the Stadium of Light. The magpies, of course, are finally put to flight.

If the book itself takes off, Ken has ideas for at least two more featuring the redoubtable Monty – and at least one involves a magpie.

■ Monty sees the Light, a charming little children’s book, is available through the Sunderland Supporters Association or from Ken Gambles, 2 Belmont Avenue, Calcutt, Knaresborough, N Yorks HG5 8JH – £5 including postage.

Villa hero Dixon is mourned

JOHNNY Dixon, the former Spennymoor United player who went on to become an all-time hero at Aston Villa, has died after a long illness. He was 85.

Born in Hebburn, south Tyneside, Dixon helped United – then in the North Eastern League – to win successive league and Durham Challenge Cup doubles during the war.

He joined Villa in 1946, scoring 114 goals in 430 appearances – seventh in the list of goal scorers, eighth in appearances. His finest hour was lifting the FA Cup in 1957 – the last time Villa won it – against Matt Busby’s emerging Babes.

The final is still remembered for the clash between Villa’s Peter McParland and Man United goalkeeper Ray Wood, another Hebburn lad. Jackie Blanchflower went in goal, McPartland scored twice.

Johnny always insisted that they’d have won it anyway.

A non-smoker and teetotaller, he was widely regarded as a gentleman, never bitter about being on the £24 a week maximum wage “It was still terrific money in those days,” he insisted.

The news came as Villa were preparing for Saturday’s FA Cup tie with Doncaster Rovers, whom Villa and Dixon had last met in 1955. Rovers won after a replay.

and finally...

THE Coalville-born full back who played football for Sunderland and England (Backtrack, January 20) was Steve Whitworth – a man who in a long Football League career managed just two goals, both penalties and both in the last months of it. Peter Birch recalls him playing for Leicester City. “Unfortunately he never did himself justice at Sunderland, just like our other exports Bob Lee and Matty Piper.” Among readers who knew that one, George Cram in Peterlee today seeks the identity of the two Durham cricketers who played alongside former test match umpire David Shepherd for the Minor Counties against Australia in 1964. More minor considerations, the column returns on Tuesday.