Memories of RB - the sport loving MP

Though the member for Houghton and Washington, Roland had long lived in Peterlee, played rugby for Horden, cricket for Peterlee seconds - where he was club president - and was a director and vice-chairman of Hartlepool United during one of the club's more difficult periods. (There've been a few).

Long-time Peterlee CC stalwart Roy Simpson recalls that Roland, a proud Yorkshireman, was "very instrumental" in getting the clubhouse and extensions built and was despatched to Headingley to talk to Geoffrey Boycott about doing the official opening.

Finally having agreed a fee of around £400 - "quite a lot of money in 1977" - Roland asked if he might have The Great Man's autograph for his two little lads back home.

"Oh I can do better than that," said Sir Geoffrey, dived into the dressing room and returned with two signed photographs.

"That's 50p each," he said.

You can guess, adds Roy, where Roland told him to put his photographs.

As Tuesday's column observed, Roland passed his umpire's exams not least because it gave him five hours every Saturday away from the telephone and from people wanting a new back door on their council house.

Since he had difficulty in finding all the grounds, however, Roy Simpson produced a travel guide - in Durham dialect. "Roland was a Yorkshireman through and through, we had many a laugh over it," he says.

The MP also visited the cricket club most Sunday evenings - "he called it his sanctuary, he knew people wouldn't talk politics to him" - might spend 20 minutes on the bandit but with nothing stronger than a glass of bitter lemon.

He also so greatly loathed bingo that he wrote to the committee - what might be termed putting his own housey in order - asking that that the extension speakers in the bar be switched off, so folk could have a conversation without being told to be quiet.

The committee agreed. "It was a victory," says Roy, "that he treasured."

No victory at the Victoria Ground, September 30 1989, when Hartlepool United - managed by former Magpies' skipper Bob Moncur - lost 6-0 to Doncaster Rovers.

'Pool had gained just two points all season, the crowd was 1,757, the natives were - well, they weren't very happy, anyway.

Lee Turnbull, Stockton lad, hit a hat-trick; Rovers themselves were near the foot of the table. "Hartlepool couldn't control the ball, couldn't pass the ball and couldn't call themselves a football team," wrote Chris Lloyd in the following Monday's Echo. "Pool's players actually ran into one another in a desperate bid to get away from the ball."

Moncur admitted he'd considered quitting - "If I was the problem, I'd resign, but I don't think it would solve anything" - around 200 fans stayed behind for 35 minutes to demand that club chairman John Smart and his board join the manager in the history books.

Enter vice-chairman Boyes, ever the diplomat. The Echo reported that "not even Mr Boyes' presence" could stop the protests; Nick Loughlin, now the sports editor, remembers it differently.

"Roland showed he was a typical politician coming out like that. People were a bit bemused that he'd come to talk to them, they'd much rather have seen Bobby Moncur."

Hartlepool's team that dark day was Dearden, Plaskett, McKinnon, Tinkler, Nobbs, Barrass, Allon, McEwan, Baker, Lamb, Dalton - "probably the worst ever," says Nick, "but six of them were in the side which the following season won promotion."

By then, of course, Bobby Moncur - the man who wasn't the problem - had been long since advised that he was.

Season 1989-90 was clearly tough for North-East football: the biggish three were all in the second division, Hartlepool bottom of the fourth, Darlington in the Conference.

The day that Hartlepool lost 6-0 at home, "supersub" Gary Brazil scored his first Newcastle United goal in the 3-1 win at Hull - "You aint seen nothing yet," he promised the fans - Brian Deane's first minute goal gave Sunderland a point against Dave Bassett's Sheffield United, manager Bruce Rioch "gagged" Boro players after the 1-0 defeat at Watford and Quakers' 2-1 win over Kettering (Emson, Borthwick) extended their unbeaten start to ten matches.

Among the grass roots, Bishop Auckland beat Langley Park in the FA Cup, Seaham Red Star - managed by former Hartlepool boss Billy Horner - went out to Bridlington, and Gretna, latterly yet more exalted, went top of the Northern League for the first time after a 1-0 win at Whitby.

As for Newcastle's supersub, it may not have been just like watching Brazil, after all. He never scored again and was last heard of as team manager at Barrow.

Had there been more slack in the personal timetable, today's column may well have taken the train to Whitby to report on the extraordinary efforts to provide modern sports facilities for the Mulgrave area.

More soon, it's to be hoped, but in the meantime Sandsend village shopkeeper Doug Raine reports that they're already planning an official opening. "We're hoping to get Geoffrey Boycott...."

A football match on the morning of July 15 - Cornforth United Juniors Old Boys v Coxhoe WMC - remembers one of those true local heroes who so selflessly nurture the grass roots game.

Tommy Fitzgerald, 66 when he died suddenly in Blackpool last year, had helped form the Juniors in 1980 and was club chairman.

"He was always taking kids to matches or watching kids at matches. Tommy was all for kids and they loved him," says Theresa, his widow.

"A wonderful feller, a heart just for the young 'uns and for the village of West Cornforth," says Dave Wynn, the secretary.

Spennymoor lad originally, Tommy kept goal for King Street school and for Spennymoor United until he broke his leg, had a trial with Preston North End but declined terms because his dad didn't want him to leave home.

"Friends and neighbours had had a whip round to buy him some football boots," recalls Theresa. "Before that he'd just played in his ordinary boots."

The Juniors, under 18s, also enjoyed a 15-year exchange scheme with Xanthen, a German boys' side.

"We'd end up paying the referee or the transport out of our own pockets," says Theresa, who was treasurer. "It didn't matter because it kept the bairns off the streets and we enjoyed it as much as they did."

The game's at Coxhoe community centre, kick-off 11am, with a free buffet by Colin and Trish Rothbury. Proceeds will go to the community centre and to the local medical centre.

From Crook to Leeds for Regan

Squeezed somewhere amid the World Cup, Wednesday's paper carried a paragraph about Stewart Regan, Yorkshire County Cricket Club's new chief executive.

Could it be the same Stewart Regan, Crook lad and champion schoolboy athlete, who not two years ago we'd interviewed in his new role as managing director of the Football League Championship? It could, indeed.

"We have constantly to innovate," he said at the time. "Look at Twenty20 cricket which has turned a bloody boring game that could go on for days into great entertainment."

Stewart's father was a police sergeant and dog training expert at Harperley Hall, near Crook. He himself applied for the police but was turned down because of a hearing problem and gained instead a degree in American studies at Hull University.

In football as cricket, his chief aim was to put bums on seats. In his first season, crowds at football's second tier rose to their highest for 50 years.

Previously a high flyer with Coors brewery, he still lived in Leeds with his family and ill-behaved dog - "My dad would have a fit" - even when with the Football League.

Yorkshire have bought their ground, now officially Headingley Carnegie, for £12m, are guaranteed Test cricket until 2019 but to Stewart's understandable chagrin have failed to land any of the upcoming Twenty20 internationals or finals.

He's not yet been able to return the column's calls. The more pressing problem is trying to oversee a first county championship victory of the season.

The Squire of Ravensworth, meanwhile, was at the Somerset county ground at Taunton last Sunday for an Elton John concert - personally serenaded, reports The Times, by the song Tiny Dancer. "Ballerina, you must have seen her, dancing on the sand." I T Botham? Whatever can it all mean?

As often as not it's the Queen, or one of her nearest, who presents the prizes at Royal Ascot. Yesterday it was Ernie Peterson, stable lad extraordinary.

Born on Wearside, still an avid Sunderland fan, Ernie's been at Middleham since 1946, had a Lifetime in Racing event named after him at Doncaster four years ago and, last December, jointly won the Stable Staff of the year award at the Caf Royal. Now 75, he still works for Mickey Hammond.

"He's a real racing character. Everyone's looking forward to seeing him in a morning suit," says Raye Wilkinson, of Racing Welfare.

Ernie's one of many this week who we've simply not been able to get hold of. More of him, with luck, before the race runs much further.

Peter Drake in Newcastle sends evidence that we've been complaining about football referees ever since the game kicked off.

The report's from The Sportsman, December 1872. In those days, the officials were called umpires and there were two of them.

"A once prominent association player went through the farce of pretending to umpire but his opinion was rarely asked for and, when asked for, systematically overlooked," said the report.

"In the event of an appeal, his back was either turned or he wasn't looking at the exact moment, or he displayed painful indecision or else absolute mental vacuity. It might have been better if he'd never appeared."

Truly there is nothing new under the sun.

Tuesday's note about the Welsh rugby team's fixture against Argentina in Patagonia - a sort of South American New South Wales - prompted John Briggs in Darlington to further research.

The first Welsh settlers had arrived in 1865, anxious to protect a lifestyle they believed to be endangered in Wales. It was the day that Jones the Boat met Chief Antonio, but the Argentinians welcomed them.

They settled in what is now the city of Puerto Madryn, where the game earlier this month was played. Though a few returned, perhaps the original ex-Pats, they still celebrate Landing Day each July 28 with poetry, teas and much raising of the rafters.

It had been as the old adage supposed: when they arrive somewhere new, an Englishman builds a shop and an American a school. A Welshman builds a chapel.

...and finally

Tuesday's column sought the identity of the only two footballers with North-East clubs who, since its inception in 1948, had won the Football Writers' player of the year award. Despite the clue that it happened in successive seasons, none knew.

They were both with Newcastle United - Andy Cole in 1997 and Les Ferdinand the year previously.

Today, back to the Welsh - and Brian Shaw in Shildon seeks the identity of the last Welshman to captain the FA Cup winners at Wembley.

The answer on Tuesday - but only a bisit to the Highland Games in Scotland.