WE'LL stick with the Newcastle United and Manchester United connection of recent weeks and go back to our friend John Gibson in Newcastle for this week's story. John's story involves one of his old friends, George Best.
"Sometimes, only sometimes, a footballer transcends his station and attains pop-idol status, adored by squealing girls," he says. "One of course was George Best, another David Beckham. I knew them both and witnessed the adulation first hand.
"George was the best, roguishly handsome, a Beatle in all but name. He was in his pomp a wondrous player and a devastating lad on the pull.
"The trouble was booze came with the birds and it was a heady mix. I worked with him many times doing talk-ins across our patch. He was either a glorious story teller or an absolute sloshed nightmare."
John recalled an evening when George arrived for a talk-in at a venue in Chester-le-Street with his latest bimbo in tow. "He arrived late and fixed me with glazed eyes and a manic grin," he says. "It was apparent he had been on the sauce.
"Our hosts filled him up with more drink before we launched into a question and answer session. I produced plenty of questions but there were no coherent answers. Just a slurred Irish burr and a few hand gestures.
"The questions got longer and the answers shorter. Eventually, like Terry Wogan who had to wrap up his chat show with George, I did the same. Being a sober side-kick ain't a lot of fun.
"However, on another occasion in Newcastle's city centre, George was in sparkling form. witty and sharp, cutting and funny."
John also recalled the iconic story of the Irish waiter who brought the champagne to George's bedroom where Miss World, Mary Stavin, was lying on the bed in a negligee, with several thousand pounds of gambling winnings littering what was left of the space around her.
"George," said the concerned waiter, "where did it all go wrong?"
George Best at Old Trafford in 1969
Exactly 50 years ago today, John was at St James' Park reporting on the Newcastle United versus Manchester United First Division game. It was the day a newspaper office had received a phone call from someone who said they were from the IRA and that if Best played at St James' Park, he would be shot. It was at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland and everyone took the threat seriously.
"Manchester United manager Frank O'Farrell gave George the option of pulling out of the game," says John, "but that of course would have opened the door for every crank north, south, east and west to make similar phone calls in the future. Bestie could have ended up never playing again. So Best said he would play.
"The trouble was the Man U coach which had been parked in the hotel underground car park had been broken into overnight, which only heightened the tension. On the Saturday afternoon when the team got on the bus to go to St James', two detectives boarded the coach with Bestie, who wasn't allowed in his usual window seat in case anyone took a shot at him. In fact, George was lying in the aisle when the bus set off for the ground.
"When the teams ran out, police were everywhere, scouring the rooftops with high powered binoculars. Bestie told me later he had never run about so much in his life. You know a moving target and all that....
"Typically he scored the only goal of the game.
Newcastle manager Joe Harvey in 1974
"Afterwards as the police gave Manchester United an escort out of town, Newcastle boss Joe Harvey was at the press conference lamenting George's winner.
"Never a one to mince his words, Joe groaned: 'I wish they had shot the little bugger.'
"When George found out later he guffawed: 'Thanks Joe, but my shot was the only shot on target all afternoon."
WE are having a hard time with deaths right now and John Raw reports the passing in September of Malcolm Scott from South Shields who played Championship cricket for Northants, alongside Colin Milburn. Malcolm also played football for Newcastle United between 1954 and 1961, filling in at centre half for Bob Stokoe.
Jimmy Morland, the former Shildon BR cricketer, has also left us recently, while John Tobin who cracked the goals in for Crook Town, Bishop Auckland, Durham City, Spennymoor United and Willington is another to pass away. As a youngster in 1957-58, John played alongside the great Seamus O'Connell at Bishop Auckland in an FA Cup tie against Bury.
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