Tributes to Martin Burleigh, John Tobin and Dennis Dolphin

Martin Burleigh

Newcastle United 1973-74: Back row, left to right: Martin Burleigh, Stewart Barrowclough, Tommy Gibb, Irving Nattrass, Iam McFaul.Middle row: Joe Harvey (manager), David Craig, Gordon Hodgson, Tommy Cassidy, Pat Howard, Jim Smith, Terry McDermott and Keith Burkinshaw. Front: Malcolm Macdonald, Bob Moncur, Frank Clark, John Tudor, Tony Green and Terry Hibbitt

WILLINGTON-BORN Martin was a goalkeeper who joined the Magpies from his home town club in 1968, going on to spend six years at St James' where he was an international youth cup winner with the Toon in 1969.

He made his first team debut against Leeds United on Boxing Day 1970 and earned praise from home manager Don Revie despite his side's defeat.

In 1973 he was part of the squad that won the Anglo Italian Cup, but left the club in 1974 and joined Darlington, having two spells there.

He also represented Carlisle United, whose current chairman Andrew Jenkins said: "Martin was a big character who was a pleasure to have around, he was very stylish in the way he kept goal."

Peter Farrell recalls taking Martin to Newcastle's ground in 1972 to see the physio before a game. Peter said: "I was left in the boot room and when Martin returned he asked what size of boot I took. I said seven, so he threw me a size seven Puma boot made from kangaroo skin.

"I later found out from Martin that they were Jinky Jim Smith's boots who wasn't very happy on the Monday morning when he found his boots were missing."

John Tobin

John Tobin, centre of front row with the Spennymoor United team that played Macclesfield in the FA Cup Round 2 on Saturday, January 6, 1968. Back row, left to right: R Bell (manager), G Defty, C Richardson, D Crampton, W Lovejoy, P Joyce, R Wright, R Morgan (mascot). Front: S Summerhill, K Banks, J Tobin, A West, J Wilkinson, J McPherson (sub)

JOHN was a very under-rated player. For a tall person, he was deceptively quick off the mark even if his heading ability was not what it might have been. In fact as a youngster, he missed a half chance for the Bishop Auckland against Bury in an FA Cup tie by using his feet in an attempt to score from a low cross at Kingsway in 1957-58. Seamus O'Connell took him to one side and said: "When the ball is knee-high, John, think about a diving header."

We don't know whether John followed the great man's advice.

From Bishop, John seems to have joined Willington because on Saturday, November 26, 1960, he hit a hat-trick for the Hall Lane Club against Tow Law.

Then came one of the biggest disappointments of his career when he joined Crook for the 1961-62 season. It is fair to say that at Crook he did score some goals from the centre forward position, but unfortunately missed quite a few as well. Who doesn't? Anyway, Crook signed Don Sparks and then, in January 1962, Arnold Coates returned from injury and a spell at Evenwood. John lost his place and Crook went on to win the Amateur Cup.

In the 1963-64 season, he was back scoring goals for Willington, and the following season he was scoring for Durham City.

In the 1965-66 season came another disappointment at Crook when the Millfield club reached the quarter-finals of the Amateur Cup with a home tie against Alvechurch. Crook inside forward Bill Roughley was fouled and injured early in the game, while the heavy ground blunted the speed of John at outside right and George Brown at centre forward. Crook lost 2-0 at home.

John seems to have finished his career at Spennymoor where he was at his happiest helping the Moor to a Northern League title in 1967-68, and a Durham Challenge Cup success.

John, an accountant in Crook, took up golf when he retired, and apparently he was just as competitive in that sport as in football.

Dennis Dolphin

Dennis Dolphin third from the left in back row with the Howden-le-Wear Sunday team. Back row, left to right: Bob Emmerson (secretary), D Wright, D Dolphin, D Hutchinson, K Whitfield, A Dolphin, E Stephenson, A Brown, L Dunn (trainer). Front: J Raine (manager), J Pratt, K Goulden, J Taylor, A Butterfield, H Johnson, D Jackson

DENNIS was one of the keenest and happiest footballer/cricketers that we came across.

On the football field, he had a more than useful left peg, could beat a man, and score the odd goal. He played Sunday football with Howden-le-Wear alongside players like Tony Butterfield, Allan Brown and John Taylor, so he was mixing with the cream of non-league players.

His enthusiasm meant that a number of years ago he enjoyed being the joint manager of Crook Town AFC in the Northern League.

On the cricket field, we can go back to the late 1960s when we both played for the North Bitchburn Cricket Club second team captained by local builder Les Slee. We had a midweek cup tie at Witton-le-Wear. The hosts batted first and from their 20 overs finished with a score around the 100 mark. In our reply we were behind the run rate, mainly because I was scratching around like an old hen. A wicket fell and in came Dennis, who went crash, bang, wallop, on his way to 40 in a crack, which meant that at 9pm we were enjoying a celebratory pint in the Victoria pub in Witton.

Only a year or two ago Dennis was turning out for Witton-le-Wear in the Darlington and District League.