The 91-year-old that won the cup for Coundon in 1954

We started with the 1953-54 football season when the Coundon St Joseph's football team beat Chilton in the final of the Tudhoe Orphanage Cup at the Brewery Field, Spennymoor. Gerard said: "Besides myself, there is only one other member of the team who is still with us and that is John Kelly who lives in Spennymoor. I can't remember the result, but it was either 3-1 or 3-2 to us.

"I was playing centre half, having taken over from Tom Lee, who was the number five at the start of the season. He wasn't very tall and one Saturday afternoon he was getting a right old runaround by the opposition centre forward so he shouted over to me at left half: 'You go centre half Gerard, you'll be able to stop him.'

"So in the final against Chilton I was the centre half and their centre forward was a fella called Jane who tried to wind me up. 'You'll not see which way I go,' he said.

“However, I was fresh out of the air force where I’d done my National Service and I had been playing with, and against, some top class players, so he didn't bother me as much as he thought he would.

The trophy that was awarded to Gerard Fleming after the Coundon St Joseph's football team beat Chilton to win the Tudhoe Orphanage Cup in 1954

"Our team was a Catholic parish team, all the lads went to the St Joseph’s Catholic Church. It was a different story with the cricket – they were all Methodists so it was pointless any of us going for a game of cricket.

“Religion was very important back then. One of my brothers went for a job at a well known firm of solicitors. The last question that they asked him at his interview was: 'Which church do you go to?' Of course he said ‘St Joseph’s’, but he never got the job.

"Coundon St Joseph’s also got very close to the final of the Universal Cup. We met Hartlepool St Joseph’s twice in the semi-finals, but lost both times. The final of that cup was played at Roker Park."

Gerard Fleming is second from the left in the back row of this photo of a Coundon football team. On his left is goalkeeper Terry McMullen and on his right Jim Toole

Gerard continued: "I went to school in Coundon. Miss White took the reception class, Miss Sowerby Standard 1, Miss Neary was Standard 2, Miss Kennedy Standard 3, while the teacher in Standard 4, the Eleven Plus class, was Miss McNulty from Shildon.

“It was funny, but in the Eleven Plus class, more lads from Shildon passed the exam than lads from Coundon.

“After that there was a Form 1 and Form 2, with those of a better ability going into Form 1 before we left at 14 years of age.

“If I had passed the Eleven Plus I might have gone to Ushaw Moor to train to be a priest.

"Father McClean was one of the priests who came to take mass at our church. I generally had a bit of crack with him. When my wife was pregnant, he gave me a medal with Saint Gerard on it because he said Saint Gerard was the patron saint of expectant mothers. From that day, the medal went on to the pram of every child that was born into our family.

"During the Second World War, my brother Joe was with Montgomery pushing through Belgium. Joe had put the word 'Leeholme' on top of a wagon and my other brother, Jack, who had joined the RAF, spotted it on the wagon. He went over to investigate, only to find his brother Joe.

"One of my brothers paid £2,000 for a house. My mother asked: 'Have you paid £2,000 for that house?' He said: 'Yes I have.' She wasn't very happy, but It sold for £380,000.

"I can remember walking down the street one morning in Coundon and Charlie Wayman (who played for Newcastle in the late 1940s and then Boro and Darlington in the 1950s) was walking the other way. I shouted over to him: 'You're not walking very well, Charlie' , and he said: 'It's all those tackles that I took playing for Newcastle, I couldn't care I was only getting £7 a week. Charlie also played at Wembley for Preston North End in an FA Cup final."

Gerard Fleming, 91 years of age, with the trophy he won after Coundon St Joseph's beat Chilton to win the Tudhoe Orphanage Cup in 1954

Gerard recalled some more footballers from the past with a link to Coundon. "There was Ken Whitfield who played with Brighton and Hove Albion, and Harold Houlahan who played for Oldham and Darlington in the Football League. Harold was also on the books of Newcastle United but never played for them, although he later played non-league for Durham City and Spennymoor.

“Then there was Micky Burns, the goalkeeper who played for Newcastle, and also for Preston North End in the 1937 FA Cup final against Sunderland.”