The star among the Saints of Darlington

READ MORE: RARE PICTURE OF THE BEST TEAM IN DARLINGTON IS FOUND

The Darlington St Augustines team from 1904-05 at the Chesnut Grove stadium, which was the best in the North East

Isaac "Ikey" Rule and Robert "Bob" Guthrie in the centre on the Darlington St Augustines FC team picture from 1904-05 at Chesnut Grove flanked by H Sheardown and treasurer W Heslin

Second from the right on the back row is the short but powerful figure of R Guthrie who is believed to be the same Robert “Bob” Guthrie who later turned out for West Auckland. Indeed, in West’s first Northern League derby against Bishop Auckland, on November 7, 1908, in front of 5,000 at Kingsway, he put West ahead after five minutes, although the Bishops soon found an equaliser.

Bob is one of only three West players to play in both of their matches in the 1909 World Cup and in the 1911 World Cup. In fact, in 1909, Bob led the players out for their first match in Turin against Stuttgart of Germany, and during the 1911 tournament, the West manager, Miles Barron, revealed in his diary in The Northern Echo that the Italians had nicknamed Bob “Pinoctes” because they were so taken with his style of play.

Why Pinoctes? Not even the internet can explain that one (it keeps suggesting pinocytosis instead, which is something extremely complicated to do with cell biology and nothing to do with a tough-tackling half-back).

The West Auckland World Cup winners in 1911. We think that Bob Guthrie may be to the left of the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy on the centre row, next to Miles Barron who is on the end with the cap and moustache

Where Bob came from before he had his picture taken with St Augustines is unknown, as is what happened to him after twice winning the World Cup.

Harold also points out that standing next to Bob at Chesnut Grove is I Rule which could be a piece of childish graffiti but, more likely, is Isaac “Ikey” Rule. He played for Crook Town in 1901 in the FA Amateur Cup final against King’s Lynn – in fact, he starred in the replay, which Crook won 3-0, as the Echo reported that he “played magnificently, being as industrious ever”.

Quite extraordinarily, Ikey is also said to have played in a charity game against a herd of elephants in Darlington’s South Park. This must have something to do with a circus, but we’d love to know more…

SOMETIMES, your attention is drawn to an item that you had never previously considered and suddenly you are spotting them all over the place…

And so it is with Congreve clocks. These curious timepieces were invented in 1808 by Sir William Congreve and feature a ball rolling in a never-ending zig-zag beneath a clockface. When the ball reaches the end of its journey, it knocks the hands on the clock forward by 15 seconds and immediately begins its return 15-second journey.

READ MORE: THE RUNNING BALL CLOCK OF RICHMOND

An apprentice made one in Richmond around 1835 – that’s the year, and not 35 minutes past six in the evening – and it was on display in a jeweller’s shop window until the late 1960s. Despite our best efforts, we’ve failed to track it down, but we have discovered a working Meccano model of a Congreve clock in Hurworth.

Then last week, readers tell us they spotted a Congreve clock turning up at the BBC’s Repair Shop, and Stephen Green, a maths course leader at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College in Darlington, emailed to say: “I was in Staithes on Saturday and visited the Heritage Centre. It's a proper old town museum that has one of pretty much everything, including lots of photos of the improbable Victorian viaduct, but one exhibit caught my eye: a working Congreve rolling ball clock.”

Captain James Cook is the hero of the Staithes Heritage Centre, which features a street scene that looks it is 1745 when 16-year-old Cook began his working career in William Sanderson’s shop in the seaside village. Therefore, everything has a nautical air to it, even the Congreve clock.

“The clock is an interesting example of early clockmakers’ attempts to harness gravity for clock motion,” says the note beside it. “However, the clock would be useless at sea due to the movement of a ship. The clock is also not very accurate due to its inability to account for thermal contraction. Touching the ball can also cause damage to the clock as grease from the fingers can make it roll unevenly.”

On the Staithes clock, the ball travels 2,770 miles a year.