After becoming seriously disillusioned with gymnastics - "humiliated," says her mum - Katy Dunn might have had enough of life's up and downs.

Instead, however, she twisted and turned to trampolining - and has just become British Under 13s champion.

"She just stood there and beamed, I just sat there and cried," says Chris, her mum.

"She has enormous potential," says Bill Leach, her coach. "Now that trampolining is an Olympic sport, there's no reason why in four or eight years time she couldn't be an Olympian."

This one, after Susan Coolidge's famed book, could be called What Katy Did Next.

The 12-year-old from Spennymoor trains six days a week at Washington Leisure Centre, came second in her first competition two and a half years ago and has won almost everything since.

Officially a trampolinist bounces; like the sport, she's going up in leaps and bounds.

"It's becoming unbelievably popular, we had 500 at the regional schools championship in Newcastle," says Bill, a national youth squad coach who works for Sunderland city council's education department.

Most participants are girls, though British team member Gary Short also trains at Washington. "It's the gymnastic element which appeals to them," says Bill, "all those wonderful movements and a lot of time in the air. It's now extremely safe as well."

Katy, proficient at the double backwards somersault, is now working on the double forwards somersault. As her father works away, her mum drives her everywhere.

"She has to have the discipline because she knows that if she doesn't do the school work she doesn't go training," says Chris.

Bill Leach tips her, onwards and upwards, for further honours. "She can certainly be a British international in the future. What Katy does next could be absolutely sensational."

The mystery of how Ivan Arthur Broadis became universally known as Ivor (Backtrack, December 10) has been solved by the man himself.

It was a misreading of a registration form when he was an amateur at Tottenham Hotspur; that he changed because he thought Ivan too Russian is (as it were) a red herring.

The former Sunderland and Newcastle United forward, who at 23 had become the Football League's youngest player/manager, will be 82 on Saturday and still enjoys a couple of rounds of golf each week - "if you give up you turn your toes up," he says.

He was born in east London, retains an accent like someone from East Enders, long since settled back into Carlisle and still lives in peace with his pipe.

"A grand old cynic," says a friend, affectionately.

The arbitrary name change didn't worry him, Ivor insists. "I was always Arthur at school and I didn't very much care for that, anyway.

"As long as they didn't call me late for a meal I didn't mind what they called me, though I was a bit upset when someone once took me for a Welshman."

With his son Mike, who followed him into sports journalism, he still watches Carlisle or Gretna most weekends but has only twice recently been back to St James' Park.

"Let's just say the stadium is incredible," says Ivor. "I'm not so sure about the team."

Briefly but bullishly, an anonymity seeking reader from Bishop Auckland challenges the assertion in Friday's column that legendary Charlton Athletic goalkeeper Sam Bartram never won international honours.

On June 17 1939, he insists - via an elderly Northern Echo Football Annual, 212 pages, threepence - Sam played in England's 3-0 win against South Africa.

Unfortunately for Bartram, originally a Boldon collier, it was a "Test" match for which caps weren't awarded - two of the goals were scored by Walthamstow amateur Jim Lewis.

John Milburn in Chester-le-Street was sent scurrying to his 1946 FA Cup final programme, Charlton v Derby, never having realised that Bartram was a local lad.

"It's probably my most valuable programme so I rarely have it out of the cover to check its finer points," he pleads.

John also points out that, though Charlton never built anything in honour of their all-time hero, Sam Bartram Close is an access road to The Valley.

"I agree," he says, "that a statue is more fitting than an access road, anyway."

June 17, 1939? Yorkshire cricketer Herbert Sutcliffe completed 1,000 runs for the 21st successive season, beating David Denton's previous county record; veteran spinner A Shields took a first hat-trick for West Hartlepool and Whitburn captain R Wilby claimed four in four balls then smashed the Eppleton pavilion window with a six.

Brandon Social and Heaton Stannington were admitted at the Northern League annual meeting after the league decided to invade Northumberland; Hartlepools United paid a club record £2000 to West Ham for Irish international centre half Charlie Turner - who for some reason appears never to have played a game; English champion Sydney Wooderson claimed to have been fouled after finishing last in the Mile of the Century race in New Jersey; and at the York Regatta an exhausted oarsman who fell into the Ouse was rescued by a reporter who dived into the river, thus proving that journalists have their uses after all.

The Sunday Times at the weekend carried a feature on sport's greatest One Cap Wonders. Among them was Norman Stewart Mitchell-Innes, known to his contemporaries as Mandy.

As Peter Charlton in Sunderland points out, there is a remarkable North-East connection.

Mitchell-Innes, scorer of more runs for Oxford University than any man before or since, was at Oxford when chosen for England. Despite scoring just five in his only innings he was chosen again but, citing hay fever, cried off and recommended his landlord take his place.

That he scored 136 for the university against Surrey at the same time as the test might not have endeared him to the selectors; he was never chosen again.

Mitchell-Innes subsequently spent 13 seasons with Somerset, his appearances limited by asthma, before taking a gaffer's job at Vaux Brewery and playing club cricket for Sunderland - where he appeared alongside Alec Coxon, another one cap wonder who wouldn't speak to the press even if we'd rescued a rower from the river.

"Norman was an extraordinary hitter of a ball, the only surprise was that he never played for Durham," says Peter.

Mitchell-Innes, 90 in September, is the oldest living English Test cricketer. Alec Coxon, bless him, is the third oldest and will be 89 in January. More of Mandy Mitchell-Innes ere long.

Over 40s League Cup, Steels v Blackhall, 2-2 after extra time and 8-8 after 16 penalties. Steels keeper Nigel Stewart, known for some reason as Caspar as in Magic Ghost, scores the 17th, returns to the sticks and saves the 18th. League secretary Kip Watson's impressed. "I think he got man of the match," he says.

And finally...

The two Charlton Athletic managers who had successful managerial careers in the North-East (Backtrack, December 10) were Lennie Lawrence and Bob Stokoe.

Back to the one cap wonders, readers are today invited to name the South Shields-born footballer who made 25 appearances for England and one for Wales.

Red dragon, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 14/12/2004