Bobby's a one-eyed hot-shot

Bobby Guy fires the imagination, too. Without sight in one eye since 1969, he has this year bagged a clutch of British and European medals.

The secret? "Good eye, good coordination," he says without acknowledging the singular significance of the observation.

A welder, he'd lost the eye in a works accident when a piece of flying metal irreparably damaged the optic nerve.

"When it first happened, I couldn't put a cup on that table or sugar in my tea. I had no depth perception at all," he says and Barbara Guy recalls her husband's frustration.

"He was very low because there were things he couldn't do, but he's learned to live with it and then just buckled down. We could never have imagined such success, not at clay pigeon shooting, anyway."

When Bobby told the medics he was a welder, they said he'd have to change jobs. When he told them his hobby, they said he was way wide of the mark.

"I had two options, either wrap myself in cotton wool or carry on the way I was - and that's what I did. It gave me an interest and I've had a lot of help," he says.

Eight years later, still a welder, he was in the English down the line shooting team; now he's a crack shot at universal trench, one of six principal clay shooting disciplines.

This year he's won team gold and individual bronze at the European veterans' championships, gold in the British grand prix and silver in the Welsh. Handsome trophies sit on the hearth of his home in Toft Hill, near Bishop Auckland, joined by a no-less-splendid cocktail shaker.

"I'm not sure why they gave me the cocktail shaker," he says, but may drink to it, nonetheless.

Now 62, Bobby was an Eldon Lane lad, played football for the all-conquering Shildon Works Juniors and for Bishop reserves, originally took up game shooting.

"It was really just to get me out of the house. I could walk all day without firing a shot," he says. "Someone suggested we try clay pigeon shooting and things just took off from there."

In universal trench shooting, the competitor faces five traps with no idea from which the clay will fly.

"I don't really know how I do it, but it's no different from football. You didn't know how you did a body swerve, either.

"You have to have discipline, concentration and determination, otherwise you won't get anywhere, but having one eye doesn't seem to have been much of a handicap for me. Your head tells you you're still looking with two."

In the European championships he had an attack of nerves - "you're supposed to be steady and I was shaking all over, sweat running down my legs. In the end, you just do what you normally do."

Next year he has to qualify afresh; this year he's hit almost every target. "I'm pretty pleased," says the prize Guy - a feat of clay beyond argument.

Backtrack Briefs...

Steve Wilson, probably the North-East's most ardent Tranmere Rovers fan, produces an intriguing Liverpool Echo cutting headed: "Dixie is the darlin' of Darlington."

The "Dixie", of course, is William Ralph Dean - still holder of the all-time record for most Football League goals in a season but more conspicuously beloved at Goodison Park than Feethams.

Though the 23-year-old headline may warrant an endorsement on someone's journalistic licence, it's set Steve on the trail of lost treasure.

The story so far: Tranmere were almost bottom of the Third Division (North), Dean having scored more than two-thirds of their goals, when they came to Darlington on March 14 1925. There was to be no Rovers' return.

Though Dean scored first, a soft header which bounced in front of Quakers' keeper Jim Crumley, two David Brown goals - bringing his seasonal total to 32 - gave Darlington victory.

"It was excellent fare for the 5,063 spectators," the Sports Despatch reported.

Three days later, Dean was transferred for £2,900 to first division strugglers Everton, one of three big money signings inside a week which included Jack O'Donnell, Darlington's Gateshead-born left back, for £2,700.

"Cash for players regardless of cost," lamented a stunned Northern Echo sports writer.

Dean famously came good, hitting 32 goals in his first Everton season - just six short of the then League record held by fellow Evertonian Joe Freeman - but was seriously injured in a motor cycle accident in 1926, fracturing both skull and jaw.

"Doctors were afraid he could not live for many hours, his survival astonished them," observed Thomas Keates's golden jubilee Everton history. When he finally recovered, they told him he'd never play again.

In 1927-28, however, he scored in the first nine games - including five against Manchester United. By season's end he had 60 League goals, including a hat-trick in the final game against Herbert Chapman's Arsenal, which clinched the title.

It was one better than George Camsell's 59 for second division Middlesbrough the previous season, 17 more than any other first division striker has ever managed. Four years later, Dean's 44 goals helped Everton to the championship again.

He scored 473 goals in 502 senior appearances, died at Goodison Park - where he would have wished - in March 1980, whilst watching Everton play Liverpool.

Steve Wilson lives in Darlington. The Liverpool Echo story told of a framed article in the Feethams board room about Dean's final bow for Tranmere.

He's spoken to George Reynolds and to others at the new ground. They've tried to help but can't find it.

Fearfully concerned about his team's present form - two wins and "horrible, long ball, boring football" - he urgently needs cheering up.

Does anyone know where Dean's been, where Steve might find that framed farewell? We'll pass on any information.

March 14 1925? Two goals from Dowsey gave Newcastle United Reserves victory over Shildon in the Newcastle Infrmary Cup final, South Shields drew at Crystal Palace in the second division and Durham City increased re-election fears to the third when going down 6-0 at Chesterfield.

Wingate Albion Comrades drew 3-3 with Whitburn in the Durham Professional Cup, Sunderland drew with Bolton and Middlesbrough's nine men held Oldham to a goalless stalemate. "In all my wandering at the heels of the side," wrote To'T, "I have never seen such determination."

Tuesday's note on legendary Sunderland goalkeeper Jim Montgomery, 60 yesterday, stirred memories for Martin Birtle of the side's first match of 1968-69 - a 2-1 defeat at Stoke City.

He even recalls that the Potters' programme was called the Ceramic City Clipper.

Sunderland's sole strike was a Gordon Harris penalty. "No power, no penetration, all the failings of last season," wrote Frank Johnson in the Echo.

Monty, he added, had made two "wonder saves". Martin Birtle particularly remembers the one from George Eastham.

"It was so stupendous that Stoke's goalkeeper walked out of the penalty area to applaud him." Gordon Banks knew a thing or two about the custodial art as well.

August 10, 1968? Margaret Auton of Hartlepool and Dorothy Harrison from North Ormesby had been picked for the British Olympic swimming squad in Mexico, Hartlepool drew with Bournemouth in their first third division game, a 90th minute John McNamee own goal gave West Ham a point at St James's and F E Allen's 123 for Durham against Cumberland tempted the Echo's headline writer into a semantic timewarp. "Durham go gay," we said.

Barely six months after being threatened with outer darkness, Evenwood Town FC switched on their new floodlights on Tuesday evening.

The old pylons had been declared unsafe, the new vision quite magnifi cent. "Draught or electric?" a beer buff asked. They're still powered from a generator.

Among those present for the Evenwood illumination was the Rev Frank Campbell, a Church of Scotland minister who lives near Jedburgh and is the club's programme editor. He'd left home, wing and a prayer, at 6pm.

The old lights were temperamental, these worked perfectly. The minister was taking no chances, however. "I've brought some spare shillings for the meter," he said.

And finally...

The first sponsored competition in English professional football (Backtrack, October 7) was the Watney Cup.

It was played in 1969 between the two teams in each division who'd scored most goals.

It was also the competition in which George Best became the first player to score in a penalty shoot-out - in the final between Manchester United and Hull City.

Another today from Brian Shaw in Shildon - an invitation to name the three Scottish League clubs which Alex Ferguson managed before moving to Manchester United in 1986.

We manage again on Tuesday.

Published: 10/10/2003