Maurice Fussey, a referee who may many times have cursed heredity's bad name, was due to take Newcastle v Liverpool on August 21, 1971 when, in the act of removing his bag from the luggage rack at Newcastle Central station, he damaged two vertebrae in his neck.

Terry Farley, the 38-year-old senior linesman, was told on arrival at St James' Park that he would be in charge. Bill Shankly, famous for his deadpan drollery that football wasn't a matter of life and death but something altogether more serious, awaited in the visitors' dressing room.

Then as now, very likely, there'd been a well-publicised edict to referees about clamping down on rampant foul play.

"How do you intend to interpret it, Mr Farley?" growled Shanks.

"By the letter of the law, Mr Shankly," said Terry.

The referee departed, changed and within 15 minutes of kick-off had decided that the letter of the law applied initially to big Larry Lloyd, Liverpool's English international centre half. The popular prints were aghast - it was Lloyd's third booking within a year.

Nick Scurr in The Northern Echo considered nonetheless that it was "a very competent display of refereeing in the new style"; Bill Shanks, predictably, was rather more circumspect.

"Apart from that the referee was fairly reasonable," conceded the Great Man, and from him it was plain effusive.

Lloyd appealed. Fussey, watching from the stand, said he'd be prepared to speak up for the player. The Daily Express called it soccer history, bluntly headlined it Ref v Ref, claimed that Lloyd was "chocked" though it's possible that they meant choked.

No-one said anything about a pain in the neck.

Terry still keeps the cuttings. "I admit it was a fairly innocuous tackle, but I was doing what we'd been told to do.

"I wouldn't care but it was a marvellous football match, the rest of the game nee bother as you might say. There were 40,000 in, two penalties, two disallowed goals and Malcolm Macdonald scored a hat-trick before being carried off after colliding with Ray Clemence."

He was on the Football League "supplementary" list in those days, usually allowed eight lower division games each season but removed the following May.

"I really thought my chance had gone," says Terry. "You very rarely got a second bite."

Twelve months later, however, he was returned to the supplementary list. In 1975, after running the line in the Charity Shield at Wembley, he became a Football League referee.

He has lined for the revered Wolverhampton butcher Jack Taylor in a Fairs Cup tie between Barcelona and Juventus, for George Courtney (the butcher's dog) in Portugal and twice in Scottish internationals at Hampden Park - once joined by Pat Partridge and Tom Smith, all three match officials from Co Durham.

Now Terry Farley, one of the genuinely nice men of football, is marking 50 years involvement with refereeing.

His son Gary, 43, has belatedly whetted his whistle, too, progressing swiftly through the levels, but too late to reach the top. "There's a rumour going around that he's better than I was," says his dad.

"If I found out who started it, there'll be solicitor's letters fleein' about."

He was born and raised in Ferryhill Station, played for West Cornforth Juniors, took to refereeing at 18 after deciding that he'd never be good enough to play senior football.

On January 4, 1952 he presented himself to Durham FA headquarters, answered some questions based on a Subbuteo-type pitch and 22 miniature men, and (as they say) immediately took out his cards.

For three years he was restricted to Durham junior leagues ("a tremendous standard") finally becoming a Northern League referee and North Regional League linesman, but - though famously fit - with little hope of further advancement.

"In those days NE didn't mean North-East to a referee up here, it meant non-existent. Then they introduced feeder leagues in 1965 and we were all given a chance on the Football League line."

Familiarly white-haired, he has been secretary of the Bishop Auckland Referees' Society for almost 40 years, for 18 years the refs' rep on Durham FA, and is still an assessor in the Northern and Unibond leagues - a man dedicated to the craft and to ensuring that grass roots football doesn't wither for want of referees.

"Our problem in Co Durham and elsewhere isn't recruiting them, it's retaining them. We've had about 80 qualify in the last two months and we'll be lucky to keep 20.

"Clubs complain if they don't get a referee but it's up to them to make it more enjoyable for him, to give a new referee the chance to establish himself.

"A referee has to be dedicated, enthusiastic and to have a skin like a rhinoceros but you can't expect him to enjoy it if he's getting abused both on and off the field."

He himself enjoyed almost all his career until retiring from active refereeing in 1982, though - inevitably - there were days memorable for the wrong reasons.

"I remember a match between Bishop Auckland and Tow Law when there were punches thrown and all sorts.

"I was so bad that at the end a policeman came on the field and said he thought it better if I went with him.

"As we were going off, a little lad of ten or 11 ran up and offered me a pair of glasses. It was one of the days every referee gets where you go home, throw your gear into the kitchen and say you're packing in. Fortunately, most of us have changed our minds by the following Saturday."

He worked on the railways - "I used to go down to Ferryhill station to watch the Flying Scotsman - joined Aycliffe Development Corporation finance department in 1960, still lives in Newton Aycliffe, where he owns a driving school and is also a magistrate.

Though few mementos of his middle man days are visible round the house, there's a photograph on the wall of Spurs v Leeds United - Ardiles to the right of him, Lorimer to the left - which arrived with a tongue-in-cheek note from the Football League.

"Glad to see you're keeping up with play for once," it said.

Terry still keeps up with play, admits he'd love to play it again.

"If you're young enough and you have the ability, there's no reason you can't go right to the top, where nowadays it's both glamorous and lucrative."

His 50 years good and faithful service will be acknowledged at a dinner later this year. "If they let me," he says, "I'd start refereeing again tomorrow."

John Milburn, whose e-mail address is shanksisgod and whose blood flows Liverpool red, writes by happy coincidence about the column's impending visit to Lewes - v Tow Law, FA Carlsberg Vase fifth round - on February 9.

Lewes is Sussex's county town, noted, says John - who used to live that way - for its extravagant celebration of Bonfire Night.

For reasons unexplained - but which someone may know - they burn an effigy not of Guy Fawkes, but of the Pope.

"I have no opinions on the subject," adds John, diplomatically.

From Hails of Hartlepool, a rather more indignant note draws attention to a page one paragraph in Tuesday's paper about Methwold Hythe FC, Norfolk, who claim a "record" ten members of the same family on their books.

"How dare the editorial staff encroach upon territory belonging to us humble Backtrack chappies?" Ron demands.

His point, at any rate, is that in cricket it was common for teams to comprise 11 family members - the Graces, perhaps unsurprisingly, among those who kept the game in the family.

As recently as 1984 - Mr Hails is naught if not assiduous - the Buckingham family took on the Matravers family at Huish Champflower in Somerset.

Thanks chiefly to 84 from Buckingham (S), notwithstanding 3-16 from Matravers (A D), the Buckinghams won by 17 runs.

Familiar on just about every North-East cricket ground, Tony "Jesus" Day finds himself under house arrest after a heavy night on the gin and dandelion and burdock ("my two favourite drinks put together") and the hard word from the medics.

He rings nonetheless with memories of Janet Stubbs, the ebullient Darlington scorer whose death we noted last week.

Tony had been at Stockton, Durham v Lancashire, when he overheard Janet talking ("to some chap in a blazer") about the time she'd briefly scored for England in New Zealand.

"I'll bet that mucked up the averages," said Tony.

"If I was a man I'd knock your block off," said Janet.

He'll miss her, as we all shall. "A wonderful character," he says.

It was also Hails of Hartlepool who in Tuesday's column sought the identity of the sportsman who played both cricket and football for England, rugby for the Barbarians, held the world long jump record for 21 years and was invited to become King of Albania.

Though it caused widespread consternation, the answer - of course - was Charles Burgess Fry.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today invites readers to name the first club to win all four divisions of the "old" Football League.

We return, foursquare. On Tuesday