Backtrack
Clique and go
8:41am Saturday 25th May 2019
Sir Ian Botham and David Thomas, international sportsmen and pretty much of an age, played Barnard Castle Cricket Club last Friday evening.
Mike Amos: Queen for the day as all roads head to Dumfries
8:30am Saturday 25th May 2019
On and off for many a year, it has been the column’s irregular custom to convene a gathering of the FA Cup Escape Final Committee (and Scotch Pie Fest), its direction northwards, its intention obvious.
Mountaineer Alan Hinkes may have hit 65 but insists he’s still at the top
8:40am Saturday 18th May 2019
The Times, still supposed the top people’s paper, recorded the other day the 65th birthday of Alan Hinkes, a man with a unique place among the nation’s high achievers.
Mike Amos: Region's top Watford fan in fine fettle ahead of FA Cup final
6:00am Saturday 18th May 2019
A beer at Darlington Cricket Club where Jonny Barnes, one of the North-East game’s great all-rounders, has clicked over another decade and looks forward to playing for Durham County over 50s.
Mike Amos: Magic moments as the football season edges to an end
5:10am Saturday 11th May 2019
LARGELY unmemorable, the football season edges to an end. Both with a back story, the column’s final matches – probably – took place over the bank holiday weekend.
Washing cycle: Mike Amos spends a couple of hours in a launderette
5:10am Saturday 11th May 2019
HIS book on North-East football has twice been named among the top 50 sports books of all time; two of his cricket books have won the MCC/Cricket Society’s top annual award.
Mike Amos: Last man standing from epic FA Amateur Cup team dies aged 89
6:00am Sunday 5th May 2019
Tommy Riley, last man standing in the Crook Town team which won the twice replayed and truly epic FA Amateur Cup final in 1954, has died. He was 89.
Mike Amos: Dropping a Berwick with anxious fans at the North-East’s favourite Scottish League club
6:50am Saturday 4th May 2019
Three things everyone knows about Berwick-upon-Tweed: it’s in England (just), it’s at war with Russia and its football team plays in the Scottish League.
Travellers derailed - the football team with the motto “Ah well, we tried”
5:00am Saturday 27th April 2019
Travellers derailed
Fifty years since North Shields became last Northern League club to lift FA Amateur Cup, surviving players share happy memories
5:00am Saturday 27th April 2019
FIFTY years to the day since North Shields became the last Northern League club to lift the FA Amateur Cup, the surviving players gathered to share happy memories.
Ex-Darlington player loses cancer battle
5:05am Saturday 20th April 2019
FORMER Darlington footballer Ian Larnach, a man for whom the word “indomitable” was inadequate and “incredible” an understatement, has died after an eight-year battle with serious illness. He was 67.
Executive stress
5:04am Saturday 20th April 2019
HE has been an England opening batsman, chairman and secretary of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, Durham’s director of cricket and just the other day had the members’ lounge named in his honour.
Ingleton from the cold - on the sort of afternoon better suited to Winter Olympics, cricket returns
5:00am Saturday 20th April 2019
ON the sort of afternoon that might better have been suited to Winter Olympics, cricket returned last Sunday to Ingleton.
Horses for courses - A little less expansive than usual, the column still tries to get a quart into a pint pot
10:40am Saturday 6th April 2019
MYOPICALLY handicapped, we’re stumbling around the 19th at Bishop Auckland Golf Club when asked if we’re there for the 125th anniversary. It’s not the case.
Tait’s achilles heel
5:03am Saturday 30th March 2019
BARELY five minutes, or so it seems, since excited headlines greeted his emergence, Mathew Tait is hanging up his rugby boots.
Abiding memories
5:03am Saturday 30th March 2019
A FUNERAL service for Derek Lewin, among the most lustrous of amateur football’s golden age, was held at Charnock Richard, in Lancashire, on Tuesday.
Stewart Regan: “Alzheimer’s disease hurts like hell when it involves your loved ones”
5:00am Saturday 30th March 2019
STEWART REGAN was a very powerful man – managing director of the Football League Championship, successively chief executive of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and of the Scottish FA and a key player in UEFA.
Seven aside
5:03am Saturday 23rd March 2019
LAST week’s column bid premature farewell to Bootham Crescent, York City’s much-loved home for 87 years but knew – of course – that we’d be back.
Final whistle
5:03am Saturday 23rd March 2019
MICK HENDERSON, believed to be football’s oldest referee, is hanging up his whistle after 65 years in the middle.
Custodial sentences
8:56am Saturday 16th March 2019
Two days after they committed Gordon Banks to safe keeping, Henry Nicholson – another goalkeeper, pretty good himself – was laid to rest.
Award winning columnist Mike Amos tells the stories of North-East grassroots sport stalwarts and looks back at the characters that live long in the memory
Sport Columnists
Scott Wilson
Wilson's World
Chief sports writer Scott Wilson takes a look back at the last seven days in sport and picks his chumps and champs of the week.
Paul Fraser
Fraser Kicks Off
Chief football writer Paul Fraser keeps an eye on the region’s football scene and considers whether Newcastle United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough do things right.
Mike Amos
Backtrack
Award winning columnist Mike Amos tells the stories of North-East grassroots sport stalwarts and looks back at the characters that live long in the memory.
Paul Fraser
Fraser From The Fairway
Golf writer Paul Fraser takes a look at the North-East golf scene.
Trevor Oakley
Darlo Diary
Trevor Oakley, 34, has supported Darlington FC for over 25 years, seeing few highs and many lows. Like all fans, he has his opinions; time will tell whether you agree.
