THE enthusiast who reckons himself Elton John's biggest fan will be conspicuously absent when the Rocket Man holds centre stage at Darlington FC next July.

"I think Elton's fantastic, absolutely A1, but I wouldn't go because there's too much animosity from a small minority," says George Reynolds, the man whose millions built the Arena.

"I was just a few rows off the front when he played Raby Castle and he was brilliant. I've been invited back a few times to Darlington but at the moment it wouldn't be right. I wish Elton and the football club all the best."

The former Quakers chairman, whose musical tastes also embrace Lionel Richie, Kenny Rodgers and Paul Weller, lead singer with The Jam - "I used to spend time with Paul in Spain, a very nice man" - is now 71, lives in Durham and is vigorously pursuing other interests after his latest spell with Her Majesty.

"I'm whiter than white, me,"

he insists.

George reckons to have put £37m into the new ground. "I don't disagree with what the football club is now doing, but when I was there the council wouldn't let me have concerts, car boot sales or even computer fairs. You can't run a business on just six hours' income a month."

Without the distraction of yesterday's telephonic ticket queue, he's exploring fresh avenues, plans a showroom in Meadowfield - "I'll tell you what for later" - but reckons that he had a wonderful time in prison near Wetherby.

"I've just had a friend of mine on the phone, asking how he could get back inside in time for Christmas. He won't be lonely there. If you want a tip, get yourself locked up."

STILL with the Quakers, former defender Jim Willis is getting himself a bit upset at Sky Sports claims - by arch- Hartlepool fan Jeff Stelling - that Steve Finnan was the first man to score in each of football's top five echelons.

Willis - who goodness knows didn't score many - insists that it was him.

"I was shocked when it was announced that Steve was the first player to do it," he says. "I spent the next two nights in the attic, digging out all my old newspaper cuttings to prove it.

"The record's something I want to tell me grandchildren about. I'm gutted they could say it belonged to someone else."

Six goals in 101 competitive appearances for the Quakers, he scored against Altrincham in the 1989-90 Conference season, again in the 4-1 win against Cardiff City the following season and in the opening game of the third division season, a 2-1 win at Bournemouth. Darlington, sadly, still finished bottom.

Transferred to Brian Little's Leicester City for a club record £200,000 - Hartlepool lad Michael Trotter moved at the same time, on a free - he scored in the first division play-offs against Stoke and then, April 1 1995, in the Premiership against Wimbledon.

Jeff Stelling's apologetic. "It must have been the fact that he played for Darlington which bamboozled me," he says.

BISHOP Auckland lad Lee Ellison, another Darlington player in those topsy-turvy days of the early 90s - 22 goals in 109 games - is now player/manager at West Auckland and on Sunday helped Coundon Conservative Club to a winning start in defence of the FA Sunday Cup.

The Cons overtook Ford Motors 3-0, two goals from Ian Lowe and a third from Kevin Bromley. "I was frightened. It was our first match after Anfield. I didn't want to go out at the first hurdle and it's taken a lot of pressure off," admits team manager Paul Aldsworth Game over, they all headed back to the Cons Club. "They were a bit chewy in the match but afterwards just typical Scousers - brilliant."

MISCHIEVOUSLY entitled We'll Always be United - for the club is now Spennymoor Town - a book chronicling the history of senior football in Spennymoor will be launched on November 24.

It's written by Ray Simpson who's anxious not just to beat the drum but to fly the flag - preferably Nellie's flag.

Nellie Downes, who appears to have borne a marked resemblance to Hilda Ogden, made the huge flag after United had won both the North Eastern League and Durham Challenge Cup in successive seasons, 1944-45 and 1945-46.

They wouldn't have been champions the second time around, mind, but Murton CW had four points deducted.

If anyone's still sitting on it, they'd love to run it up the town hall flagpole one more time. We'll pass on information.

DURHAM Senior Cricket League secretary Ray Matthews seeks enlightenment after what may be an unbeatable double - both champions Burnmoor and Whitburn, the runners-up, didn't lose a match. So far as Ray knows it's never happened previously in the Senior League - but has it, in any other sport, anywhere?

FOR reasons beyond the column's control - it was someone else's fault for once - the picture in Friday's column purporting to show Jimmy Scarborough in a 1950s Scarborough team was, in fact, of a Darlington team.

"I think it must have been a pre-season practice match, Whites v Hoops or something,"

corrects 74-year-old Harry Clark, who hit 20 goals in 142 appearances for Darlington and doubled his strike rate - 43 in 118 - after moving down the road to Hartlepool.

Harry can't remember the chap on the left at the back, nor those on either flank of the front row. From the back, the others are Ken Furphy, Jimmy Scarborough, Don Cowan - 17 appearances in Darlington's goal in 1952-53 - local lad Harry Woodcock who made just five first team appearances, and George Wardle.

Tow Law-born centre forward Tom Ward, Jim Keers and Harry himself are the three middlemen at the front.

AND FINALLY...

FRIDAY'S column sought the identity of the current striker who has played for four different teams in four different countries, all of whom have won the Champions League or European Cup. It stumped everyone except Peter Haden in Newton Aycliffe.

The answer's Henrik Larsen, at Feyenoord, Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United and still, says Peter, with Helsingborgs.

Several suggested Cristiano Ronaldo, but his five different clubs in that category include two in Italy and two in Spain.

Interesting enough, though not as interesting - suggests David Wilson - as Ronaldo's wife being world keepy-up champion. Save for the fact that Milene Domingues, pictured, is now the ex-wife of the Brazil world cup winner, this appears to be true.

Known to the Spanish media as Ronaldinha - or sometimes the Queen of the Keep-ups - the Brazilian model's vital statistics are that she managed 55,198 touches with the ball off the ground and that, with fees totalling £200,000, she is also the world's most expensive female footballer.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today invites the identity of the club who made successive Wembley appearances in 1998, 1999 and 2000, each time under a different manager.

Still trying to keep up appearances, the column returns on Friday.