Hamilton looks back to where it all started

Bill Hamilton, the man he succeeded, is but a bairn of 67, still referees a good standard of football, still works, still plays the piano at the local Salvation Army.

Remember Bill Hamilton? He was the Dundee lad who was sports editor of the Hartlepool Mail, a reporter at 22 with Tyne Tees Television – where, inevitably, he answered to Oor Wullie – and first news editor of the independent Radio Tees before becoming one of BBC Television’s top correspondents in trouble spots worldwide.

Little may have been hairier, however – as Hamilton’s new autobiography discloses – than covering Hartlepool United during the managerial reign of Alvan Williams.

“Tiger” Williams was a large and aggressive Welshman who, like many a manager before and since, failed to grasp the maxim that it was no good shooting the messenger for bringing the news.

The Mail brought it every evening, its reports bylined Sentinel, the club’s fortunes at once indicated by the expression of Docker, the cartoon character on the front page of the Saturday night Green ‘un.

Successive Sentinels were at the club every day, travelled on the team bus, ate with the players – when not sent alone to the naughty corner, like some infant school miscreant – strove to maintain objectivity.

“It wasn’t my fault they were bottom of the league,” pleads Bill, now as then, though Alvan Williams was anxious to spread his disfavours.

The book recalls the occasion on which he had the young reporter by the coat against the wall. Bill himself tells the column how he saw the manager bouncing a player’s head off it.

“It was unbelievable. I should have put something in the paper but I was only 19 or 20 at the time. It wasn’t a very comfortable existence.”

When the editor did finally complain to Pools chairman Ernie Ord about the treatment afforded the Green ‘un greenhorn, Ord at once ordered the manager to join him and Hamilton for a posh dinner at the Grand Hotel.

Civility was sustained until Ord was called away to the telephone. “The blood just all welled into Williams’s face, and then he started….”

Things improved when they finished mid-table, yet further when the team was given a civic reception for avoiding re-election.

Bill Hamilton moved to Tyne Tees, made a name, prospered.

His last appointment at Radio Tees was the young Jeff Stelling, a news reporter sent to provide live match coverage because someone else was ill.

“He was almost literally wetting himself, poor lad. Look at him now, the most confident sports broadcaster you’ll ever see,” says Bill.

Alvan Williams became manager of Southend and of Wrexham, then a pub licensee in London and was once charged with murder.

He was acquitted.

DUNDEE was the city of jam, jute and journalism, now only of the last. Bill had begun his journalistic career as a £5 10s a week cub on the Fife Herald, knew nothing of Hartlepool (nee West Hartlepool) save that when United were at home they usually featured on his old dad’s four aways.

The book quotes Brian Clough’s observation that people said he’d drop off the end of the world if he went to Hartlepool and that sometimes he wished that he had.

Hartlepool was literally dying on its feet, says Bill, the Victoria Ground even more ramshackle than he’d thought.

At 14 he’d become Scotland’s youngest referee, had charge of a pre-season friendly at Dundee when just 16, had charge of Northern League games when in the North- East.

He’s refereed twice at Wembley – celebrity matches – but never at Hampden, was given a star-studded dinner to mark 50 years in the middle, still refs in the Spartan South Midland League second division.

“I’ve really been graced with good health, I can still pass the fitness test and my legs can still go,” he says. “I was always told about selling a decision, that it’s easier to do it from ten yards away than it is from 30.

At Tyne Tees he’d been given a roof over his head by a Salvation Army couple at Shiremoor, attended meetings, remains a non-uniform wearing “adherent” – he still likes a half of lager, he says.

He now lives in St Albans, still makes films, continues the global charity work that won the admiration of the Duchess of York among many others, rues greatly what’s happened to regional television, remains close friends with the unforgettable John Motson.

“No one recognises me now.

It’s amazing how quickly they forget but I think that’s a good thing because it keeps your feet on the ground.

“We’ve been the lucky generation, the one after the war but before all the present worries. It’s been a wonderful life in journalism, even covering Hartlepool United.”

* An eye-opening and affectionate account of a lifetime in journalism, Man on the Spot: a Broadcaster’s Story by Book Guild Publishing (£17 99.).

Bidding farewell to Norman, the ‘genuine old school gentleman’

TUESDAY’S column recorded the passing of Norman Wilkinson, York City’s all-time leading scorer and a genuine, old school gentleman. Norman was 80; that night, City did him proud.

Marshall Lawson and three other old friends from Annfield Plain were invited down to Bootham Crescent for the Conference game with leaders Wimbledon. A minute’s silence was observed, Norman’s record read over the public address.

Best of all, City – beaten 4-0 last Saturday – whipped the Dons 4-1. “They really put on a show for Norman. The only pity was that he wasn’t there to see it,” says Marshall, Annfield Plain FC’s secretary for half a century.

Norman’s funeral will be held at Mountsett crematorium, near Dipton, at 1.15pm on Tuesday February 8.

SAVE for national service, Norman never left Annfield Plain, a part-time hero and full-time shoe repairer.

Among those who said kind things about his obituary was George Alberts, who read it in Thailand.

George – former Gateshead Reserves goalkeeper, manager of the Durham Millburngate shopping centre and sponsor of the Durham County Cricket League – is a long-time correspondent.

These days he rings, too.

Technology’s wonderful.

At any rate, he also sends a picture taken the other night in Shenanigans Irish Bar in Chonburi of him being presented with a Gateshead shirt by Laurence Dinning, MD of Rooney’s Scrap in Gateshead.

George also remembers that, long ago he’d take his daughter to church past Rooney’s premises. Whether fallen or stolen, the S in “scrap” had disappeared.

“I had to avert her eyes,” says George. “Any reference to the present day is, of course, coincidental.”

FROM somewhere near the perishables section of Asda in Stanley, Alderman Jim Griffiths reports the North-East’s first sighting of a Liverpool shirt – “worn by a big fat lad” – with “Carroll 9” on the back. It was Wednesday morning. The gentleman had signed 36 hours earlier.

AMOS the donkey has reared his handsome head again. Nothing out of the ee-aw-ordinary there, then.

Amos was the Barnsley mascot in 1910. There’s a famous picture of him outside the Clarence Hotel, an image to which the column first alluded in 2002.

These days the Radio 5 Live website has a regular contributor called I Was Amos the Donkey. Martin Birtle in Billingham spots another incarnation on the back cover of the February issue of Down Your Way, a Yorkshire nostalgia magazine. The magazine describes Amos as an ass, adds Martin. No relation, naturally.

ANOTHER good braying, Amos made it into the “Useless information”

section of the column’s 2-2 Christmas round-up.

It also recalled that the Sri Lankan cricket team had bought every pair of long johns in the Meadowhall Centre in Sheffield en route to a May match in Chester-le-Street, that a snow plough had been spotted in Tow Law on July 5, that the singer Alan Price had turned down a directorship at Sunderland FC because they wanted £100,000 in exchange – a stricture which appears not to have applied to Mr David Miliband – and that Hugo Viana, the Magpies’ 45, had the highest outfield squad number in the Premiership.

Players these days are allowed to wear anything up to 99, the current playing record held by Arsenal goalie Wojciech Szczesny, who’s number 53. Manchester City reserve keeper Eirik Johansen, who hasn’t yet played, has the squad number 63.

When Sunderland signed Cameroon striker Patrick Mboma on loan in 2002, he wanted to wear 70 because 1970 was the year of his birth. The Premier League refused; he became No 7, instead.

ALL THIS sexist song-and-dance surrounding the unfortunate Sian Massey – the assistant referee with whom Mr Andy Gray was not overly impressed – reminds Ken Gambles in Knaresborough that her first Premiership outing was Sunderland v Blackpool a few weeks earlier.

The Echo’s man at the match clearly kept his eye on the ball. She didn’t get a mention.

Ken – author of the Sunderlandthemed children’s books about Monty the Black Cat – looked back at the match programme. T he referee was listed as Mr Andre Marriner, his assistants as Mr David Richardson and Mr Sian Massey.

Probably she should count herself lucky. At least, says Ken, they didn’t suspect a misprint and change it to Stan, instead.

ABOVE the headline “Soccer sexism scandal: Sky looks to make amends”, the Middlesbrough fanzine Fly Me to the Moon has a topical, if Nora Batty, cover. We reproduce it with thanks, but without comment (of course.) A COFFEE with Bishop Auckland FC chairman Terry Jackson reveals that it’s not just newspaper men who are worried about circulation figures.

The Bishops’ impressive new Heritage Park ground at Tindale Crescent has a state-of-the-art, ecofriendly system – “everything has to be eco-friendly,” says Terry – which keeps the air circulating in the function rooms.

There’s a posh name for it, but I forget.

What’s not so friendly is the cost – and here Terry lowers his voice to below the level of the Costa cups – of £900 a month.

No longer a breath of fresh air, they’ve pulled the plug again.

And finally...

THE four Premiership or Football League clubs whose names begins and ends with the same letter (Backtrack, February 1) are Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic, Liverpool and Northampton Town. Lots knew.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today invites the identity of the first footballer twice to be sent off while wearing an England shirt.

Dismissed but temporarily, the column returns on Tuesday.