Arthur enjoys the ride of his life

Arthur Puckrin had pedalled 592k or approximately 380 miles, an awfully long way whichever way it's measured. He was 67 last Friday.

"Among the opposition were two teams of ten, all much younger, one of whom complained about me when I was leading after 100 miles, " says Arthur. "The organiser told them to get their fingers out." More extraordinary yet, he'd been involved in a road accident just a week before flying out to the event in Monterrey, Mexico - a bit like South Bank, he says, only bigger.

"I was waiting at a roundabout when a car just smashed me to the ground, breaking my back wheel in three places and taking a load of skin off me as well.

"They managed to fix the bike in time, but I wasn't so sure about myself. I remember thinking that I could without this." Remarkable fellow, Arthur Puckrin.

He left school with two O levels, qualified as a barrister at 28, became a policeman, played rugby for Middlesbrough and still holds several records for the 42 mile Lyke Wake Walk between Osmothelrley and Ravenscar - including 27 hours for the fastest three way crossing.

-? those which take athletic endurance to extremes - and has represented Great Britain at bridge.

"Bridge is every bit as demanding, probably more so, than endurance sports. It's certainly more vicious, " he says.

Still a practising barrister, eternally a law unto himself, his iron mantra remains resolutely cast.

The South American race began in midday heat ? the line about mad dogs and Englishmen comes irresistibly to mind ? causing him to feel so unwell that he had to lie down for two and a half hours in the middle.

"The track was flooded when I arrived, which seemed really up my street, but unfortunately it got hotter.

"I was about 25 miles behind the leader, a young chap called Jesus, but I could see he was tiring and I was able to count him down.

"I was a lovely trophy and a nice medal. I suppose I rather enjoy it, really." Arthur, from Acklam, next plans an assault on the world double ironman title in Quebec in July - five mile swim, 52 mile runs, 224 miles on the bike - but only as a gentle warm-up to next years deca-iron man, five times further in each discipline.

By then he'll be 68. "I'm still much too young to retire, " he says and whatever is the iron age, it certainly doesn't worry Arthur Puckrin.

ON Wednesday to the Northumberland Senior Cup final, a long season's penultimate game, where Whitley Bay beat Newcastle Benfield Saints 2-0 and the programme listed winners since Tyne FC's inaugural triumph in 1881.

Four years later, however, something rather Victorian happened. Having played and drawn five times in the semi-final, Morpeth and Shankhouse grew a bit sick of the sight of one another and agreed to toss a coin to nee who'd meet Newcastle West End in the final.

Should either win the final, it was further agreed, the cup would be held jointly.

Shankhouse won the toss and won the final; Morpeth still listed as joint holders. Another Senior moment from the Backtrack column.

WEEKS after taking charge of his 400th Northern League match - an all-time record widely reported - referee Russell Tiffin is recovering from an horrific car crash and wondering if he'll ever officiate again.

Russell, 45, broke two vertebrae and two ribs, twisted his sternum and suffered whiplash and "a few other bits and pieces" after the accident between Durham and Sacriston.

"Fortunately, " says the former dairy farmer, "my good looks were unaffected." The smash happened when a 4x4, driven by a woman police have still been unable to trace, pulled from a side road in front of him.

"I made an emergency stop because I honestly thought I was going to hit her, " says Russell, a Football League assistant referee for the past 14 years but this time definitely the man in the middle.

"Just as I was coming to a halt, another vehicle went into the back of me and my car crashed off the road and into a field." Firemen took almost an hour to free him. "It was very, very scary, not least all the noise. The car's a convertible now." After a week in hospital - "the first three days flat on my back, because I was in so much pain" - he's now home in Houghton-leSpring with Angela, his wife of 27 years, and their three daughters.

Angela, who in a recent questionnaire in the Northern League magazine he'd insisted he wouldn't swap - "not even for a cow" - has been magnificent.

"Friends have said I need a good solicitor, but what I really need is a marriage guidance counsellor after what I've put her through," says Russell.

Another hospital visit in midJune may determine if he'll ever again whet his whistle. "For the moment, I'm just very glad to be here at all."

AFTER recent notes on 50s' forward Albert Nightingale, said by Jack Charlton to be the muckiest player he ever saw, Malcolm Bailey in Norton-on-Tees sends a Sheffield United team picture from 1946-47 on which Nightingale, Harold Brooks and Washington lad Jimmy Hagan all feature.

Born in 1918, Hagan made 333 post-war Football League appearances for the Blades but won just a solitary cap, in a 0-0 draw with Denmark in 1949.

He was also Peterborough United's manager in their still remembered Midlands League days and when, as a third division side on January 6 1962, they won a third round FA Cup tie at St James' Park.

Subsequently, says Malcolm - once on United's books himself ? Brooks and Hagan put name and noodle to good use, among the first footballers to open a sports shop. Jimmy died in 1998, and is remembered with a lifesize statue in the ticket office at Brammall Lane.

and finally

THE first goalkeeper to score in the Premiership (Backtrack, May 10) was Peter Schmeichel, for Aston Villa against Everton in October 2001.

Richard Thurston in Stockton today seeks the identity of the two cricketers to have taken more than 1,000 first class wickets who are still playing in the championship this season.

Mr Alf Hutchinson has until 10am.

Others can find the answer on Tuesday.

Published: 13/05/2005