It was the National Hunt race in which everyone jumped to conclusions - and which almost cost jockey Sean Fox his livelihood.

Now the man at the centre of one of the most controversial sporting incidents of 2004 has moved to the North-East and is hoping for a happier new year - working for former Grand National winner Richard Guest.

"Richard's giving him a chance and Sean's very grateful," says a friend. "He's just riding out now but hopes to be racing again soon."

Just days after champion jockey Kieron Fallon was said to have failed to bring the best from a mount, Fox - two winners from 48 rides that season - was alleged to have jumped from his horse Ice Saint at the ninth fence in a chase at Fontwell last March.

Ice Saint had drifted in the betting from evens to around 5-1, three Internet punters said to have made £100,000 by backing the horse to lose.

Fox, who always claimed that he had fallen, was suspended for 21 days as the story made the front pages.

In September, however, the Jockey Club disciplinary committee completely cleared him of any wrong doing - and after six months at bay, Fox is trying to rebuild fences.

"After a cloud this big, obviously it isn't going to lighten overnight," he admitted in a statement afterwards.

Richard Guest, himself no stranger to run-ins with racing authorities - in 1998 he threw his riders' badge at the Perth stewards after a third finding of not trying - rode Red Marauder to victory in the 2001 National and now leases the stables at Brancepeth, near Durham, of Red Marauder's trainer Norman Mason.

Until his successful appeal, 33-year-old Fox - who lived in Hampshire with his wife and two children - had worked digging holes for sewers. "Six months of hell," he said in his statement.

The column has so far been unable to speak to him, but in September he told a Sunday newspaper that anyone who thought he'd jump off a horse at 30mph must be "barmy."

"The mud flew at me because there were apparently unusual betting patterns on the race. There may have been strange betting patterns but there was no evidence of a link with me because I was totally innocent.

"I got so depressed I couldn't get out of bed in the morning. The stress was terrible, I thought I'd go bankrupt and end up in a gutter."

Now he hopes to race again soon and has been putting in 12 miles a day on an exercise bike. "He seems quite happy to talk about it, a nice pleasant chap," says Dr Graeme Forster - long time since that lad's been in the column - who bumped into him in his local in Quebec, Co Durham.

Whatever they say in parliament, the days of Fox hunting may by no means be over yet.

Remember that splendid picture before Christmas of Sunderland Reserves heading out of the Royal Oak at Cornsay Colliery to play their 1958 Durham Challenge Cup match with Cornsay Park Albion? Arnold Alton in Heighington recalls that full back Joe McDonald transferred to Nottingham Forest soon afterwards - and a year after changing in the back room of the Oak picked up an FA Cup winner's medal in the rather more salubrious surroundings of Wembley.

The old, old story in the Over 40s League, alas, where the league chairman has resigned before facing disciplinary action from his own committee.

"I have been extremely compromised, let's put it that way," admits Phil Dawe.

Phil's also secretary of Barnard Castle Glaxo Over 40s, who several times this season have played the diminutive Nigel Foster, known throughout local football as Inchy.

Inchy's still just 39 - "39 and seven eighths" says Phil - but so far as the rule book's concerned, it's a case of giving an Inchy and taking a mile.

Now both player and secretary face a fine and indefinite suspension from the league. "Unfortunately, I don't think Phil had any alternative but to resign," says league secretary Kip Watson.

"It's a great shame. He was settling in well and would have made a very good chairman but there's no excuse for what happened."

The unauthorised youth policy came to light after an anonymous letter to the league claimed that Inchy was illegally fortifying the Over 40s.

"After that everything went down like a stack of dominoes," says Phil, who lives in Newton Aycliffe.

"I feel like I've been duped by the person who picked the team and I've been absolutely bouncing about it, but I accept that I wasn't 100 per cent vigilant and that I've gone against the rules of my own league.

"I don't blame Inchy. He's played out of the goodness of his heart and you can't fault his commitment to the club.

"Ninety five per cent of the people who've done it in the past have got away with it. We didn't."

The incident stirs memories of the case five years ago when the Masons Arms at Middlestone Moor, near Spennymoor - known as Captain Flint and his Pirates after former landlord and team secretary Maurice Flint - were found to have played Steve Weldon in the weeks before his 40th birthday.

Player and secretary were heavily fined and banned from the league for life, the team was docked 24 points and relegated.

Formed with just five sides, the Over 40s League this season marks its 25th anniversary with 65 teams throughout the North-East. Kip Watson insists there've been few similar cases.

"I do recall one incident of an unregistered player playing several games, but he was 63."

Last Friday's column reproduced the programme from the 1949 match at Roker Park between a combined Sunderland/Middlesbrough XI and an "Ex-North Eastern League Select": men like Sam Bartram of Charlton, England internationals Allenby Chilton of Man United and Jimmy hagan of Sheffield United - and Albert Juliussen of Consett.

Albert who? Via the Internet, John Briggs discovers a Dundee legend.

Born in Blyth in February 1920, Albert - inevitably nicknamed Julie - joined Huddersfield Town from Cramlington Black Watch, appeared for Dundee United during the war and moved across the road for £3,000 thereafter, scoring with his first touch on his Dens Park debut.

His 95 goals in 73 first team games included six in Dundee's 10-0 win at Alloa in 1947 and seven in the following match, when they put another ten past Dunfermline.

He joined Portsmouth for £10,000, moved to Everton for a similar fee - just a handful of games for both - and when no one would pay Everton another £10,000, became Consett's player/manager before returning over the border.

Dundee still loves him. "How much would a striker with that goal touch be worth today?" asks Boab's Dundee Fun Page on the Internet.

An alert reader in Bishop Auckland also spotted the referee's name in that 1949 programme. George Todd, the Football League's oldest surviving ref, is coming up 93, still in Darlington - and there'll be more of him next time.

And finally...

David Gower's achievement in the 1981 match against Australia was to become the first test cricketer to score five after the ball hit a fielder's helmet behind the stumps.

John Briggs (again) today seeks the identity of the footballer who played for Sunderland who was the Republic of Ireland's third choice goalkeeper in the Italia 90 World Cup squad.

We're back between the posts on Friday.

Published: 11/01/2005