Double barreled and frequently firing from both, Norman Mitchell-Innes - known universally as Mandy - was among the one cap wonders singled out in Tuesday's column. Some say he was the most wondrous of all.

There is a strong North-East connection, not least that for several seasons in the 1950s he opened the Sunderland batting with Alec Coxon, another whose cap had to fit first time.

Coxon, still on Wearside but nil by mouth so far as journalists are concerned, will be 89 in January. Mitchell-Innes, England's oldest living Test cricketer, entered the nineties in September.

"An amateur of flamboyant hue - gaudy club caps and colourfully condescending carves through the covers," wrote Frank Keating in a birthday tribute in the musty eyed Spectator.

His England call, as Tuesday's column observed, came after he'd hammered 168 for Oxford University against the touring South Africans.

Also chosen for the second Test despite scoring just five in the first, he told the selectors that hay fever prevented his playing, caught a Tube to the Oval and, despite feeling unwell, hit 132 for Somerset against Surrey. England never expected again.

After a spell with the Sudanese political service, he became company secretary at the Vaux Brewery in Sunderland - where diplomatic skills might have been equally useful - staying for around 20 years until 1972 and occasionally turning out for the brewery cricket team.

"His appearances caused much excitement," recalls Frank Nicholson, a former Vaux managing director. "I don't recall him scoring many runs but he was stylish and looked immaculate in his England sweater.

"He was very modest, always known as Mandy - if you'd asked for Norman, no one would have known who you meant - never really talked about playing for England at all."

Former Northants cricketer Tommy Birtle recalls playing against Mitchell-Innes in a benefit match at Norton-in-Tees - "huge pads like elephant ears, you couldn't see the stumps at all."

He was succeeded as Vaux company secretary by Chris Storey, who'd worked previously for the brewery and made 25 county appearances for Durham, claiming 65 victims at 18.69.

Chris, born in Thornley but now in Whitburn, recalls a charity match in which he opposed the man 30 years his senior.

"He'd be at least 55 and I don't suppose had played for five years. I wasn't there to bounce everybody out, as I suppose fast bowlers try to do today, but I probably thought it was going to be quite easy."

Mandy, he adds with a note of self-deprecation, just seemed to be awfully lucky. "He put his foot forward exactly on the spot where the ball seemed to land.

"A couple were crashed through extra cover with no effort at all, so I thought I'd better drop him one short.

"As my arm came over, Mandy leaned backwards and smashed it over square leg. He just seemed to know what you were going to do."

His predecessor, adds Chris, was a very nice chap. "He certainly wasn't shy but in many ways he was self-effacing. His character came out when he played cricket, his determination was manifest."

At Sunderland, however, his achievements were comparatively modest - 300 runs at 27.30 putting him third in the 1957 batting averages. Coxon, his fellow England man, topped them in a team - "real crack side" says the Beardless Wonder - with seven county men, an' all.

Mandy Mitchell-Innes now lives near Abergavenny but, alas, is ex-directory. We've dropped him a Christmas card, and a belated happy birthday.

Oldest England cricketer, Mitchell-Innes was also the last of the double barreled brigade - a team which, surprisingly, would bat down only to number three. Though a veritable leap of lords has worn the England sweater - including Lord Tennyson and the 35th MacKinnon of MacKinnon - the only Test men whom the hyphen hath joined together are the bespectacled Hugh Bromley-Davenport and George Simpson-Hayward, the last specialist lob bowler in first class cricket. Probably there've been more double barreled County men: readers may be able to name a Select XI.

Sydney Wooderson, who also appeared in Tuesday's column though with no known North-East links, was 90 eight days before Mandy Mitchell-Innes.

He was 5ft 5ins, wore glasses, had about as much fat as a half-cooked chip, and for five post-war years held the world mile record, 4:06:04.

Wooderson was a bowler hat wearing solicitor, caught the 7.37 from Surbiton to Waterloo, was known to Daily Express readers as the City and Suburban cyclone - that being the name of the London Underground line - and did it all for nothing.

After a meeting in Birmingham, however, the champion found 12 £1 notes in his bag when he got home. Registered post, he sent them back again.

Derek Gardener, Crook Town's right back in the victorious 1959 and 1962 FA Amateur Cup finals, has died. He was 68.

"He was a lovely feller, a real gentlemen," recalls Ray Snowball, the goalkeeper. "It was the days when full backs used to hoof the ball about but Derek tried to use it. He had an awful lot of craft for a full back."

Capped seven times by England, Derek also played for Great Britain in the 1960 Olympic Games. He was captain in 1962, but missed Crook's 1964 final because of injury.

A retired glass blower, he lived in Sunderland, where his funeral was held on Tuesday.

Sporting stars show their cards

Fit to burst as usual, last Friday's column on legendary Charlton Athletic goalkeeper Sam Bartram - Boldon Collier, originally - was illustrated by a Chix bubble gum card, circa 1954.

Something else upon which to ruminate, Peter Charlton in Sunderland has now loaned an entire 120 card album from the same period, a veritable picture gallery of sporting nostalgia produced by the A&BC Chewing Gum Company.

Tom Garrett's in at number four - born in South Shields, played for Horden Colliery and for Blackpool in the Matthews final, capped three times for England and never on the losing side.

Jimmy Mullen's five, running in tandem with fellow winger Johnny Hancocks in the 50s' all-consuming Wolves.

Born in Newcastle, idolised at Molineux, Mullen did army service at Barnard Castle and Catterick, played wartime football for Darlington - and, memory suggests, Bishop Auckland Reserves - and was capped 12 times. Known to Wolves fans as Gentleman Jim, he died in 1988.

Sunderland are represented by Len Shackleton and by Willie Watson, one of the few to play for England at both cricket and football; Middlesbrough and Newcastle don't make it.

Twins Diana and Rosalind Rowe, world doubles table tennis champions, smile from adjacent slots as identical as two ping-pong balls; ace jockey Gordon Richards looks more like Tom Graveney than Tom Graveney, Denis Compton is Brylcreem bright and by no means alone in that.

Henry Cooper has both hair and a vest, still just an ABA champion.

Geoff Duke was world speedway king, Danny Blanchflower still a shy young Irishman at Aston Villa, Brian Statham a promising fast bowler and Bobby Riggs champion of Wimbledon.

Everyone except Jack Dempsey is smiling, and he's probably doing his best.

Peter Charlton's a chartered surveyor and Philadelphia Cricket Club third teamer, found the album in an attic he was checking over.

"It may be worth a few bob," he supposes, and it may indeed because the official guide price is £500. Yet more history on the cards.

The Sam Bartram column also prompted a nostalgic letter and an interesting theory from Mr W Hedley, aged 83, in Kelloe.

Sunderland fan, he recalls Sam and the diminutive Johnny Mapson at opposite ends of Roker Park, remembers other great goalkeepers like Frank Swift, Bert Williams, Harry Holdcroft, Ted Ditchburn and Ted Sagar, wonders why England hasn't one like that today.

Sunderland aren't what they were in Bank of England days, either, and that's where the theory comes in.

They've never been the same, says Mr Hedley, since they surgically removed Sunderland from Co Durham.

Allan Newman in Darlington recalls the annual charity match at Roker Park, probably 1950, between a Sunderland/Middlesbrough side and a team of volunteer former North Eastern League men who'd gone on to greater things.

Sam Bartram was a volunteer and in commanding form, a virtual personal battle with Len Shackleton on the opposing side. Allan plays it again.

"It was wonderful to watch, culminating in Len's superb solo dribble right up to the menacing Sam, before poking the ball through his legs for a goal.

"Sam's gestures were massive, but he took it in good part and the crowd loved them both. Two fine footballers and exceptionally talented gentlemen."

...and finally

Back to one cap wonders. Tuesday's column sought the identity of the South Shields born footballer who made 25 appearances for England one for Wales - it was Stan Mortensen, drafted in during a wartime game when he was England's 12th man.

Readers are today invited to name the odd one out between former Sunderland players Bobby Gurney, Eric Gates, Nick Pickering and Gavin McCann.

At odds as always, the column returns on Tuesday

Published: 17/12/2004