Jem Mace was variously described as the last genius of prize fighting and as the father of modern boxing. What, he, Bulldog Billy Teesdale and the Backtrack column may have in common is that we've all been known to enjoy a pint at the White Swan in Evenwood.

Born in Norfolk in 1831, sometimes billed as The Swaffham Gypsy, the former world heavyweight champion died on November 30, 1910 at 6 Princess Street, Jarrow, having ascended to boxing's heights and landed, abject and alone, flat upon the canvas.

"Poor old Jem is going to struggle along as best as he can until the last round," he'd mumble to the friends who, a few weeks at a time, would take the old man in.

His obituaries supposed him to have made a quarter of a million, including £10,000 for one fight. His bank account had held £70,000.

By the end he was dependent upon hand-outs, upon shambling personal appearances at two bob travelling shows and upon selling handshakes for twopence - a penny for bairns - in pubs like the White Swan.

Though the "Gypsy" qualification was disputed, he'd certainly been a wanderer. There was talk of three wives, ten children and a mistress.

We turn to Mace - if not quite a midget Jem, then extraordinarily slight for a heavyweight - following a letter from Nelson Dunn in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland.

Mr Dunn's father told how Mace would visit a former sparring partner in Sand Hole - a long-vanished hamlet west of the village - usually leaving him a few sovereigns before returning to the Swan, where he stayed.

Man and boy, Dunn senior had threepennorth of handshakes.

Mace had had 500 fights - Slasher Slack, Posh Price - losing, it's reckoned, just three.

He took the sport to America and Australia, was 59 when he fought the world heavyweight champion, 64 when he still entranced the National Sporting Club, 73 when he had his last contest. His longest fight lasted 57 rounds

"Keep a straight left and you'll always be right," he'd tell anyone who'd listen.

He'd also been an apprentice cabinet maker, innkeeper, violin player and racehorse owner. Just months before his death he'd received a "great reception" at St James Hall in Newcastle, doubtless for a few shillings appearance money, but knew the final count was near.

The Northern Echo obituary saluted the "hero of many a hard-fought battle" but acknowledged that he'd lost everything.

His death, we added, was due to senile decay. Though a Norfolk brewery makes Jem Mace bitter, though Encyclopaedia Brittanica features him between mace spice and Macedonia, he is buried in an unmarked grave in Liverpool.

On the day after Jem Mace's death, The Northern Echo also reported that the 144th Gimcrack dinner had been held in York, that Middlesbrough players were in trouble after endorsing club chairman Col Timothy Poole as the food-tax candidate in the forthcoming election and that after five seasons at Newcastle United, Sandy Higgins had been guaranteed £500 from his benefit match.

Not so well rewarded, Darlington players were organising a dance (10 30pm-5am) at the Olympia Ballroom - a shilling for ladies, 1/6d gentlemen, dancing to Mr Dobbin's band.

Sunderland, meanwhile, had sent out-of-form forward George Holley - a hat-trick scorer in the 9-1 win at St James' Park - for a few weeks rest and recuperation at Matlock Hydro.

Clearly it worked. His 154 goals made him at the time the club's record scorer.

Clayton Lambert, long familiar in the NYSD League, will be back in England next month - representing the USA in the ICC Champions Trophy.

They play Australia and New Zealand. "It's sure to be one of my biggest challenges," he says with decided understatement. "Basically it's amateurs against professionals."

The ever-amiable Guyanan, now 42, made five Test and 11 one-day international appearances for the West Indies - "an old-fashioned chunky biffer," says one of the websites, and he's remembered for his belligerence at Blackhall, Redcar, Guisborough and Normanby Hall.

Now living in Atlanta, he believes that cricket can become a major sport in the America. "You'd be astonished at how popular the sport is in New York, I was a bit stunned when the USA missed out on hosting any World Cup matches.

"If cricket hopes to make inroads over here, it has to stick its neck out. There's a huge immigrant population who are all longing for the sport."

Next year the US will compete in a World Cup qualifying tournament - in Ireland.

Tomorrow, deluge permitting, Barry Sygmuta will be refereeing Horden v Shildon in the Albany Northern League - on Saturday he'll be on the line at Middlesbrough v Crystal Palace, at 45 the oldest man to make his debut as a Premier League assistant.

"I'm absolutely delighted," says the admirable Siggy, from Northallerton. "Until a few years ago it was assumed that when a referee got into his mid-40s he was simply winding down.

"It's nice to know that at 45 you can be considered both young enough and good enough."

At the other end of the age range, ANL referee Michael Oliver became the Football League's youngest ever official when he ran the line at Darlington on Saturday.

The column went to West Allotment Celtic, joint holder of the award for the North-East's most improbably named football club.

West Allotment's a former mining village on North Tyneside, so named because the original settlement was called The Allotments.

"Someone just decided to build more houses to the west of it," says club chairman Roland Mather.

Celtic's more puzzling, though the team's green and white hoops seem remarkably familiar. "We've been down all sorts of avenues to try to explain it and failed," says Roland. "I can only think that there must have been a few Irishmen about."

The no less improbably named Norton and Stockton Ancients, eagerly anticipating their Road to Cardiff debut on Saturday - 12.30 kick-off against Yorkshire Amateurs, goals on Grandstand - have found themselves a goalkeeper of suitable vintage.

Backtrack's old friend Barry Goodwin, 45, is back between the sticks, despite sustaining a fearful mutliple fracture of his arm last year and kept a clean sheet on Saturday.

However great the provocation, Barry's the guy whose worst known expletive has been "Jeepers". No worry about the watershed there, then.

And finally...

The League One team which was managed between 1994-99 by three managers now all in charge of Premiership sides (Backtrack, August 20) is Blackpool. Sam Allardyce (Bolton), Gary Megson (West Brom) and Nigel Worthington (Norwich) were successively beside the seaside.

Bill Moore in Coundon today seeks the identity of the only man apart from Mick Tait to have managed Darlington after first managing Hartlepool.

Managing as best we can, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 24/08/2004