Fletcher's given a Rum deal by Barker and Co.

Bamboozled, they asked for a clue. "Initials BF," said Sue, "probably the least well known of the three."

To Peter Murphy in Evenwood it was like a whip crack across the quarters. "I jumped out of the chair, hit the ceiling, shouted at the television and then rang you," he reports.

The BF was Brian Fletcher, the Co Durham lad who not only twice rode Red Rum to victory for McCain but had previously triumphed on Red Alligator for Bishop Auckland trainer Denys Smith in the 1968 National.

"How can they suggest he's little heard of. Apart from Lester Piggott's grandfather, he's the only men ever to have ridden three National winners," storms Peter.

Denys Smith agrees. "He was the very best, as hard as nails. No one could possibly forget Brian Fletcher."

Born and raised in the Cockfield area, the young Fletcher bought a horse and cart to sell firewood after school before Smith took him on as a 16-year-old.

"I'd just gone up one Sunday morning to have a look at a couple of his father's cows," recalls Denys. "I knew Brian rode a few flapping horses but that morning he was just pushing a brush around the yard.

"His dad asked me if I'd give him a job and I agreed. He started the next morning."

At 19 he finished third in the National on Red Alligator; the following year he won it. After retiring, he farmed above West Auckland for about 20 years but is now thought to be farming - and running trotting horses - in Wales.

"If he was in Liverpool not Bishop Auckland there'd be a statue to him," says Peter Murphy, a sentiment which Fletcher himself may find a little ironic.

Though there's a statue of horse and jockey at Ayr - they won the 1974 Scottish National ten days after Aintree, a feat Fletcher has always considered Rummy's finest race - at the Liverpool course the statue is of Red Rum alone.

"A lot of people do appear to think that the horse goes around Aintree on its own, so I'd really like to thank the good people of Ayr for honouring both of us," he told the Telegraph recently.

Not even his old trainer knows his precise whereabouts, however, though Denys is hot on the trail. If anyone can else can help we'd be grateful: a warm weather Welsh waysgoose might be just what's wanted right now.

On Have I Got News For you, meanwhile, they managed to work in a reference to York City.

"Sad about York, isn't it?" suggested guest presenter Des Lynam to panellist Ian Hislop.

"Terrible," said Hislop, and was pushed to explain why but could remember only the Wars of the Roses. "Did they lose to Lancaster?" he asked.

Since former Liverpol centre half Ron Yeats proved a not terribly commanding speaker, talk at Newcastle Blue Star's dinner on Friday turned instead to the two former footballers - both internationals - who had the same surname as another sport. Bit of a bonus question that one - their identity at the foot of the column.

Among the most frequently recurring themes hereabouts has been the weather forecast over the maternal home - or to be precise, Bill's mothers.

Several readers have supposed "It's looking black over Bill's mother's" to relate to Kingsway, Bishop Auckland, where former cricket club captain Bill Proud's family home was somewhere behind third man.

Others ascribe it to Shildon BR, where Bill Bramley once played his cricket. Richie Benaud was also credited with the phrase, but has strenuously denied fatherhood.

The Times, however, now carries a letter from a lady in the Brighton area: "Am I right in assuming that the phrase '"It's looking dark over Will's mum's' is peculiar to Sussex?"

Though we shall monitor developments, the out =look remains seriously uncertain.

Window cleaner Charlie Woodward, for more than ten years the immensely popular and hugely hard working secretary of Whitby Town FC, has resigned just a few months after his last appearance in the column.

That was when club chairman Graeme Manser got married at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon and the mischievous Charlie, five minutes into an away match, called a wedding guest who he guessed mightn't have switched off her mobile in church.

Ring a bell? "I'm not sure it went down too well, but there's no connection," insists Charlie, also a member of North Riding FA.

His tenure at Whitby coincided with the 1997 FA Vase triumph, two Northern League titles, the Unibond first division championship at the first attempt and three appearances in the FA Cup first round.

His departure is thought to be linked to the club's unsuccessful attempt to get into the new Conference North, which he thought economically ill advised.

Perchance in Whitby over the weekend, the column had hoped to commiserate over a half shandy. Charlie was instead on something called the Gallon Walk, in aid of Goathland Cricket Club of which he's also secretary.

"It's eight pubs between Grosmont and Goathland and a pint in each," he says. "Fund raising's hellish, but someone has to do it, haven't they."

Len Ashurst, the long serving former Sunderland full back for whom a testimonial was held at Cardiff last night, confirms that he's returning to Wearside to retire.

"I've had enough of being a southern softie," says Len. "I've still lots of friends up there and a few North-East winters will make a man of me again."

Len - who also managed Hartlepool and Sunderland among others - has spent the last 20 years near Chepstow. Half the proceeds from last night's match went to the Noah's Ark appeal for the Children's Hospital in Wales.

...and finally

The three footballers who've each won eight championship medals in the English top division (Backtrack, May 14) are Ryan Giggs, Alan Hansen and Phil Neal.

The two footballers who shared a surname with another sport are Stan Bowles - now 55, capped five times by England - and the late and famously hirsute right winger Trevor Hockey, whose much travelled career included 52 Football League appearances for Newcastle between 1963-65.

Signed for £22,000 from Nottingham Forest in November 1963, 20-year-old Hockey arrived 30 hours after the "sensational" signing of Sunderland captain Stan Anderson. In two days, the Echo added breathlessly, the Magpies had spent over £40,000.

Fred Alderton in Peterlee today seeks the identity of the former television pundit who scored Scotland's fastest hat trick - in 1959, if that helps.

Usual pace, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 18/05/2004