It's a very happy 150th birthday for the Bishops

The Bishop of Durham was chief guest, blessed us with an appropriate grace - "Give thanks to God, you cricket lovers; For food and drink remove the covers" - recalled that his last game had been as a guest for Bishop Auckland.

"A cool and stylish eight against the England Women's XI," he said.

Like the club, many of its players and officials have worn well. Chairman Keith Hopper, sporting his new go faster haircut, will be 70 next month and still top scores with the seconds.

Harry Smurthwaite, the 66-year-old secretary, talks annually of hanging up his cricket boots and annually pitches in. George Romaines, the 73-year-old president, no longer plays cricket and may, in any case, be better remembered from long gone lunchtimes on the telly.

"I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to have had dinner with the entire cast of Dads' Army," said Graeme Fowler, the ex-Durham, Lancashire and England opener. The Rt Rev Michael Turnbull in attendance, Fowler thereafter watched his language as an English tail ender watches his stumps, that is to say rather carelessly.

The happy coincidence is that George, Keith and Harry were all Shildon lads originally, though it must regrettably be recorded that - apart from the Lord Bishop, episcopally excused - Harry Smurthwaite was the only gentleman not wearing a tie.

There's a phrase, is there not, about you can take the lad out of Shildon....

It was a splendid occasion, not least because of the chairman's after dinner recollection of some of the coruscating characters of the cricket club's past.

There was Harry Clarke, still credited with the origin of the phrase about its being black over Bill's mother's; Bill Proud, a big man in every sense; Gordon Nicholson, long serving wicket keeper and secretary of the Northern Football League, for whom football was little more than something to fill in the long months between cricket seasons.

Gordon, said Keith Hopper, was nicknamed Nickerbow not just because of his surname but because of a nationwide appetite for knickerbocker glories. Not many people knew that.

Rupert Mortimer, the former Darlington hairdresser and cricketer mentioned recently hereabouts, had also played for the Bishops. "Famous for his friendly fire," said the chairman. "When he bowled the other fielders were in more danger than the batsmen."

There was also Allan Edgar, ex-polliss, much loved former landlord of the North Briton at Aycliffe and holder of every wicket keeping record in the Bishop Auckland book, who like many more will be at the anniversary reunion in the clubhouse on April 12.

"A man who took his cricket seriously but with a huge piece of happiness," said Keith.

We sat with Mark Romaines, former captain, who once took a hat trick, all stumped, with his only three balls of the match. Steve Horner, the wicket keeper, now catches rats for a living instead.

The celebrations continue with the reunion, with a celebrity match on June 15 between an Emmerdale side and the Radio Cleveland All Stars XI, and with golf and cricket matches against the town's golf club.

As Kit Robinson and George Bailey might have said, when in 1938 they put on a record 151 for the Bishops' first wicket, it was a most promising beginning.

Bishop Auckland's club history was written to mark the 125th anniversary, and isn't being updated. Perhaps the best of Brian Hunt's many anecdotes at the time concerned former Durham County captain Neil Riddell.

Playing a Benson and Hedges Cup match for the Minor Counties against Northamptonshire on a Saturday in 1976, Riddell blitzed 109 in 12I minutes, including eight sixes and nine fours.

The opposition fielded four Test match bowlers - Sarfraz Nawaz, Bishen Bedi, Bob Cottam and Peter Willey. Riddell won the Gold Award.

The following day, he played for Bishops against Marske in the Kerridge Cup. After 52 minutes at the crease he was bowled by Tony Nicholson, who finished with 9-15, without once having troubles the scorers.

Reformed character these days, Darlington FC chairman George Reynolds found himself truly over the wall on Friday - after dinner speaker on a Home Office residential course for 120 prison officers.

The do was at a posh hotel in Manchester. "I've done Deerbolt Borstal before but this was the big time," says George, mischievously. "I've also done the Dyslexia Association and got a standing ovation."

His talk was of life and crimes. "It went very well," he says. "I'm just glad they didn't lock me up."

Seven and a half years after his death, Test match umpire Tom Spencer's obituary finally appears in the March edition of The Cricketer.

Tom lived in Seaton Delaval, near Whitley Bay, stood in the first World Cup final and was awarded the OBE. His passing has "only recently come to light," says the magazine, adding that it seems "almost beyond belief" and "a sad reflection on modern sport and perhaps on society in general."

It may say rather more about The Cricketer's informants. Tom's death was fully and affectionately recorded in the Backtrack column, approximately seven and a half years ago.

Rather more contemporaneously, the next page of The Cricketer records the passing of Jim McConnon, one of two England players born in the north Durham village of Burnopfield.

Little need to identify the other, though Burnopfield Cricket Club made Ollie Milburn and Jimmy Mac honorary members at the same time, in 1987.

"We're equally proud of them both," said club vice-chairman Harvey Parker when we wrote of Jim McConnon two years later.

A wartime footballer with Aston Villa, he was 28 before making his first class cricket debut with Glamorgan, in 1950. Four years later his off spin earned him the first of two England caps and that winter he was chosen ahead of Jim Laker for the tour of Australia. Injury compelled his early return.

Jim remained a fully paid up off spin doctor. "A spin bowler should be allowed to bowl, and sometimes be hit, without looking over his shoulder all the time at the captain," he said in 1989.

His 819 wickets cost just 19.88 runs apiece, however. He took 152 catches, usually in the gully where he excelled, and hit 4,661 runs. Though he was still worshipped in Wales, he lived in Cheshire, which is next door. Him McConnon was 80.

Improbably reprised in Friday's column, Hard Hearted Hannah (the Gal from Savannah) prompts a yet more unlikely note from Harry Watson in Darlington - Norma Egstrom sang it in the 1955 film Pete Kelly's Blues, he says, adding that Ms Egstrom was probably better known by her stage name. Peggy Lee.

News from the Over 40s League. Hartlepool Navy Club were trailing Regency Windows 3-0 on Saturday when a Regency defender transparently handled on the line and was dismissed. The Navy Club scored from the spot and grabbed a second soon afterwards.

Playing ten men in the second half they were awarded three more penalties, missed them all, and sank without trace 6-2.

A reminder that at Clayport Library in Durham tonight (7 30pm, free admission), the column joins The Far Corner author Harry Pearson and Durham County Cricket Club scorer and historian Brian Hunt to hold forth at a "Sportswriters' Evening" to help mark the library's first birthday. Light refreshments thereafter, more serious refreshment after that.

And finally...

The three England footballers since 1970 whose surname began with the letter "O" (Backtrack, March 7) are Russell Osman, Peter Osgood and Michael Owen.

Since we have recorded Jim McConnon's passing, Mr Ron Hails and others may care to name another seven men born between Tyne and Tees who h ave played Test cricket for England.

The magnificent seven, and much else, on Friday.

Published: 11/03/2003