The search for Neville Meade - former Catterick airman, Tudhoe cricketer and British heavyweight boxing champion - leads us to Neath market, near Swansea, writes Mike Amos.

"I saw him there 11 or 12 years ago, selling baby clothes on a stall," reports Darlington-based comedian Dave Adams.

Usually known as Grizzly, Dave was working the Welsh clubs with fellow Darlington entertainer Peter La Scala, a notable name for an opera singer.

"Big lad, about 30 stone, sang like Mario Lanza," says Dave.

He'd known Neville Meade, born in Jamaica, from shared nights in the Bongo Club opposite Darlington bus station - "lovely feller, real gentleman."

One evening, however, a new doorman noticed that the champ was smoking on the dance floor - against club rules - and proposed to remind him of the error of his ways. Dave pointed out that the offender had just won a Commonwealth Games gold medal. "I think I'd better tell him myself."

kevan Smith, another familiar face around Darlington, is back playing football in the town.

Periodically tipped as a Quakers manager and with over 400 first team appearances behind him, Smudger - 43 last Friday - is strengthening defences at Darlington RA in the Over 40s League.

"He's transformed their fortunes," says League secretary Kip Watson, 85, after Kevan's man of the match performance in the 3-0 win over Hartlepool Navy Club.

Clearly it is so. The RA have risen to fifth bottom of the fourth division.

Due at Morpeth Town in the FA Vase, Birmingham area side Willenhall decided to spend a restful Friday evening at Whitley Bay. That they arrived nine hours after leaving the Midlands may be explained by the fact that the bus driver took them to Whitby - 80 meandering miles down the coast - instead.

Even that little dislocation may not seem so far off the map, however, as Ashington chairman Tom Reed's trip to Evenwood for a night game in the Albany Northern League - a match ten minutes old before he realised that Evenwood were actually playing Willington.

Further enquiries revealed that the Colliers were actually at Murton, 28 miles away. Tom made the second half.

The Non League Paper, meanwhile, relates how Brian Hamilton, 50-year-old secretary of Haxby in the York and District League, was obliged to pull his boots back on when the team was one short. After scoring the only goal of the game, Brian then donned the goalie's jersey after the keeper was sent off in the last minute. He saved the resultant penalty.