HARRY Sharratt, the man who proved that if you didn't have to be mad to be a goalkeeper, it was certainly a very considerable advantage, has died suddenly, aged 71.

"He was just a nut, a total bloody idiot," says Derek Lewin, his friend and former team-mate, and none who knew either of them would doubt the affection, or the truth, of the observation.

Harry won three FA Amateur Cup medals and six England caps with Bishop Auckland, the finest amateur team of all time. Many believed that he was the greatest amateur goalkeeper, too, a giant at 5ft 11in.

When a football magazine named him fourth best in the world, Harry amiably demanded to know what was so special about the other three.

He was the green clad custodian who built a snowman on the goal line ("a good 'un, too" he once recalled), who'd read the half-time scores to help pass the time, who played 45 minutes with one boot, organised snowball fights with the crowd and deliberately threw the ball to opponents.

"It was because he wanted something to do," says Derek. "It used to cause terrible panic in our defence."

Dave Marshall, Bishops' right back in the fabled Fifties, remembers similar anxieties. "You'd turn around and Harry was nowhere to be seen. He'd be in the crowd cadging sweets or cigarettes. I don't think he ever smoked during a match but he'd keep them for afterwards. He was a good cadger, Harry."

Harry claimed merely that he liked to create an atmosphere - as in the 1955 Amateur Cup final against Hendon, when opposing fans began to boo his antics. Harry removed his cap, swept them a low and vaguely insulting bow, and carried on regardless.

"It's only a game. I do it because I want to enjoy it," he would say.

Harry, who came from Wigan, made his first appearance for Bishop Auckland in a 1-1 draw with Evenwood on April 4 ,1953 - the week before an unknown 18-year-old called Brian Clough made his Northern League debut for Billingham Synthonia.

The following season he played in the twice replayed Amateur Cup final with Crook Town, watched by 200,000 spectators, then assumed a key role, a sort of one-man Crazy Gang, in Bishops' three successive Wembley wins from 1955 to 1957.

Before the third, he persuaded formidable club president Alderman Bob Middlewood that he would part with his trademark homburg if the team won. Ald Middlewood obliged, a doubly unique hat trick.

Derek, who had seen his old friend a fortnight ago at the opening of a new stand at Blackpool, remembers the end of season fixture pile-up during which the Bishops played eight games in seven days.

"Harry and I were the only ones who appeared in every match. Whenever he got the ball he'd throw it to me, no matter where I was, shout 'Derek' and turn his back.

"He knew I was knackered. I just had to boot it anywhere. We still never lost a match."

Former Northern League secretary Gordon Nicholson also recalls an FA Cup tie at Scunthorpe in which Bishop Auckland, trailing 1-0, won a throw in their opponents' half. Harry took it, found an opponent and was still stranded upfield when Scunthorpe made it two.

"I blame Derek Lewin," he said. "He took his eye off the ball."

On another occasion, the late Jack Sowerby, Bishops' trainer, was on the bench at Finchley when he heard a child's voice calling him from the crowd.

"Harry had sent him round with a note saying he was lonely. He wanted me to go round and talk to him," Jack once recalled.

Perhaps the most legendary example of Sharratt's eccentricity, however, came in an Amateur Cup tie in which a formidable Bishop Auckland side were leading Kingstonian 12-0.

Bob Hardisty, Bishops' no-less legendary skipper, told his team to go easy a bit - whereupon Harry leaned against a goal post and watched four shots unimpeded into the net.

Hardisty, fast losing whatever hair he ever had, was beside himself. "Not that bloody easy, Harry," he yelled.

Harry continued to commute from Wigan, made single Football League appearances for Blackpool, Nottingham Forest and Oldham, refused to turn professional because his income from teaching maths and his expenses from Bishop Auckland far exceeded football's maximum wage.

He stayed at Kingsway until 1964 but signed, it is said, for many other clubs. "He must have been registered in 20 or 30 different leagues in his time," says Derek. "He'd sign anywhere if it meant getting his picture in the paper. It was years later that I discovered he'd even signed for Manchester United."

He remained a teacher until early retirement in 1988, watched little football - he didn't approve of the law which forbade charging goalkeepers - and lived at Kirby Lonsdale, in Cumbria.

"I played all those years in front of him and never knew if he'd even be there when I turned around," says Dave Marshall. "The fans loved him, of course, but they wouldn't have done had he not been an absolutely magnificent goalkeeper.

"I don't suppose he read the paper from back to front in the second half, but the amazing thing about Harry is that all the stories were true."

The clown prince-crown prince became ill on Monday and died shortly afterwards. "He was just a total one-off," says Derek Lewin - but 24 Sharratt gold.