He was the little boy for whom football rolled out the green carpet - and who won the hearts of millions.

Seven-year-old Connor Rumney, who suffers from a genetic disorder with a very long name, was chosen as one of Liverpool's mascots for Sunday's FA Community Shield match against Arsenal.

When Connor and his parents arrived at the Millennium Stadium, however, officials worried about the impact of his powered wheelchair on an already uneven pitch.

"He'd been looking forward to it so much, it would have broken his heart not to be able to go out with the team," said Ann, Connor's mum - and that's when Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier stepped in.

Security guards were instructed to lift the chair up the two steps to the playing area, ground staff laid extra turf on top of the pitch.

"The FA had been a bit doubtful about letting him on but really everyone was fantastic, particularly Mr Houllier," said Ann, from Langley Moor, near Durham. "As soon as he met Connor, he was determined his day wouldn't be spoiled."

Connor came onto the pitch with Liverpool captain Sami Hyypia, but was caught close-up on camera with goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.

Former FA Cup final referee Peter Willis, himself at the match, said: "I watched that little lad closely and you could see him singing his heart out for the national anthem. He was absolutely brilliant."

Alex Smailes, Liverpool's North-East scout, said the club had been delighted to help. "It's maybe a side of football which people don't often see, but he seemed a very happy little boy."

Connor, whose father Darren works for Carlsberg Tetley - Liverpool's main sponsor - was picked in an employees' competition. He came home with the club's new strip.

A further cause for celebration, he also has seven-week-old twin brothers, Jarrod and Niall - and not hard to guess who Niall's named after.

Connor insists that he, too, remains a Sunderland fan - "but Liverpool," says Ann Rumney, "is definitely his second team now."

Just a cockstride from a long coveted Lord's appearance, our old friends at Wolviston go into the National Village Cricket Cup semi-final on Sunday without inspirational skipper George Sayers.

George, said in earlier columns to resemble a Spanish conquistador, angrily left the club on Tuesday.

"I would rather not go into it. There are personal reasons and reasons at the club and it isn't appropriate for me to talk about it," says the former Durham School boy.

Sunday's game is at Elvaston in Derbyshire, the team who beat the north Tees club in last year's semi-final. Wolviston had also reached three quarter-finals in the previous seven years.

Local lad made good, one of George's ancestors had been on Wolviston's original team picture in 1884. "You can instantly see the family likeness," someone once said, "Kit Sayers is the surly looking one."

In truth he is a good bloke, though something seems fearfully amiss. Mark Christon, another old Dunelmian and the club's nominated press officer, has declined to return any of the column's calls.

It must be something pretty grave, we suggest to the departing captain, to walk out in this week of all weeks.

"You've hit the nail on the head," says George, and there the conversation ends.

All sorts of teams can be chosen from Durham FA's new handbook, as we were saying on Tuesday, though none may be more noble than this one:

William IV (Birtley), King John (Hartlepool), Queen Vic (Murton), Prince of Wales (Dipton), Prince Edward (South Shields), Lord Seaham (Silksworth), Royal George (Old Shotton), Lord Boyne (Langley Moor), Duke of Cumberland (Gateshead), Duke of Wellington (Consett), Lord Derby (Bishop Auckland.)

A home ground? What more appropriate than dear old Dans Castle, on top of the hill at Tow Law.

Sticking to our post, we can also crack the code of the Sunderland team known simply as SR1. "It sounds very smart, but it's really just the name of the city centre bar which sponsors us," says club secretary Colin Wilson. Mr Wilson lives in SR6.

For just £1, Darlington FC supporters' club has produced a superb guide to the new season, overflowing with information on the Quakers and on their opponents.

It contains everything from transfers to train fares, ticket prices to the best pubs near far-flung grounds. Most of it's offered without comment, though Swansea is reckoned "not the most friendly place to go" and, in Hull, the Silver Cod should be allowed to slip through the pre-match net.

There are also interviews with former players Jimmy Seal and Steve Holbrook - one a painter and decorator in York, the other running a car hire business in Darlington - and with our own Craig Stoddart, who considers covering Darlo for the Echo to be journalism's top job.

"At college I was always told that even the best sports writers had to begin on the news desk covering garden feats," he says.

Fete of clay, the misspelling is doubtless their own.

Darlington's programme, incidentally, has a new column called "The Inside Story" by associate director and former Great Smeaton pub owner Peter Ellis. It even promises revelations about the indefatigable Jack Watson. Peter, however, confessed in Tuesday's edition that he was a newcomer to writing. "I do not," he added, "possess the journalistic skills of my piers...."

Last Friday's piece on Durham Senior League president Ray Pallister, still knocking over castles at 71, stirred particular memories for former Nottinghamshire bowler Tom Birtle, who in the 1950s played alongside Ray at Mainsforth.

Their finest hour, suggests Tom's son Martin, came in the 1955 Tom Burn Cup final when Mainsforth beat Hylton Castle and Tom excelled himself. He still has the inscribed match ball: "T W Birtle, first four overs: four maidens, four wickets, including a hat-trick."

Tom's sister Edith Hardy still supports Norton, though may be a bit more circumspect after being dealt a fierce blow on the leg by a four in Colin Fawcett's unbeaten 100 against Durham Academy.

Geoff Cook, Northants, England and now Durham's director of cricket, was standing nearby and hurried off for an ice pack. "I always knew he was a really good bloke," says Martin.

Tom Birtle, meanwhile, is in the cardiac care unit at North Tees after a queer turn last weekend. He hopes to be home shortly; we wish him wonderfully well.

... and finally

The Scottish League team in which the letter "s" appears three times (Backtrack, August 13) could have been East Stirlingshire - as Fred Alderton in Peterlee suggests - but was meant to be Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Without looking in Rothmans, readers may today care to name the towns in which East Stirlingshire - and Raith Rovers, and Albion Rovers - play their football.

The column's in its rightful place next Tuesday.

Big Norman - an RA legend

Norman Wilson, formidable bowler and ferocious batsman, has died, aged 80. His passing stirs memories of wartime, khaki and whites, when Hutton, Sutcliffe, Leyland and Verity all played their cricket in Darlington.

Norman was still honing his craft at Darlington RA when Len Hutton, stationed with several England team mates at Catterick Camp, "practised in his spare time" at the Brinkburn Road ground.

Bob Hattersley's acclaimed history of Darlington CC records the military might playing four matches in the town during 1940 - two at the RA, two at Feethams - and several thereafter. Crowds reached 3,500, paying 1/6d admission.

Capt Hedley Verity of the Green Howards proved the principal star, charities like the Red Cross and the mayor's Spitfire fund benefitting from collections around the ground.

Verity, for whom Middlesbrough footballer Wilf Mannion acted as batman, was reported missing in action in 1943. The game at Feethams on August 31 1943 was believed to be his last in England.

Norman Wilson - "Big Norman", usually - stood well over six feet tall in his size 13 cricket boots. Though most of his career was at Darlington RA, where he also helped build the score box, he also had a spell as professional at Seaham Park.

"Norman was one of the best players never to play for Durham County, probably because he was with the wrong club," says RA chairman Dick Gent.

"He was a marvellous feller and a great cricketer, always went out of his way to encourage and help the youngsters, but in Minor Counties days it helped if you were with a higher profile club than the RA."

Principally he was a bowler, with a career best 9-31 in 21 overs against Thornaby in 1961, though when his batting eye was in he scattered not just the field but the birds on Brinkburn Road roof tops.

Former RA captain Peter Eckels recalls a Kerridge Cup semi-final against Bishop Auckland, the Railway 34 for six and needing another 90 to win when Big Norman strode to the wicket.

In less than half an hour, Wilson 61 not out, they were in the final.

His batting, says Peter, was reminiscent of the column's old friend Graham Smith at Bishop Auckland. Unlike the exuberant Mr Smith, however, Norman didn't have a couple of pints before biffing it to all parts.

"He was one of the finest and most versatile bowlers of his generation, a man with an incredible knowledge of the game," says Peter.

Norman retired in 1964. To his later regret, he had little subsequent connection with cricket.

Published: 16/08/2002