Having decided that he was better at cricket than football, John Gent played a dozen second team games for Rockliffe Park in 1946, recalls that his number of catches exceeded his total of runs but was back the following year for pre-season practice when a quick 'un broke his leg.

"It wasn't so much a hospital job as one for the welders," says John, who'd lost a limb in 1931 after running out of Middleton St George school into the path of a lorry.

"Solid rubber tyre job, a bit bigger than I was," he adds. The poor little lad was six.

Though the committee decided that he shouldn't play any more, the unfortunate case of tin leg before wicket didn't curtail his involvement with Rockliffe Park Cricket Club. For 20 years he held sundry offices and did all manner of jobs; in 1968 he became secretary.

Village cricket it may have been, but - Gent and scholar - they made a first-class appointment.

On Saturday they held a wonderfully convivial dinner - "a do for John," someone said - to mark his retirement.

Rockliffe of ages, he'd been chief coach and taxi driver, too, cleaned the dressing rooms, ran the Christmas draw, organised the tours and for seven years was simultaneously secretary of the Darlington and District League.

"These jobs are as time consuming as you want to make them," said John, who therefore never found time for minor distractions, like marriage.

Dozens of former players included ex-skipper David Robinson who recalled that, disability notwithstanding, the secretary had slid down the bannister of the Kings Head in Barnard Castle - whilst shouting "Geronimo" - after a particularly impressive win in Teesdale.

Though the story might have sounded apocryphal, the hero didn't demur.

There, too, was Steve Raine ("a legend," they said) who against Spennymoor in 1981 returned the figures of 11-11-0-6 while Brian Pounder at the other end claimed 3-48 and ran out the tail-end Charlie.

Then there was Billy Garbutt, who played in almost every match of the championship winning sides of 1970, 1981 and 1982, Robbie Hart - a canny cricketer who became one of England's top football referees - and Percy Abbott, club president, who spoke of John's "vision, dedication and commitment" and in three words said a great deal.

Rockliffe Park are based in Hurworth and not to be confused - though they many times have been - with Rockcliff, who are a rugby club in Whitley Bay.

Their home, humbler though no less loved, is next to Middlesbrough FC's multi-million pound training complex. Rockliffe Hall was the home of Lord Southampton, though what he was doing so far north no-one could adequately explain. Now they have the cricket ground on a 99-year lease from the monks of the Hospitaler Order of St John of God. It's also convenient for the Bay Horse, to which Rockliffe Park cricketers have for generations adjourned in order to extend both the boundary and the limits of their understanding.

John's retiring because he needs more time looking after his 89-year-old stepmother. "I can't spend as much time with the juniors, which is a source of great sadness," he said.

He talked also of the trust, the camaraderie and of the future of village cricket - "I think it has one but there are now so many other things to do on Saturday afternoons, so many American sponsored activities."

They gave him an Eric Thompson painting of his beloved ground; John bought all the wine. Whilst the search continues for someone to follow an extraordinary act ("I've said to them for years, it's no good waiting until I snuff it") an honorary acting secretary is in place.

He is, of course, the evergreen John Gent, aged 77.

Though legendary hereabouts as the Demon Donkey Dropper of Eryholme, Charlie Walker spent 1961 - the Darlington and District League's inaugural season - with Rockliffe Park before re-crossing the Tees, and the county line, when Eryholme joined.

From Saturday 62-year-old Charlie will again be turning his arm, and confounding the opposition - the only man to appear in every league season and Eryholme's secretary for 40 years.

It was coincidence, therefore, that Peter Warne should ring. He also plays for Eryholme, nears 50 himself, hopes someone might be able to see their way to giving them one or two second-hand sight screens.

"Quite a few of us are getting on a bit, we need all the help we can get," insists Peter.

Charlie, at John Gent's dinner, takes the bowler's end. "They can see perfectly well as it is," he insists.

Those with redundant sight screens, or who could knock something up in GCSE woodwork, would receive a Warne welcome, nonetheless. Peter's on 07711 608182.

That 77-year-old John Gent must devote more time to his stepmother is reminiscent of one of the coldest days in football's long and half-perished history.

It was Cockfield v Whickham, late December back in '91, Durham Challenge Cup. We'd been talking to an old Cockfield Fell worker, 78 next birthday, who at half-time announced that he'd just have to pop back up home.

Temperature a bit too far below? "Oh no," he said, "it's just to build up the fire for me dad."

Last Friday night to the ever-enjoyable annual dinner of the Northallerton and District Referees Society and Mrs Malaprop Memorial Committee. Further details from Mr Barry Sygmuta, introduced as "the succumbed chairman" and on his knees with laughter ever since.

Mind, none of us is perfect. Recalling the Baldasera boys, ice cream kings of East Durham, Friday's column suggested that Salvatore Baldesera, the head of the family, "looked a right Italian rouge."

Roger Mason is intrigued. "A red cheeked signor, or perhaps as an ice cream man he liked a drop of valpolicella on his sundae?" he writes from Great Baddow in Essex.

Perhaps valpolicella is the same as monkey's blood. Ruddy careless, anyway.

Yet another rogue entry in Friday's column. Edward Boynton, the jockey who made his Flat racing debut in the week of his 50th birthday, doesn't own Mallia, the horse on which he came second at Southwell. He's owned by Mr Harry Duddin ("a lovely chap," says Edward) from Trimdon. Apologies to him, an' all.

Durham Police were playing Owton Manor from Hartlepool in the Over 40s League on Saturday when Owton's Mickey Skirving went up for a high ball with two pollisses.

The pollisses collided, one suffering severe concussion. Mickey, 30 goals already this season, was clean through when he realised what had happened and hoofed the ball out for a throw-in instead.

League secretary Kip Watson is properly delighted. "If our players had bad habits, they forgot them long ago," he says.

Bedlington Terriers' fifth successive Northern League championship - a record equalled only by Blyth Spartans from 1980-84 - will be celebrated in style.

The morning after the night of the league's annual dinner on May 24, the squad flies off for a weekend in Dublin - raising the sartorial uncertainty of what they'll be wearing at the knees-up.

In past title seasons, the Terriers have turned up in everything from tartan to teddy boy suits. Leprechauns this time? "Like the little people," says club chairman Dave Perry, "I'm keeping it under my hat."

the town with an Eddie Carr Way - in memory of the former Darlington and Tow Law manager (Backtrack, April 19) - is Newport.

Bill Moore in Coundon today seeks the identity of the three sets of brothers who have played in one-day cricket internationals for England.

The column now takes a short break, may well convene a meeting of the FA Cup Final Escape Committee, and returns on May 7.

Published: 23/04/2002