TONY Blair was in the bath when I arrived. How clean he came will be fully revealed in our interview which will be published on May 1 to mark his fifth anniversary in power.

Whenever people hear I'm going to meet Mr Blair, they are always intrigued about whether he genuinely likes football. They especially want to know whether he is a genuine Newcastle United supporter, or whether his man-in-the-stands stance is all a vote-winning gimmick.

In a previous encounter, he eulogised over David Ginola, and this is his heartfelt assessment of Newcastle's current season: "I think the team has done really brilliantly and I think Bobby Robson has done a fantastic job and, y'know, he's spent a fraction of the money the top three teams have spent."

We met at his house in Trimdon the evening after David Beckham had sustained his foot injury. Earlier, Mr Blair had chaired a Cabinet meeting which had been discussing the preparations for the World Cup - whether known hooligans would still be travelling to the Far East. Mr Blair had interjected that "nothing was more important" to England's preparations than Beckham's foot, as a joke. Soon, radio bulletins were leading on the news that Beckham's injury was so vital that the Prime Minister had thrown away the Cabinet agenda to discuss it.

In fact, Mr Blair had pointedly avoided making a public pronouncement on Beckham when asked by newspaper journalists for fear of being accused of jumping on the populist bandwagon.

However, by lunchtime, a TV camera crew had caught up with him in Croydon, and questioned him about damaged metatarsals. Mr Blair was now faced with the dilemma of "looking churlish" on camera by refusing to answer, or running the risk of bandwagon-jumping by answering.

He answered.

EARLIER that day, Mr Blair had visited the Roman remains recently uncovered in Sedgefield by Channel 4's Time Team.

The extent of the remains had taken most by surprise. But not everyone. Apparently, several decades ago, people living around Trimdon green were amazed by the speed in which a builder was erecting a couple of bungalows.

Once the job was complete, he confessed the reason for his speed. He claimed to have found a perfect Roman mosaic floor as he dug the foundations, but had immediately poured a load of cement on top "because, if you buggers from the council had known you would never have allowed me to do it".

THERE is, as they may once again shout, only one Georgie Reynolds. Even the Royal Mail agrees, as the new Darlington Football Club stadium in Neasham Road has been allotted the postcode DL2 1GR.

Postcodes are extremely complicated things. A Royal Mail spokesman informs us that the first bit of the first part indicates which of the 120 areas in the UK the letter is going to; the second which of the 2,900 districts; the second bit which of the 9,000 sectors, and the last part which postman will cover the appropriate letterbox. Therefore, he concludes solemnly, it was "pure coincidence" that one George Reynolds was given 1GR.

It is one hell of a coincidence, given that all the other addresses in the area are DL2 1Q-.

"I'm dyslexic, and numbers and letters are all jubbly-wobbly-jumbly to me," says George, "but it is absolutely unbelievable."