Shildon plan reunion of £5 a man Cup heroes

It was the FA Cup first round, Shildon were in the lead, and us bairns behind the Boundary Park goal went barmy.

No matter that finally we lost 5-2, the Sports Despatch reckoned they weren't even a goal superior. "From start to finish, Shildon put up a brilliant and courageous display," it concluded, though what the Pink didn't know - nor we, until yesterday - was that the game nearly didn't take place at all.

The visiting players threatened a sit-down strike before the kick-off, and more of that in a moment.

It was the last occasion on which dear old Shildon appeared in the first round of the Cup. Now a reunion's planned - 40 years to the day - as the present side makes headlines of its own.

They have a 100 per cent record in the Albany Northern League second division, play at Congleton in the Carlsberg FA Vase on October 20 and hope to stage a top table clash with Penrith on Sunday, November 4 to mark the ruby anniversary.

The 1961 team was listed in the Pink as Gilhooley, Pinder, Nelthorpe; Rose, Brown, Sinclair; Armstrong, Scalley, Young, Curran, Smith. The club has already located three or four; secretary Mike Armitage (01325 316322, home; 01325 382323, work) would love to hear from, or of, the remainder.

"Rose" was Eddie Ross - a Rose by any other name - a familiar Northern League defender who was in the Evenwood Town side that won successive championships a decade later.

He's now 60, lives in Richmond, "fighting fit" after a quadruple heart by-pass last year. In 1961 he was a raw 20-year-old, newly signed from Durham City.

George Sinclair, he recalls, was as tough as a policeman's best boots - "didn't say much, but a real hard knock" - Norman Young married a wealthy baker's daughter, Joe Nelthorpe got upset at being described as a "veteran" at 27 and Eddie Pinder and Mick Gilhooley (he thinks) came from the Billingham area.

Ten supporters' coaches made the trans-Pennine journey to fourth division Oldham, many more wagon works men claimed free passage on the railway.

The crowd was officially 11,730 - enough for Nelthorpe, the skipper, to reckon they deserved a little more lucrative lining to their boots.

The amateurs were on £3 a match; Joe wanted a fiver apiece. "I remember him telling me not to get changed and asking to see someone from the committee to sort it out," says Eddie.

"Ernie Randall, the secretary, came in and said they'd see about it at the end of the game. Joe wanted it sorting there and then. That's how we got our fiver."

Oldham had two penalties and Bobby Johnstone, capped 17 times for Scotland - "never left the centre circle and destroyed us from there" - Shildon had glorious defeat, a place on the pools coupon and Guy Fawkes celebrations to illuminate the homeward journey.

There may be more fireworks, on and off the field, on Sunday, November 4.

Just when Shildon are putting themselves back on the map, Durham County Council is pointing in a different direction entirely.

Club chairman Gordon Hampton runs Ferryhill-based Ashfield, Britain's biggest manufacturer of temporary road signs. Perhaps that's why a number of small brown "tourist" signs have appeared around Shildon, directing visitors towards the Dean Street ground.

For the Cup tie with Brigg Town - the only game this season that the club hasn't won - he also produced free-standing road signs reading "FA Cup fever hits Shildon." Over 400 turned up, the biggest crowd for years.

Now, however, the enterprising club has had the administrative black spot, a letter from the County Council and a report from the area engineer (southern).

The signs have been illegally erected, says the council, and must immediately come down again.

"Should you fail to comply with this request, the council reserves the right to effect their removal and recharge your company with the costs involved."

They've misspelt Dean Street, an' all.

Gordon's philosophical, doesn't want to upset the bureaucrats, reckons he'll have to take action as indicated.

"They're Department of Transport approved signs with the proper football ground logo, not amateurish jobs at all," he insists.

Having taken them down, the club hopes to gain approval to put them back up again. It is probably a sign of the times.

Friday's column reported the presentation, two years late, of an FA scroll to mark the centenary of Consett AFC. The problem had lain with the elderly calligrapher, who'd reckoned the "A" stood for Athletic.

Problems at the beginning, it's not the first time that the FA has had trouble with the alphabet's first letter.

When Crook Town received their centenary testimonial in 1989, it described them as "Amateur Football Club" which - whilst technically true for most of their existence - may not always have been strictly observed. (See under "Shildon", above.)

AFC, in any case, stands for Association Football Club to differentiate between the ruffians' game played by gentlemen.

Alan Stewart, Crook's secretary, reckons the testimonial also carries several historical inaccuracies. It hangs there much admired, nonetheless - "and much too late," says Alan, "to do anything about it now."

Goodison Park looks all right in the dark, though (like the team) they reckon it's seen better days. The club contemplates throwing itself into the docklands.

Inside, the meal was in the Alex Young suite, the reception in the Joe Mercer suite and the nob end in the Dixie Dean Trophy Room, wall to wall with winnings. All that glittered was probably old.

There was also an FA chap with a Professor Screwtop beard, anticipating England and Old Trafford the following day. "You'd be better off at Kennek Ryhope v Northallerton," we said.

It was the North West Counties League's dinner, principal speaker 65-year-old John Sillett - Peter's brother, former Coventry City manager, at Chelsea was Greavsie still taking water with it.

"You knew when you were playing badly at Chelsea," he said. "When you got your fags out at half-time, no one took one."

It was a nice meal, good company. There were Everton mints but no sticky Toffees pudding. The taxi driver on the way back to the Moat House in Paradise Street reckoned it was the place where someone once broke Robbie Fowler's nose in the netty.

No such toilet tribulations on Friday evening. A nightcap and, wakeful, to bed.

Suites to the sweet, last week's Non-League Magazine awards were presented in the Hilaire Belloc suite at Chelsea FC. Belloc is not Chelsea's latest continental cack-hander, of course, but the British poet (1870-1953) who wrote that a trick which everyone abhors, in little girls, is slamming doors.

Memory suggests that the grand slam child lived in Palace Green, Bayswater, which probably isn't far from Stamford Bridge - but can anyone explain why Mr Belloc should thus be immortalised?

So, coast to coast, to Kennek Ryhope v Northallerton, kick off Saturday, 3pm. Though Professor Screwtop appeared to be elsewhere, the crowd was still sufficiently big for the programmes to have sold out by 2.30 and the pies ten minutes before the start.

Accompanying the men was a dog, one of those Japanese devil dog critturs built like a WWF wrestler and answering, cross-culturally, to Zen.

"It's just you press people who give them a bad name," said Billy Todd, the owner, and since the pies had sold out fed the devil dog cheese and onion crisps, instead.

Northallerton won 2-1, Zen and the men retired to the clubhouse where a notice behind the television warned that dancing was strictly forbidden on the premises and Mr Beckham - so extensive the Northern League's influence - had saved the best until finally they could be present.

At 4.52pm Kennek Ryhope erupted; they'll be devil dancing all the way to Japan.

l Billy Todd, who had been Ryhope's physio for a number of years, died suddenly yesterday.

The column sends its commiserations to his family.

to the all-time losers. The Football League club which in the 1980s went 31 games without a win (Backtrack, October 5) was Cambridge United.

John Briggs, meanwhile, points out a British record set at the football international between Japan and Nigeria - at Southampton's new St Mary's ground - at the weekend.

The previous record was 262; on Saturday it increased to 351. The answer's obscure but interesting, and all will exclusively be revealed on Friday.