This Sunday marks a very special day for Colin Summerson. April 22nd 1961, was a day he will never forget as he was a member of the West Auckland side who met Walthamstow Avenue in the FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley.
"I was the only local in the team, born next to the Eden Arms where they kept the World Cup for so long, but it didn't make me a favourite. If anything they criticised me even more," remembered Colin.
"West had never been to Wembley and the village was buzzing. Sid Douthwaite, our secretary, nearly didn't see the final because he'd given all his complimentaries away. In the end I gave the gateman ten bob to let him in."
"I was marking Jim Lewis, an amateur international who had played for Chelsea, so I was keen to do well. Allan Douglass put us ahead after 32 minutes and we dominated the game, yet lost 2-1.
"Brian Bowmaker our goalkeeper only touched the ball about half a dozen times."
Colin started his football career with Howden-le-Wear Juniors when his father, Harry Summerson, was landlord of The Green Tree pub in the village.
"John Simon from Witton-le-Wear played, as did Eric Snowdon, Micky Rooney and Duncan Graham. Later in the youth team there was Jonty Raine, Kenny Lee and George Hugill. We were all as keen as mustard and often worked on the pitch in the morning to make it fit for the afternoon."
He remembers a meeting with the legendary Bill Shankly when he, Duncan Graham and Micky Rooney went for a trial at Grimsby.
"Shanks was manager there at the time and he met us at our hotel. He took us to a table and started moving the salt cellars around to show us a few tactics."
His first game in the Northern League was for Crook Town at Penrith on April 5, 1952.
"1 was playing snooker in The Temperance Hall at Crook, when a committee man walked in and said that they were short of players. I signed the forms there and then, went home for my boots, and half an hour later was on the road to Penrith."
He also played for Stanley United before joining the Army.
"One game that sticks in my mind during my time at Stanley was when we knocked Willington out of the FA Cup. Our chairman Tommy Horn owned a toffee factory in Crook, and he gave all the players a win bonus, a bag of toffees!"
It was after leaving the Army in 1957 that Colin joined West Auckland.
"We won the Northern League Championship in 1959-60, and won it again the year we got to Wembley. Albert Mendum our skipper was the driving force.
"He was the heart and soul of the team and led by example.
"He had a plaster cast taken off his leg the morning of the quarter-final, but played in the afternoon."
During his stay with West Auckland they also won The Northern League Challenge Cup in 1959 and 1963 and The Durham Benevolent Bowl in 1963.
When the Wembley team began to break-up Colin moved to Bishop Auckland, then to Spennymoor and back to Bishop Auckland where he helped to run the Junior team.
"We had some good players, Alan Barker signed for Newcastle, and there was Steve Coulthard and Wilson Blair."
He now lives in Woodhouse Lane, Bishop Auckland with his wife Valerie. They have a son Charlie and a daughter Truda.
"It was disappointing when the Cup team started to break up, two players went down South to play - it was the Amateur Cup, but money still talked."
* MIKE Amos is away
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