IN his mid-20s, Rob Edwards was among Britain's top motor cycle trialists, number one rider for a Spanish works team and winner of 20 national events including the celebrated Scott - up and over Swaledale - and the British Experts.

His trials, however, were only just beginning.

When he was 30, at times barely able to breathe, ill health forced his premature retirement.

For 20 years, doctors believed his condition was asthmatic. In his 50s there were occasions when his tortured breathing seemed literally a last gasp.

Now, breathing easily again, he is so grateful to the rheumatology department at the Friarage Hospital at Northallerton that next week he presents a £3,473 cheque for the hydro-therapy pool appeal - raised, perhaps inevitably, at a motor bike trial.

"The hospital has had so much bad publicity for different reasons, I want people to know how marvellous they are," says Rob, now 55, who lives in Newby - between Middlesbrough and Stokesley.

A consultant finally diagnosed Churg Strauss Syndrome, a rheumatic disorder so rare that many doctors hadn't even heard of it.

"I spent 20 years fighting for breath and in the end it nearly killed me," says Rob. "Because it hadn't been treated for all that time, my immune system was virtually destroyed.

"I had 12 bouts of chemotherapy and I've come out of it brilliantly. I've a completely new life thanks to the Friarage."

The trial, organised by Guisborough Motor Club ("they were fabulous") will help the hospital's £80,000 pool appeal.

"It would have been easy to say thanks very much and walk away but the girls on the ward were having to raise money from fashion shows and things at night, as if they didn't do enough during the day. Something as important as that shouldn't have to be provided by charities.

"There's no question that if I hadn't found somewhere as good as the Friarage, I wouldn't be here today."

YET another snow-go area, things looked decidedly bleak at Dunston Federation FC on Tuesday morning.

Due to stage an Albany Northern League championship clash against table topping Durham City that evening, Fed officials reported that parts of the pitch were still snow covered and that the match would have to be postponed.

"No it won't," said City chairman Stewart Dawson, grabbed some shovels and set off up the A1 with assistant manager Derek Bell and committee member Richie Redmond.

The City gentlemen - "we've never been afraid of a bit of spadework," said Stewart - completely cleared their opponents' pitch and were delighted when referee Dave Foster gave the go-ahead.

"We're desperate to complete our fixtures, we don't want to be dragging on until the middle of May," said the chairman.

A dig for victory? City trailed, equalised, saw scorer Mickey Taylor sent off and finally lost 2-1. "The pitch," said Stewart, "was perfect."

AT the same time as Stewart Dawson and friends were putting their backs into Dunston, 20 Darlington fans were heading towards the rain lashed English Riviera - the fourth successive season that the Quakers have been sent to Torquay on a Tuesday.

"As soon as we got there we knew the match must be doubtful," reports Richard Jones, and an hour before kick-off the referee agreed.

"A big disappointment," says Richard, unalone in ribaldly recalling that the chap responsible for the fixture computer is Darlington born Glenn Thompson.

"I just put in the home and away teams and let it get on," Glenn once told Backtrack. "If I could do much more I'd have Darlington in the Premiership."

The computer duly having been kicked up the mainframe - "there should be a 200 mile limit for midweek games," says Richard - they adjourned for a couple of consolations in the Boot and Laces, agreed that the bus would head homewards at 8pm and checked into a chippy for their suppers.

Though no one else was in the shop, the two assistants preferred to watch EastEnders and service took 20 minutes. It was 7 59pm, therefore, when they returned with their fish and chips to the bus.

"You're not bringing them on here and I'm not waiting for you either," said the driver.

Richard and friends duly binned their supper. "Disappointment," he says, "had turned to utter disaster."

A WHAMMY of extraordinary improbability, Tuesday's column reported that dominoes player Peter Hamilton had picked up all seven doubles in a game for the Croxdale Inn, near Spennymoor, against the Pit Laddie.

Seven constitutes a hand. What, we'd wondered, were the odds against so disproportionate a double-take?

Former teacher and football referee Harry Gilbert from Darlington sat himself down with a calculator, figured for a while and correctly came up with 1,184,040-1 against, a million to one shot approximately equivalent to that offered by Paul Dobson in Bishop Auckland.

"28x27x26....divided by 7x6x5...." explains Harry, a bit of an odds fellow who also insists that there's more chance of being murdered than winning the National Lottery.

More impressive still, however, was our old friend Chris Pearson who plays 5s and 3s for the otherwise brainless Britannia B.

Set the problem on Monday evening, he correctly worked it out in his head within two minutes, only spoiling the effect by defacing an otherwise virginal copy of the Northern League magazine with the answer.

Chris is a megawatt-not in computers. Clearly they couldn't do it without him.

STILL seeing doubles, we'd also wondered if our mathematically minded old friend Robert "Knocker" Bacon - Shildon lad, now in Billingham - might be able to help with the computations.

"It depends upon whether you draw the dominoes from a bag or straight from the board," insists Robert, surreptitiously.

"In my days in the Trimdon League, we drew from a bag in two handfuls."

An answer remains unforthcoming, possibly because he's playing doms five nights a week against the lifelong Christine. "She's better than me," he admits. "When I win, I'm lucky."

YET more knocking copy, and an apology to Mr Alf Duffield, retired millionaire and former chairman of Middlesbrough Football Club, who plays 5s and 3s for the Travellers Rest in Darlington.

After Brit B had played them in November, we reported that Alf - known to team mates as Oscar because of his fondness for quoting the Balladeer of Reading Gaol - was now 64 and enjoying the quiet life.

"It cost me four girl friends, I'd been telling everyone I was 58," said the affable Oscar at Monday's return fixture.

We are happy, therefore, to make it clear that Mr Duffield is a mere 58. He, in turn, is content to accept that he was born in 1936.

ANOTHER contrite angle, this time with apologies to Ian Andrew in Lanchester. Tuesday's column misspelt the name of Stan Mortensen, his boyhood hero - "mainly, as my Scottish forbears would say, because he pit the ba' i' the poke."

Ian was a Blackpool lad. Stan Mortensen, born in South Shields in 1921, is among the Seasiders' all time greats.

His grandfather was a Norwegian sailor who met Stan's grandmother on a trip to England. Stan's father died when the lad was five.

He played, says Ian, for South Shields Boys and later for Shields Ex-Schoolboys, who took on a Blackpool side in a curtain raiser to a reserve game on Easter Monday 1938.

Immediately afterwards, the 16-year-old was asked to sign for Blackpool.

He won 25 England caps, scored 197 goals in 317 Football League appearances, played at the end of his career for Hull City and Southport before becoming Blackpool's manager from 1967-69.

He died in 1991, still content that the 1953 Wembley epic in which he hit a hat-trick will f orever be known as the Matthews final.

THOUGH a Methodist local preacher, incidentally, Ian Andrew can't suggest any suitable cricket hymns (Backtrack, Tuesday), though Fight the Good Fight might for one or two of them be appropriate.

For footballers, however, he suggests a text from Proverbs 11: 27 - "If your goals are good, you will be respected." It could almost be an epitaph for Stan Mortensen.

THE Shah of Persia trophy won't be coming to the North-East this season. Hartlepool Lion Hillcarter lost their FA Umbro Sunday Cup semi-final 1-0 to Liverpool Fantail at the weekend, the match at Billingham Synthonia's ground halted 15 minutes from time by the appearance of a barely believable streaker.

"He ran across the pitch from the club end and did a couple of forward rolls on the far barriers," reports Synners' committee man Norman Coleby.

"Some of the girls wanted to know if he was well endowed. With the temperature just two degrees above freezing, who would be?"

PS, adds Norman, I enclose a programme for your collection.

THE five English internationals still in the Premiership whose names begin and end with the same letter (Backtrack, March 6) caused no end of difficulty. Alan Gardener from Bowburn was first to offer Nigel Martyn, Nigel Winterburn, Robbie Fowler, Ray Parlour and - the really tricky one - Boro's Ugo Ehiogu.

Bill Moore, from Coundon: who was the last Sunderland player before Kevin Phillips to be the top scorer in the top division in an English season?

We aim to please again next Tuesday

Published: Friday, March 9.