For reasons which need not detain us, Hartlepool United chief scout Tommy Miller was the other night headed for Cove Rangers - somewhere on Scotland's storm-tossed northern extremities - when word arrived that the match was off.

Instead he took in Montrose v East Stirlingshire - "a match is a match," observes Tommy profoundly - where he fell into conversation with Alec Forsyth, one of the visiting directors.

Forsyth, it transpired, played for Darlington in 1952-53, spent the season in digs in Victoria Road - team-mate Harry Clark's family home - and wondered if Harry might still be alive.

Tommy promised to try to find out and was contemplating where on earth he might start when he turned instead to Friday's Backtrack column and discovered once again what a remarkably small world this is.

Not as small as Alec Forsyth, mind, but we'll come to that in a minute.

Harry Clark, now 68, featured here that very morning - him and fellow former Quaker Harry Clarke, with whom he shouldn't be confused but was, of course, all the time.

A weekend of telephone calls has ensued. The two old team mates are back in touch, Alec plans a sentimental journey to Feethams and Backtrack has another little poser.

Is Alec Forsyth, five feet one and a half inches in his tartan stockinged feet, the smallest man in Football League history?

He'd played for Alexanders Youth Club in Falkirk, interested several English clubs, was invited to meet a scout from Middles-brough. "He took one look, said I looked bigger in a football shirt and that was the end of the interview.

"It's always been a great disadvantage to me, being so small," recalls Alex, 72.

He signed for Darlington in 1952, turned down a house in Newton Aycliffe because family problems kept his wife at home - "she wouldn't go doon there tae bide" - and lodged with Harry's mum instead.

"It was like a second home, his mother was really hospitable. I think she saw me as a big brother, or maybe a wee brother, for Harry."

Harry, whose mother is still alive, remembers other young players like Brian Henderson staying at their house. "It was a big tall place and we had stacks of rooms. It wasn't a commercial arrangement, just an extended family. Alec was a grand little feller."

After 27 games and seven goals from the left wing - including what he believes to be England's first competitive game under floodlights, a Durham Challenge Cup tie at Roker Park - he returned north of the border, spent three years in the same Albion Rovers team as Jock Stein and was an East Stirling director when they gave a first management opportunity to a persuasive Scot called Alex Ferguson.

He remains unimpressed. "I don't care what he wins, I don't care if he is God's right-hand man, I do not like the gentleman."

Since clearly it cannot be described as a tall story, Alec still believes he is the shortest player in Football League history - Backtrack readers will know - though there's presently a lad at Stenhousmuir, Paul Dickov's brother, who he reckons a good two inches smaller.

"Sturdy wee feller. Short airms, short legs."

He hopes to return to Feethams before season's end, catch up on the Clarks' tale, see how Darlington's changed. There's even a bonus for Tommy Miller, the catalyst among the homing pigeons.

"From now on if I hear anything of good players up here," vows Alec, "Mr Miller will be the very first to know."

Stirring in time for the cricket season, Ron Hails also offers memories of Harry Clarke - he of the final "e".

It was during Harry's football days at Hartlepools United, circa 1950, but the scene was Park Drive where Durham County Cricket Club, captained by the formidable Bill Proud, were being smitten to all parts. "Give Clarke a bowl," chorused Ron and his Church League colleagues, consistently. Proud, name and nature, finally relented.

The first four deliveries travelled, unimpeded, to the boundary. Proud turned hands on hips towards Critics' Corner - "a truly fearsome sight," says Ron.

Finally, someone found courage. "Well, what do you expect?" he demanded. "He's on at the wrong bloody end."

That Saturday's match between Tow Law and Marske United was postponed was a) not in the least surprising, b) a disappointment to Simon Kasonali who would have broken Marske's appearance record and c) a relief to club chairman John Hodgson, who shares it for another few days.

There'd have been a canny photograph, an' all.

Kas, as they know him, made his debut at 16 and is still just 28. The first of Hodgy's 476 senior appearances came as a 14-year-old.

"I was never subbed so I've still played more minutes and seconds than he has," he insists, though that doesn't take account of the seven times he was sent off.

"In those days you had almost to kill someone to get sent off. I'm afraid I was a bit of a bad loser," says the chairman.

When finally his knee gave up the struggle he became a referee, rose to class one, cautioned 15 players in nine seasons and dismissed only one. "When you've known the red mist yourself, you can see it coming," he says. "I told players to take it out on me, not on one another."

The blue moon red card was for a player who bared his backside at him, the referee's report pretty bottom line, too. "No two-faced b*****d does that to me," it said.

Weather permitting, young Kas will beat the record at Easington tonight. "Very good player, lovely lad," says the chairman. "He very nearly deserves it."

Since only three Northern League games survived the April downpour, West Auckland's match with Bedlington attracted a bigger gate than usual - including, rather belatedly, former League secretary Gordon Nicholson.

First he and a couple of friends had headed from Evenwood, an early postponement, to Ponteland's Northumberland Senior Cup tie with Newcastle United Reserves. Thwarted, they plodged along the coast road to West Allotment Celtic and, third time unlucky, back down to Durham City - a late victim.

Finally they made the second half at West, just down the hill from where the odyssey began. Gordon sees silver linings - "We're claiming it as a world record round trip for travelling two miles," he says.

A letter from Ian Forsyth in Durham Town and Country magazine again explores the toss-up over whether dominoes is a game of chance. Ian recalls the drafting of the Gaming and Small Lotteries bill, which legalised in pubs "games of skill for small stakes".

Doms, for some reason, wasn't included - much to the chagrin of Bill Blyton, the former pitman MP for Houghton-le-Spring and later a member of the Lords.

Bill tabled a question demanding an explanation. "It's because dominoes is not considered a game of skill," said some snotty-nosed Home Office minister. "Right then," said Bill, "aa'll challenge you to a game of fives and threes."

The omission was rectified soon afterwards.

Red Marauder's gallant National win on Saturday recalled the last time that Co Durham painted the town vermillion - after Red Alligator's victory in 1968.

Thousands lined the straight mile from Cabin Gate to Bishop Auckland town hall, as horse and jockey were preceded by the town band to the market place.

At Curry's corner the horse almost fell under the pressure of numbers. At the town hall they gave him a bucket of beer while council chairman Charles Middlewood pointed out that it compensated for recent disappointments endured by the town's fabled football club.

Green and keen, we'd covered it for the Northern Despatch and received a nice little note - a herogram, in the trade - from Arnold Hadwin, the editor. For some reason, there have hardly been any herograms thereafter.

the fast bowler who played for England in the 1940s and 1960s but never once in the 50s (Backtrack, April 6) was former miner Les Jackson, of Derbyshire - his only Tests in 1949 and 1960. Readers may today care to name the father and son who played in post-war Cup finals for Spurs. Lilywhiter than white again on Friday

Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2001