FOOT-and-mouth disease has claimed the Darlington and District Cricket League. A month before it was due to start, the competitive season has been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

"It's just heart breaking, the straw that could break local league cricket," said league president Brian Dobinson. "I can see a lot of clubs going down this season."

Ten of the league's 41 clubs, mostly in rural throughout south Durham and north Yorkshire, have already indicated that they will be unable to play normally. Many are forbidden from even entering their grounds.

Weardale, Eastgate based, have said that because of the crisis they will be unable to play any cricket this season.

The league's executive committee decided this week that though fixtures would be played where possible, there will be no promotion and relegation through the four divisions, no championships and no penalty for being unable to compete.

Effectively they will be friendlies, though the league hopes to complete cup competitions, on neutral venues if necessary.

The other teams who already know they will be unable to start the season on their own grounds are Cliffe, Raby Castle, Spennymoor, Witton-le-Wear, Spennithorne, Dales - based in Reeth - Barningham, Trimdon CCA, Middleton-in-Teesdale and King James, from Bishop Auckland.

Clubs in other leagues, including our old friends from Hunwick, face a similar dilemma.

Peter Jackson, secretary of both the league and Raby, said they had been told that people would only be allowed onto the ground to do essential maintenance.

"We have had three very poor seasons because of the weather and we had such high hopes of this one. There will be others yet who will be unable to play."

He himself needs four wickets to complete 1,000 for Raby, having made his debut as a 12-year-old in 1959 and with spells at Bishop Auckland and Etherley in between.

League press officer Steve Gill said the news was devastating. "The final blow was the long range weather forecast on Tuesday that it's going to be a belting hot summer.

"Last year when we were longing to play it poured down almost every Saturday. Now when we mightn't be able to play at all, it's going to be a lovely summer."

Officials fear that prolonged periods without cricket will drive players to other clubs or out of the game altogether. "We're just village clubs, not mega-rich, but the danger is that if lads can't play they won't pay their subs," said Steve.

"Some clubs are struggling to field 11 players as it is, it could be a real nail in the coffin."

The league had already lost three teams in the winter, including Eryholme II, for whom the column's dear old friend Charlie Walker - the demon donkey dropper - played most of his cricket last season.

Brian Dobinson clutches at straws, final or otherwise. "Everyone," he says, "knows there's no such thing as a friendly cricket match, anyway."

BISHOP Auckland, NYSD League townies, have already offered their Kingsway home, when available, to Hunwick and Witton-le-Wear.

"I'd hope other clubs would do the same. We all need to help save the cricket season," said chairman and eternal all rounder Keith Hopper.

Keith's more immediate problem is raising seven-a-side "novice" teams to compete for the Constantine Bowl, which they're running for the town's Butterwick Hospice.

So far only five have applied. They need as many again by April 10. Entry fee is £75, games on a round robin basis, £50 immediately to the hospice. Keith's on 01325 332663.

UP at Evenwood, meanwhile, they've signed the third West Indian pro of the winter - the first two having suddenly changed their minds. "It's nothing to do with me, I'm the reason they come in the first place," insists Bulldog Billy Teesdale.

The new man, recommended by both Viv Richards and Nixon McLean - who played for his country after playing for Evenwood - is Leeward Islands all rounder Winston Cornwall.

The drop-outs were Reynard McLean, Nixon's brother, and Alexander de Groot. The Bulldog's anxious we get it right - "not Alexander de Great, de Groot."

CORNSAY Colliery, continued. When Sunderland Reserves replayed against Cornsay Park Albion it wasn't 3-1, as we said, but 4-2. Joe Dumighan should know because he not only still has the Sunderland Echo cutting ("by Vedra") but scored two of the four himself.

It was March 1 1958, 400 from the colliery village west of Durham doubling Roker Park's usual reserve gate.

"Cornsay still gave us a tremendous match," says Joe, joined on the Sunderland score sheet by young wingers Clive Bircham and Johnny Goodchild.

Elsewhere that Saturday afternoon, Bishop Auckland players Derek Lewin, Bob Hardisty and Warren Bradley made their debuts, post-Munich, for Manchester United Reserves, a 9,222 crowd paid £658 to see Crook Town's FA Amateur Cup quarter final win over Wokingham, young Geoff Strong scored twice in Stanley United's 7-1 win at Shildon and the Roker first team, never out of the first division, slumped to the bottom after a 3-0 defeat at Preston.

"Sunderland's proud record is really in danger," said The Northern Echo headline and so, of course, it proved.

Joe Dumighan, now 62 and a well remembered County League cricketer, never made the Sunderland first XI, had four Football League appearances for Darlington, played in the North Eastern League for Horden and South Shields and ended where, as a 15-year-old, he'd begun - Mackays Sports Club in Durham, "the carpet factory team." He still scouts for Sunderland.

BY way of coincidence shortly to be revealed, March 1 1958 also marked Bill Tulip's "unhappy attempt" - said the Echo - at a comeback with Darlington Reserves.

Tulip, 36 goals in 46 first team games, had suffered a serious knee injury the previous season. After coming off at half time against Carlisle Reserves, he never played again.

We mention it because Martin Birtle in Billingham points out that Question of Sport again borrowed his identity last week - footballers with the same name as a flower.

Bill, 68 in May, lives near Gateshead. Only Backtrack readers, of course, know that Bob Wilson's middle name is Primrose.

FRED McNaughton - Cornsay born, now in Shildon - recalls watching the "practically unbeatable" Cornsay team at the end of the 1930s, known then as Holliday's Sports Club after the manager of the pit.

Brothers Reg and Ray Parkin went to Arsenal, as did Eddie Carr - later manager of Darlington. Fred Hall, Fred's uncle, made 215 Football League appearances as Sunderland's centre half, scoring only once, Walter Dawson signed for Hull.

Fred McNaughton paid a nostalgic return to Cornsay last year, discovered that the pub landlord was a Shildon lad and that a lot of other things had changed.

"Just one row of houses and a couple on the other side - no sign of the colliery, the brickyard, the school or the football pitch, only memories of that wonderful team."

It's true. Cornsay Park Albion, the newly formed under-14s team who started this rather large ball rolling, now play up the road in Esh Winning.

BY the law of coincidence, he says, Durham County RFU secretary Chris McLoughlin had an inquiry about the former Cornsay Cricket Club the other day - which led him a mile up the road to Hamsteels.

Now disappeared, Hamsteels was another colliery village whose sports teams played in Quebec, curiously called, nearby. Hamsteels FC, it may be recalled, is where our old friend Dr Graeme Forster became a football manager.

Around 1900, however, Hamsteels Rugby Club was (says Chris) a power in the land, supplying several county players and also J Burgoyne Johnson, the portly County president from 1904-07.

So great their success, Hamsteels even got to entertain the mighty Hartlepool Rovers. "An outlandish place," observed the Hartlepool Mail. It was wrong, of course.

WITTON Park Institute must have had a canny side an' all, Durham Amateur Cup winners in the late 1920s and that's really why Malcolm Huntington rang.

Malcolm spent his first six months in Witton Park, moved with the family to York, became sports editor of the Yorkshire Evening Press, was a Wimbledon umpire for 32 years until 1992, tangled famously with Master McEnroe, was awarded the MBE for services to sport in Yorkshire and (not the least of his achievements) covered York City for the Echo under the by-line John Hunter.

Among the family's other claims to fame was that when his mother reached 60 in 1962 she joined her eight brothers and sisters - raised together in High Queen Street, Witton Park - as pensioners.

"We thought about writing to the Guinness Book," muses Malcolm, 66. "I rather wish we had."

Last weekend, at any rate, his brother Tony presented to each member a copy of the family tree that over 25 years he has researched back to 1580.

Jack Huntington, Malcolm's dad, was in the Institute team that won the cup, played also for Bishop Auckland and Shildon, a railwayman who became chief cranes inspector in York.

What they'd really like is to be able to photograph a Durham Amateur Cup medal - any one, really, though a Witton Park issue would be wonderful. Tony Huntington's on 01246 233618.

RUMMAGING round the attic because the golf course was closed, former Darlington FC director Derek Mason came across an intriguing photograph at the weekend.

It's of the Quakers crest, designed in 1982 by Derek and fellow director the late Ken Warne, being presented to a bar in Magaluf.

The chap holding it, says Derek, is a "pot model" of George Reynolds, now the Quakers chairman (though it's possible it may not be.)

George, of course, is now anxious to replace the crest. Derek, a director from 1971-91 and now operating on new knees, is equally anxious that he shouldn't.

"I'm not criticising George, he saved the club, but you can't throw everything out. You have to have some tradition, haven't you?"

The woven crest in the photograph hangs alongside those of Liverpool, Everton and Man United in the Arena Blancas bar on Magaluf beach. George used to moor his yacht somewhere down there. Maybe it's not a pot model after all.

THE three clubs apart from Middlesbrough who've reached the FA Cup final in the season they were relegated (Backtrack, March 27) are Manchester City (1926), Leicester City (1969) and Brighton (1983.) All lost.

Tony Cottee, as some may know, has played in all four English divisions this season - Leicester, Norwich, Millwall and Barnet. So who was the first player to complete the set in the same season?

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