CLIFF Harrison was just 19 when he made his England rugby debut, carried shoulder high from the pitch despite the 6-5 defeat against the Irish.

"There were no two opinions regarding the star player of the match, Harrison the Hartlepool Rovers winger," wrote The Northern Echo's "own" correspondent.

It was February 14 1931. "His debut was crowned with success and he engineered England's try in extraordinary fashion," added our man at the match. "Everything he did was stamped with class. He was the fastest man on the field, he tackled unerringly and he always filled the eye by doing something clever."

It was kind of him, says Cliff. "I always was quite fast over 100 yards."

Still two months short of his 20th birthday, he also played in the match against Scotland on March 21, a 19-28 defeat which left England anchored at the foot of the table.

Though the Echo's observer was less laudatory he regarded Reeve and Harrison as "dangerous wingers".

It seemed an almost perfect start for young Harrison, but the first day of Spring was also the last on which he wore an England shirt.

Seventy years later, however - and as England's oldest surviving international following the death before Christmas of BC Gadney of Leicester - the Rover returns to Twickenham tomorrow as guest of honour at the Calcutta Cup match.

He will stay in the Selfridge Hotel, take lunch in the president's lounge, meet the teams and attend the black tie dinner at the Hilton. "I'm just amazed they remember me," he says with characteristic modesty.

"I suppose I was a bit of a local hero at the time, people would come over and shake my hand, but it was an awfully long time ago."

Cliff Harrison is a Hartlepool lad, Headland born and bred, and has returned there, too - sheltered accommodation in the shadow of St Hilda's Abbey where he was christened, confirmed, married and from which - he says cheerfully enough - he will finally be carried off.

He played rugby for the Boys Brigade, joined the once-mighty Rovers and made his Durham County debut at 18. "The two chief characteristics which will always be associated with this rugby genius are the brilliantly executed sidestep and the tackling," wrote Fred Lister in his Rovers history.

The "extraordinary" manner in which he laid on England's try against Ireland, a cross-kick into the centre, may have impressed the Echo's man, but not AD Stoop - how readily he remembers than name - one of the selectors.

"He rather ticked me off afterwards," recalls Cliff, and somewhere among his memorabilia there's a letter along the same never-satisfied lines.

"He said that you should be running flat out if you wanted to cross-kick and I hadn't been. I thought I'd done quite well, actually."

He was also picked for the final game, against France, dislocated his shoulder the week previously against Durham City and put out his chances as well.

Though he made 49 county championship appearances, scoring a record five tries against Derbyshire in 1931-32, England's expectations lay elsewhere.

"Like one or two more in Hartlepool, where unemployment was high, I was asked to play Rugby League with Leeds but I never fancied it. Perhaps I still hoped for my third cap."

He became an accountant and an army officer, served in Kenya and worked in Malaya, settled happily back on the Headland. Long life, he suggests, may partly be due to never drinking to excess - "to excess" he repeats - though there'll be a few beers when tomorrow he has the best seat in the stadium.

The Twickenham trip has been arranged by Jim Ainslie, Durham RFU official and president of Hartlepool Athletic. Cliff, dinner suit newly pressed, anticipates it quietly.

There will not, however, be any cross kicks. "I think that one letter from headquarters is enough."

THOUGH Newcastle United fans wouldn't be best pleased at a 5-0 home defeat by the Boro, Valentine's Day 1931 - when Cliff Harrison made his England debut - was pretty much a time of love and peace.

Sunderland beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the FA Cup 5th round - Southport and Exeter City also made the quarter finals - Gateshead scored a last minute equaliser at Feethams and Durham County Cricket Club's annual meeting heard of their best ever year, Minor Counties champions and a profit of £950 15s 10d.

March 21 1931, the day of the Calcutta Cup match, was altogether different. Admittedly Durham City rugby club beat Westoe ("Woeful Westoe" said the Echo) 44-0, York City beat Nelson 5-2 and 13,000 saw Boro Reserves North Riding Senior Cup win at Stockton, but that was all routine.

The real stories of the dirty thirties came at Spennymoor and from a school match - a Roman Catholic school match, an' all - at Blackhill, near Consett.

On Spennymoor United's ground, Fishburn CW played Cornforth United in the semi-final of the Tudhoe Orphanage Cup, the teams apparently intent on leaving one or two others fatherless before 90 minutes were up.

"Feeling crept into the game from the start" reported the Echo, thus assuring itself a place among the Great Sporting Euphemisms of All Time.

"Some robust kicking and tackling" in the first half led to four players leaving the field injured. The referee, Mr G Gibson, was "impelled to issue frequent cautions."

After 23 minutes of the second half, Mr Gibson felt impelled to issue another. Blows were exchanged, the pitch invaded and the match hastily abandoned.

Horrific? What of the two bottom of the page paragraphs that same Monday morning on dark deeds at Blackhill?

"Some regrettable incidents took place at the conclusion of a schoolboys match at Blackhill on Saturday when a number of spectators seized the referee, a Leadgate schoolmaster, by the throat and dragged him back to the field.

"The Blackhill RC supporters were of the opinion that the referee had stopped the game four minutes before the actual time had been played. Police intervention was necessary before the referee could go away."

And dear old Durham FA thought that it had its hands full today