Crooner Mac tunes in with N's tales

They were universally the N's, short for Nursery team. Chicken and egg, the message that David Walton in Brandon rang to say they were the Hens may have been due to a mishearing.

"Even now, there are old timers who refer to our youth teams as the N's, " says Magpies publications editor Paul Tully.

The Nursery class of '52 included the young David Macbeth, later to become much better known - and much richer - as a singer and Doug Arnold, now in Coxhoe. Neither quite proved the N's product, Doug subsequently signing as an amateur for Durham City.

"At Newcastle we got five shillings a week expenses, while as an 'amateur' at Durham I got £3 a game - good money in the mid-fifties, " he recalls.

David Macbeth, now 70, had a number 18 hit in 1959 with Mr Blue - his first record - became a familiar performer in the early days of Tyne Tees Television, bought Grey's nightclub in Newcastle and sold it, for a fortune, five years ago.

Among contemporaries undergoing the Nth degree at St James Park was left winger George Luke, now 71, who scored 61 goals in 186 league games for Hartlepool, was transferred back to Newcastle, finished at Darlington and still runs a successful carpet fitting business on Tyneside.

Macbeth - his real name, though Tyne Tees wanted to call him David North and Pye Records preferred Scott Weston until he protested that it made him sound like a biscuit company - got as far as occasional games with the reserves before National Service in 1954.

A knee injury during an army kickabout ended his playing career. "Though the knee was up like a balloon, when I went to see the army doctor he told me it was just a sprain and to run it off, " he recalls.

"It didn't get any better and when I got back to Newcastle I went to Norman Smith, the trainer. He took one look, said it was cruciate ligament damage and told me I'd never play again."

He ended up selling Andrews Liver Salts, was "discovered" at a Carol Levis show at the Sunderland Empire, can now afford to hit a philosophical note.

"These days I could have sued the army for thousands in compensation, but it was probably just as well because I was no good, really. In the army I was playing alongside a lot of full time professionals and I realised my limitations."

He now lives on Millionaires' Row in Darras Hall, still keeps his St James Park season ticket, insists it's as much for the crack as for the football.

"There's not been much joy up here since the Keegan days. Anyone can support Manchester United, but I'm amazed at the loyalty of the Newcastle fans."

Then he was off for a round of golf with Jack Charlton, himself now 70, who was doubtless a better footballer but shouldn't even have sung in the bath. v "If I can just stop him cheating, we'll have a good game, " said David, a remark on which we offered not to quote him.

"Oh, no please do, " he insisted - a case, as Big Jack might almost have said, of the means justifying the N's.

Blue Star doing 'cartwheels' after landing £1m man

FORMER Sunderland and Manchester City man Craig Russell's move to Arngrove Northern League side Newcastle Blue Star - "I'm simply turning cartwheels" says club secretary Jim Anderson - prompts recollections on Wearside of Russell's finest hour.

It was December 9 1995, Sunderland's 6-0 thrashing of Millwall taking them to the top of the first division for the first time in 15 years. Russell became the first Roker player since Eric Gates, eight years previously, to hit four in a match.

"I just have to keep this up, " said the 21-year-old, unsurprisingly clutching the match ball.

Transferred in 1997 to Manchester City in a £1m exchange deal with Nicky Summerbee, he had few chances at Maine Road, played for Port Vale and Tranmere on loan and was released by Darlington at the end of last season.

He was born on February 4 1974 of Sunderland daft parents, insists that he was conceived on the night of the FA Cup final triumph over Leeds, remains red and white at heart.

Jim Anderson's happy to have him back on Tyneside. "It's us, " he says, "who feel a million pounds just now."

DECEMBER 9 1995? Premiership leaders Newcastle United lose 1-0 to a Dan Petrescu goal at Chelsea - "We're in a little slump, " says centre half Steve Howey, now a further part of the Arngrove Northern League's Maine Road contingent - two late goals give Darlington victory at Scarborough ("The Quakers shrugged off the nasty aftertaste of the departure of manager David Hodgson, " says the Echo), Mark Ramprakash is out for a third ball duck against South African side Boland ("a new low") and Phil Stamp hits his first ever goal for the Boro in the 4-1 win over Manchester City.

The headline, inevitably, is "First class Stamp."

AS indomitable as he is improbable, Middlesbrough barrister Arthur Puckrin rings with news of the latest in a great case file of athletics titles - first over 50, ninth overall, in the World Cup double ironman event in Quebec.

"I'd probably have done better but I had a shredded tyre which didn't go flat, " he says. "It was only when I started being overtaken by the slow men that I realised something must be wrong."

The double ironman embraces a five mile swim, 224 miles on the bike and a 52 mile run, each following the other. Arthur completed it in 30 hours 24 minutes.

He is 67.

THE forward looking lads at Norton and Stockton Ancients FC continue their efforts to make the Arngrove Northern a league of nations.

Former Burkina Faso under 21 goalkeeper Apollo Quederago, now dubbed the Teesside club's international scout, has brought a contingent of refugees and asylum seekers for trials.

Following Mohammed Sediqi last season - Ancients were docked three points for playing the Afghan when improperly registered - they're now giving trials to Mohammed Darwish from Chad, Ali Camara and Abou Baca Souma from Guinea Bissau and Stephane Harbrook from Uganda.

"We're doing our best to unite the nations through football, but this time we'll have the proper clearances, " says team manager Ray Morton.

Quederago himself played a single game against South Shields two years ago. Ancients lost 5-4. Burkina Faso or not, he was never asked to wear the jersey again.

THAT repeat exposure of the Cockerton streaker in last Friday's column stirred memories for Alf Hutchinson, one of the umpires in the club's 1993 centenary cricket match against Durham County.

"I'm not saying he had nothing much to brag about, but he was a bit chubby and from ten yards away I still couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, " Alf insists.

Might that not be a reflection on the average umpire's eyesight? "Not at all, " says Alf, "I may be 67, but I have absolutely no problem telling the difference."

ON the BBC's cricket website, John Briggs spots the claim that "Eight ball overs were given a two year trial in England in 1939, but the experiment ended with the outbreak of World War II." John's worried. "If eight ball overs are going to lead to world war, what on earth will they make of the super subs?"

DAVIE MUNDAY, in Dunfermline via Darlington, reports that the Dundee Courier had a nice cartoon of Auchterarder - something to do with all the police horses stabled there during the G8 - and that Auchterarder is known as the Lang Toon, because its main street stretches for a mile and a half.

Just to confuse things, Kirkcaldy - where in terms of football survival there's a bit of a Raith against time just now - is nicknamed the Lang Toon, too.

The point of all this is that Ron Mailer, still remembered at Auchterarder Primrose, scored twice in 11 games for Darlington while on national service at Catterick in 1954 and subsequently won a Scottish FA Cup medal with Dunfermline.

Ron's now 73. Like most of the rest of Scotland, he has spent the past week watching the Open on the telly.

Hodgy hits 50

PAUL HODGSON, whose wit and worldly wisdom have helped sustain the Backtrack column throughout its 20 year tenure, celebrated his 50th birthday with a surprise party this week.

The surprise may slightly have been qualified. Half Spennymoor had said they'd see him on Tuesday night.

Hodgy's secretary of Spennymoor Amateur Boxing Academy, or club as once more prosaically it was known. He is the man who memorably got us lost on the way to Cardiff (via Milton Keynes), the man who persuaded Mad Frankie Fraser that the sensible thing to do was appear at the club's annual presentation evening.

He is the publicist who hired a hypnotist and pulled the wool over precious few eyes, the official who almost came to blows with the ABA, the secretary whose endless efficiency, extrovert energy and entrepreneurial enthusiasm have helped ensure a national and international stage for kids who might otherwise have been nohopers.

He is what people call a character, what prospectors call a rough diamond and what columnists call a godsend.

The do was at the Voltigeur, named after a 19th century Derby winner and recently much refurbished.

There was a singer and a strippergram - turn and turnoff - the latter billed as 22 stones but by reason of short stature weighing in at little more than bruiserweight.

They embraced, as you do.

Mind, she was an ugly hugger.

Tattooed like Edinburgh Castle, not quite caught with his trousers down, Hodgy entered (shall we say) into the spirit of the occasion.

He is also, lest we forget, holder of the UK and Commonwealth dole drawing record.

"I've never worked so hard since Courtauld's in 1979, " he said.

A happy half century, old friend.

...and finally

BACK to the N's. Readers are today invited to name the Scarborough lad whose surname began with an N and whose only England football cap came against Portugal in 1951.

The column returns on Tuesday.

Published: 15/07/2005