Bishops class of 1950 take a trip down memory lane

Bishop Auckland's famous old footballers, again reunited, were somewhat taken aback.

"Bloody hell, the new changing rooms look impressive," said Derek Lewin, who'd played in three successive Amateur Cup winning sides in the 1950s.

"I just hope they've gettin' good money for it," said Ray Oliver, Cullercoats lifeboatman and unsinkable centre forward, mourning the loss of a ground which captured more atmosphere in its two and a half sides than most could ever have dreamed of, foursquare.

If the question is how many homes can you get onto a football ground, the answer is an awful lot more than might have been imagined.

Like the dear old Kingsway ground, the Two Blues are all getting on a bit. Conversation inevitably hobbled round to knees, and hips and, quite possibly, boomps-a-daisies.

Ray Oliver had had four hip replacements - "fower," he repeated, "three on one peg, one on t'other" - George Siddle awaited a double, Bob Thursby's arthritic knee was proving too great a handicap on the golf course.

George said it was something revolutionary, the Birmingham hip, insisted on going into orthopaedic detail until advised that he was turning the beer cloudy.

He also remembered the little bit of Kingsway where, playing for West Auckland, he'd accidentally broken the leg of friend and former Bishops' team mate Michael Barker.

"It's a good thing he wasn't my enemy," said Mike.

"You just didn't get out of the way in time," said George.

"Just put in 'Dirty Siddle'," said Mike.

Corbett Cresswell and Ray Oliver, centre half and centre forward in the fabled 50s, were anxious for different reasons to recall the Kingsway match on which they, too, had played on different sides - Durham v Northumberland.

Bishops' Dave Marshall was also in Durham's defence, Oliver scoring twice in Northumberland's 3-1 win.

"We got together before the match and agreed we'd go gently with one another," said Corbett. "The match wasn't two minutes old before Ray whacked me and he kicked me up and down the pitch for the next 88 minutes."

"That man was like concrete. You simply couldn't move him," said Dave Marshall.

"Soft bloody Durhamers," said Ray, and walked round to the once-triumphant top goal for a photograph.

"It's where I scored a hat-trick against Durham," said Ray.

"He keeps adding to it, it'll be four next year," said Corbett.

The Lightfoot Institute, where in 1886 the Bishops had first been consecrated, still stands near one corner. Dellwood, putative source of the phrase about blackness and Bill's mother's, remains resolute behind the bottom goal.

John Barnwell, now chief executive of the League Managers' Association, was there and limping; Warren Bradley was there, the only man to win amateur and full international caps in the same season; Len Langford, Mike Greenwood, Walter Peacock.

They talked about the prospects of a new ground, a debate which may continue for a few reunions yet, about the "friendly" match at West Auckland the week previously in which Bishops had had three men sent off - "It was always friendly at West Auckland," said Mike Greenwood, ever dapper - and, inevitably, about "expenses".

Fifty bob, top money, they insisted, though whether from Wigan or Willington the bus fare seemed to be fifty bob regardless.

Bob Thursby, who became a dentist, also recalled happy days on Stanley Hill Top where United's treasurer was so anxious to keep every penny in close circulation that he had trousers made with wash leather pockets.

The do was at the cricket club, which for a century overlapped with those legendary football men. They walked across to the boundary, pointed animatedly if not architrecturally, played it all again.

If he lives until October, as somewhat gloomily he puts it, Ray Oliver will be 77. "I think," he said, "that I'm going to have to become a Freemason."

The Kingsway reunion also marked the launch of Glory Days, Alan Adamthwaite's affectionate account of the Bishops' post-war episcopate.

Alan, Crook lad originally, marries memories of those heady years with recollections of his own less glorious Co Durham childhood.

He'd attended infant school at Howden-le-Wear, slippered on the first day by a name and nature teacher called Mr Savage. Old Savage proved a bit of a pussy cat, mind, when Alan's mum got hold of him.

There'll be a proper book review in the fullness of time. Copies, meanwhile, from bookshops or - £17.99, post free - from Parrs Wood Press, St Wilfrid's Enterprise Centre, Royce Road, Manchester M15 5BJ.

Spennymoor Town's Arngrove Northern League debut on Friday evening was a terrific occasion, and not just in claiming two pints from Town's uncharacteristically pessimistic manager Ken Houlahan.

Mr Houlahan, it will be recalled, had supposed the gate wouldn't reach 400. It was 511, not just the ANL's biggest for several years but more in one night than Evenwood Town - the club's previous incarnation - attracted all last season. He still hasn't paid up.

It was good also to talk to Town chairman Alan Murray, sports promoter and social club owner, who recalled that in 1978 he had steered Boro lad Albert Harding into the Guinness Book of Records.

Albert danced for 115 and a quarter non-stop hours at the Inncognito in Middlesbrough, save for the standard five minute break every hour, and with adjudicators to ensure he didn't put a foot wrong.

"Even when he went to the toilet he had to dance all the way, and with an adjudicator keeping him company," said Alan.

By the end, last legs, he was hallucinating. "He'd have a T-bone and then five minutes later complain that he was hungry."

Despite all that bopping about, Alan hasn't heard of him for years. Does Albert Harding dance on?

The following afternoon to Ryton v Peterlee, the Tyne Valley club making its ANL debut and much indebted for its remarkable progress to Steve Murray, a detective chief inspector with Durham Constabulary.

The ground not only uses former bus shelters as dug-outs but as spectator accommodation, too. Some retain the "Bus stop" sign, others even have the complete timetable.

It is therefore possible, should interest wane, to check the times of buses from Killingworth to the Four Lane Ends or from Wallsend to the Freeman Hospital. With the ANL as with Arriva, it's all part of the service.

Recent references to the fiercely contested 1913 FA Cup final - Sunderland 0 Aston Villa 1 - reminded Gordon Thubron in Newton Aycliffe of a lovely local anecdote.

Gordon's originally from Quarrington Hill, east of Durham, where early in 1913 a very fine house was close to completion.

If our lads won the Cup, it was decreed, it would be called Sunderland House. If the other lot won, it would become Aston Villa.

Aston Villa, says Gordon, it handsomely remains - and if that's a bit like bricks without straw, can anyone add something more substantial?

And finally...

the other talking point at Spennymoor on Friday night was the question in that day's column - the sport to which the Brewery Field had previously been home. It was rugby league.

Today back to Bishop Auckland, and to Corbett Cresswell. Readers are invited to name the Football League club in the North-East for which Warney Cresswell, Corbett's father, played with distinction.

Forewarneyed being forearmed, the column returns in three days.

Published: 16/08/2005