A cold wind blows at Stanley

Full FA members for 115 years, three times Northern League champions and former Amateur Cup semi-finalists, they resigned from the Crook and District League on Tuesday night having played six and lost the lot.

"There's just no interest, no youngsters coming through, " said club secretary Ian Dunn.

So what now for that famous, frozen, Hill Top ground- What of the Little House on the Prairie, coal fired and comforting-

"The deeds of the ground not only say that it must only be used for football but that the team must be called Stanley United, " says Vince Kirkup, one of the trustees.

"I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who wants to play there, even if its Gurney Valley Salmon Tin Kickers, just so long as they change their name to Stanley United." Formed in 1890, the team on the wind blown ridge above Crook had battled both elements and apathy for most of its existence.

In January 1948, it is famously recorded, they finished an Amateur Cup tie with Yorkshire Amateurs with just seven men after four could stand the bitter cold no longer.

Despite the efforts of the faithful, frozen few - chiefly George Midgley, Les Westgarth and, latterly, Vince Kirkup - the club resigned from the Northern League in 1974, having taken £2 37, 15 adults and a couple of bairns, on the gate.

"We let the kids in for a penny or twopence, nowt if they have nowt, " said George, a Co-op insurance salesman.

Les Westgarth had joined the committee in 1931 ("Me eldest sister's man was on; I got ticed") and after 57 years' dedication received an FA long service award.

Afterwards he went home to get changed. "You can't take the nets down in your best suit, " he said.

The club produced players like Geoff Strong of Arsenal and Liverpool, Tommy Cummings who won England B caps in 434 appearances with Burnley and Jack Howarth, who made over 400 with Aldershot.

Former players also include Ernest Armstrong, who became MP and deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, but who had a bit bother with short sightedness - George Midgley recalled him putting in a shocking tackle on the referee - and became a voluble, if strictly Methodist, supporter.

You could hear Ernie berating the referee, it was said, half way down Billy Row bank.

The club joined the Durham and District League after leaving the Northern, moved back up to the Wearside League, bought its ground from the Coal Board for a nominal £1.

Vince Kirkup - "Stanley mighn't have much razamatazz, but it's got enchantment" he once said - left in 2002 after 29 years of holding United together.

Though there's nearby new housing in the former Category D village, he insists that the moral high ground allows only for football.

"I must admit that we struggled for years, there was many a time I wondered what I was doing there and others when I don't know how we did it. There's tremendous apathy towards Stanley United." The now inactive Stanley, equal in FA voting rights with Arsenal and Man United, had previously been Crook Wanderers.

Now there's another Hill Top hiatus. If anyone's reading from Gurney Valley Salmon Tin Kickers, the valiant Vince awaits the call.

Remembering the early days of Inspector Clish

THE funeral yesterday of Ray Clish, former Durham police inspector and well known cricket umpire, reminded Ian Hawley - our old mate Boss Hogg, from Crook - of his police cadet days.

That's Boss, second from the left in the photograph. He's changed a bit. Ray and Barry Bell, both then sergeants, formed a formidable football team which in 1976 reached the final of the national cadet cup, losing 4-3 to Merseyside.

"It was the best side I ever played in.

"There were only about 35 of us to choose from and we'd probably have won the final but for the jammiest goal I've seen in my life, " says Boss.

Kev Robinson, Durham's goalkeeper ("Darlington lad, rugby player") went to punch the ball clear and inadvertently whacked the opposing centre forward instead. "His head jerked back, hit the ball and it bobbled over Robbo." They'd also had an eventful quarter-final in Bridgend, where a Durham player was sent off after five minutes for what the courts call actual bodily harm and Boss calls banjoing an opponent.

The team included Steve Barker and Neil Moore, now both much involved with Willington Cricket Club, Terry Robson who's believed to be an inspector somewhere and Kevin Kilkenny - known as Killer but not (of course) for any homicidal tendencies.

"Ray was a fantastic character, daft as a brush but a great sergeant for us, " says Boss.

He'd also been on duty on the infamous occasion of the Annfield Plain streaker - Aynsley Johnson cricket final, 1980 - when a gentleman known locally as Dog Fox decided to bare all.

"I couldn't believe it, not in Annfield Plain, " Ray once recalled. "In the end we locked him up for being drunk and disorderly." Often at opposite ends to his friend Eli Ord in the Durham County League, Ray had no trouble as an umpire - "they don't argue with old pollisses, " he told the column.

He was 65, lived in Lanchester and was much respected everywhere.

Tom gets the VIP treatment at the Vic

A CEREMONY at Hartlepool United tomorrow marks Tom Harvey's lifelong devotion to sport, and to football in particular.

Still refereeing at 72 - "only primary schools, it's all I can keep up with" - he has been 30 years a Durham FA member and now director, was secretary of the Hartlepool Church League for almost 20 years, chairman of the town's cricket league and holds many other offices.

"They say if you want something doing ask a busy man, and that's what happens, " says the wholly admirable Tom - male voice choir member, active churchman, bowls player, school governor and former JP.

He'd always been the organiser.

"Even as kids in the war I was the one who made the ball out of rags or cut down the branches for stumps." Footballs being almost impossible to obtain, he was also deputed to beg a pig's bladder from Albert Walker, the butcher. "It was an awful looking thing, but he also gave me a pie.

"The pig's bladder didn't last five minutes but it was the first time I'd had a Walker's pie all to myself. I made sure I'd eaten it before I got home." The organising ability continued in the Army - "I learned that if you carried a clipboard in your left hand and saluted with your right, you could do almost anything in the Army" - and into Hartlepool's civvy streets.

Sadly, much has changed. "Refereeing was a nice job because people took notice of you. You just ran up and down blowing for offside, didn't have to control people because they controlled themselves.

Now it's like the police, no one takes any notice of them, either.

"Durham FA turn out hundreds of new referees every year but they don't stick because they can't stand the abuse and I don't blame them.

"Football has changed from a sport to what it is now, especially in the Premier League." The FA's 50 year service award was presented on Wednesday by Durham FA president Frank Pattison and will be re-presented at halftime tomorrow by Hartlepool mayor Stuart Drummond. Tom insists it as much honours his wife Josie, one of the great grass widows.

Pool have provided 11 executive box seats for the family. "It's all rather overwhelming, " says Tom.

"Happily there are still some very nice people in football."

JOHNNY Haynes's death this week reminded Martin Birtle in Billingham of the worst Sunderland display he ever saw: January 4 1969.

It was the FA Cup. Sunderland, 17th in the old first division, hosted Fulham, bottom of the second and at odds of 6-1 against to win the match. They won it 4-1.

"I'm just disgusted, " said Roker chairman Syd Collings. "A shocking display against what could be the worst team in the second division, " wrote Frank Johnson.

"Johnny Haynes passed us out of the game, " says Martin. "If we'd had a cat I'd have kicked it ten feet up in the air." Though Bobby Kerr had scored after eight minutes, Haynes crafted a tremendous equaliser after 35 and laid on two more for Northern Irishman Brendan Mullan, whose league career extended to just two matches.

"Sunderland were a bit stereotyped, " said Haynes. "They tried to put everything on Charlie Hurley's head." Sunderland were still 17th at the end of the season. Fulham, despite the 34-year-old Haynes, were still five points adrift at the bottom.

VIA Jimmy Greaves's autobiography, John Briggs recalls the occasion when Fulham chairman Tommy Trinder, appearing at Southsea, was invited by Portsmouth president Field Marshal Montgomery to be his guest at Fratton Park.

After the match, the radio announced that Fulham had won 2-0, the teenage Haynes scoring both.

"He's only 18 but he's going to be a great player, captain of England one day, " enthused Trinder.

Monty listened silently. "Only 18, " he said, "what about his National Service?" Trinder didn't hesitate. "Ah that's the only sad thing about the lad, " he said. "He's a cripple."

LIFELONG Sunderland fan Paul Dobson, who doubtless also remembers being bashed by the Cottagers, writes from Bishop Auckland after Tuesday's piece on Hibernian.

Last year he bought tickets for the Scotland v Trinidad match at Easter Road and found himself, seemingly indelibly, on the Hibs' mailing list.

Among the offers he was able to refuse was Hibs chilli sauce - "tempting though it was". The Hibees' faithful seem also to have given the hot stuff the cold shoulder. It has inexplicably been withdrawn.

MONTHS after his 60th birthday, rather less after his latest unbending operation, the column's All Time Hero Dave "Jock" Rutherford came on as Washington's sub on Saturday in the Over 40s League.

Jock, capped five times for England's amateur side in the 1960s, shot narrowly over the bar with a 30 yarder in Washington; 's 3-0 victory.

League secretary Kip Watson comes close to hero worship, too.

"He's still a fantastic player, " he says. "It makes you wonder what he was like in his prime."

And finally...

ENID Blyton's "Famous Five" (Backtrack, October 18) were Julian, Dick, Anne, George (who was a girl) and Timmy (who was a dog).

Lee Emerson from Hunwick was first out of the hat and wins a rather splendid GNER corkscrew and bottle stopper set.

Bob Foster in Ferryhill today invites readers to name the highest scoring Englishman in the Premiership never to have been capped by his country.

No prizes, but the answer when the column returns on November 1.

Published: 22/10/2005