Baldasera Cup - stuff of legend and intrigue - is resurrected

Though contested only by primary schools in Wheatley Hill and Thornley, the cup engendered all the passion of Sunderland v Newcastle, says Dave. There's even a whiff of intrigue, but we shall return to that matter shortly.

The Baldasera family is the stuff of local legend, too. The column has told before how Arsenal player and future Darlington manager Eddie Carr took the great Denis Compton for a coffee at Arrisimo Baldasera's caf in Wheatley Hill, the queue of kids seeking autographs stretching halfway to Shotton Colliery.

Dave Hastings was a member of the victorious Wheatley Hill side which in 1981 took the cup to Arrisey's shop on the way back to school. "The great man kindly filled it with champagne, leaving 11 slightly inebriated ten-year-olds to go back to get changed."

Angelo Baldasera, then 19, left a small village near Rome around 1900 to work for his uncle's ice cream business in Hartlepool. He pushed a cart round the streets before himself opening an ice cream shop in Musgrave Street.

Later, says Margaret Hedley of Wheatley Hill History Club, Angelo realised that the east Durham miners were making good money and daily took a ten gallon barrow by train from Hartlepool to Thornley.

Eventually he opened shops in Wheatley Hill, Thornley and Shotton Colliery - "a really nice and generous man," says Margaret.

Angelo had eight sons and two daughters. The boys are all dead, the girls - oldest and youngest of his children - survive. Rosalina, 93, has long been Sister Loretta and is a nun at a convent in Gosforth; Mary, in her 70s, is still in Thornley.

Six of the boys worked in the family business. Joe became a consultant anaesthetist in Sunderland; his son's a GP in Houghton-le-Spring.

"They were an extraordinary family and loved east Durham," says Mary Baldasera, Joe's widow. "I've never heard anyone say a bad word against any of them."

Arrisimo, Arrisey in those parts, gave the Baldasera Cup to mark the Queen's coronation in 1953. It was the most prestigious schools competition in the area, insists Dave.

It continued until 1958, then lay in a storeroom until restarted in the 1970s by Alan Jackson - "widely regarded as the greatest teacher Wheatley Hill ever had."

A few years later, says Dave, Thornley RC school were removed from the competition for "strange and still unknown reasons." Left foot forward, perhaps someone can explain the mystery of faith.

At any rate, Dave and former Wheatley Hill team-mate Gary Anderson went on the trail of the trophy, found it in the back of a cupboard at Wheatley Hill school and have returned it to its original glister.

Wheatley Hill History Club plans to create a display around it; there's talk of another tournament. We may well not have heard the last of all this, but those are the Baldasera facts, anyway.

Before Saturday's match at the Stadium of Light, members of the Heart of England branch of Sunderland Supporters Club gathered at the Copt Hill, the pub near Houghton-le-Spring long run by FA Cup winning captain Bobby Kerr. Bobby even drew the winning raffle ticket - what else but number 73. Pete Sixsmith was there, too. "Watching the raffle," he reports, "was a great deal more exciting than the football match which followed."

The Local Heroes awards went as memorably as ever, not least that beer, like London buses, kept coming in threes.

That Durham Johnston school's girls under 12 footballers won the junior team award may have had something to do with the fact they're coached by Les Johnson, once a form mate of the column's at Bishop Grammar.

The interval was enlivened by a competition - Jeff Winter's Bad Boys - in which guests were invited to match a team of Premiership whingers most closely to the Teesside referee's selection.

Bowyer got into the Irksome XI, as did Anderton, Ince, Rooney and Alan Smith. Sir Alex, of course, was named manager.

The baddest of all, said Jeff - he meant the worst - was Danny Mills. "Always in your face. I was delighted when he signed for the Boro. It meant I'd never have to referee him again."

Shildon, as ever, was long on the short lists. Kate Avery from the town's running club took the Under 18 award for sporting excellence; Helen Smith, boxing coach John Heighington, running club secretary Neil Stockley and Shildon Railway FC were all in the frame.

Darlington football in the community officer Kevin Stonehouse, another Shildon lad, won special praise for his work on the Soccer Sixes tournament.

Disappointed not to have taken an award - they won the Durham Alliance League and reached six finals in their 50th anniversary season - the Railway lads are comforted by a £1000 donation from the RMT union.

Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, played in the anniversary match. "It honours his pledge at the dinner that the town's railway heritage wouldn't be forgotten," says club secretary Alan Morland.

"At a Northern League club the money might disappear in a week. It'll help keep us going for months."

Proceedings cannot pass without recording particular congratulations to the indomitable Charlie Walker, the dear old Demon Donkey Dropper of Eryholme, winner of the Over 18 Unsung Hero category. "If he could have found a cricket match to play in, he wouldn't even have been here," they said. They screened pictures of Charlie in the grand canyon after floods swept Eryholme's pitch away; word persisted that there are also photographs of the Dropper on a donkey, in Benidorm. Negotiations are under way.

The opening round of the World Skilful Dominoes Championship took place at Tow Law Football Club on Friday evening, former England amateur international footballer George Brown and his mate Peter Tallentyre among those with their feet under the table.

George had hoped to be joined by a second friend, who'd opted instead for a few pints with the lads.

"I told him he'd never make anything of his life if he passed up the chance of becoming world champion to go for a few beers in Spennymoor," said Geordie.

Kevin McCormick, football club official and local bookmaker, offered a short tour of the ground, already thick with early frost. Mr McCormick wore shirt sleeves. "It's no use wearing a coat in November," he said, "you won't feel the benefit in winter."

The aim of the championships, at any rate, was to take the luck out of dominoes by giving the same hand to every player at each side of the board.

It involved maybe a dozen bags, bright coloured like a story book sailing ship, and made especially for the occasion. "Boyes' remnant sale," it was helpfully explained.

The skill factor is doubtless much higher, though that may not wholly explain the success of the splendid Mrs Carol Hindmoor, so inexperienced (shall we say) that she stood each domino on end in front of her, like seven virgin soldiers.

Carol reached the final on December 9, as did George Brown and, more inexplicably, the column. You wouldn't bet on further progress; sleeves rolled up, Kevin McCormick might.

* Still a couple of places in the second qualifier, this Friday. Entry a fiver, first prize £150 and a trophy. Kevin McCormick's on 01388 731443 after 7 30pm.

And finally...

Keith Bond in Brompton-on-Swale, near Richmond, was among those who knew that "high house" and low house" (Backtrack, November 18) were terms in clay pigeon shooting.

Slightly easier than some of his supplementaries, Keith today invites readers to name the club which plays at the Madejski Stadium.

We're in play again on Friday.

Published: 22/11/2005