New year, old habits, we turn again to Shildon to find as before that there is nothing new under the sun.

It was March 13, 1909, Shildon Athletic v Hartlepools United in the North Eastern League.

The game ended 2-2, but it was only after the final whistle that things really kicked off.

Referee Hughes from Middlesbrough had not, said the Echo, had the best of matches.

Half of the 1,000 spectators stayed behind, forcibly to remind him of the error of his ways.

A section of the crowd, our man wrote, allowed their anger to outweigh their discretion with unfortunate results for all concerned.

It was particularly unfortunate for the poor referee, at whom stones and mud were thrown unmercifully and who suffered serious facial cuts and had to have four days off work. Half a house brick missed him by the lower fraction of an inch.

The referee, added the Echo censoriously, is not there for people to use as a target to shy at whenever their feelings are hurt.

When the police arrived both of them poor Hughes was escorted to the dressing room and thence to the railway station, where they saw him out of town.

Such unruly behaviour deserves the severest punishment, said the Echo, and Durham FA duly acted.Though Shildon claimed the incident trivial, the County FA heard that members of the home committee had also sworn at the poor referee in his dressing room.

The ground was closed for two weeks, with orders that they werent to play within six miles of the town. For allowing the referee to be stoned by a 500-strong mob, the club was additionally fined 3.

The day that the referee got stoned is remembered in a new book on the early years of Hartlepools United, written by lifelong fan Colin Foster.

Probably the least written about football club and possibly the least successful, he concedes.

Though West Hartlepool had unexpectedly won the Amateur Cup in 1905 they finished seventh in the 13-member Northern League the new club was formed three years later, playing then as now on the Victoria Ground. West folded two years later.

United at once joined the North Eastern League, 5,000 watching the first home game against Seaham White Star. The first players were signed for a fiver.

They won the Durham Senior Cup, hired a brake to hold a victory parade all the way from the station to the Grand Hotel, but received just a single vote Darlington gained seven when applying for membership of the old second division.

When hostilities began in 1914, the old Vic suffered much damage, both from marauding local youths and from German Zeppelins. Jokes about how anyone could possibly tell the difference may be inserted here.

Colin, 35, follows the story until 1921, like the Three Kings traversing afar to discover details of every game and almost every player who kicked a ball in the Hartlepools cause.Im nearly blind with all the reading I had to do, he says. Id love to do a follow-up but Im not sure the wife will let me.

In 1921 they finally made the Football League, the start of something fairly biggish. Poolies of all ages will love it.l Hartlepools United in the Beginning by Colin Foster costs 12.99 from the club shop or from colalifoster@ntlworld.com

We cannot leave Hartlepool without recording the words last week of former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan: Arsenal cant always raise their game against Hartlepool United in quite the same way as they can against Real Madrid.

He was talking about his stamina in the bedroom.

Deprived of football elsewhere, Peter Sixsmith from Shildon was among many North-East enthusiasts who headed on Christmas Eve for Gretna v Forfar where Gretna supremo Brooks Mileson could be observed in the clubhouse carving free bacon sandwiches for everyone in the ground. Petes a Sunderland fan. You wouldnt get Freddie Shepherd doing that, he says.

Gretna play an Arngrove Northern League XI on Tuesday February 21 in a benefit match for Steve Tierney, the larger than life goalkeeper whose death from leukaemia last October he was 32 shocked North-East football.

A prize draw, handsome prizes, will run in conjunction with it.

The first few quid of a very high target should come this week on e-bay, where a programme from last weeks Tyne-Tees derby signed by the entire Middlesbrough squad is on offer.

The auction number is 8748761255.Bids, further prizes, ticket sellers and match sponsors all welcome at the e-mail address above.

Passing of sporting pair

Bill Barron, a former Co Durham colliery blacksmith who became an all-year all-rounder, died on January 2. He was 88. Principally he'd played football for Northampton Town and cricket for Northamptonshire - his home for 55 years when we visited in 1993. He'd never settled, he said, an uncomfortable fit in the town of shoemakers.

"It's not a very nice place, this, they're so blooming toffee-nosed," said Bill. "It's funny to say, but after all these years I still get homesick.

"I'm coming up home soon and there'll be more people speak to me in one weekend than will all year in Northampton." He was born in Herrington, near Sunderland, played football for Hetton Juniors, signed for Bishop Auckland at the same time as a talented youngster called Bob Paisley, who became his lifelong friend.

"They used to send a car for us," Bill recalled. "I'd come out of the pit black, wash my face at Bishop Auckland or wherever we were, and play."

He signed for Wolves, though was never one of the pack. "Major Buckley was manager and he still thought he was in the army. It broke me heart, nearly finished me."

More at home at Charlton - manager Jimmy Seed was from Whitburn, legendary goalkeeper Sam Bartram from Boldon Colliery - he joined Northampton just before the war.

An obituary on a Cobblers' website also recalls his fine singing voice - "often entertaining his team-mates on long journeys with a medley of his songs."

Back home, as Bill invariably still knew it, he'd batted brilliantly for Philadelphia, was chosen by Durham County and made one Lancashire appearance before the war.

"Philadelphia were great fellers. I've met all sorts of famous folk, good 'uns and bad 'uns, but never better than them. I suppose at Herrington I was king of the castle."

He made 161 Football League appearances, played in 120 first class cricket matches and scored six centuries, including 161 against Cambridge University. His occasional left arm spin brought five wickets at 40.

"People asked me which I preferred," he said. "The answer was the one I was doing best at at the time."

He was a lovely man and we thanked him, down south in 1993, for his time and trouble. "Oh it's been grand," said Bill, "it's just lovely that someone remembers."

Ken Raine has died, too, aged 79. His passing briefly caught the last column before Christmas, but cannot be left at that. Ken was born in Gurney Valley, near Bishop Auckland, became Northumberland and Durham flyweight boxing champion, played several sports and held forth about many more.

He helped organise the Tour of Britain "Milk Race" - and the Milk Cup - when employed by the National Dairy Council, became a vice-president of the Welsh Schools AAA when the Dairy men proved more than just a good sponsor, worked for BBC Radio Durham in the 1960s.

It was the time that a wet-eared youngster called Kate Adie was sent to cover football at Evenwood - "Someone's scored, but I'm not sure who" she reported - and when Ken was commentating on the Soviet Union, shirts familiarly emblazoned CCCP, in the World Cup at Ayresome Park.

Ken's wife Helen was there, too, though perhaps not so keen-eyed. "I see they're sponsored by the Co-op," she said.

He lived in Etherley, played bowls and was a stalwart of the Dog and Gun darts and doms. His son Simon delivered an affectionate and wonderfully anecdotal funeral eulogy, perhaps the best story of all concerning the Westool works cricket team from St Helen's Auckland.

They were playing at Vaux, Sunderland, where the happy custom was to leave a 72-pint pin of ale in each dressing room. Westool batted, put on 214 for the first wicket.

Meanwhile, back in the dressing room, the rest of the St Helen's lads hadn't just seen off their allocation but had started on the home team's.

For some reason, added Simon, they were never invited back.

...and finally

We sought before Christmas the identity of the ten players who had appeared in every season of the Premiership.

They are Ryan Giggs, Alan Shearer, Nicky Butt, David James, Sol Campbell, Gary Speed, Ray Parlour, Roy Keane, Ugo Ehiogu and Ian Pearce who averages about ten games a season.

Michael Rudd in Bishop Auckland today asks the identity of the only player presently with a Premiership club who has scored hat-tricks in all four divisions (by whatever name), in the League Cup, FA Cup and for his country.

The column returns on Friday.

Published: 10/01/2006