Still up to the oxters in winter's worst, Hetton Lyons Cricket Club hope to reach a national final on Sunday. They play football, too.

"Some of them mightn't be able to hold a bat but everyone's a member of the cricket club, it's one of the conditions," says David Leitch, secretary of the Hetton-le-Hole based side - founded eight years ago as Hetton WMC.

Pride of Lyons however big the ball, the Cricket Club meet Birstall Stamford at Durham City in the FA Sunday Cup semi-final (3pm).

After the postponement of last Sunday's match at Newton Aycliffe, however, the club could need a month of Sundays in order to complete its fixtures.

The Lyons' share to date is just eight out of 22 Durham and District Sunday league games - and they're still in three other cup competitions. "Potentially there are 28 games remaining before May 1 and the weather seems to be getting worse," says David.

"We'll have to change from a Sunday side to an any night of the week side in order to complete our fixtures."

Managed by Bradley Groves, late of Aston Villa and Barley Mow Workmen's Club, all but one of the squad are regulars in the Arngrove Northern or UniBond leagues.

It includes familiar names Roy Allen, an FA Vase quarter-finalist with Crook Town, John Caffrey, Jon Cullen, former Manchester United youngster Stuart Brightwell and skipper Jason Ainsley.

Paul Walker and Colin Shanks, among the backroom boys, were both in the Sunderland-based Humbledon Plains Farm team which won the national trophy in 1991.

David hopes for a 1,000 crowd on Sunday. "There's a lot of interest and it'll take a good team on a good pitch to stop us."

The final's at Anfield; it'll be cricket season by then.

Perhaps awaiting a call from the Stadium of Light, Sunderland legend Ian Porterfield e-mails from Korea - where he successfully manages Busan Icons - with the joke about Sven Goran Eriksson on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

You know the one. For £1m, Sven's asked what animal lives in a set: a badger, a mole, a ferret or a cuckoo.

He's stuck, exhausts the options, and with either badger or cuckoo remaining has to phone a friend. It's David Beckham - though it could have been Wayne Rooney - who insists that the answer's a badger.

Sven hits the jackpot, arrives for England training next day and thanks Beckham profusely. "But how," he asks, "did you know that a badger lives in a set?"

"Oh I didn't, boss," says Becks, "but everyone knows a cuckoo lives in a clock."

Frank Orr, author of the recent A-Z of Durham cricket grounds, adds an improbable PS to the recent obituary on former Yorkshire and England cricketer Alec Coxon, long in Sunderland.

Jamaican musician Clement Dodd - as legendary in that world as the oft-taciturn Coxon was in his - was also an ardent cricket fan.

That's why, says Frank - and Dodd's 2004 obits confirm it - he arbitrarily changed his name to Sir Coxone Dodd in tribute to his hero.

"I wonder," muses Frank, "if Alec ever knew?"

Little more probably, we recalled on February 28 the Stanhope football team of 1932 which reached the last 16 of the FA Amateur Cup, before losing 5-1 in front of a 7,000 crowd at Ilford.

David Bell, secretary of the present Stanhope Town Side - Crook and District League - not only sends further information but the suggestion that defeat might not have been so heavy had not the Weardale lads found London's Friday night attractions so irresistible.

The team, says David, included brothers George and Sydney Turnbull from Shildon and Tommy and Alfonso Fineran from Tow Law.

Emerson Wilson, the Tow Law-based goalkeeper, had a second thumb growing out of the normal thumb on one hand. Whatever his problem with gloves, the cap seemed to fit perfectly.

Much recent mention hereabouts of the Hole in the Wall - it's the Darlington pub where a plaque was recently unveiled to commemorate former landlord and 1908 Olympian George Butterfield.

Until yesterday, however, we'd not heard all season from the pub football team - motto "Supare possomus" - of which the column remains president.

The indefatigable Alan Smith's bumper bundle reveals that the programme is better than ever but that the team, switched from the defunct Darlington and District league to the Church and Friendly, is much the same.

"We hold our usual place at the top of the midden," says Alan. Translated, it means they're 11th out of 14.

Maurice Binge

Maurice Binge, the only man to take all ten wickets in Cockerton Cricket Clubs 113-year history, has died. He was 75, and still properly proud of his achievement.

Binge by name but teetotal by nature, Maurice was also club president still familiar on the boundary edge, though long exiled to Billingham.

No matter how miserable the weather, hed turn up in the hope of seeing a game, recalls Cockerton veteran Alf Hutchinson.

So far as Maurice was concerned it was Cockerton, not Lords, which was the hub of cricket. He was a very, very good friend to the club.

His 10-30 came against Walworth Castle, Sir Murrough Wilson Cup, on July 24 1954, Maurice among four Cockerton batsmen who'd failed to trouble the scorers in his sides modest 73 all out. Walworth, castled, managed just 60 in reply.

Yet more modestly, Maurice recalled at Cockerton's centenary match the occasion of the infamously infinitesimal streaker that none had been more surprised than he.

"Usually I was only second change but one or two of the others were away and you have to take your chances when they come."

The Darlington-based side the president recalled when they could see hay making, not the Branksome estate, from square leg was so proud of his achievement that they staged a Past v Present match two summers ago to mark its golden jubilee.

Maurice - bit of heart trouble a few years ago - was allowed only to bowl the first ball.

Former secretary Richard Cowan recalls a dedicated clubman. He'd never admit it, but if ever anyone took the first five or six hed be sweating a bit on the boundary. None of us may ever again see all ten.

...and finally

The last time before the first Test against India that England fielded a side of under 30s (Backtrack, March 10) was against South Africa at Edgbaston in June 1960.

The team was Pullar, Cowdrey, Dexter, Subba Row, MJK Smith, Parks, Illingworth, Barber, Walker, Trueman and Statham. Brian Statham, born on June 16 1930, reached 30 before the second test.

Barry Hindson of BBC Radio Newcastle today invites readers to name three overseas players of non-European birth who've scored for the winning side in an FA Cup final.

Passports marked again on Friday

Published: 14/03/2006