Redcar RAFA plan for new TV times

Trouble was, the old kite was so off the radar - jet-set no longer - that a member had to bring in his own.

Match over, sorrows drowned, someone suggested launching a fund to buy a decent telly - and now the airmen are once again reaching for the Sky (and quite a lot of other channels, too. ) Committee member Dick Fawcett - "among the youngest at 70" - immediately found a jar, labelled it "TV fund" and put in the first £1 of the £1200 they hope to raise towards a 42in plasma screen. On the first night they raised £31.

"The old one's like something from the ark and the remote control's worse, " says Dick.

"We're just a small club and most of us are quite old, but we can't go on like this.

"We were all very disappointed at the Boro result.

Probably it was a good thing we couldn't see too much of it.

"The chap who complained most has promised to put in £100 if we've raised £400 by the World Cup final."

Wings clipped, the old flyers really hope the fund will take off. Donations can be made to club chairman Dennis Eeles, 81, at 34 Newcomen Terrace, Redcar TS10 1DB.

STILL recovering from Hampden, Brooks Mileson rings to announce that he's taken a half-page ad in the Edinburgh Evening News to thank Hearts fans for their sportsmanship.

Davie Munday, exiled from Darlington to Dunfermline, also reports that the Scottish football programme Off the Ball had a competition for the best Gretna acronym. Smoke screens notwithstanding, "Gained respect entirely through nicotine addict" won handsomely.

Gretna staff took six and a half hours on Monday to download all the appreciative emails, interrupted only by the arrival of a Hearts fan who'd driven from Edinburgh just to have his photograph taken with the Durham-based philanthropist.

Now that the little town is truly on the map, they've also heard from the mayors of Gretna, Louisiana and Gretna, Nebraska, proposing something tripartite.

The biggest consolation of all, however, is that Brooks - who has an animal sanctuary out the back - has been invited to join the main board of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"If they'd offered me a knighthood, " he says, "I couldn't have been more delighted."

TUESDAY'S report on the trip to Hampden - FA Cup Final Escape Committee and ThistleStop Tour - again noted the seemingly insatiable appetite of Mr Peter Sixsmith, from Shildon. Sadly, the story has an unhappy ending. The following day, both Sixer and his friend Peter Horan, who ate from the same nosebag, were violently ill with food poisoning and missed several days work. They blame the Scotch eggs. Sadder yet, the Scotch eggs were English.

SEVEN Sri Lankan players scored half centuries in the second innings against England earlier this week. Is it a record, asks Ian Sowerby, in Evenwood?

The Beardless Wonder being AWOL, John Briggs in Darlington confirms that it equals the Test cricket record set by England against Australia at Manchester in 1934 and by Pakistan against India last year.

For England, Maurice Leyland and Patsy Hendren both hit centuries. Cyril Walters, Herbert Sutcliffe, Les Ames, Gubby Allen and Hedley verity - later lost in action with the Green Howards - all hit fifties in a total 627-9 declared.

Bob Wyatt, who averaged 31.80 in 40 tests, scored none of his runs on that occasion.

THE column ten days ago sought the identity of the nine England players who'd been sent off on full international duty. "Great question, " says Duncan McFaull but supposes that Tony Towers - exSunderland - was a tenth.

Towers, 20 goals in 108 Sunderland appearances between 1973-77, won two of his three England caps in the 1976 American Bicentennial Tournament which also included Brazil, Italy and "Team America."

Duncan believes that Towers saw red in the game against Italy, in which Manchester United goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer won his only cap. The records (again with thanks to Mr Briggs) suggest otherwise.

Team America were captained against England by Bobby Moore, the cosmopolitan squad including the likes of Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, George Best, Mike England and Rodney Marsh.

The coach was Stockton lad Ken Furphy - 349 games for Darlington - who refused demands by Best and Marsh that they play in all three games. Dummies flying, they went back home.

FFIFTY years to the day since the club was founded during a bibulous Sunday lunchtime at the Ship Inn, Marske United FC marks its jubilee with a dinner on June 9.

The original team changed in a farmer's potato shed, travelled on the back of righthalf Les Bell's milk lorry, played on Leaper's Field. Now they're in the Arngrove Northern League, play at Mount Pleasant, have ambitious development plans.

The do's at Marton Hotel and Country Club, the speaker former Newcastle United full back John Beresford, tickets from Janet Pippen on 01642 474985.

Les Bell went on to found the successfully and locally ubiquitous Bells' Stores group, sold subsequently to Sainsbury's. They're hoping to sell back to him his number four shirt; probably fell off the back of a lorry.

THE remarkable Arthur Puckrin, below, is warming up - the phrase may be appropriate - for what masochists call a decatriathlon in, of all places, St Tropez.

"Usually there's only one a year. This year they've decided to give us two, " says the 68-yearold barrister from Middlesbrough.

The event, in which he aims to beat his own 13 day world record, embraces a 24 mile swim, 1,120 mile cycle ride and - "to finish off" - the 262 mile equivalent of ten marathons.

"I've been doing a few four hour swims, 120 miles on the bike and a couple of longish runs, " he says.

It all begins on June 11, with everyone else glued to the World Cup. If he gets through that one, there's another in Mexico in October.

STOCKTON Cricket Club's minds will be elsewhere that week, too, hosting a Durham County match from June 13-16.

The club keeps gate money and is anxious to sell hospitality packages. Details from Ray Waite on 01642 606468.

But watching European Cup final was no laughing matter for Supermac

ME and Malcolm Macdonald, if the solecism may in such sad circumstances be sanctioned, had both expected to watch Arsenal's proudest hour in rather different surroundings.

Supermac, super bloke, would have been back home - near Consett, these days - glued to the television, firing deaf-ears advice at the Gunners. Me, bit less qualified, too.

Instead we both spent Wednesday evening at the Hyena Comedy Club near St James' Park, laughing like a family funeral.

Malcolm, remembered as affectionately at Highbury as at Newcastle - 42 goals in 84 Arsenal appearances - is a loyal president of North Shields FC, Arngrove Northern League, second division. The club chairman went to school with his wife, it's explained.

It was the Robins' presentation night, a chance also for long serving manager Wilf Keilty to hand over the £10,000 raised during his own testimonial and by his own efforts to four different charities.

A lifelong Arsenal fan, I'm also chairman of the league (that's only been ten years, but seems like a lifetime, too. ) "Well, " said Wilf, "how was I to know you lot were going to get to the European Cup final. . . ."

A funny thing happened on the way to the comedy club, too.

On the wet walk from the railway station I passed a barber's called Henry's, red and white in pole position.

Portentous, or what?

Outside Shearer's bar, a lone bouncer did nothing except get wet. Inside, the game was on television but few watched.

Like harbouring a sneaking sympathy for Sunderland, it's probably not considered proper.

They'd erected a big screen in the Hyena, too, presentations at half-time, bingo - stand-up bingo, it was a comedy club, after all - postponed until the last rites could be accomplished.

Wilf said they could forget the agenda, club chairman Alan Matthews said he'd written a speech but would abridge it to four lines - most of them about the president, capped 14 times for England but still happy to land at North Shields.

"I knew he'd be here despite Arsenal being in the final, " said Alan. "If there's one man you can rely on, it's Malcolm."

Then Lehmann lunged, lapsed last. "It did look as if he had him down, " said Malcolm, and together we could have wept magic sponges.

He still loves Arsenal, the lad, was invited down for the season's first match - against Newcastle - and again, against Portsmouth, for the last game of 2005.

"It was snowing so hard I couldn't even get the car out of the drive, " he recalled. "I just had to ring and say I couldn't make it."

Instead they asked him down for Highbury's last hooray, one of just 100 Arsenal alumni given a tour of the new Emirates Stadium and saluted, one by one, by the crowd.

"It was the biggest thing they'd ever had to organise, including Ali v Cooper, and yet they still remembered that I'd not got the special signed shirt they were going to give me at Christmas and presented it then.

"That's Arsenal - wonderful club, wonderful people. The new ground is fabulous, too."

Malcolm made the presentations including a special award to David Brown who travels each week from New Marske, on Teesside, but shortly sets sail with his girl friend for a 12-month yachting odyssey around the Med.

Wilf handed over £2,500 each to the RNLI and to charities supporting heart, cancer and meningitis research.

Tremendous gesture.

There, too, was Ralph Wright, a bit of a Northern League legend, admitting that his childhood hero had been Jack Kelsey, Arsenal's Welsh international goalkeeper.

"I just saw a picture of him in Charles Buchan's Football Monthly when I was seven or eight, " said Ralph. That's how long ago it was . . .

Campbell scored, the Hyena roared, and for the next hour it was a bit like those long-gone Saturday afternoon cowboy pictures at Shildon Hippodrome, hoping the hell the cavalry would somehow emerge over the hill. Then the bloody Injuns ambushed.

Supermac remained bullish.

Arsene knows. "You look at Alex Ferguson and you think he's struggling to rebuild. You look at Arsenal and they've forgotten Vieira already.

"You can feel the expectation among the spectators, it's like a flower on the first day of Spring, so much more to come.

"They're a way better team than in my day. The skills may be similar but there's much better balance, much more athleticism. You just feel they're ready again."

At the bitter end, North Shields fished from somewhere an Arsenal shirt which they'd bought that morning, had Supermac sign it and handed it - thanks for coming - to me.

Great people, great league, great game most of the time.

Homeward from the jet-black comedy club, it was still possible to wear a huge smile.

...and finally

THE team with the most Scottish FA Cup wins (Backtrack, May 16) is Queen's Park with ten - though the last was in 1893.

With the Roses match entering its final stage, a couple of Yorkshire cricket questions today: Alf Hutchinson in Darlington seeks the identity of the bowler who has taken most wickets in Roses history while Don Clarke in South Shields invites readers to name the five long established post-war Yorkshire wicket keepers whose surnames began with the letter 'B."

Safe hands, the column returns on Tuesday.

Published: 19/05/2006