THANKS to the unstinting support of The Northern Echo we attracted nearly 4,500 people to the recent premiere of our play, Alf Ramsey Knew My Grandfather, at the Gala Theatre, Durham.

As always, it is a wonderful feeling to see and hear people who have spent their hard-earned cash on tickets enjoying themselves at one of our shows.

We are delighted to be associated with the success of the West Auckland team which won the first football World Cup in 1909 and it is our goal to take this story to a wider audience, both nationally and internationally.

Like other sporting legends and folk heroes, such as Grace Darling and Geordie Ridley, we believe those County Durham miners of 100 years ago deserve every bit as much recognition as our other North-East champions.

Their story is the greatest football tale ever told, and to cap it all they returned to Turin in 1911 to win the Lipton Cup outright by beating the mighty Juventus 6-1.

A replica of the cup stands in West Auckland Workingmen’s Club and it is well worth a trip to pay homage to those selfless men (and their families) who pawned their possessions to compete in those cup finals.

Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, Playwrights.