IT MAY be flight and the other thing, it may be another case of demonic donkey dropping. Whatever the style, whatever the guile, Norman Whiteford - 53 years at Tantobie Cricket Club - has again proved all that they say about old 'uns and good 'uns.

There've been Stormin' Normans before, but rarely one who's weathered like this.

Norman took the bowling honours at the North East Durham League do last weekend - 25 at ten apiece.

He's 68, and Tantobie's joint groundsman, too.

"I was over the moon, it was brilliant. My wife says I've waited 53 years for my few minutes of fame, " he says, though he missed the presentation with a bug.

Norman supposes success to be about line and length - "just keep on hitting the spot, hope for a bit of movement off the wicket" - others offer variations on a theme.

"I think he kids them out rather than bowls them out, " says league chairman Brian Barrass. "He sends it to high that the batsman's played three different strokes by the time the ball gets down again."

Tantobie's near Stanley, in Derwentside. Norman Harrison's the club treasurer, his daughter the secretary, his wife makes terrific teas.

"We're just a typical small club with not many volunteers and a lot of players we won't see again until next spring, " says Norman Harrison. "You can't put a price on Norman Whiteford."

The new league champion began as a first team wicket keeper - "adventurous batsman, too, " recalls Brian Barrass - before becoming a bowler with the seconds. In the field, however, he tends to keep a low profile - "retired out the road, " says Norman.

"They're a mix of young lads and people getting on a bit, " says the treasurer.

"Norman just uses his experience, bowls a nagging length and is great at encouraging our younger bowlers.

"It may well be that there are batsmen who have a look and think they can hit him out of the ground. It doesn't always work."

Norman admits to still getting a bit excited about wicket taking - "especially certain people, especially Gary Smith from Whiteleas because he's such a good bat."

Tantobie or not to be? He'll be deceiving them again next season.

BACK in September, we told how Lakeside - Britain's best-known darts venue - was in danger of becoming Slakeside following Linda Ithurrallde's victory in the World Masters. Now they've gone double tops.

Linda, a 47-year-old fulltime foster parent, plays for the Tuesday night team at the Slake in West Cornforth, near Ferryhill. At the weekend her team-mate Ray Storer, 62, also qualified for January's big BDC event in Surrey by winning a John Smith's-sponsored qualifier at Houghton-le-Spring.

"It's unbelievable. Half of West Cornforth is going to be heading for the Lakeside in January, " says Slake landlord Barry Richardson.

Ray, a factory worker in Newton Aycliffe, only plays darts once a week. Two others from the Slake's Tuesday team - Barry We ir representing the Square and Compass in West Cornforth and Keith Elmore representing Quarrington Hill WMC - reached the last eight.

Ray Storer is said so greatly to resemble world champion Wo lfie Adams - "the spitting dab" says Barry - that questions of personation may arise.

"There are definitely two of them, " says Barry. "Right now it would be hard t say which one's best."

ON Sunday, Martin Atkinson refereed Chelsea v Manchester United, predictably on the wrong end of Sir Alex's vituperative verbals.

This Saturday he takes charge of the World Cup play-off match between Portugal and Bosnia Herzegovina. Then a week on Thursday, November 19, the FIFA man will be in Bishop Auckland, addressing the local refs' society.

"We all know that this is the big one, " says Terry Farley, the society's elderly secretary.

All football enthusiasts are welcome to the meeting, kick-off 8pm in Bishop Auckland Cricket Club.

HE won 18 England youth caps, started 60 games for Sunderland, saw his professional career ended through injury when just 25.

Getting on 20 years later, Paul Atkinson's back in football - playing for the Crown at Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, in the fifth division of the Over 40s League.

Though in just their second season, the Crown has another claim to Over 40s fame - the only time that a player has become a new father.

Now they're chasing promotion, won 5-2 on Saturday, young Atkinson among the scorers. "It could be, " says league secretary Kip Watson, "that he's getting back to his best."

WE noted a couple of months back that Nick Gates - son of Ferryhill lad and former Middlesbrough centre half Bill Gates - had won the Beyond Sport 2009 Global Award for using sport for social development.

Nick heads Coaches Across Continents, largely in Africa. Last year, says the latest bulletin, they trained 30 teachers and volunteers.

This year it'll be 270, next year an estimated 900.

Last year they reached 3,000 children, this year 27,000. Next year they forecast 90,000.

In one African community alone, their presence promoted a 50 per cent increase in school attendance, a 90 per cent decrease in school crime and a 25 per cent increase in female participation.

The bulletin also includes a video clip, barefoot bairns doing infinitely more with a football than most of us ever could in football boots.

"That one with the boy doing the splits while balancing the ball on the nape of his neck, " says Nick.

"Out here we call it the Mike Amos."

ONCE or twice previously, we have alluded to the enduring 1885-86 Northumberland Senior Cup semi-final, Morpeth Harriers v Shankhouse Black Watch. Paul Joannou's latest book extends it still further.

It's a very long story, so best begin at the fourth replay which - yet again - went to extra-time. The referee, perhaps understandably deciding that he'd seen enough, decided he had a train to catch and left them to it.

The teams played on, and on. After four hours of that match, ten-and-a-half of the tie, it wasn't just still level but also pitch black.

The sides then agreed to toss a coin to see who would go through to the final, but on the condition - more remarkable yet in a disputatious age - that the trophy would be held jointly in the event of eventual success.

Black Watch - non-com, based on the Primitive Methodist chapel - duly beat Newcastle West End in the final. Northumberland FA records still describe the trophy as jointly held.

Joannou, Newcastle United's official historian, has written many books on the Mags. Alan Candlish, his co-author, is also a Newcastle nut though his other specialist subjects include Custer's last stand.

The book explores the origins of the game from Barney to Berwick, Haughton-le-Skerne to Hexham Hearts and no matter than it appears to confuse Co Durham's two Stanleys. Many more have made that mistake.

Entertainingly approached, evocatively illustrated, arrived in time for Christmas.

• Pioneers of the North by Paul Joannou and Alan Candlish (Breedon Books, hardback, £16.99.)

and finally...

THE seven founder Football League members presently in the Premier League (Backtrack, November 7) are Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Everton, Stoke and Wolves.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today invites readers to name the first footballer to play in four FA Cup final sides and lose them all. North-East connection; answer Saturday.