THE great Nat Lofthouse, who died at the weekend, had spoken exactly 20 years ago at a benefit dinner for Shildon lad and former Gloucestershire cricketer Paul Romaines.

“The Lion of Vienna roared into the Redworth Hall Hotel,” said the column incorrigibly. This one, as Stanley Holloway might also have done, will something of Alberts and the Lion, too.

Nat was 65 back then, fit save for a touch of arthritis, still a commercial adviser to Bolton Wanderers and contracted until he was 70.

“I’ve even cleaned the lavatories, gentlemen,” he said, though he carefully didn’t say when.

He described playing for England on £30 a match, recalled the likes of Willie Woodburn and Walter Winterbottom, spoke of Andrews’ Liver Salts – though, even four days later, the column was unable to remember why. They do they get everywhere.

Paul Romaines, known in cricket as Human, had been self-effacing – “there’s 230 people here and 217 have never heard of me”. Malcolm J White, the comedian, was good, too.

“What’s green and gets you drunk? A giro.” It was quite original at the time.

IT was the summer of 1991 when Martin Birtle took his family on holiday to the Isle of Man, that Sunderland were playing in a summer tournament there rather more than coincidental.

They reached the final, Nat Lofthouse making the presentations.

Gemma, his seven-yearold daughter, had a book about Manxie the Manx cat which Nat was happy to sign.

“Afterwards I told Gemma that Mr Lofthouse had been the Lion of Vienna and she spent the rest of the holiday keeping a sharp look out for lions. Happily, she’d to make do with Manx cats.”

GEORGE Alberts, now in Thailand, recalls the 1952-53 FA Cup quarter-final in which Bolton Wanderers won 1-0 at Gateshead of the Third Division (North) and Lofthouse reckoned Tommy Callender one of the best centre-halves he’d ever faced.

Callender made 439 Football League appearances for the Redheugh Park club, 33 fewer than his brother Jack. “Those two and Bill Brown comprised the halfback line for years and were absolutely magnificent,”

says George, himself a former goalkeeper for Gateshead Reserves.

Among Tom’s claims to fame is that from 1946-47 until April 14, 1956 he took every penalty that his side was awarded – and converted almost all of them. In total he scored 61 league goals.

The run ended in a home match against York City, the young Alberts in attendance, when Alan Oliver scored from the spot in a 3-2 win.

“I recall that Tommy had missed penalties in two successive matches,” says George. “They must finally have decided to let someone else have a go.”

SPEAKING of penalty kings, we noted in the last column on 2010 that former Hartlepool and Sunderland midfielder Tommy Miller has scored from a record 30 successive spot kicks in League football. What happens next? He fails, against Charlton, on Saturday – when Wednesday were trailing 2-0. “It’s the pressure off and it won’t worry me,” says Tommy, Shotton lad. “I hit it as well as ever I’ve done, but the goalkeeper made a good save. I’ll be all right next time.”

SATURDAY’S column sought the identity of the former Durham County League cricket professional who made his debut for Australia, at Brisbane, in England’s last successful Ashes series down under.

Chris Matthews – for it was he – may even be the only cricketer to represent Shildon BR and Australia in the same year.

He’d talked to the column about it, presciently identifying I T Botham as the main threat, a week before the match.

“Brisbane’s going to be a bit different from Evenwood,”

he said. It was November 1986.

Nice feller, he’d taken 120 wickets and scored 1,100 runs for Shildon in what, then as almost always, had been a rain-hit summer.

“Sometimes I had so many jumpers on, I couldn’t even run,” said Chris.

The high point, probably, was the 7-12 which helped his side win the County league cup, against Evenwood. Clearly the Aussie selectors took notice.

Eight weeks later he was in the national side.

“There’s a bit of a gap in the standards, but it’s no use worrying about it,” he said.

“I’ll have to concentrate on my batting a bit more. For Shildon the only idea was to hit it out of the park.”

England, and Botham, proved a little more formidable. Though Matthews claimed 3-106 in the English first innings, Botham smashed 138 – 13 fours, four sixes – in England’s 458.

He’d returned to Australia with Anne Parkes, a Tyneside midwife whom he’d met when with Whickham in 1985, spent the summer of 1988 with Lancashire and after playing state cricket with Western Australia moved to Tasmania.

Wisden lists his record, just two more tests, and his major clubs. Inexplicably, Shildon BR isn’t among them.

Not even the Western Australia Cricket Association has so far been able to suggest what happened to him.

STILL celebrating the 3-1 series victory, Paul Dobson notes that Ashes Ale is on sale at the Pollards, near his home in Bishop Auckland – and the slogan “Definitely not for Aussie’s” on the pump clip. Paul has mixed feelings about it. “I admire the sentiment, if not the grammar,” he says.

THOUGH not officially enlisted into the Barmy Army, Ralph Ord – former Crook lad and manager of Wearhead United FC – watched the Sydney and Melbourne tests.

“The Aussie supporters are no different if they win or lose. They don’t know how vocally to support their team,” he says.

Particularly, however, Ralph wants to suggest that all that glisters may be Goldstein’s. They’re Australia’s national pie.

“The steak and ale has chunks of meat worthy of a knife and fork but the beer taste is the real seller. It’s so flavoursome, I had to check it for froth.

“It may be 12,000 miles away, but Taylor’s have a rival at last.”

ASHINGTON played Tow Law on Saturday, the visitors’ first game of football for two months.

These days that’s longer than the close season break.

The Lawyers’ faithful who made the trip – “We’ve been suffering from cabin fever,”

said Kevin McCormick, the treasurer – were joined by a trio of ground hoppers from London.

“The weather’s far better up here,” they insisted.

The programme, more realistically, supposed the likely fixture backlog so great that Tow Law’s derby with Consett, originally scheduled for Boxing Day, might have to be settled by an 11-a-side snowball fight.

Caught cold, they were 3-0 down after 20 minutes, scored against the wind before half-time but finally went down 6-2.

This Saturday they’re due to play their first home match since November 18, though all that may be in the lap of the weather gods.

“Word is,” said club chairman Sandra Gordon, “that it’s going to start snowing again on Wednesday.

LAST Saturday’s column mourned the passing of Derrick White, captain of the all-conquering Grey Horse 5s and 3s team in Darlington which won countless national titles before the competition was abandoned.

It quoted teammate Alan Stainsby both in praise of Derrick and noting the difficulty, these days, of even raising a decent team. As today’s column went off to the sports desk we heard that Alan, a hard working 5s and 3s league official, had also died. More next time.

And finally...

NORMAN Robinson in Annfield Plain (again) invites readers to name the Scottish League side which former Sunderland players Harry Hood, Joe Baker and Ralph Brand all went on to manage. League of its own, the column returns on Saturday.