No Neil I Did Not Cry!

Neil Davies rang me up a couple of days ago. It was my first conversation with him since 1960. He was the lad that hatched a plot with Burnsey [Alan Burn] to get me out during an informal game of cricket. Having refused to accept an lbw decision [I was too far down the pitch – it was drifting to leg] from them they pretended to have me caught by wicket keeper Neil D. It was my bat so I went home. All the way to 42 Whitehouse Court. I did not cry Neil.

On a serious note how much can I say? It is not for me to say where Neil lives but I can say the following:

If he were to support his local football team he could get a season ticket for about 90 pounds.

His team were in the Football League a few seasons ago and hope to get back to it fairly soon.

It is not a brief journey from his home to the Derby County ground but on the other hand he would not be tired and frazzled on arrival at the ground.

Answers on a post card or via the comment button.

WB

Pre-War Cricket and Football

There  are various references to local cricket on Paul’s two ‘memories’ facilities but none of them, as far as I am aware, have mentioned Broompark Cricket Club; lets’s give it a mention! In late June 1935 Broompark entertained Oakenshaw. The available scorecard details were as follows:

Broompark Innings – G Glasgow 17 R Stewart 8 G Brown 23 J McGovern ?  R Moses 16 J Mawson 0  W Moore ? J Burn 28 Joe Storey 4 E Thompson 0  John Storey not out 5   Extras 6 Total 129.

It follows from the above part details that J McGovern and W Moore must have scored 28 between them.

Could Oakenshaw make a fight of it? The answer is no. They were all out for 39. McGovern took five of their wickets – including that of opener Danby [who scored four]. Moore destroyed the middle order and in doing so took four wickets. The remaining wicket was taken by Moses who dismissed Oakenshaw opener J Lomax.

Switching from cricket to football, and going seven or so years further back in the process, we had the almighty ‘Crook Affair’ of 1927/8. Mike Amos has written a very detailed and well researched article about it – it was supplied to me by Keith Belton of the Durham Amateur Football Trust. There is also some reference to the affair  on the Crook Town Internet site if you are interested.

Sticking with football and the 1920s it is interesting to see that in season 1926/7 Newcastle United won the First Division [now called The Premiership] and Middlesborough won the Second Division [now called The Championship]. Sunderland finished third in the First Division so it was a highly successful season for big North Eastern clubs. Darlington finished second off bottom in the Second Division and Durham City finished third off bottom in the Third Division North.

John Vasey mentioned to me recently that Soccer Gleghorn might have played for York City. Having done some research I can confirm that he did not play for York’s first team within the Football League. Perhaps he played for their reserves. Can anyone help with this point?