Having A Chat

Although this particular post is unplanned I am reasonably confident that some of you will find bits of it interesting. I have only had one glass of wine so some inhibitors are surely in place to prevent me being over the top and simply silly. I certainly do not wish to come across as pompous as I have nothing to be pompous about.

During my working life I have had the good fortune to interview many interesting people, for example: a Church of England bishop, a coal magnate and a lady that fell asleep during the interview. I wish to add that those interviewees were not seen together. Strangely I also had my photograph on the front page of the Morning Star – a national paper with very left leanings. They simply took a photo of me and two others entering a building for a union meeting!



Northern Eastern cricket is changing to suit the times. When I played for South Moor Cricket Club, albeit briefly before moving south, I did not fully understand that the league we were competing in was one of the best in the county. Now you seem to have a pyramid system that confirms that our league really was good: Level 1 A newly created Premier League Level 2 Durham Senior League - Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League Level 3 Durham County League -Durham Coast League -Northumberland League Level 4 North East Durham League Level 5 Darlington and District -West Tyne -Alnwick and District. So South Moor of the Tyneside Senior League was what is now level two! It is true that I did face a fast bowler that had represented Durham County and had him taken off – sounds good that – but I did not score one single run off him in twenty minutes. Although I had all the strokes, with the exception of the pull shot, I could be painfully slow but there again I was sheet anchor in a struggling team. Later, for Walworth Sports Club, I managed to hit an opening bowler for three fours in the first over of a game but only added one further run before being bowled. As I have said several times it was my half brother, Colin Albone that was truly talented. Born in Ushaw Moor he hit 41 at Trent Bridge for the Trustees Savings Bank national team – they played at Minor County level. He scored a hundred just about every time that he played against Annfield Plain.

Now then -looking left and right in the 60s!  Only once in my life have I not looked left and right, in about 1961. I was crossing the road after getting off a bus. I remember it so clearly and realized what I had done. It was dark and wet. As it happened there was no vehicle to mow me down but that was just good luck.

In the early 80s I once picked up a book and left a shop without paying. About twenty yards on I realized that I had not paid for it and returned swiftly to the shop to pay.They had not even noticed that I had left the shop. It could have been a very serious matter and my reputation could have been in ruins all because of a mistake. I think what had happened was that I was dwelling on how to deal with a supervisory problem and forgot to pay. Clearly not everyone charged with shop lifting is guilty but I of course realized that was the case all along!

Let's talk about school boy football  in 58/59 and then a 1955 FA Cup-tie. We played with two backs three midfield and five forward in a 1-2-3-5 formation. It was very old fashioned even then. Our football was pretty good but predictable. It was good because many of us could pass a ball thirty or more yards at speed to the foot of a colleague, trap a ball fairly well and tackle firmly – but it was all straight jacket stuff without much flair. We did lose a game to the Durham Johnson team 3-1 and I seem to recall that they played 4-2-4 quite well. Let us face it even professional sides were easily knocked out of their stride by tactics – take Derby County. They lost 6-1 at home to Boston United mainly because of a plan hatched by two Boston officials. What was the master plan? Simple – when passing forward miss out the Derby half backs, that is put it over their heads. Derby players were skilful but undone by a bit of unexpected behaviour. It was the Hungarians that changed everything in 1953 by thrashing England with skill and new tactics. Malcolm Allison understood what was going on and talked tactics at West Ham United over many a cup of coffee in the local café! Hence some good football was played by his sides.

Wilfb