It's strange!
You cannot write anything about Bishop Auckland in the fifties without mentioning the famous two blues, the amateur football team, based at the Kingsway ground.
My introduction to football was via my good friend Barry Wilkinson who lived near me on Seymour Street. His Dad was a Petrol Tanker Driver. We both went to Cockton Hill School and he was already a good footballer. I was strangely left footed and on this basis I was included in the school junior eleven. I was quite hopeless and didn’t even have football boots, but my Mum soon corrected that.
I’m sure it was through Barry that I used to go and watch the town team in action. In those days us young boys sat on the grass near the sidelines and the players would often fall all over us. I distinctly remember the smell of oil of wintergreen that the team's Physios used to use as an embrocation.
In the early days the team played for corners on the right wing, so that Ken Twig could take the corner and find the head of Harry Teasdale, who more often than not scored a goal. Later when the team became more famous they used to fly in the right winger, called Major, from Paris for every game.
Bob Hardisty was famously captain of the team and also captain of the England Amateur team . His name now adorns a street in the town.
Barry at an early age used to play for Bishop Auckland. In those days the footballs were leather cased and they became very heavy when wet. Barry’s (very sensible) speciality was to avoid heading the heavy ball. Instead he would position himself so the ball would glide down his back and then back heel it forward!
My turning out for the Bishops was a bit of a fluke. They had made a new signing and to enable the new player to turn out that afternoon, a morning match was hastily arranged and I made up one of the teams. What a claim to fame.
I was naturally more of a cricketer than a footballer and used to turn up at the shared ground on Kingsway for coaching. As well as the town professional the Captain, ( and also County Captain ) R B Proud, used to help train us youngsters. He used to arrange the slatted bench spectator seats to form a cradle so that cricket balls thrown into it came out at unexpected angles. A good grounding for us youngsters. I must have impressed Mr Proud because whenever I was fortunate enough to play for the team, he put me in the slips.
As the cricket team and football team shared the same ground on Kingsway a major attraction was the cricket match between the Footballers and the Cricketers. For this event one year I was asked to make up the team for the footballers. I was fielding near Bob Nimmins, the teams right back and an Iron Puddler at the Consett Steel Works. He was smoking and the ball was hit towards him. He calmly stubbed out his cigarette and caught the ball. Now that's multitasking!
Now the sacred turf is no more and buildings have been erected on the holy of holies. What a travesty.
My good friend Barry went on to play for Liverpool as a professional. Local boy makes good.
Cockton Hill Football Club - Dad is middle row, right hand side VE Day Celebration Party
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