The North’s sporting life

Sep 13 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

All this week we have been celebrating The Journal’s 50,000th issue. Alastair Gilmour wraps up his appraisal of times past with a look at North East sport.

AREVIEW of the first 50,000 issues of The Journal would not be complete without our sporting highlights. Thin on the ground in recent years they may be, but there has been plenty to shout about in our 176-year history – from FA Cup runs to the Blaydon Races and including rowing champion Harry Clasper, the shooting star that was Jackie Milburn and the social occasion of The Pitmen’s Derby.

Times have changed since Alf Common became the first £1,000 footballer on transferring from Sunderland to Middlesbrough in 1905, but who could forget Bob Stokoe’s jig when his underdog Sunderland side beat Leeds United in the 1973 FA Cup final? Then there was Brendan Foster’s world record in the 3,000 metres at Gateshead Stadium on August 3, 1974. And, those mad three weeks in July and August 1985 when Steve Cram broke no fewer than three world records in the 1,500 metres in Nice, the mile (Oslo) and 2,000 metres (Budapest).

Sports headline writing and presentation have changed dramatically, while match reports and observations have moved with the times, too. Take the way the 1932 FA Cup Final was reported – the famous “over the line” game when Newcastle United brought the trophy back to Tyneside for the third time. The headlines read: “How Newcastle Won the Cup. Great fightback. Wing halves make big difference. Allen’s two goals”.

And let’s toast the huge sporting debt we owe to the likes of Alan Shearer, Jonny Wilkinson, Jim Alder, Bobby Robson, Len Shackleton, Glenn McCrory, Colin Milburn, Charlie Hurley, Wilf Mannion, Len Shackleton, Jonathan Edwards, Durham County Cricket Club, Brian Clough and, of course, Kevin Keegan.

Our sporting highlights include: Monday, May 7, 1973, when the long-serving Ivor Broadis wrote of Leeds Utd 0 Sunderland 1: “It’s the Monday after the Saturday Sunderland won the Cup and up here in the Far North we still believe in fairy tales. Even before the Cup Final began, you could sense Sunderland had everything going for them. And they set about making things run for them when it really mattered.

“Porterfield, long-striding and always prepared to pitch up in support alongside the buzzing, angry wasp Horswill who refused to be brushed away, and the delicate and deft touches of Kerr combined to dominate the very area where it was feared the side might be short of class.”

The photographs in the special wrap-around section that day are perfect examples of sheer joy and relief – as are the captions: “Montgomery punches clear. Bobby Kerr holds aloft football’s most prized trophy. Bob Stokoe gives a victory hug to his man of the match, goalkeeper Jimmy Montgomery.”

Monday, May 7, 1955: Newcastle United 3 Manchester City 1. Attendance 100,000. Receipts £49,881. “Newcastle ended as walking-pace winners. As a match, in such glorious ground and weather conditions, the 1955 Cup Final was very nearly a fiasco for the 100,000 spectators who had gone to so much time and trouble to see the big showpiece of the season – even despite four picture goals. Had the occasion been of less importance, the crowds would have been streaming from the terraces long before the end after United had led 3-1 from the 58th minute against a Manchester City team of 10 men.”

The sanguine report of Newcastle United’s last championship win on Monday, May 2, 1927 contained surely the longest opening sentence to a match report, ever: “All apprehensions regarding the ability of Newcastle United to establish their claim for the championship of the First Division of the League on a more satisfactory basis than that afforded by a superior goal average were set at rest on Saturday by a 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday at St James’s Park. This success, in conjunction with the defeat of Huddersfield, gives Newcastle a present six points lead over the latter...”

Monday, August 1, 1966: “Kings of soccer praised. England were hailed by the world yesterday as the kings of soccer after their 4-2 win over West Germany in the World Cup Final at Wembley.” Opinion was summed up by the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet which said “The Cup is home and deservedly so”.

Not all observers were quite as generous, however. In the same report, Professor Willi Brunkert, the Mayor of Frankfurt – who welcomed the German team home – said “the two goals scored by England in extra time ‘were not quite goals’.”