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Another team I like: (3) the Two Blues of Bishop Auckland

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Long before Bill Taylor set up home in the other Toronto, the one that that isn’t quite capital of Canada, he lived near Toronto, Co Durham. In Bishop Auckland, to be precise, home of great conker trees in the Bishop’s park and – during his boyhood – the all-conquering Two Blues at Kingsway. Bishop Auckland amateur football club won trophies galore, looked down on those of us in places like Shildon and Ferryhill and, in the eccentric but outstanding goalkeeper Harry Sharratt, had a clown prince of their own to rival Len Shackleton. Bill looks back on a magical era …

Clichés tend to become clichés because they’re true. So I make no apologies for repeating one now – the opening line from L P Hartley’s fair-to-middling 1953 novel, The Go-Between:

“The past is another country; they do things differently there.”

My past is in another country – England, where I grew up during the 1950s watching what was probably the finest amateur football team of all time.
Bishop Auckland.

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Another team I like: (2) the Tour de France (teams)

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When I lived in Paris, part of the finale of the Tour de France took place in the street five floors beneath my front window. It left me cold. All it meant was that it was a lot harder to get around. Pete Sixsmith begs to differ, and just loves those scrawny, “Steroids .. me?” beanpoles and their pelotons. Not strictly speaking “another team”, but it seems to fit the spirit of the series ….

The team have taken off for Portugal without me. Had they gone a week later, I would have been sitting in the sun in the Algarve, sipping a glass of Sagres and deciding which members of the crustacean family I would be devouring.

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Another team I like: (1) Peterborough United

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Probably everyone has another team they’re fond of. Most regulars to these pages live, breathe, love Sunderland AFC. Some of us would not dream of having a “second club”. But there are equally loyal fans do who have such a thing in their lives, and indeed third or fourth clubs, too, and many of the rest of us have – or once had – soft spots for another team. This is the first in an occasional series to which Salut! Sunderland readers are warmly invited to contribute. Just drop me a line at the e-mail address you see towards the top of the left-hand column …


It was little more than the romance of a team from nowhere pushing and pushing at a highly obstructive Football League until the tycoons, aldermen and chancers who decided such matters had no real choice. But I fell briefly in love with Posh, not David Beckham’s wife but the Peterborough United of long ago.

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Soapbox: Darlington 0 SAFC 1 – the season starts here

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A short trip to Darlington, a modest win to maintain our pre-season run (that’s two wins in a row, rare enough for Sunderland in recent times) and Pete Sixsmith is purring contentedly into his ale …


Another visit to the Darlington Arena (aka as Reynolds Folly) and another win, although by no means as comfortable as last years.

After a morning spent having my feet analysed in Sacriston, the afternoon in Darlo was a pleasant way to spend time in the run up to the end of term next week. Despite the Proprietor’s insistence that I would arrive on the No 1 bus, I drove over and parked just outside of the exclusion zone around Neasham Road, forgoing the chance to visit the Old People’s Home Summer Fayre as I walked to the ground. Time enough for those when I am in one!!

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A Celtic nightmare – or dream move for Daryl?

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When word first came through that Daryl Murphy might be on his way to Celtic, the relief of Sunderland supporters was matched only by the indignation of Celtic fans who berated Salut! Sunderland for daring to suggest the change of landscape could do wonders for the lad’s career.

Still no apologies from here, of course. The piece – found by clicking here, and also including a great clip of The Fields of Athenry, by the band Dance to Tipperary at Celtic Park – and our subsequent comments made our position abundantly clear.

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Soapbox: season to start minus Craig Gordon

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Pete Sixsmith is in pre-season training, too, after marking enough exam papers to pay for trips to Darlington (eight miles on the No 1 bus) and Hoffenheim (change at Darlo) …

After the “delights” of Spain v The Netherlands, we are back to normal – ie thinking and writing about the football that really MEANS something for us.

As the first domestic friendly looms into view at Darlington we can begin to anticipate the opening game of our fourth successive season as a Premier League club, against the might of Birmingham City.

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John Mensah: will the real Steve Bruce please stand up?

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In all the current transfer talk, one subject occupies Colin Randall‘s attention more than most: the future of a player who excelled in South Africa, just as he did – when fit – for Sunderland last season. The signals from the Stadium of Light are mixed …

Steve Bruce was in understandably dismissive mood when presented with a list of the players he is allegedly trying to sign.

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Doing the Munster match

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Beating a Munster XI 2-1 in our first pre-season friendly was an acceptable start to the build-up to a new Premier League season. Now for mighty Darlington.

Martyn Waghorn’s encouraging performance – scoring both Sunderland goals – was marred by a late injury that meant he left the field on a stretcher. I have no precise news on how serious it may be, but Steve Bruce said afterwards that the immediate thinking was that “he’ll be OK”.

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Johann Cruyff on a very Dutch murder

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Sunday was the night the Netherlands, with complete premeditation, killed football, or at least did their level best to do so. Everyone, except their own short-sighted and indignant fans, knows this to be true, including – as Jeremy Robson, pictured with his young ‘un, points out – a certain Dutch master of the Total Football at which his country once excelled …

I’ve always been a huge admirer of Johann Cruyff.

As a player, he was sublime. The now famous “Cruyff turn” which he introduced to the world in 1974 is a practice drill for aspiring footballers the world over. Hard to believe that up to 40 years ago, this move had never been witnessed on a football field.

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The Van Bommel snarl that epitomised this rotten finale

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In another of our reflective glances at the World Cup, Bill Taylor starts and finishes with the sort of welcome a prisoner gives when told years have been knocked off his sentence. Four years off World Cup football – and the thuggishness, at the end, of a once-refined footballing nation – is maybe the least reward Bill can expect for getting the winners and runners-up spot on …

Ah well, at least we get another four years off before we have to go through this again. And the REAL football starts in five weeks.

There has been some good, some great football played during this World Cup but there have also been far more terrible moments than there should have been. Many of which were crammed into the final’s seemingly interminable 120 minutes.

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