In the court of King Charlie

Picture: Peadar O'Sullivan

Any mention of Charlie Hurley takes me straight back not just to Roker Park, where I spent a fair old part of my youth, but to the Old Shildon Workingmen's Club of the late 1960s.

News of the publication of Mark Metcalf's new biography - Charlie Hurley: The Greatest Centre Half The World Has Ever Seen - has done the trick again.

Charlie, of course, was an absolute hero in all Sunderland-supporting areas of the North East, which broadly speaking meant the vast majority of County Durham. Sunderland was a proud component of the county in those days, ahead of the ludicrous invention of Tyne and Wear, and was widely seen as the county football team, the equivalent of Durham County Cricket Club.

Our hero made 357 appearances for the club in a fabulous Roker Park career stretching from 1957 to 1969. When he made his debut, in the first relegation season in Sunderland's history, he was on the receiving end of a 7-0 drubbing at Blackpool. So everything that followed (that relegation apart) must have seemed like an improvement.

And he was a great footballer, a rock in defence and a constant menace going up for corners. I could have done without the penalty miss at home to Bury on Boxing Day 1962, the game in which Brian Clough suffered the knee injury that was to end his own career. But all my other memories of Charlie are good ones.

And, of course, he's a real gent. His association with Sunderland AFC has continued throughout the four decades that have just about elapsed since he moved on. I have seen him at numerous games, and he always throws himself wholeheartedly and selflessly into a variety of functions connected to SAFC.

One such occasion, while he was still playing for Sunderland, took him to Old Shildon WMC. It was a Four of Clubs charity event - representing the four WMCs in the town: Elm Road, New Shildon and (I think) Sunnydale being the others - and my exalted status as son of the club secretary meant Charlie was at my table. Or rather, I was at his.

Until that evening, I had no idea quite how many people in Shildon knew me. Not only knew me, but wanted my company.

A steady stream of Shildon males of all ages beat a path to my table that night. "Colin," each of them would say. "How you doing?" But despite their apparent attraction to me, their eyes were oddly focused elsewhere. On Charlie. And having made the pretence of wanting to speak to me, they'd exclaim: "Charlie! Fancy seeing you here."

Then there'd be the SAFC small talk, the autographs and so on. In truth, I didn't mind my role as the route to the king. Every sovereign needs his courtiers.

Comments

[Dumdad]

Great to see Salut! North up and running again and in good form.

[Bill Taylor]

Bit of a fiddle, though, don't you think? This is a tenuous connection at best to the trials and tribulations of Colin's Shildonian upbringing -- far more suited to Salut! Sunderland. Had that Spennymoor Grammar School girl from the bus stop shown up at Old Shildon WMC as a Charlie Hurley groupie, that would be different matter. But Colin is playing fast and loose with his followers here.

[Colin Randall]

Salut! North decides what is fit to publish on this site..... the girl at the bus stop has been identified and will be mentioned again soon, though i am far too gallant to share the name (until publishers come along with a fat contract)

[keith]

I'm with Bill on this one, Colin. The blog, like a misdirected Charlie Hurley pass, has strayed on to the wrong turf.
And the girl at the bus stop can't help but be identified... she's been standing there for 40 years

[Bill Taylor]

I expect she's kept her hair, though.
In the interests of fairness, I don't recall Charlie Hurley ever actually misdirecting a pass.

[keith]

Presumably they all went in the stand, exactly as planned.
Hey Dumdad, you can use that as subject matter in Pause for Poetry on The Other Side of Paris

[Bill Taylor]

Ouch! Touche.
There are, I must admit, lots of rhymes for Hurley.

[keith]

There once was a defender named Hurley
He played centre half, big and burly
But when Reds came to town, he went up against Law
And was made to look like a girlie

Erm, I won't be giving up the night job

[Bill Taylor]

I was hoping you wouldn't come up with "girlie" in your list of rhymes.....
But speaking of girlies, how's this for a lame excuse (in an email from Colin yesterday):
"F***ing Typepad! I had 400 words written on a new angels of the north this morning, and the new formatting has so messed up the process that it failed to save when it said it had. hadn't the heart to start again. will it be months before I relent?"

[keith]

Feeble. I will send him a Biro in the first available post

[Bill Taylor]

I fear my advertising blitz on Salut! is not producing the results I'd hoped for. Which means it's not much of an ad for the "Advertise Here" facility, either. The money might have been better spent on teams of sandwich-board men to wander the streets of Shildon and Abu Dhabi.

[Hadriana]

Just saying "hello". Came via Dumdad's blog. Will have a wander round your blog if that's OK. My Granda's a life long Sunderland Supporter. I can only comment on cricket and even that's not worth talking about at the moment. England that is. Not Durham!

[Colin]

Hadriana........you are very welcome here and also at Salut! Sunderland - http://salutsunderland.com

I play cricket once ever 40 years or so -= did my shoulder in last time

[keith]

You're supposed to use the bat, Colin

[Bill Taylor]

He was trying to impress that girl at the bus stop.

[Joseph Stubbs]

Downstairs' boys don't bat.

[Bill Taylor]

That's as baffling as it may be true.

[Salut]

Christ, has this site not been updated since Nov 11 2008?

[Bill Taylor]

Christ was resurrected.

[Colin]

I post sparingly to avoid burnout too young.