One-time Roker Park forward Willie Watson was famously capped by England in both football and cricket, and two decades on, members of the Sunderland squad showed that they too could turn their hand to the summer sport.
Chester-Le-Street’s Ropery Lane, home of Chester-le-Street Cricket Club since 1866 and now just a couple of minutes’ walk from Durham County Cricket Club’s Riverside stadium, was the venue for a charity tournament in which several big-name figures were taking part.
Popular Sunderland names of the past and present were in attendance, as were several other well-known footballers and athletes, with the event seeing local firms sponsoring participants £10 for each wicket they got, £10 for each catch they took, and £2 for every run scored, with the proceeds going towards the costs of a new residential unit for autistic children that was to be built near Sunderland.
Recently appointed Newcastle United manager Gordon Lee — who spent part of his weekend house-hunting in the area — earned £44, whilst his Middlesbrough counterpart Jack Charlton pulled in £50.
Malcolm Macdonald, who was caught by Preston North End gaffer Bobby Charlton and about to seal a move to Arsenal in the coming days, went even better by adding £70 to the pot, and come the end of the day, the total raised stood at around £1,500.
England Test international and local boy done good Colin Milburn was on hand to present awards to some of those that had taken part, with Alan Foggon being named ‘Man of the Match’. The Boro forward would join Sunderland later in the decade, yet The Lads were already well represented at the competition with Len Shackleton, a well-regarded club level cricketer in his day, leading the way.
Colin Todd delivers
Also flying the flag was his former teammate Ken Chisholm, plus Charlie Hurley, Bob Stokoe, Ian Porterfield, Bobby Kerr, Richie Pitt, Bob Moncur, Vic Halom, Martin Harvey, Colin Todd and Jim Montgomery.
Olympic medallist David Jenkins took part too, as did Derby County manager Dave Mackay, who followed up his recent Football League title with victory in this event. In the morning, The Sunday Sun had listed the small sided teams due to take part, with Mackay being in team three alongside Lee, Halom, Shackleton, Harvey and David Armstrong.
Team one included Bobby Charlton, Stokoe, Porterfield, Chisholm and Moncur; team two saw Hurley, Kerr and Pitt join forces, and team four featured Todd, Jack Charlton, Montgomery, John Hickton and Jenkins.
Above their piece advertising the cricket, The Sunday Sun also printed a column from Stokoe on footballing matters ahead of Sunderland’s upcoming Division Two campaign.
It was somewhat frank, with the manager lamenting how some players could only motivate themselves for the more attractive games whilst also bemoaning the recent departure of Dave Watson, which he felt was causing others to now question their future despite Stokoe already doing ‘the groundwork for a new season’.
“It’s upsetting to find that something you’d read and hoped wasn’t true is in fact a problem you’ve got to solve” he opined, before opening up further.
I know I haven’t got the enthusiasm in the dressing room yet.
It’s sad but there are some who have no feeling for the club, they don’t care — a great club with a great board, tremendous training facilities and potential.
What is in their contract is virtually a reward for staying but if they’re not satisfied they can go tomorrow, with the board’s blessing, of course, because in this situation the directors take a share of the responsibility after my own recommendations.
What is essential is that the club doesn’t suffer. Keeping players who only want to perform in big stadiums with big crowds might leave us with the same problems when visiting smaller clubs that we had last year.
There are men who would give their right arm to join us – and they’re the sort I want.
The cricket match wasn’t Bobby Kerr’s only social engagement that week, and the next edition of The Sunday Sun reported on his subsequent visit to the Ivy Leaf Club in Hendon a couple of nights later, where he was presenting sporting awards to its members.
Kerr was gifted a pair of cufflinks as way of thanks, and was then surprised when club secretary Bill Todd conveyed lifetime membership onto him. Kerr’s wife Catherine came from that part of town and so many of his in-laws were already regulars at the Ivy Leaf, which had recently undergone a £102,000 facelift.
Bobby Kerr out on the town…