Thomas Hobson (1544-1631) was a Cambridge carrier who hired out horses, customers obliged to take the first in line or none at all.It ensured that all had the same chance of getting a decent mount and that none was overworked.

Thus saddled, Hobsons choice entered the language and stayed. Perhaps even less well known is that Hobson, a one-trick pony of a village between Stanley and Gateshead and alternatively known as Pickering Nook, has produced two England international footballers.

Robert McNeal was born there in 1891, played for Hobson Wanderers before West Bromwich Albion, won two caps in 1914.

Billy Smith was born in Tantobie, a kick in the pants away, also played for Hobson Wanderers before transferring to Huddersfield and Rochdale, where he was player/manager.He won three caps, hit the winning goal a penalty in the 1922 FA Cup final and in 1924 became the first player to score direct from a corner.

Hobsons; choice.The Wanderers return following our paragraph a couple of weeks ago on the first Durham Challenge Cup final, in 1884.John Briggs in Darlington not only discovers that inaugural winners Sunderland beat Hobson Wanderers in the replayed semi-final but saw off Miltswell Burn 3-0 in the first round. Hobson semi-finally located, he has been wholly unable to find the source of Miltswell Burn. Sunderland had then beaten Jarrow in the second round and Hamsterley Rangers in the third, despite a crowd invasion.

The founding final was on April 5, 1884 at the cricket ground in Newcastle Road, Sunderland.

Though Sunderland won 4-3, the Quakers successfully protested that they had been intimidated by the home supporters, the game ordered to be replayed at Birtley, Major Maridan was appointed referee to ensure fair play.

Sunderland won 2-0.

The following season Darlington and Sunderland again met in the final, the Wearsiders recording their highest ever score a 23-0 defeat of Castletown in the first round.

James Allan scored 12. Darlington won 3-0, Sunderland in turn protesting that they had been intimidated by the other lots supporters.

The infant county FA threw out the case, Sunderland refusing to enter the following years competition as a result. In 1885 it was called a counter-protest, in 2006 its known as spitting out your dummy.

Last Fridays Durham Challenge Cup final, the 115th, was remarkable for more sporting reasons, underdogs Whickham from the Arngrove Northern League second division coming from behind to beat first division high flyers Billingham Synthonia 2-1.I

t was the seventh successive final in which Billingham poor, miserable Synners had lost after taking the lead.

Whickham, the last North-East side to win at Wembley FA Vase, 25 years ago next Tuesday were chiefly indebted to stand-in goalkeeper Steven Robinson, a former sailor offering truly senior service.

Team manager Tony Ainley, a Newcastle optician, had interrupted a family holiday at Center Parcs in Belgium to fly back for the match.

Two hours after the final whistle he was again due at the airport.

They wont need a plane, forecast the far-sighted Ainley.

The way I feel right now, I could just flap my arms and be airborne.sought by the Sunday papers over the latest claims in the Honours for sale story, South Shields MP David Miliband took refuge with his push chair that is to say, his little lads push chair at Shields Arngrove Northern League match with Norton and Stockton Ancients on Saturday.

Sadly, the only journalist present this one remained blissfully and characteristically ignorant of developments, merely passing the time of day with the man said to be Tony Blairs anointed successor.

We can, however, exclusively reveal that, as well as being a South Shields regular, the club president had something else in his favour.

Like all the best people, hes an avid Arsenal supporter.south Shields born Sam Bartram, still feted in south-east London, is the subject of Mike Blakes new biography, succinctly sub-titled The Story of a Goalkeeping Legend.

Brought up in Boldon Colliery, Sam was chosen as right-half for England schoolboys but declared ineligible after leaving school a few days earlier to work down the pit. He was 14, and spent six years there.

Spotted as a stand-in goalie by Anthony Seed, brother of Charltons Whitburn born manager Jimmy Seed, he played 800 games for Athletic, helping them from Third Division (South) to second in the first division in successive seasons.

Bartram in goal for Charlton was a national institution, like Two Way Family Favourites or the Billy Cotton Band Show, writes Blake.Among the more improbable claims is that the red-headed Bartrams athletic physique inspired the artist Picasso a ride on the search engine revealing any amount of links between Bartram and Picasso but none of them involving Sammy.

Since the column appears among the books credits, we have e-mailed Mr Blake seeking elucidation.

There may be another art attack on Friday.l Sam Bartram: The Story of a Goalkeeping Legend is published by Tempus, 14 99.A note from Tony Webster in Northallerton recalls his 1950s childhood in Haverton Hill, near Billingham, playing football on a large open area which backed onto the Furness Shipyard football ground.

On the other side was an evil smelling beck from which the ball had regularly to be retrieved usually by the youngest player because it was the only way theyd let him take part.Anywhere else, their playground would have been called the Rec.

In Haverton Hill it was known as the Bendy.

Tony not only wonders if anyone can explain why but what happened to the Viscountess Furness Cup.

Thereby hangs a tale.

The solid silver trophy, three feet high, had been made in 1895 and contested between different sections of the hammer-and-tongs shipyard between 1920 and 1968.

The platers bet the fitters 3-0 in the last final.

When the yard closed, the ground became an animal feed factory, the old railway carriage in which they changed became firewood and the trophy was given to a school in Billingham which subsequently sold it to a jeweller.

When Littlewoods first sponsored the Football League Cup in 1987 they refurbished the old trophy and displayed it in their Stockton department store.

Arsenal won it, 2-1 against Liverpool.

Dry docked, its now in the National Football Museum at Preston.

Casting about in February for a team of ex-professional footballers with piscine surnames, we recalled Harry Herring two games for Hartlepools United in 1957-58 and were somewhat surprised to learn that theres a veteran Newcastle based actor of the same name. The biography puts his range at 60-plus; his credits include Old Father Time.

Phil Steele in Crook points out that the thespian Herring has now surfaced in the diamond jubilee commercials for Barker and Stonehouse.

A man furnished perfectly for the part.Featured hereabouts a couple of weeks back seven goals for, 150 against the up-and-running lads of the Greyhound FC in Darlington plan a charity match on Thursday for those less fortunate.

The games at Hundens Lane in Darlington (6pm) between the Greyhound and Filtronic plc for whom team secretary Chris Dixon works in aid of the Childrens Cancer Research Fund at the RVI in Newcastle.

The lads are paying to play. Companies like ASDA, the Co-op, Woolworths and Sportsworld have chipped in prizes ad Filtronic are doing their bit. Further help welcomed: Chris is at mrfrenic@hotmail.com

And finally...

The only two players to appear in both the last England international match and the last FA Cup final at Wembley (Backtrack, April 14) are Gareth Barry and Gareth Southgate.

Brian Shaw in Shildon today invites the identity of the striker who won Welsh international caps while with ten different clubs.

Wales meat, the column returns on Friday.

Published: 18/04/2006