Manchester United and Bishop Auckland by Garry Cook

[WARNING: This is a long article]

It's not often you hear Bishop Auckland mentioned in the same breath as Manchester United. Let's be honest, you've never heard Bishop Auckland mentioned in the same breath as Manchester United. In fact, the only question you're asking now is, 'where the hell is Bishop Auckland?'

Well, as a United fan you should know because this club owes the tiny Durham mining town a huge debt of gratitude.

Fifty years ago, in United's darkest hour The Bishop came to the rescue. The Munich air crash in February 1958 will forever be remembered as one of the most tragic days in British football, when eight of the Busby Babes were tragically killed.

In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Busby, himself a survivor, quickly began thinking about rebuilding his Babes. The United manager knew he needed some experienced legs to help with the development of the clubs new wave of youngsters.

From his hospital bed where he was still fighting for his life, Busby's thoughts turned to Bishop Auckland. He whispered to his assistant Jimmy Murphy 'send for Bob Hardisty.'

Hardisty, Bishops greatest ever player, was an old friend of Busby. And despite being 37 and retired he, along with fellow players Derek Lewin and Warren Bradley, went to Old Trafford to become lynch-pins in Busby's United rescue plan. Even goalkeeper Harry Sharratt was called in to coach the Reds.

As it happened, United's first game after the terrible crash was an emotionally charged reserve game at Old Trafford watched by 27,000 fans. Hardisty, Lewin and Bradley were part of the side. Though the trio had joined to help build United's future, Bradley in particular found the move from Northern League to First Division seamless and went on to star for United's first team and win England honours - the only Englishman to win amateur and full international caps.

Bradley, originally from Hyde, joined United on a part-time basis at the age of 24. He got a job as a teacher in Stretford and went on to score 20 goals in 63 appearances for the club. He even played against Real Madrid for United after spending the day teaching. He died last year, aged 73.

The beginnings of the greatest Northern League side lie at Auckland Castle, the home of the Bishop of Durham and where theological students from Oxford and Cambridge were studying. The students formed Bishop Auckland Church from Auckland Town broke away, later to become Bishop Auckland FC.

Historically, this link between United and Bishop was not the first. Way back in 1906 the Manchester side won promotion to Division One with three ex-Bishops - Charlie Roberts, Jack Allan and Jimmy Marshall - among their ranks.

But undoubtedly it was the transfers of Hardisty, Bradley and Lewin that United will forever have United indebted to Bishops.

United went someway to paying that debt when Alex Ferguson sent a side to Kingsway in 1996 for a benefit match which helped save the club when it found itself being sued by a Macclesfield player, injured during a game between the two sides.

Former Auckland chairman and current secretary Tony Duffy recalls: "We had to raise £30,000 in 28 days to settle out of court. A 'Save The Bishops' campaign was started in the Northern Echo and Alex Ferguson got to hear about it.

"They sent up a team, and a sizeable cheque, which really helped us out. Brian McClair brought the team up which included the likes of Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt to Kingsway. Gary Pallister also came to sign autographs. It was excellent.

"I bumped into Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford years later when he was doing the FA Trophy quarter-final draw. He knew all about the players who used to play for us, the ones which helped them out after Munich."

The fact that the mighty Manchester United turned to Bishops in its hour of need is proof in itself of how highly Busby rated the side. But statistically, Bishops were THE side of the Northern League before leaving to join the UniBond Premier League in 1988.

Bishops won the Northern League on no less than 18 occasions over a 99 year period, with a further three Amateur titles. They are easily the most consistent team in its history. In fact, in one amazing nine year run from 1947 to 1956, the club never finished outside the top two in the league.

In those days the Amateur football which Bishops played was of a much higher standard than it is today. The Amateur Cup Final, which Bishops won three years in a row in 1955, 1956 and 1957, was watched by 90,000 of fans at Wembley.

Bishops first league success came in the 1898/99 season, out-performing both Middlesbrough and Darlington in a remarkable year which saw them go unbeaten in the league.

Since 1900 Bishops - or the Two Blues - have gone through patches of success unparalleled by other clubs. They won the league twice in succession in 1901 and 1902 and then won once more in the 1908/09 season, beating South Bank 3-2 in a play-off at Stockton. The club's further league successes in 1910 and 1912 made it six championship seasons in only fourteen years.

Even when the club did not win the title they were nearly always in the running. Until the sixties, Bishops only finished outside the top ten in the league on one occasion.

Fixture list problems are a persistent moan of managers at all levels today, but if those same club bosses had to endure the grueling end to Auckland's 1936/37 season, they would not be so quick to voice their discontent.

Bishops finished runners-up that year after playing no less than eighteen games in 18 days - all without defeat. And that was not unusual. The following season, in which they were crowned champions, Bishops players appeared in fourteen games in 18 days.

And yet again in the 1938/39 season, the club faced another end-of-season fixture marathon of ten games in 11 days. And after recording six wins and two draws in their eight league games, the side grabbed the championship by a point from Shildon.

At this time, the club had none other than Liverpool legend Bob Paisley among its ranks. Paisley was outstanding during this ten-game match-a-day run, though he missed the Durham Challenge Cup Final through injury.

But his performances had done enough to catch the eye of the Merseyside club and soon after the end of the season, Liverpool came in for him. As with Manchester United, a Bishop Auckland player was the catalyst in creating a footballing dynasty at one of the world's most famous sides.

While at the Two Blues, Paisley earned his money as a bricklayer and he once commented: "During that time where we were playing a match every day I fell asleep on the scaffold after the midday break, and the lads just let me sleep on, and only woke me up when it was finishing time." Such scenes are unthinkable now.

When club chairman Coun. J G Waine was asked about the sides success he remarked: "No snobbery, a miner has the same chance as an undergraduate. Each player is chosen on merit. Has to be a top class 90-minute player. We try to cultivate good honest football, not kick and rush. Foster team spirit."

If 1966 was a great year for English football, it was a groundbreaking year for Bishop Auckland when they appointed their first 'real' manager. Manager's did not pick the team. Bishops had always used their committee to pick the team.

The decision to hand over full control to one man was a big one, but they could not have made a better choice than the education clerk from Gateshead Council, Lawrie McMenemy.

The young manager turned around their fortunes, guiding the Two Blues to third in the league in '66 and then to the domestic treble of League, League Cup and County Cup the year after.

Though Auckland went through another period of mediocrity after that, McMenemy never looked back, moving on to coach at Sheffield Wednesday (under Alan Brown) before managing outright at Doncaster, Grimsby, Southampton and Sunderland.

The Northern league said goodbye to its most successful side in 1988 when Bishops joined the Pyramid system in 1988. Within six seasons the club had managed to win promotion to the Premier Division, finishing a creditable fourth in their first season in that league. Under boss Tony Lee had they managed to grab the UniBond runners-up spot.

Ex-chairman Duffy, a devout England supporter who follows England around the world, saw his first Two Blues game in 1962. In the clubs recent history, he says the FA Cup run of 1989 stands out.

"We have had some good Trophy moments, like Stafford Rangers in the quarter finals, but the FA Cup is the big one. Our biggest game in recent years was in the second round and we drew 1-1 at Crewe," says Duffy. "In the mean time the third round draw was made and the winners of our game were to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. But we lost the midweek replay 2-0 at home."

Recent history has not been so kind to Bishops with a ground move, scheduled for 2002, failing to come to fruition. The move a mile-and-a-half across town to a new 10,000 capacity, £1,250,000 stadium was intended to give the club a chance of getting into the Conference - or Blue Square Premier as it is now. Instead the club were demoted for the first time in their history on the grounds of not having, er, a ground suitable for UniBond football.

In 2006 they slipped back into the Northern League, effectively back where they started all those years ago. Managed by ex-pro Brian Honour, they are currently third from bottom in Division One.

While their new ground has suffered a series of delays, Bishops have been homeless. They have spent some time at Spennymoor's Brewery Field and currently play at nearby Shildon's Dean Street ground.

But the links with United remain. And when Durham County Council finally give the go-ahead for their new stadium it will be illuminated with a set of floodlights donated by United in recognition of the three players they loaned out to Old Trafford in 1958.

THE PLAYERS

Bobby Hardisty was, without doubt, the greatest player ever to play for the Two Blues. On the football pitch, his talent was immense. But his refusal to accept 'boot money' deserves equal respect. In the days of the maximum wage in professional football, the way to make money in football was to play for an amateur side where illegal cash-in-hand payments were commonplace.

Throughout his playing career both for Bishops and Shildon, who he joined for a year in 1946, Hardisty always refused even legitimate expenses, never mind the boot money. He referred to players who accepted these payments as 'sharks.'

Perhaps the best way to gauge Hardisty's brilliance is through the respected BBC commentator Raymond Glendenning who picked Hardisty for his Team of the Season in 1954. But this was not an Amateur eleven, it was a full-blooded nationwide side. He picked Hardisty ahead of Tommy Docherty, Danny Blanchflower, Billy Wright and Ken Armstrong.

In the mists of history and the growth of the Football League, Hardisty might have been forgotten. But no one can claim not to have heard of the likes of Blanchflower and Docherty, yet here is Hardisty being spoken of as better.

His playing career started at the tender age of 17 and lasted 21 years, gaining every honour possible in amateur football. Hardisty, who also played cricket for Auckland, was selected to represent Britain for three Olympic Games and won fifteen International caps for England. He also played in six Amateur Cup finals at Wembley, winning on three occasions, and picked up six Northern League Championship medals. The town even named a new roadway - the Bobby Hardisty Drive - after him.

His best position was at half back, though he could also play as an inside forward or centre forward.

Hardisty first met Matt Busby at Bede College in Durham. At the time Busby was playing for Middlesbrough and managed to get Hardisty a game. He also did the same when Hardisty was stationed at Dalmahoy in Scotland during World War Two, arranging games with Hibernian.

But it was not until he was 37 years old that Hardisty got the call from Busby to come to Manchester United. As manager of Britains Olympic side, Busby also asked Hardisty to be captain, a role he had previously refused at Auckland.

"I felt I could give more to the team without the responsibility of being captain," said Hardisty later. "But I was very proud to captain Great Britain in the Olympic Games."

Hardisty appeared in the 1948 Olympics in London, the Helsinki Olympics of 1952 and the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.

Out of all the honours Hardisty won, the final piece of the jigsaw was his Amateur Cup winners' medal. For a time, Hardisty must have thought that he was never going to get one around his neck. You can hardly blame him - he was part of the Bishops side which lost three Cup Finals at Wembley in the space of five years (1950, 1951 and 1954).

But in 1955, all that was to change. In this newspaper excerpt, the brilliance of Hardisty is remembered:

'Auckland's followers will remember Lewin, Hardisty and Cresswell for many a day. Above all, the crowd will remember Hardisty walking up to get his medal. It was the moment that fused the Northern and Southern ranks. They were, after all, just football followers, and glad that one of the game's greatest players had achieved his final ambition.'

As a coach, Hardisty saw success too. He passed an FA training course to become one of only six FA staff coaches in the country. Wilf Mannion and Stanley Matthews both failed the same course. Crook were to benefit from his excellence in this field - Hardisty led them to Amateur Cup success in 1959, the same year he left Bishops.

However, on a slightly less successful note, and a lesson to all meddling club owners across the country, Hardisty ultimately failed when he took over the manager's reigns at Kingsway. In 1961 Bishops recorded four straight wins in the Amateur Cup to take them to the semi-finals. But in extraordinary circumstances, the club committee, which still had the final say on team selection, changed the team which Hardisty had picked at a Monday night meeting.

After Hardisty left the meeting, chairman Bob Middlewood kept the committeemen back for an hour and persuaded them to agree to include Seamus O'Connell in the first eleven. Hardisty had left him out believing he was unfit through injury. Bishops lost 2-1 and Hardisty never managed them again.

In 1985 circulatory problems forced Hardisty to have his right leg amputated, but he remained mobile and continued to watch Bishops play until his death a few years later.

Hardisty could celebrate with the best of them, as he did so after the Amateur Cup success of 1957. However, after a trip up to Newcastle's Tyne Tees Television studios, Hardisty arrived back home in Bishop Auckland having lost the Cup. Unable to remember where he had put it, Hardisty was a relieved man when it turned up several days later in the boot of the Sports Editor's car.

THE GOALKEEPER

If any one player suffered through the success of Bishops in the 50's, it was goalkeeper Harry Sharratt - mainly because he had nothing to do. During that time Sharratt developed a reputation as a joker.

On one occasion, during an Amateur Cup game against Kingstonian, where Auckland were 12-0 up, he played up front in an attempt to score a goal. He never did, but Kingstonian got three back while he was playing as a striker.

In another game, a freezing Boxing Day game against Shildon, he famously built a snowman in the goal mouth.

"It's all true," Sharratt said. "We were winning four or five to nil. I was freezing so I decided to build myself a snowman."

And did he ever score? "Yes I did," he remembers. "I took a penalty once. It was in a local cup competition. It wasn't a good moment, though. Their goalie should have saved it because I hit it straight at him. It didn't go where I intended it to."

Sharratt's near twelve-year spell from 1953 until 1964 ran alongside the club's greatest period of success.

Now 70 and living at Kirby Lonsdale, he names player like Booby Hardisty, Seamus O'Connell and Corbett Cresswell as the best at the club. "Cresswell was a very good centre half," he recalls. "He was one of the best, he was immaculate." But he adds: "I do think that the team we had virtually picked itself, the players were so good."

Sharratt, who previously played for his home town club Wigan, came to Auckland from Blackpool. He was studying at Leeds but because he worked on Saturday mornings he could not get back to Blackpool. However, one Bob Hardisty to come to the rescue by offering a lift from Yorkshire every week in his car.

Sharratt was offered the chance to turn to professional with Middlesbrough and also helped Stockport County out on occasion, but never thought about leaving Auckland. His reason for staying so loyal sums up the attitude of footballers in that era. "I was just happy, very happy to play for Bishop. It was just one happy weekend when we played, a great camaraderie."