So sad to hear of Colin passing away. One of footballs good guys and a great player..
I remember seeing Colin when he was about 15yrs playing on the Rec for Horden Juniors in a Durham Junior cup game. In those days Horden always had a top Junior side. Another player in that team who was attracting scouts was a lad called Joe Cushlow who went on to be a top local league cricketer in the north east.

RIP Colin. I remember being very young and playing footy in the back street at the back of Blackhall Co-op under the street lights with the older lads who would stop play on a Saturday evening as a big (Morse type) Jag would pull up outside the Legion Club and Colin would get out with family and disappear inside. Seemed a very modest, unassuming guy tbh.

He played in the same school team as my dad, Hesleden County Mixed School. My dad was 14 or 15 like and Colin Bell would've only been around 11 or 12 , which tells you a lot about how good he was.

Apparently he was an unassuming person, sometimes would pop into Hesleden Workmens Club when back home. Unfortunately sometimes these type of people get labelled as unfriendly , miserable or stuck up, I don't suppose any of those accusations were true. I once read his autobiography and I thought it was poor, for such a great footballer, it was though someone had almost forced him to write it, you can imagine him not being too fussed about putting his life into print , no womanising, gambling , drinking or any wild stories to tell, football apart, I imagine just a very ordinary, decent person , who sometimes harshly get labelled as dull.

agree with all that. if he had been a bit of a dickhead he might have gained more international caps. only ever sold himself on the pitch. not my words but ones from an ex opponent of his jimmy greenoff.

I played in that game.
R I P Colin.

Sorry I didn’t notice you Derwent but i do remember in those days two of the best Durham junior sides were Dipton Untd Juniors and Silksworth Juniors these two had connections with Newcastle and Sunderland with Sharkey and Mcpheat turning out against Seaton one year.

No problem mate, it's my only claim to fame.

Yes lads, Colin Bell a great player. I was a kid but remember my dad telling me that when Man City played at St James and Roker Park he would be visiting his family at Hesleden and would pop into The Royal Arms pub in Peterlee after the game with I think a family member. Very approachable and down to earth guy according to my late dad. Should have signed for a North East club along with the great Ralph Coates at that time in the sixties but alas it didn't happen. RIP Colin.

I wanted Pools to sign him, i don't know if they tried. At the time the north east produced a host of good footballers who went elsewhere. The Charltons for a start. Burnley were the biggest poachers. Fancy the nephews of Newcastle's Jackie Milburn slipping through the net. You couldn't make it up.
There was a rumour that Colin Bell went for a a trial at Newcastle and was rejected because of his slight build but I don't know how true that was.

can imagine there is some truth in it. remember billy bremner as a teenager. small with more meat on him than the bone after my dog finished with it. so many lads have been lost to the game over the years for non football issues. an inch too small or half a stone too light at 18 or younger. think the youth team system back then was more flawed than today where they wanted a ready made team for a couple of years to be succesful to help keep the youth team managers in work for a bit longer at their clubs.

Unlike today where clubs sign numerous kids for academy’s in those days they had a few apprentices and made their youth teams up with players on youth forms. Newcastle for instance was known as Newcastle ‘N’s and I knew of a few Hartlepool lads who turned out for them on a Saturday, Albert Cockburn, Bobby Folland and Dicky Gardner come to mind. Sadly Dicky had a bad injury but Bobby signed for Pools.

No magic formula in the recruitment of youngsters , with some you get lucky whilst others escape the net. So many things ( especially back then ) to take into consideration as well , size , attitude, background etc

Lots of club were on the scent of Colin Bell, Bury obviously were prepared to take the risk, whilst Newcastle, Sunderland possibly hedged their bets. Decent players back then generally at least had to play for their town and or county teams, Colin Bell had a trial for Durham Schools U15s and was rejected. He then went on to Horden and was picked up having impressed for them. Similarly others would've went into the Northern League before getting picked up, Frank Clarke springs to mind.

People often wonder how local players escaped the attention of the likes of Newcastle and Sunderland back in the day , whilst likes of Burnley , Ipswich , Southampton, etc seemed to have the NE sewn up , but forget that Newcastle and Sunderland did likewise in Scotland and Ireland, where they had extensive scouting networks/connections and signed lots of good players from those places.

I very much doubt Bell would've signed for Pools in the early 60s , even if they had heard of him

Remember Colin was only 15/16 at this time and I don’t think Pools even had a youth team at this time and apprentices did not come for some time.

He could've went straight into our team at 16, he was Bury captain at 18.

Still, Bury never got John McGovern.

might be wrong but i think they did have a youth team. colin was only a few months older than me and even with my fathers short history at pools i was unable to get a trial with us. could not have been that bad as halifax and watford offered me trials without asking.

I am not sure myself but this was my era and four of my friends did eventually play professionally for Pools but non played for a Pools youth team in fact they played their under 18s football for Seaton Juniors and I would have thought if Pools had a youth team they would have played for them. Then again I’m not sure.

Did you hear that Bobby Folland passed away a couple of days ago?

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... ia-3089056

Quite a few Seaton junior players went on to play for Pools. Ken Johnson, Wattie Moore, Barry Parkes. The Vearts to name a few.

On a very sad day for me with the news of Bobby Folland I was reminiscing my time with my mates who played for Seaton and on a lighter note one player who managed to play for Pools in 1963 was a great lad called Derek Wallace. Derek was the most enthusiastic player you will ever meet but how he got to play for Pools I will never know. The last time I was having a bit of banter with him I said “remember that game you played for Pools” quick as a flash he replied “it was two, it was two,but no one would pass to me”

Derek Wallace what a guy, Johnjo1 you did you work at the Power Station?

No

Fair do’s I knew Derek and Annette very well and thought I might have knew you.