YOUNG Tommy Maudesley was there to cheer on dad and his mining mates in a tug o' war challenge during which an objection was lodged against Liverpool Police for taking 'unsporting advantage' by wearing studded boots.

That was way back in August 1948, and memories came echoing back for Tommy when a programme for the athletics meeting of Clock Face Colliery Recreation Club re- surfaced after that gap of 55 years! What makes it all the more remarkable is that the programme, in near mint condition, had found its way back home from Holland!

Tommy forwarded it for my inspection together with a covering letter sent to the Crawford Street club by a Jan van-Griethuysen who writes, in perfect English: "I found the enclosed booklet among some second-hand books at the market here in the Hague and bought it out of surprise that it could have travelled so far from its origins.

"Later I discovered through the internet that the club was still in existence and so it is a pleasure to return the booklet. I hope it proves to be interesting to at least some of your members. The advertisements should make especially enjoyable reading".

Jan's spot-on there. Many nostalgic recollections will be restored for the more mature customers of this page by the inclusion of businesses that once graced the St Helens scene. Among them, Turley & Son, George Street furniture specialists; Oxleys Stores; Wright Brothers, portrait photographers from Sutton; John Gleave of Sutton Moss Nurseries; shoe repairer J. Anders of Peasley Cross; house furnishers H & A E Williams; and George Dingsdale, the Fingerpost cycle dealer.

n FROM such little details are memories made!