Willie Maddren used to have a sports shop in Billingham Town Centre as well, also at one time the newsagent on Billingham Green. In 1994 he was was working as a salesman for Croft's Toyota dealer on Low Lane. He sold me a car, went for a test drive with him and had the patter about the Jack Charlton days. Remember at the time thinking his signature looked like an old man's, very shaky. Not too long after that he got his diagnosis .... Met him some years later, not long before he died, when I went into the room he said "Ha, Mr Gnome, how's your car?" Amazed he could remember my name, was just a punter in a car dealer, I asked him how he'd remembered, he said "Your wife was pregnant and I was trying to sell you a bigger car".