Billingham gets 'three lines' World Cup treatment

A road sign welcoming people to Billingham has had a "three lines" World Cup makeover, in honour of England's star player Jude Bellingham.

A mystery fan delighted passers by applying three bits of electrical tape to the Teesside sign so it read Bellingham, after the player who had propelled the team forward with six goals in the tournament so far.

In the town, Billingham Catholic Club is also planning to change its name to Bellingham Catholic Club if it goes England's way in the semi-final.

Bar manager Sean Rowbottom said if the team beat Argentina on Wednesday, he would make a "very swift phone call to the sign writers" to see if a sign could be made in time for Sunday's final against Spain.

The second option would be to "just go up the ladder with a pot of paint and paint it on", he said.

Rowbottom told BBC Radio Tees getting a new sign made up in three days would be a challenge, "but one that I'm sure we could rise to".

He expected a full house for the match against Argentina later.

"We stayed open for the 02:00 BST kick-off against Mexico, which was an experience, one I'm not keen to repeat any time soon," Rowbottom said.

"But the club was fairly busy for it, which is what we needed."

They had also been getting into the spirit during games with a pass-the-hat game, where punters paid £1 and whoever was wearing the garment at half and full time won the pot.

England's semi-final against Argentina is due to kick off at 20:00 BST.

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