How Britain Kept Calm and Carried On (25 page)

BOOK: How Britain Kept Calm and Carried On

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Harold Bell, Tranmere Rovers player

Sport, in particular football, played a vital role in maintaining the nation’s morale, and although the official competitions were suspended upon the outbreak of war,
regional leagues were soon organized using ‘guest players’, mostly pre-war footballers now in the armed forces and allowed to play for clubs near to where they were stationed. This
‘make-do-and-mend’ football produced some bizarre incidents.

You never knew which team was which because blokes were coming home on leave and then couldn’t get [to the match] . . . I’ve been at Goodison and it’s come
over the tannoy: ‘Any footballers in the crowd?’ Some fans used to go to the game with their boots, just in case . . .

Harold Atkinson, Tranmere Rovers

I lost count of the number of clubs I played for during the war. Many clubs used so many guests that they were hardly recognizable. Once I played for six different league clubs
in little more than a week. After I was posted to a camp at Skegness, for instance, I played for Lincoln City and Grimsby Town, switching between the two quite regularly. I can’t imagine how
the fans felt. Some weeks there were so many changes that it was hardly worth printing the team sheets. But it was a game of football.

Peter Doherty, Poulton-le-Fylde

I was working at an electrical factory and playing amateur football when the war started. In 1940–41, at the age of seventeen, I found myself in Leicester City’s
first team, playing inside right to a little right winger called Billy Wright, whose own club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, had closed down for that season. I had no idea that my right-wing partner
would one day win a record number of England caps from the half-back line. A lot of the Leicester players had joined up and that gave opportunities to youngsters like me. I made my debut in May
1940, against Wolves, and managed to score twice, but my best memory was playing against Stanley Matthews in a snowstorm at Stoke. It was beyond my wildest dreams to play against someone like him
and I had the war to thank for it. I was just a baby really. The biggest problem was getting time off to play.

Jack Smith, Leicester

Make-do-and-mend football certainly threw up some strange incidents. On Christmas Day 1941, Bristol City set off in three cars to play Southampton at The Dell. By kick-off time,
only the car carrying the kit and two players had arrived. The match eventually kicked off one hour late, with the Bristol team completed by five Southampton reserves, the Saints’ trainer,
and three spectators. Twenty minutes into the game, the missing Bristol players arrived, crammed into one car. The other vehicle had broken down en route. At half-time, Southampton were winning
3–0 and one of the spectators in the Bristol team decided that he could not carry on. City decided to slip on one of the late arrivals, Ernie Brinton, who changed into the dirty kit and
rubbed mud on his knees before trotting out for the second half. Within seconds of the restart, a linesman spotted the ringer and Brinton had to leave the field. In the circumstances it was
surprising that Southampton won by only 5–2.

Sometimes the manager himself had to turn out to make up the numbers. On 20 January 1940, Swindon Town found themselves with only ten men at the Aero Engines Company Ground
at Kingswood for their match against Bristol City. Swindon’s manager, Neil Harris, forty-three years old, his previous competitive match over nine years earlier, was forced to turn out in
borrowed boots too small for him. Swindon lost 5–2 and Harris lost two toenails.

A young man turned up at Chelsea claiming to be a well-known Motherwell player. The manager, Billy Birrell, had only ten men and even though the stranger looked an unlikely
footballer, Birrell had little option but to play him. After only a few minutes, Birrell’s worst fears were confirmed. The crowd were also quick to spot that the new man had hardly played the
game. All Birrell could do was leave him on the pitch and tell the rest of the Chelsea team not to pass the ball to him.

Northampton Town’s use of guest players – in 1941–2 alone, two-thirds of their players came from the ranks of other clubs – produced an interesting
character. In January 1944, they gave a chance to a young man called Hess, of all names, who claimed to have played for one of Austria’s leading clubs before the war. He turned out on the
right wing in a 3–0 defeat at Walsall. He was quite awful but Northampton were stuck with him for the whole ninety minutes. Then they said their farewells and Herr Hess disappeared from
Northampton Town’s history even quicker than he had entered it.

In October 1943, the Charlton manager, Jimmy Seed, had to apologise to supporters: ‘I feel that it is somewhat necessary for me to attempt some sort of apology for
introducing the outside right, Rogers, in our last home game. This player was introduced to the club as the old Arsenal/Newcastle United/Chester player. Being short of players we were forced to
play this man with unfortunate consequences. I have now found out that we were hoodwinked, although his inept display was sure evidence of his inability to play. We will leave it at
that.’

Southend United goalkeeper Ted Hankey sneaked away from his Royal Artillery unit to play under an assumed name for the reserves against Reading and lost his sergeant’s
stripes when his deception was discovered. Liverpool’s Billy Liddell had better luck. Posted to an RAF camp at Heaton, near Manchester, he discovered that personnel were not allowed out until
4.30 p.m. on Saturdays. Liverpool were playing Manchester City at Maine Road and when Liddell’s application to be released at midday was refused, he climbed over the wall and joined up with
his teammates at the railway station. Military police were checking passes outside the station but they ignored the party of footballers and Liddell, who later became a JP, got away with it.