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Well the obscurity is even more deliberate this time.
He was with Chesterfield for two seasons and NEVER played in the first team. He went on to a long career in the game as fullback for Shrewsbury, Northampton and Aldershot, playing 347 games.
At the end of his career (and this is for Matt) he returned to amateur football captaining Sheepbridge Works to win the Hope Valley League. He became for many years a well-known publican of a Chesterfield town centre pub'.
Unfortunately he is no longer alive. Who was he?
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You're telling me its obscure haha.
CHESTERFIELD PREDICTION LEAGUE WINNER 2015/2016
More to Football than the Premier League and SKY
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People who might get it are ageing drinkers in Chesterfield town centre, cover-to-cover readers of the Derbyshire Times, geriatrics and people who used to be involved in local amateur football.
I watched him play all over the Hope Valley, calm, solid full back and a nice man. How he spent two seasons with us without ever making the team then had a successful career with teams at our own level was always a bit of a mystery.
I'll give the answer tomorrow and No 4 will be far less obscure but he still might be difficult to recognise.
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The answer is Jim Bannister. I think he kept the Punch Bowl on Holywell Street.
He never knew it, but he was my hero for a time as a boy. Until I did this I hadn't realised he never got a game at Chesterfield, but I always knew he'd had to leave to get his career going. My dad ran the team he played with when he returned to amateur football and they'd only got good players ...... Chesterfield's full backs in 1950-2 when Jim was at the club must have been pretty decent to stop him ever getting a game.
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08-08-2016, 21:46
(This post was last modified: 08-08-2016, 21:54 by SaltergateBorn.)
For gawd`s sake, Dev; I really do think you need to start getting out a bit more! If the guy played for us (or not, as the case may be) back in 1952, I`m not surprised he`s `no longer alive`.
(I`ve heard a rumour that Tutankhamun played a couple of games in goal for us back in the day; is that right?)
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09-08-2016, 11:02
(This post was last modified: 09-08-2016, 11:26 by Devongone.)
You're getting him mixed up with Omar Sharif.
No longer being alive was a clue that it was a while ago ..... see how it works?
Not many pubs in Chesterfield were kept by ex-professional footballers.
Take into account that Gordon Banks was born in 1937, 1952 isn't ridiculously long ago. If Jim had been 21 in 1952 he'd be 85 now. Half the population of Devon is over 80.
Playing cricket against Gerry Clarke ages me, but then I talked to Sam Hardy our first England goalkeeper.
