[Lord Snooty]

August 27:

Alonzo Drake played as a striker for Huddersfield Town in the 1909/10 season in the Midland League, the season before we were elected into the Football League. He played 17 times in that season, scoring four goals. He also scored five goals in the FA Cup run, scoring against Mirfield United in a 6-0 win, Rothwell White Rose in a 7-0 win, twice in a 5-2 win over South Kirkby Colliery and once against Rotherham Town.

He stayed on the books until his transfer to Rotherham Town in 1914, having earlier played for Doncaster Rovers, Sheffield United, Birmingham and Queens Park Rangers.

He never played a first team game in the years we made it into the FL, but did at the same time, start playing cricket for Yorkshire. He was a left arm slow medium bowler and took 480 wickets for the County in his five years there.

It was on this date in 1914 that he wrote his name into the Yorkshire CCC record books by taking all ten Somerset wickets in a County Championship match at Weston-super-mare. He is one of only three Yorkshire bowlers to achieve this feat, the others being Hedley Verity (twice) and Frank Smailes.

At the outbreak of the war, Alonzo tried enlisting in the army, but despite being a professional sportsman, he was deemed to be too unhealthy for military service. He was a heavy smoker and it turned out later that he had throat cancer. Tragically, he died of a heart attack in 1918, aged just 34.

Alf Young, who played for England in the infamous match in Berlin in 1938, died on this date in 1977, aged 71. He had played 309 times for the Town, a total which doesn't include the three games he played in the abandoned 1939/40 season.

More about Alf later in the year.

On the pitch, we had a win against PNE at Deepdale in 1923, the second game in our first Football League title winning season. This was on a Monday. Did they have August Bank Holidays back then? Billy Smith, Charlie Wilson and Clem Stephenson scoring in a 3-1 win.

More recently, we beat Charlton Athletic on this date in 2013 in the League Cup at home. Adam Hammill opened the scoring, before Charlton equalised. A Joel Lynch spectacular put us back in front, but then the Addicks went and scored another equaliser. It was Jonathan Hogg who won it though, scoring the winner in the 77th minute, if I remember correctly, he diverted a shot from Oliver Norwood into the net.

That was the first of the five goals Hoggy has scored in over 300 games for us. Prolific!

And finally, a 1-0 win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on this date in 2016. This was the one when ex Wolves player Rajiv van La Parra scored the goal early on in the match and celebrated in front of the Yam Yams (is that right, theo?), who responded with polite applause.

That was four wins and a draw from the first five games and we were now two points clear of Fulham at the top of the Championship.

And finally, finally, a happy birthday today to West Ham legend Peter Butler. He was born on this date in Halifax in 1966 and is 56 today.

He started his career in 1984 with the Terriers, but was released in 86, after a loan at Cambridge Utd he joined Bury. He later joined Southend, who were a 2nd Division club then Ian Ross brought him to Leeds Road on loan to us for the back end of the 91/92 season. He helped us qualify for the Play Offs, but for some reason, the Shrimpy bastards refused him permission to play against Peterborough.

His seven games for us had been unbeaten and he'd formed a formidable midfield partnership with Chris Marsden and he was a big miss in the eventual defeat on Black Thursday.

Instead of signing for us, he'd obviously been tapped up already and Southend sold him to West Ham. He helped them win promotion to the new Premier League.

He's now a much traveled manager, having started with his home town club, Halifax Town. He has now managed in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Burma, Thailand, Botswana, South Africa and is now the Head Coach of the Liberia national team.

Here he is in March '92 on the ball in a 3-0 win against West Brom. Can we have a repeat of that today, please.