[Lord Snooty]

December 6:

It's birthday bonanza day today. I've got 7 (seven) of them to report on today. Sorry make that 8 (eight), almost forgot the most important one.......

Happy birthday today to the lovely Amelia Chaffinch, aka Lady Snoots......

So the seven other birthdays. A club legend, a club founder, two current players, a 1930s player, a player from the team that lost 10-1, and a helmet.

The legend is Andy Booth. He's 49 today having been born in Huddersfield on this date in 1973. He was about to sign on for Scarborough until Gerry Murphy intervened and signed him up for our youth set up. And the rest is history.

I think most of us are aware of his legendary status at the club and I've got a lot to get through today, so here's his stats, a video of his entire career or if you ain't got time to watch that, a video of his final Town goal down at Leyton Orient.......

He's at the top end of both our appearance and goals charts. In the apps he's in 4th spot with 457 behind Vic Metcalfe (459), Tom Wilson (500) and Billy Smith (574). And he's 3rd in the goals with 150, behind Jimmy Glazzard (154) and George Brown (159).

The club founder with the birthday today, I wrote about recently and that is Sir Amos Brook Hirst. He was a founding member of the club, a director, then chairman, also on the Football League commitee and eventually president of the Football Association, getting to go to matches with Kings and Queens. He was born in Huddersfield in 1878.

The two current players are Jonathan Hogg and Oliver Turton. Hoggy was born 110 years after Sir Amos, on this date in 1988, in Middlesbrough and so he's 34 today. Knocking on a bit now and he's been knocking on the physio's door a lot lately. Will he add to the 313 appearances that he's got for the club so far? At the moment he's in 17th spot in the chart, eight games behind Jimmy Glazzard.

Did you know Hoggy scored on his Football League debut? It was an 87th minute winner for Darlington (on loan from Villa) against Chesterfield. And he's never stopped hitting the back of the net since.

Six! He's got six.

What do you think about Hoggy then? Inspirational leader who we've sorely missed this season? Or are you in the camp that thinks he's past his sell by date and should be moved on? I personally think the former, and the sooner we get him back, the better.

As for Mrs Turton's lad, he was born in Manchester on this date in 1992 and so he's 30 today. A bit of a cult hero with the fans, who will all be on the pitch if he scores.

That won't be soon. He's another one in the physio's room.

He started his playing career with Crewe, making his debut in League Two as an 18 year old. He then went to Blackpool, for who his final game was at Wembley in the Play Off Final, scoring an own goal in the first minute.

More birthdays. The 1930s player was Benny Craig, who was born on this date in 1915 in Consett, County Durham. He played 106 times for Town between 1934 and 1938, before joining Newcastle United. He later became trainer at Newcastle when he hung up his booits.

The player from the Man City debacle was Ian Bray, born on this date in Neath in 1962 and so he's 60 today. He also played over a hundred games for us and they weren't all as bad as that Maine Road one.

He signed for us from Hereford United in 1985.

And the helmet? Jack Hunt. I can't remember the details of why he acquired that nickname (answers on a postcard please), but he's one of the very few former players who get booed when he comes back to the stadium. He was born in Rothwell in 1990 and he's 32 today.

On the field of play, on this date in 1992 (same day as Mrs Turton was in the maternity wing), Iain Dunn made a scoring debut for the Terriers in a fantastic FA Cup victory away at Bradford City. He scored inside the first ten minutes and then won the penalty for the second goal, which Kieran O'Regan took to make it 2-0.

In the Great Escape season of 97/98, things had really got going now. That tunnel was heading towards the barbed wire at a rapid pace. We'd beaten Bury the week before to get off the bottom of the league and on this date in 1997, we had a trip to Gresty Road to play Crewe Alexandra.

This was another brilliant feast of football, which Town won 5-2. Two goals from Marcus Stewart, two from Paul Dalton and one from the Chief, Wayne Allison.

Here have a watch of this....

Sorry to take up so much of your time today with the four videos. Not really. Nobody's making you watch them. 

I don't have a video of this next one but I've found a cracking photo. It's of the England captain, Huddersfield Town's Roy Goodall and the French captain Edmond Delfour at White Hart Lane ahead of the friendly match on this date in 1933. It was Roy's final game for England, his 25th cap.

Ye olde three lions won the game 4-1. George Camsell of Middlesbrough scored twice, Man City's Eric Brook got one and Tom Grosvenor of Birmingham got the fourth before Émile Veinante of Racing Club de Paris got a consolation.

Here's that photo. No idea what the three lasses are there for. Any ideas?