Obscure Chesterfield Player No 2

Devongone · (This post was last modified: 04-08-2016, 12:18 by Devongone.)

Not obscure to me, I thought he could play.

Originally from Rangers where he never played, his goals took us to the top of the league nine days before Christmas in his only season for us. We then fell apart to finish seventh and his goals dried up to finish the season on 15 from 31 games, but he did achieve similar scoring rates with other lower league teams, so he wasn't a one season wonder.

Who is he?

**spireitematt** · 04-08-2016, 13:44

Sounds like a player before my time. Is he a striker?

SaltergateBorn · 04-08-2016, 13:49

Some of our memories go back as far as yours, Dev - sad to say.

That would be Billy Stark, wouldn`t it?

**spireitematt** · 04-08-2016, 16:43

Did a bit of searching on Wikipedia.

Is it Phil Bonnyman?

Devongone · 05-08-2016, 20:59

SaltergateBorn is old enough to get it spot on. He was a sharp striker, Billy Stark.

bluepooch · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2016, 23:10 by bluepooch.)

Never heard of him and I thought my knowledge of town history was decent .Was he before Ivan Hollett ?

SaltergateBorn · 06-08-2016, 00:45

They were around at the same time, although Ivan Hollett was with us for a few years (64-68, I think). Billy Stark was only with us for 1 season, as Dev says (66/67, according to Wikipedia) so they actually played in the same team. I must admit, I thought that the season Dev was talking about - when we didn`t drop a point at home until Boxing Day and were about 7 points clear, then blew it in the second half of the season - was a year or two later; 67/68 or 68/69 maybe. It`s long time ago now, though, and Dev may well be right.

Devongone · 06-08-2016, 11:58

I'm going on memory largely and I could be confusing Billy Stark's season with perhaps Frank Lord's when we were top I think. I'll have to look it up.

Billy Stark was genuinely good and if you look him up you'll see he achieved good goals per games ratios several times. He did well for Colchester.

Once we got rid of Tony McShane as manager we seemed to be able to get ourselves to the top of the division ....... but we were also good at completely blowing it. My next obscure player is truly obscure despite playing a whole raft of league games.

SaltergateBorn · 06-08-2016, 13:34

Dev, you`ve just made an old man very happy. You`ve given him an excuse to get up in the loft and dig out his old News of the World Football Annuals for the 60s that he hasn`t looked at for years. I used to buy them every year; that and the Playfair Cricket Annual were my bibles. 4s 6d they cost. That`s it now; sod the gardening and the lawnmowing - that`s the week-end taken care of.

Right. It turns out that Billy Stark did play for us in the 66/67 season and scored 15 goals, the same as Ivan Hollett and 1 more than Kevin Randall. They were the only ones to make double figures. We reached the dizzy heights of 15th that year - and that was pretty damn good for us in those days. Frank Lord played 12 games (I thought it was more than that, I must admit) the following season - 67/68 - and scored 6 goals; that was the 'blow-up' season you were remembering. Randall 21 and Hollett 18 were the only double-figures scorers.

That`s it then. the 'Do Not Disturb' sign is going up on the door of the shed, where I shall remain in splendid isolation until the half-time scores; apart from the company of my Annuals and a couple of cans, that is.

Devongone · 07-08-2016, 12:41

Brilliant and you saved me research. Glad you had a good time and are still fit enough to make it out of the loft.