THE MAESTRO IN MIDFIELD: DAVE BOYLEN

WHEN the Mariners do well, few are as delighted as Dave Boylen.

Even though it is 36 years since he last played for Grimsby Town, Dave, who lives just off Cleethorpes seafront, remains one of the club's most fervent fans to the point of being its official ambassador.

Most players merge into the sunset after their playing days over, but the 66-year-old remains involved because he has a deep sense of loyalty to the memories built up during his time at Blundell Park.

"I will always be grateful,"he says. "Not just for my career as a player but also for having the opportunity to live in an area with such warm and friendly people.

"I have a fantastic wife, Theresa, two smashing daughters, Debbie and Carrie-Anne, plus a brilliant grandson, Harrison, who is seven." 

Rewind to October,1947, and the start of life in the tough Ardwick area of Manchester could scarcely been have less auspicious for Dave because, tragically, his mother died in childbirth.

He could have been sent to an orphanage had it not been for the devotion of his father, Billy, and older sister, Evelyn, who resolved to bring him up themselves.

Times were tough but also happy - none more so than when he was spending every spare hour playing football with his pals - either in in the streets (with lamposts as the goals) or as a member of his local Roman Cathlic boys' side.

His first mentor was the priest who ran the church team, a man called Father Seale, who was endlessly inspirational.

"I will never forget his encouragement,"says Dave. "He gave me the belief that I could make it as a professional footballer.

"You would never have known he was a priest on match days - he used to take off his dog-collar and leap up and down as he urged  us on."

Dave graduated to playing first for Ardwick Boys' Club (where the emphasis seemed to me more about fighting than football!), then to Gorton Boys' Club where his skills caught the attention of scouts from several of the Football League clubs in the north-west.

For a while, he had links first with  Preston, then Rochdale, but they dilly-dallied, partly because of misgivings about his size - he is only 5ft 3in.

Height was never an issue for Dave himself, because he had excellent ball skills, amazing balance and speed both of thought and movement.

"When the ball is on the ground every player is the same height,"he says. "That's what I was once told, and it's true."

Town's manager at the time was Jimmy McGuigan who realised Dave's potential - and swooped.

"I had no hesitation in signing," continues Dave. "It  was big moment in my life. I was on the first rung of the football ladder. I was going to be paid for something I loved doing." 

                One-way ticket

Dave quit his job as a machinist, working at a factory that made sheepskin coats and rainwear, and headed for Lincolnshire with just £20 in his pocket, plus a one-way train ticket from Manchester's Piccadilly railway station.

Aged just 16, was he not a little nervous about venturing to the other side of the country to a town where he had no relatives or friends?

"Not at all," he replies. "I relished the challenge. I was glad to be out of the concrete jungle and coming to Grimsby.

"It was a proud fishing town with a football club, which, though no longer in the top flight, had lots of traditions and ambition. What's more I would be living by the seaside."

His lodging were firstly in Fuller Street, where he failed to settle, then later 24 Clee Crescent where he was treated as one of the family by the owners, Jim Teanby and his wife.

Dave settled in well, playing in the Mariners' youth side which played so well that in the Northern Intermediate League that crowds of as many as 2,000 attended matches.

The following season, aged 19, his first senior opportunity came - he was part of the side that recorded a 4-0 win over Gillingham on May 6, 1967.

Dave is full praise for his first manager, plus coaches George Higgins and Clarrie Williams, from all of whom he learned loads.

"Jimmy McGuigan was very astute and taught me a lot about the game. If he had stayed longer at the club, I am sure it would have hastened my development as a player."

But the boss had a fall-out with the board for various reasons - one of them possibly being that, against his judgement, he  had been told to sell star strikers Matt Tees and Rod Green to Charlton Athletic.

McGuigan was sacked, to be succeeded by Don McEvoy, who lasted just three months, then Bill Harvey who had Grimsby roots, though latterly he had been chief coach at Chelsea.

By now, Dave was a first-team regular whose impressive performances were generating the interest both of the national press  (notably the Sunday People) and other football clubs, including the up-and-coming Brian Clough who was building a promotion-winning side at Derby County.

He was impressed both by the accuracy of Dave's passing and by his energy at driving forward attacking moves.

                     Clough snubbed

After watching Grimsby's midfield dynamo no fewer than six times, Clough put in an offer of £20,000 - only to be snubbed by Harvey who refused to accept it.

"You don't want to play for an idiot like Clough," the manager told his star player." In time, bigger clubs will come knocking at the door. Besides, I want to build this side around you and your ability."

 

Dave was crestfallen. He admired what Clough had been achieving at Derby and would have jumped at the

opportunity to play at a higher level.

But, in those days, players were slaves to their clubs. He had no say in the matter.

Rebuffed by the Mariners, Clough  later turned his attention and paid Preston £60,000 for a similar sort of player, Archie Gemmill, who, played for him first at Derby, then at Nottingham Forest, winning numerous domestic honours and Scottish caps.

However the successful partnership when, much to his subsequent heartbreak, Gemmill was unexpectedly dropped for the 1979 European Cup Final.

Inevitably, Dave followed, through the media,  the fortunes of Gemmill and must, more than once, have asked himself: "What if?"

He was aware, too, that at neighbouring Scunthorpe United, Ray Clemence and Kevin Keegan had gone on to fame and fortune after being sold for sums in the region of £20,000 to bigger clubs.    

To his credit, he swallowed his disappointment and continued to put in scintillating performances under Harvey, then subsequent managers such as Bobby Kennedy, Lawrie  McMenemy, Ron Ashman, Tom Casey and John Newman.

He is proud to have been part of McMenemy side that famously  won  the 1971-72 Fourth Division championship, clinching the title with a 3-0 win against Exeter City in front of 22,000-plus delirious fans, some of whom had clambered on to the stand to watch the action.

"We played poorly in the first half,"says Dave who recalls the match as if it were were yesterday. "Even before the kick-off, somehow things semed flat - it was probably the pressure of expectation.

"At half time, the gaffer laid into us one by one. He tore us apart individually and told us we were letting the fans down.

                       Angry pep talk

"McMenemy was not tactically the most astute of managers, but he had an aura of authority - and his angry pep talk did the trick.

“We recovered our  form in the second half and the glory was our's. The celebrations went on until long into the following day."

Dave has a million and one memories of his playing days. Once, in the dressing room after a memorable FA Cup win at Preston, there was  a visit from a VIP - none other than the great Bill Shankly who made a bee-line across the floor to shake Dave's hand.

"Well played, the wee man!"enthused the ex-Anfield legend. "Magica! That's the Grimsby I remember from the days when I was manager."

On another occasion, following a match at Watford, he and teammates found themslves in the bar, rubbing shoulders with none other Elton John, the club chairman, Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger.

Over the years, Dave picked up plenty of cautions but only one sending-off - that was in a reserve match after swinging a boot at an opponent who had hurt him with a dangerous late tackle.

"I'm sorry, Dave, you'll have to walk,"said the referee, John Atkinson.

Was he superstitious? "Absolutely!"he chuckles. "Before matches, I aways made sure to put on my left boot first. Once, when we were on a losing streak, I even took down the number plate - Number 13 - from our house in Laburnum Drive, Grimsby! "

As older Mariners fans will recall, Dave was also the club's highly reliable penalty-taker in chief - and he never succumbed to nerves, even when being noisily (and crudely) barracked by the opposition players or fans.

His approach to taking the spot kick? "I just shut everything out of my mind, picked whatever corner and got with it, no messing."

Not that he beat the 'keeper every time. Soon after McMenemy took over, he had one saved against Crewe in a 3-2 defeat.

The match was memorable in another way. The Crewe side included a friend and fellow-Mancunian, Stan Bowles, later to become famous as one of the county' most gifter goalscorers as well as a prolific gambler.

"Bowlesie would bet on two spiders climbing up a wall,"he jokes. "At the time, he was available for just £5,000, and McMenemy was very interested - but he went to Carlisle instead, then to QPR where his career really took off.

Dave abruptly quit Grimsby Town after a rare bust-up when the board refused to allow him an opportunity to play on an interim basis for an American side, Los Angeles Nighthawks, because it would have meant him missing the last few Mariners matches of the 1978 season.

                         Sense of injustice

"Basically, I walked out on the club,"he says. "It was perhaps bit silly of me, and probably I should have taken a walk on the beach to clear my head of the sense of injustice I was feeling.

"According to the gaffer, John Newman, who had supported me, the board refused to release my registration because they thought it would set a precedent for other players. But I just thought it was mean-spirited given that I had been a loyal club servant since arriving as a kid with £20 in my pocket.

"For three years, I never returned to Blundell Park, but then I decided to buried the hatchet and let bygones be bygones - a decision I have never regretted."

Away from the Mariners, Dave continued  playing (and managing) -  but in non-league football with sides such as Louth United, Immingham Town and Skegness Town.

He also pursued a 21-year career in youth work, which game him immense personal satisfaction, and he was  a leading light in the Artie White Foundation which has raised some £400,000  for worthy local charities over the past 17 years.

Through his contacts in football, he has persuaded some of the biggest names in football, including the late George Best (who was to become a friend)  to attend fund-raising celebrity events in this area.

Up until his retirement this week, he had been working for Grimsby electrical, instrumentation and engineering  firm, Technica Ltd, but it is also  worth recording that between 2007 and 2011, he was a highly effective member of North East Lincolnshire Council, serving as a Liberal-Democrat in the Freshney ward.

Dave reckons his life outside football has widened his experience and given him a more rounded perspective on life.

Although, to the end of his days, the Mariners will always be his main love, he still also has a loyalty to his roots,  and he  is also a fan of his boyhood club, Manchester City.

He prides himself on being calm and collected when watching televised football, but, when City clinched the 2012 Premiership title with a nail-biting 3-2 win final match of the season against QPR it was, for once, a different matter.

"I was watching the match wearing my light blue Etihad shirt at the Liberal Club," he says. "Five minutes from the final whistle, it looked like the title had slipped from City's grasp - then came those two last-gasp goals.

  

"I am not ashamed to admit it," he confesses. "I went completely barmy!"

*This article is a revised version of one that appeared in the Cleethorpes Chronicle in March last year.

SUPER STRIKER OF YESTERYEAR: MATT TEES

Matt Tees slots home another goal

AS  Matt Tees was on the last stage of a rail journey from his home near Glasgow  to Grimsby to become a full-time professional footballer, he had  an encounter with a fellow rail-passenger.

With  the train rattling along on its way from Doncaster through flat, featureless countryside, he got into conversation with the man who shook his head at the 22-year and gave him a look of deepest pity.

"You're going to the back of beyond,"he warned. "It will be like falling off the edge of the world."

Matt  was on his way to Blundell Park to meet up with  Mariners manager Tom Johnston who had been impressed by his achievements as  part-time professional with the Scottish First Division side Airdrie.

But those casually-uttered remarks in the rail carriage sowed the seeds of doubt. "I wondered what I was letting myself in for," Matt recalled later."I began to have doubts about the whole idea."

As it happened that fateful trip not only changed his life for ever, but it also opened an extraordinary couple of chapters in the story of Grimsby Town FC.

Whatever their age, every Grimsby Town fan is aware of Matt's momentous goal-scoring feats in two spells with the Mariners - 1963-67 and 1970-73 - and those lucky enough to have seen him play will have their own special individual memories.

Now in his 70s, his first match was a pre-season friendly against Leicester City - he scored after just 20 seconds.

Some years later, there was an epic away quarter-final League Cup replay in 1966 against a West Ham side containing Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters when Town went down to a single late goal.

                                      Linesman overruled

"We were robbed," says Matt. "It came from a move when their winger was offside. The linesman flagged, but he was overruled by the referee.

"But that's football. It was great match and, though we lost, I think we were the better team on the day."

Matt had other disappointments, not least as a teenager when he was a high-scoring wing-forward for non-league Cambuslang Rangers in the season in which they reached no fewer than three finals - including the Scottish Junior Cup played at Glasgow's Hampden Park.

"We lost all three,"he says." It was heartbreaking."

But far from harbouring any regrets, Matt  looks back with nothing but joy, recognising that downs as well as ups are all part of the tapestry of a career playing football - one to which many aspire but few attain.

He picked up a few bookings along the way but was only once sent off - in a match for the Mariners against Bury when he gave as good as he got after being elbowed in the face.

He and the opponent were both sent off - but even that incident had a silver lining.

Nursing a bruised jaw and concerned that he might have let the side down, he was cheered up afterwards by his teammates who teased him the  incident had probably cost Bury their best player on the pitch!

Rewinding to Matt's childhood in Johnstone, west of Glasgow, his dad worked for an engineering firm and he has two older brothers, Alec and Hugh, were also useful footballers.

But Matt never played for his school team - because it did not have one!

Laying down jackets as goalposts, he and his relatives and schoolmates used to play on a bare patch of ground - with the start of play invariably delayed by the need to pump up the bladder and tighten the laces of the battered leather ball.

When a cousin went on to formed a side to play in the local league, Matt was not even selected! He was deemed to small and frail. 

                                       Lunch break highlights

He left school at 15 and went to work in a carpet factory - the highlights being the lunch breaks when the 50-strong workforce swallowed down a quick bite to eat, then got on with a kickabout.

"It was great," he says. " It was 25-a-side, but it was lot of fun. We were all colleagues and pals."

Matt did eventually find his way into organised football with a club called Penilee Athletic who put him on the left wing "out of danger of the midfield rough and tumble" as he puts it.

.  

But he performed well enough to be spotted by Cambuslang - a move which proved the  springboard first for his transfer to Airdrie, where he spent three years, then to the Mariners in time for the start of the 1963-64 season.

Despite scoring both in the Leicester friendly and in his first match in the Football League - a 1-1 draw at Swansea - his early times in Cleethorpes and Grimsby were not the most enjoyable.

Not only was he unable to hold down a regular first-team place, but he was lodging in Queen Mary Avenue with a couple and their daughter but no one of the same age.

"I was homesick to begin with,"he says. "I am sure it must have crossed my mind to pack my bags and go back home.

But I had been given the opportunity to play full-time professional - I didn't want to let it slip." 

Life perked up when he moved  to new lodgings in Neville Street where not only was he sharing with another Town player, fellow-Scot George McLean, but he also had a perfect landlady.

"Inga McDonald was lovely,"he says. "She was a Germany lady who had moved here after marrying a local man. She was like a second mum."

After scoring only five  goals in his first season, Matt was so concerned that Town might decide to offload him that he wrote to a friend, Douglas Wright, formerly of Partick Thistle but  now playing in Sydney, who agreed to help him find a club in the Australian League.

                                        Contract renewed

However, much to his relief and delight, Jimmy McGuigan, who by now had taken over as Mariners manager, had confidence in Matt, and his  contract was  renewed - he would be staying Town.

McGuigan's faith was not full restored until Matt's third season when, alongside strongly-built Rod Green - a signing from Gillingham -  Matt more than fulfilled his potential, scoring no fewer than 37 league and cup goals.

The duo were so lethal that interest was generated from other clubs, including South London club Charlton Athletic whose manager Bob Stokoe -  to the grief of Town fans - snapped the pair up for a total outlay of £23,000.

The transfer came as a bolt for the blue, not just for Town fans but also for the lady in Matt's life, fellow-Scot May Wright - an accountant at a solicitor's office and wife of former Town goalkeeper Charlie Wright who had been transferred to Charlton the previous season.

When the bid came, the couple were busy preparing not just for  their marriage  but also  to make an offer on a house in Fillingham Crescent.

The wedding went ahead -  in Scotland in June, 1967 -  but the proposed house purchase had to  go out of the window.

"The chance of a move to the South London club was too good to refuse,"says May. "It was a chance for Matt to further his playing career. He had to take it."

The move to a Charlton club house near  Blackheath proved popular not just with the couple, who settled well, but also  with family and friends who were eager to come to "Tees Hotel" to see the sights of the capital and to catch a West End show.

May found a job in the CIty, but when the opportunity arose, she and Matt also enjoyed the nightlife - for instance shows at the Palladium, seeing Sammy Davis Jnr and  chart-topping crooner  Englebert Humperdinck in pantomime.

But with Charlton strapped for cash and at risk of folding, the couple were soon on their travels again - this time when Matt was signed for Luton Town by Alec Stock, a gifted old-school manager who also enjoyed success with a number of other clubs, including QPR and Fulham.

Despite their happy times down south, both Matt and May both missed the Cleethorpes area. They had made many friends here - both inside and outside football.

It was thus almost a dream come true when Town's player-manager Bobby Kennedy brought Matt back to Blundell Park in 1970.

"I couldn't wait to get back into the black-and-white strip,"says  Matt." I had always loved playing for Town. It was a great atmosphere - the fans were always fantastic." 

                                       Fantastic fans

It proved to be a glorious return - one that prevailed into the following season when, now with Lawrie McMenemy as manager, Matt scored 27 goals as the Mariners powered to the Division Four title.

But the world of football is often harsh. Though full of admiration for Matt's achievements, McMenemy reckoned that he had reached and passed his peak and decided to release him before age and injuries took their toll.

"I was disappointed,"says Matt. "But I understood the decision. The manager has to put the interests of the club first." 

Matt then joined Boston United where he enjoyed another illustrious season, helping the Pilgrims to win the North Premier League title and playing in a memorable 3rd Round FA Cup match against Derby County, at that time one of the top sides in the land.

Matt recalls having a drink after the match - a 0-0 draw - with Dave Mackay, another football legend, then County's manager.

After hanging up his boots, Matt worked for shipping company DFDS before retirement.

When they moved back to the area, he and May raised their two boys Neil and Andrew.at a house in Chichester Road but they now live in a bungalow in a leafy crescent off Taylors Avenue in the resort.

They are very family-orientated, regularly seeing their folks back home in Scotland, their own two boys plus the wives, Lisa and Karen, and grandchildren, Alex, Lucy, Joe and Matthew.

 They also keep in regular contact with May's brother, Charlie Wight, a former goalkeeper at Grimsby and Charlton, who later had spells in football management with Bolton Wanderers and York City after his playing days were over.

In retirement, the Tees couple have enjoyed some superb holidays, including a six-week tour of Australia.

Most importantly, they have enjoyed being in Cleethorpes.

"Not at all is it the back of beyond,"insists Matt. "It's a lovely area and the people are great."

The article above is an updated version of one  that appeared in the Cleethorpes Chronicle newspaper in August 2008.

Copies of  Matt Tees on Football  (which contains many fascinating insights and superb action photographs) are available from  the Grimsby Town club shop and also (brand new) on ebay buy-it now.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Matt-Tees-striker-who-played-at-Airdrie-Grimsby-Charlton-Luton-and-Boston-/151499527424?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item2346135500 
 

Matt signs a copy of his book for a fan at Cleethorpes Library

A MAGNIFICENT GOALKEEPER: CHARLIE WRIGHT

IT’S many happy returns of December 11 for former goalkeeper and manager Charlie Wright who will be 76 on that date.

Although he was never really given a chance at his first club, Glasgow Rangers, Wright excelled while was a player with Workington, Grimsby, Charlton and Bolton.

Although born and brought up in  Paisley, near Glasgow, he also made an appearance for Hong Kong.

After hanging up his gloves and boots, he managed York City, then Bolton Wanderers.

The article below first appeared in the Cleethorpes Chronicle in November, 2008.

CHARLIE Wright, a goalkeeping hero for the Mariners in the early ' sixties, can still vividly remember his first match as Grimsby Town goalkeeper.

It was an away match on February 16, 1963, at runaway Second Division leaders Middlesbrough

It was one of the iciest winters on record, and the Town team stayed overnight at a hotel off the A1 road  at Scotch Corner.

Although the morning was bitterly cold, the pitch was just capable of taking a stud so the ref decided the match could go ahead.

Then, ten minutes before kick-off, the temperature plummeted to below freezing. The ground became so hard you could hear the clattering of the players' studs on the glazed and rock-hard surface.

Because the crowd had already flocked into the ground, the match went ahead, but, according to Charlie, it was "a farce, with players of both sides sliding all over the place."

The play was almost entirely one-way, with the Mariners' goal under almost non-stop bombardment. But the debutant played out of his skin and kept a clean sheet.

By scoring with a rare attack on the break, relegation-threatened Town registered a 1-0 win - the surprise result of the day and the start of a winning sequence which saw them surge up the table.

 Over this and almost 150 more matches for the Mariners, Charlie's agility, reliability and enthusiasm earned him a well-deserved place in Blundell Park folklore.  

He protected his goal with an almost ferocious determination which gave confidence to the rest of the defence and inspired the whole team.

Charlie, who lived in Brereton Avenue, Cleethorpes, with wife Helen, was not always a goalkeeper - as a schoolboy growing up in Paisley he played in every position, most often as a left winger.

"I had a good left peg and was a fair crosser of the ball."he recalls.

However, playing first for Boys Brigade sides, then for the YMCA, it emerged that he had a special talent between the sticks - he was strong, courageous, had quick reflexes and could catch or deflect the ball from whatever angle, height or speed it came at his goal.

Oddly, despite going on to play for a couple of trophy-winning club sides - New Hill Amateurs and Glentyan Thistle - Charlie's enthusiasm for football was probably outmatched  in his early teenage years by an even greater  passion for competitive road cycling.

After school, he took a job as an apprentice motor mechanic, but evenings and weekends saw him out on his bike, thinking nothing of riding 100 miles - sometimes further - on a single day.

He even toyed with the idea of moving to the Continent where some of his pals were already seeking a living - albeit not a great one - in the saddle.

But the brakes were slammed on any aspirations to a career on the roads of France  when, out of the blue, the 16-year-old was asked to play in goal for Scottish Second Division side  Greenock Morton in a fixture  with promotion-chasing Queen's Park at Hampden Park, the home of Scottish football.

"I couldn't believe it when my Dad told me of their approach,"recalls Charlie. "I thought it must be a mistake. It was the most exciting moment of my life."

"I never slept a wink the night before the match. Then nerves set in - I must have spent most of the next morning on the toilet."

In the match itself, Charlie did himself proud, making numerous breathtaking blocks and almost saving a penalty - he dived and pushed the ball against a post but it rebounded off his shoulder into the net.

Just on the strength of that performance - and the subsequent Press reports - several big clubs from both signs of the border came calling, but his signature was secured by Glasgow Rangers who saw his potential and reckoned they could groom the youngster for first-team stardom.

Alas, Charlie's spell at Ibrox lasted just two years, ending when, despite having been told he was making progress, he was released.

"I was devastated by the news,"he says. "It was a hell of a shock. It almost blew my brains out."

Little did he know it at the time, but the close of the short chapter in his Scottish career was the prelude to many more both in England and overseas.

An enjoyable spell at Workington, managed by former Newcastle wing-half Joe Harvey (whom he credits with greatly improving his goalkeeping skills), was punctuated by National Service with the Border Regiment which took him first to Berlin, then to Hong Kong.

Away from infantry duties and bren gun training, he played in Army sides and was even selected to play for the Hong Kong national side for whom he made a scintillating penalty save in a match against Peru.

The save became such a big talking point with the Chinese fans that it even earned Charlie the accolade of Player of the Year.

He returned to Workington but joined the Mariners after failing to hit it off with manager Ken Furphy who succeeded Harvey at the helm of the Cumbrian club

There was friction between the two men - possibly dating back to the times they had clashed in goalmouth action at a time when Furphy had been an uncompromising centre forward for Darlington.

Perhaps the new boss was also irritated by the Workington fans' practice of singing "Charlie is My Darling" every time he kept a clean sheet.

Despite the big winter freeze that welcomed him in Grimsby and Cleethorpes, Charlie - and wife Helen whom he had married when he was 20 - loved the three years spent on this part of the East Coast.

"The people are lovely,"he says. "They are the salt of the earth - or should I say the salt of the sea?

They would gladly give you their last cup of tea."

Charlie was later transferred to Charlton Athletic, then managed by Bob Stokoe, for whom he played for five years before ending his playing days at Bolton Wanderers.

Goalkeepers are probably more vulnerable to serious injury than any other players on the park. Over his career, Charlie bounced back from cracked ribs, numerous breaks to his nose, concussion and a fractured jaw.

In fact, it was while recovering  in a Midlands hospital  after being knocked unconscious in a match at Walsall that he first learned from a nurse that "a London club" - Charlton - had made an approach to sign him.

But on the injury front, it was the battering taken by his spine that finally took their toll.

On medical advice, he was given no choice but to hang up his gloves. "My back was knackered, "he said."The doctor told me that, if I had been a horse, they would have shot

me!

"I was 37 at the time. It was a big disappointment. I was as enthusiastic as ever - and, with my experience, I could read the game two moves ahead.

"I would have liked to have played on till I was at least 40."

Charlie was not lost to football, however, because he went on to take up a coaching role, followed by management posts with York City, Bolton and, for a single season, a club in northern Norway.

Thereafter, he returned to Greenwich in South-east London, near Charlton's ground, where he ran a successful cafe - Charlie's Place - for the best part of 15 years.

"It was hard work but rewarding," he says. "From one day to the next, you never knew who might walk in through the door. Our customers ranged from tramps and drug addicts to business people and film stars."

Now enjoying retirement, Charlie and Helen live in Deal on the Kent Coast

 They have a son, Steven, who is a TV executive, two daughters, Sandra and Gail, plus five grandchildren.

Despite his back giving him gip, Charlie stays active and likes to get out on the golf course as often as he can. "I like to be in the fresh air," he says.

And there is still a much-cherished Cleethorpes connection - Charlie's sister, May, is married to Matt Tees, another Mariners and Charlton  star of yesteryear.

From time to time, Charlie and Helen return to the Lincolnshire resort - and it is always time well spent.

"It's great to come back,"ends Charlie. "We drive around and see the old haunts. It reminds us of many very happy times.

“We certainly enjoyed being in Cleethorpes."

To read Charlton fans' memories of "Sir Charlie" (and see  TV footage of him playing alongside fellow-Scot Matt Tees), see:
 http://www.charltonlife.com/discussion/65197/a-great-goalkeeper-of-yesteryear-charlie-wright

After his career in football ended, Charlie successfully ran a cafe for many years

PLANTING GOES AHEAD - DESPITE SNUB

 THE launch of a new wood on the outskirts of Grimsby was snubbed by local councillors.

Neither Coun Ray Sutton nor Coun Cliff Barber attended yesterday’s planting event  at a former 1950s landfill site almost  opposite St Michael’s Church in Great Coates.

It is understood the duo were miffed not to have been included in the decision-making loop.

They also favoured a municipal-style children’s play area with conventional slides and swings. However, this was deemed inappropriate in a semi-rural location

Once the trees have become established, there will be a play area. but it will be in keeping with the surrounding environment.

The project is  the brainchild of the John Harrison Foundation and the Woodland Trust, with assistance from other organisations such as the Rotary club and North East Lincolnshire Council.

In all, some 3,000 trees have been planted.

Funding arrangements on the planting costs are still being finalised

As often at Grimsby-area community events, cadets were very much to the fore.

I think that's just about straight - may it have a long and happy life!

It's all  hands to the turf 

The hope is that some, if not all, of the saplings will eventually reach the same height as the long-established tree in the background

NEW WOODLAND FOR GRIMSBY

A NEW community woodland is to be planted on the edge of Grimsby.

To be located on the banks of the River Freshney in Great Coates, it  is the brainchild of  the John Harrison Foundation with support from  the Woodland Trust and North East Lincolnshire Council.

The  Longitude Wood will help commemorate 300 years since John Harrison - a Grimsby-area man - made discoveries about longitude and latitude that proved  crucial in the development of maritime trade and exploration.

It is understood the project is proceeding despite objections from some residents - including two ward councillors, Cliff Barber and Ray Sutton, who are thought to have favoured a skate park. 

The duo may boycott the official lauch, and the latter is understood  to have called for an internal inquiry into how and why the go-ahead was given.

However, Christina McGilligan-Fell, director of JHF and also a councillor has sounded an enthusiastic note. “This planting event is a wonderful opportunity to get children involved in the project from the very beginning, and we hope local schools will benefit from learning through their local landscape,” she says.

Her comment is endorsed by John Tucker, of the Woodland Trust, who stresses the importance of involving children because it encourages an appreciation of environmental values as they grow up."

NELC  has designated an area of land for the planting, provided funding, and has agreed to maintain the woods. 

Support has also been forthcoming from Associated British Ports (who have also contributed to funding), local Rotarians and Grimsby in Bloom.

Future plans include picnic benches, sculptures and possibly a children’s play area.

In due course, Whitgift School pupils will plant bluebells, cowslips and other wildflowers.

It is hoped that there will be a big turnout of volunteers to help with the planting from 10am on Saturday November 29.