baggy
TFF member
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Post by baggy on Dec 31, 2014 1:56:17 GMT
Hi
Our family are looking for any info, photos that anyone can provide us with or direct us to of the above who we believe played for Torquay United from 1949 - 1951. It's understood he may have signed from Bristol Rovers before then moving on to play for Bath City.
Thanks and appreciated
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Post by gullone on Dec 31, 2014 13:06:54 GMT
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Post by gullone on Dec 31, 2014 13:08:13 GMT
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Post by gullone on Dec 31, 2014 13:10:45 GMT
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Post by gullone on Dec 31, 2014 13:19:50 GMT
Hi Our family are looking for any info, photos that anyone can provide us with or direct us to of the above who we believe played for Torquay United from 1949 - 1951. It's understood he may have signed from Bristol Rovers before then moving on to play for Bath City. Thanks and appreciated By pure coincidence i was about to put this Bristol Rovers v Torquay programme from Sept 14th 1946 on... and it features a nice picture of your relative. Im sure somebody else may well be able to help with full career details.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2014 15:16:19 GMT
I'm away so can't clarify Wilf's career record until Friday. Maybe somebody else will come up with the goods in the meantime.
Looks a belting old Rovers programme. Can't make out all the details on my phone screen. Look forward to seeing it in clearer detail later in the week.
A country retreat for the New Year. Very fortuitous that a booking made a year ago has meant we've ended up in Gloucestershire.
And I thought we'd be playing at Forest Green.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Dec 31, 2014 15:52:49 GMT
Wilf was born in Chesterfield on 17 November 1916. He joined Bristol Rovers from Worksop Town in July 1938 and made 26 Football League appearances for them scoring one goal. He may have played many more games were it not for the War. He joined Torquay United in August 1949. Coincidentally, we already had a player called Bob Whitfield - I assume he was no relation. Funnily enough, Wilf's first team debut was Bob's last ever first team game - away to Northampton on 24 September 1949. Wilf went on to play 31 league games and two FA Cup games in 1949/50 and 16 league games and one FA Cup game in 1950/51 - all at left half. His only first team goal for TUFC came in a 3-2 win over Port Vale on 20 January 1951. The following match - away to Wilf's former team Bristol Rovers on 31 January 1951 turned out to be his last first team appearance for Torquay. I believe he joined Bath City at the end of the season - again following in the footsteps of Bob Whitfield who went there a year earlier. Thanks to gullone for the old Rovers programme. There are lots more old programmes on here and it may be worth looking at any between August 1949 and May 1951 to see if Wilf gets any more mentions: link to 50s programmeslink to 40s programmes |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Dec 31, 2014 16:36:59 GMT
Bath City players link100 games and two goals for Bath City. Wilf
Whitfield
100
2
30-year old left-half Wilf was signed from Torquay United in July 1951. Chesterfield born 'Baggy' had played for Bristol Rovers either side of World War II having begun his career with Worksop Town.Site also confirms that Bob Whitfield also played there.
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baggy
TFF member
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Post by baggy on Dec 31, 2014 18:04:33 GMT
Hi
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply and we really appreciate all the material, info and links you have already provided. Wilf "baggy" Whitfield was our grandfather and whilst we always knew he had been a professional footballer the facts surrounding his career and the clubs he played for are less clear. Wilf died in Hamilton, Scotland in 1995 and as one may expect the passage of time and failing memories of those closest to him during his playing days namely his wife (our grandmother now in her 90's) and his daughter (our mother who was very young during this period) has led to uncertainties of dates, clubs etc.
We are scouring the internet for all possible material we can find and again if you come across or can direct me to any links or contacts for Torquay United that may provide any insight into his spell with your club alongside any photos of him including team photos or of him actually playing then we would love to hear from you.
Once again we are grateful to you for your assistance and support. A true football family.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2015 12:16:50 GMT
Worth turning back a few days to the fine old 1946 Bristol Rovers programme – featuring Wilf “Baggy Whitfield” – kindly posted by Gullone.
There’s more than a sniff of greyhounds about it. We’re told Eastville was the “Home of Classic Greyhound Racing” in those days immediately after the war. The hand-drawn cover gives us a marvellous impression of the “eyrie” that was apparently incorporated in the South Stand. Was that for the judging of races or a more general viewing place for the press? In which case you imagine the Herald Express’s man (not Dave Thomas just yet) would have made the precarious ascent that day to report on our 3-0 defeat. And by now, in a move which was to prove central to Rovers’ later history, Eastville was owned by greyhound company as opposed to football club.
We learn other entertainment was available in Eastville thanks to His Majesty’s Cinema. Margaret Lockwood and James Mason starring in “The Wicked Lady”. That should beat the latter-day attractions of IKEA in most people’s estimation.
Before the flicks possibly a bus – or a quick spin – over to Durdham Downs where it is “the duty of every football fan to take out his wife or sweetheart to the Windsor Cafe”. Somehow I can’t imagine the line about the permissibility of spanking a child – for the “right end in view” – appearing in too many advertisements these days.
You could also nip down to Wyld’s Wines, a clearly long-established Bristol business. A reflection, perhaps, on Bristol’s historical association with the wine trade. Was British wine-drinking just about sherry and port back in the 1940s? My word, I think I first encountered the idea of both drinks through my dreary grandma’s Christmas drinking preferences. "Port" and "sherry" have sounded dark, gloomy words to me ever since.
Ah, yes. Who left the false teeth at the previous match? A lower set. But not complete.
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jan 8, 2015 0:05:27 GMT
You could also nip down to Wyld’s Wines, a clearly long-established Bristol business. A reflection, perhaps, on Bristol’s historical association with the wine trade. Was British wine-drinking just about sherry and port back in the 1940s? Even twenty years on, drinking wine would have been seen as strange foreign behaviour, but westcountry poet and visionary Adge Cutler could foresee that closer integration with Europe would lead to a change in drinking habits: Some folk seem to think that they're gonna change the drink,
Well there's rumours flyin' and they may be right,
They say they've seen a tank of Portuguese vin blanc,
Jammed in Pensford High Street t'other night.
Oh they say that port and brandy will sell for a bob a quart,
And the Druids Arms won't shut till ver' nigh two,
And we'll all drink caviar from a girt big gallon jar,
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew!Adge, despite his yokel onstage persona, was quite cosmopolitan having lived and worked in Spain and was not averse to swapping scrumpy for wine. As he said in "Barcelona Blues" : Vino tinto, vino blanco, makes me feel like General FrancoNeither of these classics were performed when the Wurzels (sadly without the late great Adge) visited Plainmoor, but we were treated to a rendition of the Shepton Mallet Matador which also mentions the drinking culture clash between Spain and Somerset: Now the boys in the village all think it's very queer,
The way that Jacko drinks wine instead of beer;
And they say he swapped his favourite cider jar
For a bottle of sherry and a thirty-bob guitar! |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2015 21:56:43 GMT
Some folk seem to think that they're gonna change the drink,
Well there's rumours flyin' and they may be right,
They say they've seen a tank of Portuguese vin blanc,
Jammed in Pensford High Street t'other night.
Oh they say that port and brandy will sell for a bob a quart,
And the Druids Arms won't shut till ver' nigh two,
And we'll all drink caviar from a girt big gallon jar,
When the Common Market comes to Stanton Drew! I'd not previously thought of Adge as a social and cultural commentator. We underestimate his art at our peril. Adge is reputed to have been a "s***head". Sorry, I mean Bristol City supporter (you can tell I've known too many Rovers fans over the years). He would have been a month or two short of his sixteenth birthday when we played the Rovers back in 1946. I like to believe he had a quiet mutter to himself when he caught the result in the Green 'Un. He'd have been rooting for us that day. Or might Adge not have been interested in football at all? This article appears to reach that conclusion: www.wurzelmania.co.uk/articles-bristolcity.phpWhat of Adge's politics? Initially the lyrics quoted by Jon suggest Euroscepticism. Changing the drink? It's a bit like one of those straight banana stories you read in the Daily Mail. But, on closer reading, I believe Adge was an enthusiastic European. And not just when it came to alcohol. However, what of this sentiment unearthed by Jon? "Vino tinto, vino blanco, makes me feel like General Franco."On first reading it's not good. You immediately have a mental picture of Adge strutting about, glass of vino in hand, like some Caudillo of Congresbury. That, I'm convinced, would be a false image. Adge, as an internationalist, would surely have fought on the right side in the Spanish Civil War. Even if he knew bugger all about Bristol football. |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Jan 8, 2015 22:51:44 GMT
Adge, as an internationalist, would surely have fought on the right side in the Spanish Civil War. His time in Spain was spent near Guernica - not many Franco sympathisers in that area!!! |
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