Tuesday, 22 December 2020

Tribute to Derek Ufton

Unfortunately I missed the 7-6 win over Huddersfield because we were Christmas shopping in Woolwich. However, this is surely an appropriate time for a tribute to Derek Ufton, one of the Charlton team I admired in the 1950s: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9076781/Englands-one-cap-wonder-Derek-Ufton-oldest-surviving-star-Three-Lions-aged-92.html

Derek often suffered a dislocated shoulder, but he is still going strong at 92, even after some ups and downs in his life.

He came from an era when in the summer quite a few players also played cricket (or baseball) while others earned a crust doing maintenance work on the ground.   Wages were reduced in the summer and in any case were no more than a skilled worker would earn which is how owners saw them.

Derek played 277 games for Charlton, scoring 14 goals.

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