Blackpool’s farewell to favourite son Armfield
Armfield told his son he had one regret: ‘I wish I could play football one more time’
There was never any sense of entitlement with Jimmy Armfield, so it would have amused him to know that traffic lights halted the funeral cortege as it drew him away from his beloved Bloomfield road for the last time yesterday.
It meant those few hundred gathered to see him off could extend their muffled applause a little longer, on one of those days here that he was so very well acquainted with: unremitting rain and a mist which enveloped the Blackpool Tower.
When the procession had finally moved away for a funeral service at St Peter’s Church on the Lytham road, where Armfield had played the pipe organ for nigh on 70 years, the supporters gathered inside the draughty stadium to hear the service and pay some last respects.
Many of them had encountered the man, so it was no surprise that humility became the funeral’s recurring theme. Armfield’s son Duncan related how he could not understand why there was so much background traffic noise when his father called him, in a state of excitement, with news that he had been awarded the CBe for services to Lancashire, in 2009. Armfield was at a bus stop on Blackpool’s highfield road, it transpired, waiting to catch a service to St Peter’s, for practice.
This was a man who would deliver groceries for his father, who ran a corner shop, on the way to Bloomfield road. For good reason, Open
All Hours was a show he loved. his sons, Duncan and John, evidently had some burdens to bear at times — including following the donkeys on Blackpool’s South Shore beach to shovel up the manure that their father would then spread on his modest garden. ‘ There’s nothing like the fresh stuff. There’s no straw in it,’ he’d tell the boys. They could certainly vouch for that, Duncan told the congregation.
But this was small price to pay for the gifts of wisdom, kindness and fundamental humanity which Armfield imparted as a player, manager, broadcaster and father before his death at 82 last month.
Armfield’s son also related how, during difficult times, his father had written to him with advice. ‘he told me, “Don’t give up. Sometimes it’s just time for a change”. And he was right. That was his philosophy, persevere.’
It has been a necessary watchword in this part of the world which, amid some desperate economic struggles in recent years, has needed individuals like Armfield to speak up for it. he never contemplated leaving the place, either as a player or as a journalist and broadcaster. ‘he always said the reason for travelling was to come back home to Blackpool,’ said Duncan.
One of Armfield’s granddaughters remembered the deadpan wit of the man who, after she’d arrived at his house one day with painted nails and straightened hair for the first time, declared: ‘Well, that’s you out of the will.’
eddie Gray, one of the Leeds United side Armfield took over in the rarefied elland road days after Brian Clough’s reign had lasted only 44 days, recalled how he ‘pulled everything around with his usual calm manner. I’ll never forget that.’
Sir Bobby Charlton, his brother Jack Charlton, Sir Trevor Brooking, Norman hunter and Pat Crerand were also present. PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor struggled with emotions in his own deeply personal speech.
When he knew his life was approaching its end, Armfield joked with one of his sons that he wished he’d bought a new Mercedes or Jaguar. But there was only one real regret, of course. ‘ he told me, “I wish I could play football just one more time”,’ related Duncan. ‘And he meant that. We both shed a tear.’