The colourful characters between the Town sticks
IN THE first of a special twopart series for the Courier, Halifax Town historian Johnny Meynell takes a look at the colourful characters who have played between the sticks for the Shaymen.
It was respected journalist and broadcaster Brian Glanville whose novel ‘Goalkeepers Are Different’ suggested that such football species were, indeed, a breed apart.
Over the years, Halifax Town have had their fair share of custodians who would make sporting news.
The first in a long line of great goalkeepers to have played for Halifax Town was Charlie Sutcliffe, who arrived from Heckmondwike in December 1911 when the club was playing its first season in the Yorkshire Combination.
Sutcliffe helped the side reach the final of the West Riding Junior Cup, but they were beaten 2-0 by Mirfield United on 13 April 1912, hours after he’d just got married.
So the story goes, that two days later Sutcliffe had been booked to sail the ill-fated Titanic on her maiden voyage, but he developed a cold and never boarded. In later years he became so nervous of the thought of what might have happened, he smoked a pipe prior to kickoff to calm himself down.
Succeeding him between the sticks at Halifax Town was the great Bob Suter.
Already aged thirty-three by the time he joined the club, then playing home games at Sandhall Lane, he made his debut against Chesterfield Town in September 1913 and was ever-present that term, enhancing his already glowing reputation with some superlative performances.
Suter became everything and more to the club over the years, helping them settle in at Exley after the First World War, then mucking in to transform a Corporation tip at The Shay into a football ground in readiness for League football in 1921.
Suter was the club’s first choice keeper immediately after the war, and agile enough to make two appearances in the Division Three (North) in February 1921.
By then, he’d turned 40, but who would have thought that he would be being called upon for first team duty by the time he was into his 49th year?
With both Howard Matthews and Cliff Binns unavailable, Suter took his place between the sticks for the visit of South Shields on 20 April 1929, though he couldn’t prevent the Shaymen slipping to a 2-0 defeat.
But it wasn’t just a one-off. That was the first of three first team appearances Suter made within the space of five days, and when he turned out in the last of these in a West Riding Senior Cup tie against Huddersfield, he was aged 48 years and 288 days.
During his lengthy association with Halifax Town, Suter oversaw many keepers, offering coaching and advice. During the 1920-21 season he gave way to Harry Jeffrey, a keeper signed from Leeds United and one evidently made of stern stuff.
In the Midland League game at Castleford Town on 18 December 1920, he was badly injured when diving at the feet of an opponent and laid out.
So bad was he concussed, it seemed, that he was taken away in an ambulance for treatment, with team mate Tom Birtwhistle donning his keeper’s jersey.
But Jeffrey wasn’t finished.
After half-time, he returned and finished the rest of the game, though Town, already behind, conceded one more goal to lose 4-2.
Tall and lean, Walter ‘Watty’ Shirlaw cut an instantly recognisable figure in Halifax Town’s goal after signing from Bradford City in June 1932.
In his second season he would miss just one game, but his non-appearance for Town at
Stockport County on 6 January 1934 thrust young Stanley Milton into the spotlight.
It was his league debut and inexplicably Town wrote themselves into the record books, losing 13-0, a Football League record score, one that has since been equalled but never surpassed.
ONLINE: www.halifaxcourier. co.uk