Why Banks will never walk alone
THE weekly walk around the Trentham Gardens lake with some of Stoke’s finest oldies won’t be the same now that Gordon Banks has departed.
But, says Denis Smith, an impending knighthood wouldn’t have let England’s most famous goalkeeper off from paying for his coffee – the traditional climax to the Tuesday get-together.
For the last decade, hardas-nails former Potteries defender Smith – together with the likes of Banks, Terry Conroy, Mike Pejic, Harry Burrows, Eric Skeels and Jimmy Greenhoff – have met at the picturesque Trentham Gardens on the southern fringe of Stoke.
And when it came to navigating the path around the lake, even in his eighties, Banks would set the pace.
“Gordon was a regular on Tuesdays and really enjoyed it,” said Smith, above with Banks.
“He’s done me out now of my mission of trying to catch up with him going around the lake.
“He did a lot of walking and at a lively pace. I had no chance of overtaking him, even when he was on his chemotherapy sessions.
“Even during his illness, he would just try and carry on as normal.
“A couple of weeks ago, because we knew he wasn’t very well, we finished the walk and a group of us carried on to visit him at his home.”
Ironically, it was last Tuesday that England’s greatest ever goalkeeper finally succumbed to his kidney cancer. Two days earlier, Smith and his wife Kate had been at the England World Cup winner’s bedside.
He said: “I was talking to him and he would react by gripping my hand. It was a very difficult day. In some ways I’m glad it has been pretty quick because you didn’t want him to suffer any longer.
“He was still coming to the Tuesday walks until just before Christmas.”
Smith confirmed that things were in place for Banks to be knighted later in the year.
“We were hoping he was going to receive a longdeserved knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list but it didn’t happen,” he added. “There were still ongoing things to resolve so we then hoped it would arrive in the summer.
“It’s a shame because Gordon was a world icon in the game. His popularity wasn’t just confined to this country. He was a great ambassador for football around the world.
“Gordon would have accepted the knighthood, even though he was so modest. He would have been unbelievably proud.
“But being Sir Gordon wouldn’t have stopped him having to pay his share of the coffee round!
“Playing-wise the highlight of our time together was the League Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley in March 1972.”
How fitting then that Gordon Banks’ funeral will be held 47 years on to the day on Monday, March 4 at Stoke Minster.