City were twelfth and Bournemouth third when we met them at home in October and they looked a very good side when having the better of an entertaining 1-1 draw between two good looking sides on the night. Watching Bournemouth that night, I thought we’d be doing excellently if there was only one league place between the two of us when we met again – especially when we’ve had a run of six straight defeats in between times! Here’s seven questions going back to the sixties about Bournemouth, I’ll post the answers on here on Thursday.
60s. Born in Stoke, this defender/midfielder started off as a youth with a team called Northwood Mission, before signing for a side close to his birthplace who he played for around one hundred and fifty times during a six year stay. He played more than twice as many games for for his next club though. This team, that had a ground on a road to a place twenty miles away, were fixtures in the Second Division while he was there, apart from one season in the top flight which ended in relegation. He moved on to Bournemouth, where he stayed for two years, in time for their one and only encounter with us during this decade, but didn’t play in it. On the international front, he won the first two of his four England caps in a World Cup Finals tournament and the last of them came in a defeat by Wales, but who is he?
70s. Born in Liverpool with a father who won a First Division winners’ medal, I’m not sure if this defender grew up in the damp and shady conditions said to favour him nominally, but, he had a decent career in the game even if he never hit the heights his namesake reached. Bournemouth were his first team and after around a hundred games for them, he moved to a dip in the capital, but he never quite forced his way into the side on a regular basis at this higher level and left after two years in which he had played about half the number of matches he could have done – there was also a loan move west on the same side of the river during this time. Next he moved north to a seaside team experiencing the worst spell in their history at that time and in the second of his two seasons with them he played a minor part in securing a promotion. His final league club was a team that played at a place where I suppose it could be said that you were born again, but he left them after a season and dropped into non league football with famous giant killers who played in an appropriate colour given his surname. That appeared to be the end of his playing career, but in the mid nineties he resurfaced to play a season for a Wiltshire team that shares its name with an area of Cardiff. He also worked as a policeman in the county where he finished his Football League days and also for the force which services Bournemouth, do you know who he is?
80s. With a surname which, aurally at least suggested a south Wales background, this full back in fact was from South London and it was a team of old stagers from that city that he joined first. He never got to play a game for them, but he established himself when he moved on to Bournemouth and was a regular selection during his five years there – during this time, he was unbeaten in his four encounters with us, winning twice and drawing twice. A move to to play in a city famous for “jute, jam and journalism” (plus cake!) was not a success, but at least he could claim to have been involved in an early stage of a sensational journey which ended in a narrow defeat by a bunch of Swedes. His next club were definitely on an upward trajectory during his five years with them, but Play Off heartbreak was a consistent feature of our man’s career and he left this Lancastrian team just as their big plans began to come to fruition. A season in white and black for a team playing for one of five towns saw more Play Off failure and his final year as a player ended in the same way while representing recent opponents of ours, who is he?
90s. Mire stank as it engulfed City during this decade (4,5).
00s. What is the connection between a character in Are you Being Served and a Bournemouth footballer who experienced mixed fortunes in his encounters with City during this decade, but enjoyed a memorable night against another Welsh team?
10s. Useful oration by a Minister by the sound of it?
20s. Which Bournemouth player’s first name is Felix?
Answers.
60s. Bill McGarry signed for Port Vale in 1945 and moved on to Huddersfield six years later. It was while he was with the Leeds Road club that he played for England in the 1954 World Cup and his brief international career came to an end after a 2-1 loss to Wales. McGarry accepted an offer to become Bournemouth’s player manager in 1961, but did not play in his team’s 3-0 home win over us in a Third Round League Cup tie in November of that year.
70s. Phil Ferns was a full back who played enough times for Liverpool in 1963/64 to win a League Champions medal. His son, also called Phil, made his debut for Bournemouth in 1978 before signing for Charlton in 1981. Ferns had a loan spell at Wimbledon before he left the Valley to sign for Blackpool and he finished his full time career at the Recreation Ground, Aldershot. Following that, there was some time at Yeovil before he turned out for Trowbridge Town nearly a decade later.
80s. Chris Sulley moved from Chelsea to Bournemouth in 1981 and played four times for them against us (twice each in 82/83 and 85/86). Moving to Dundee United in in 1986. Sulley achieved little of note in his short time at Tannadice, but he did play in a game at the beginning of that club’s run to the Final of the 86/87 UEFA Cup. By the time United lost to Gothenburg, Sulley was back in England playing for a Blackburn team that were at the beginning of the transformation brought about by Jack Walker’s money. Sulley remained at Ewood Park until 1992 before finishing with a season each at Port Vale and Preston.
90s. Mark Stein scored the only goal in our 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth in November 1999.
00s. Mr Tebbs in Are You Being Served was played by James Hayter, while James Hayter scored a winning goal for Bournemouth in a LDV Vans Trophy match in December 2002 and scored the fastest hat trick in Football League history when he scored three times in two minutes twenty two seconds after coming on as a sub against Wrexham in February 2004.
10s. Andy Surman.
20s. Felix Junior Stanislaus.
