PONTEFRACT COMMUNITY CENTRE UNDER 18 FOOTBALL TEAM

ADDED 24 APRIL 2006

I recently came across a photograph of the 1950/51 Under 18 football team from the Pontefract Community Centre (now CISWO) in Halfpenny Lane. The team was part of a Youth Club at the Centre and mainly comprised boys from the Love Lane / Kings Mead / Halfpenny Lane area. In addition there were some players from other parts of Pontefract, Featherstone and from Glasshoughton, who were friends from the Kings School.

The team photograph was taken at the Pontefract United (?) ground on Ackworth Road, adjacent to the Kings School and now replaced by houses in Kings Close. It was taken in January or February 1951 (note the snow on the ground), and was one of the last games I played for the team before I left to do my national Service in the RAF in early March.

The names on the photograph that I can recall are: Back Row: John Hart, Sid Hancock, Eric Peake, myself, Roy Lythgoe, unknown. Front Row: unknown, Bill Bevitt, Ken Buck, Marcus Hookham, unknown.

The unknowns may have been occasional players replacing some of our ‘regulars’ such as Jim Pearson (Featherstone), Alan Blatherwick (Glasshoughton) and Derek Swales (Pontefract) who may have been playing for the King’s School on the same day. Two other well-known Pontefract sportsmen who were regular members of the team but not on the photograph were Brian Farrar, who played in local football and also cricket for the now extinct Pontefract Cricket Club and Alan Hanson who became one of the top table tennis players in the area, and I believe, at 70 plus is still playing!

Our home pitch was the Halfpenny Lane football ground and we played in the local junior football league. From memory, other teams in the league included our two local rivals, Westfield Wizards and St. Joseph’s, plus Whitwood, Brotherton, Ferrybridge, Womersley and a few others whose names I have forgotten. Whitwood were always the best team in the area and if you came away from playing them with less than ten goals scored against you, it was considered a good result. They produced a number of players who went on to become professional footballer’s. One I remember was called Beard, who played for Bolton Wanderers in the First Division, alongside famous Internationals such as Nat Lofthouse. I came across him in the Forces, where he was playing for the RAF during the week and for Bolton at weekends.

I still see a few of the ‘team’ when in town, bringing back memories of good friends and happy times.

Bob Battye

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