Friday, 25 September 2026
Monday, 21 September 2026
Relatives of England’s hat trick hero v Scotland who enjoyed the passionate support of the future Queen Mary (1910-1936) will receive his legacy cap on Saturday at Wembley
FRED SPIKSLEY:
Relatives of England’s hat trick hero v Scotland will receive his legacy
cap on Saturday at Wembley
England
legacy caps are red commemorative caps awarded to every player who has
represented the national team, marking their unique chronological legacy
number. Spiksley’s cap will be numbered 209.
Spiksley
went on to score 7 goals in 7 games in which England recorded 5 wins and 2
draws. His best game for his country was against Scotland in a 3-1 away win in
1898.
At club
level, Spiksley scored both of Wednesday’s goals in the 2-1 win against Wolves
at the 1896 FA Cup Final and was key to the First Division title win of
1902-03. He was a prolific goalscorer both with Gainsborough Trinity and
Wednesday.
On
finishing playing he acted alongside Charlie Chaplin and became an
internationally renowned coach enjoying cup winning success in Sweden, Mexico,
the USA and Germany, where he remains the last Englishman to win the German
title. He also coached Badalona in a famous victory against local rivals
Barcelona in 1931.
At the
start of WWI when Spiksley, a gambler who often went bankrupt, was trapped in
Germany he amazingly escaped from his imprisonment before making his way home.
Spiskley’s
remarkable life is arguably unsurpassed by an English footballer to date.
Little wonder that when Clive Nicholson and his dad Ralph supported by football
historian Mark Metcalf combined in 2016 they enjoyed a runaway success on their
book on him: FLYING OVER AN OLIVE GROVE – The Remarkable Life of Fred Spiksley,
a flawed footballer.
England
Players - 209. Fred Spiksley
Speaking
about this coming Saturday, Clive Nicholson, has said:
“Myself and Freddie are incredibly proud to accept
Fred's cap this weekend. The Legacy Cap project is a wonderful initiative
because it recognises every player’s contribution to the story of the England
national team — whether that was a single, long-forgotten appearance or a
career as an England legend such as Kevin Keegan.
I have always been incredibly proud of Fred’s unique
story with the England national team, as well as his contribution as a coach to
the development of the game around the world. For more than three decades, I
have been researching Fred’s life and career and sharing his story with others.
To be invited by The FA, alongside Freddie, to
Wembley for such a prestigious match, and to see Fred recognised alongside the
great names of English football, is something I will always remember. I will be
incredibly grateful to The FA for ensuring that Fred's contribution to the
story of English football continues to be remembered.”
Friday, 18 September 2026
A.J Cook - miner who led from the front by Graeme Atkinson
With thanks to Graeme for allowing this article, which appeared in the 2026 Durham Miners' Gala, to be reproduced here.
Thursday, 17 September 2026
EAGLES OLDEST CLUB CLAIM AGAIN GROUNDED
NATIONAL FOOTBALL MUSEUM BACKS FA IN KNOCKING BACK CRYSTAL PALACE
1905 CLAIM TO BE LINKED TO THE 1861-1876 CLUB OF THE SAME NAME
Six years ago, Crystal Palace came up with the absurd claim
to be the oldest league club in the world.
No doubt with an aim to profit from this claim the owners of
the club that was formed in 1905 have spent quite a sum of money including by
making a film.
Initially it looked like they might get their claim recognised
until Clive Nicholson and myself, who along with Clive’s dad Ralph, wrote the FLYING
OVER AN OLIVE GROVE book on Fred Spiksley produced our own examination of the
evidence. This work – Why the Eagles claim to be the oldest league club can be
grounded - can be viewed at:-
https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/01.-cp-11-may-update-2.pdf
And whilst the FA never made a big fuss about this they
later confirmed our view. Palace though continue to propagate their nonsense.
Just recently the National Football Museum has produced a
very short video in which Craig Dobson, the NFM marketing and content coordinator,
examines the Palace claim.
This can be viewed at:-
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1391959185730578
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc9qi_ksy0z/
Thankfully, Craig Dobson rightly
dismisses the Palace claim by saying that the museum does not
endorse the new foundation date for the current Crystal Palace club.
It appears that Notts County
fans, the actual oldest league club, are particularly pleased, and, of course,
many Crystal Palace fans have also previously said they don’t believe there was
any relationship between the first Crystal Palace, who played a major role in
the early years of organised football, and the current club that was formed in
1905.
17th September 2026
See also Stuart Hibberd’s book. Stuart is a Palace fan.
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Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Leeds woman's unique diary to be published
Leeds woman’s
diary to be published
Winnie Rhodes's story of hardship unearthed and to be published by Unite
Big Issue North, 10 September 2016
Winnie Rhodes was born into a middle class family but that did not prevent her and her sister from being “unpaid skivvies, nannies and governesses” to her 14 younger siblings. Yet when she wanted to become a pupil-teacher at her school in Leeds, her father prevented her, saying her bad back would not allow her to stand up in front of pupils for most of the day.
Born in Cleckheaton in 1880, Rhodes’s hardships are detailed in her autobiography, a 170,000 word handwritten manuscript and a remarkable achievement for someone with her responsibilities. And now her story is set for a wider audience as the manuscript is about to be published as a book.
Winnie lived most of her life in Leeds, until she died in 1955. She wrote the autobiography in her latter years when her back injury, for which she never received adequate treatment, confined her to bed.
Her father was a boot and shoe manufacturer, an employer of labour who was well respected and a staunch Methodist. Her mother was a cold woman from a very comfortable background.
Beaten and exploited
Winnie was educated at a private school until she was 10, when her father’s business went bankrupt and the family moved to Leeds, where she began attending the local board – or state-run – school.
At 15 she was asked to take up teaching by first becoming a pupil-teacher, which involved studying on a Saturday morning and two or three evenings a week for three or four years. Her father’s decision to prevent her from doing so was all the more cruel because she was already standing for much of her day – her mother had forced her and her elder sister Mary to do most of the domestic chores.
This included the childcare for 14 younger siblings, four of whom subsequently died – two in Rhodes’s arms.
“We were unpaid skivvies, nannies and governesses to our younger family,” she wrote.
Their mother hit them and denied them sufficient food. Although both grandmothers were content to spoil them, Winnie’s life became increasingly intolerable and she followed Mary, who had left home to start work without telling anyone, by finding a job in an office at a Leeds garment makers.
Unable to cope
Nevertheless, each night after work she was still expected to care for her younger siblings. Unable to cope, Winnie was taken in by her grandmother before finding rented accommodation and a new job, both of which she sought to keep secret from her parents. For the rest of her life, Winnie was to work in the tailoring industry, generally as a seamstress, combining factory work with paid washing, sewing and childcare at home.
On 1 September 1898 Winnie married William Brotherton, whom she had met at work, at St Bart’s Church in Armley. The wedding infuriated her parents, who thereafter sought, often successfully, to prevent the couple finding work. They were forced to move to Goole, where William initially found work on the docks before having to travel even further afield. The Brothertons’ struggle to maintain themselves and their children remains constant throughout the rest of the book. Poverty and starvation were never far from the surface.
Winnie still had her pride and she eventually found work once more in Leeds, despite her parents’ efforts. She became active in the women’s section of the Tailors and Garment Workers’ Union, successfully mobilising women in fighting pay stoppages for lateness, wage deductions for the flimsiest of reasons, unsanitary working conditions and poor pay.
Fascinating read
It is now thanks to a modern day union, Unite, that the autobiography is set to be published. The work was handed down to Winnie’s great granddaughter Pat Henderson, who had it typed up. A copy was given to another of Winnie’s great granddaughters, Sarah Brummitt, who is a Unite member.
“I was fascinated when I read it,” she said. “Winnie can certainly write and has skilfully captured how hard life was for women of her generation, who lived in a highly patriarchal era where you had to be strong to survive and overcome a lack of a decent healthcare system, children dying at an early age, poor housing, domestic violence and terrible pay and working conditions.
“At the same time there is a lot of friendship, love and comradeship in the book as people strive to help each other.
“When I heard that Unite wanted to know if any of its members might have documents written by their descendants I thought Winnie’s story might now get published and so I have passed it on.”
Jim Mowatt, director of education at Unite, said: “This is a truly unique piece of work. Women like Winnie did not write their autobiographies and so it is very exciting to be given this piece of work.
We shall either be publishing this ourselves or seeking out a publisher of some substance. I am sure many people will enjoy reading Winnie’s story. I have.”
Photo: Sarah Brummitt and husband John Bradshaw. Brummitt submitted her great grandmother’s diary to Unite
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