During the Rovers summer tour to Australia, veteran right half Hughie Griffiths shocked his team-mates by retiring from the game to stay and run a ranch Down Under. Luckily Ben Galloway soon identified a replacement, former RAF serviceman Albert "Bomber" Reeves.
Reeves had an immediate impact, a more attacking option than Griffiths, Bomber's raids on the right flank helped Rovers to a convincing 4-0 opening day win over Cashford. But not everything was rosy as the new star was already planning to leave. After being offered a lucrative but mystery job in Germany, it looked as if the Rovers would soon be searching for another right half.
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| Powerful Durmstadt net |
Conveniently, the Rovers were invited to take part in a special friendly cup against West German Champions Durmstadt. The contest would take place over two legs giving Bomber and the Rovers a chance to visit Germany and get into a whole heap of trouble. The two matches were world class affairs with Rovers coming out on top by the odd goal. Bomber, of course, no longer wished to move to Germany and stayed.
The second half of the season was a much calmer affair. Rumours surfaced that Roy Race had attracted the attention of the England selectors, would the centre forward finally get his cap? An amazing performance against powerful Eastoke convinced those that mattered and Roy was in.
However, a new member of the Rovers board had indentified a weakness, Tom Dawson on the left wing. Dawson was on poor form, but also suffering with the effects of food poisoning, but a maverick winger Joe Sloper was signed from Barford as his replacement. Like so many others, Sloper was not a great fit for the Rovers at all, and lasted just one match. His selfish style of play infuriated Roy, who froze him out, Sloper requested and was granted a transfer immediately after the match.
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| Roy struggles on England debut |
Dawson was back by default, but Roy would be making his England debut against Caragua at Wembley, while Tom would be on the left wing against Wellingbury Town in a vital match at the top end of the First Division. Roy had a poor first half, worried about Tom. But on hearing Dawson had netted twice, Roy went into overdrive, scoring twice in a 3-1 win. Roy had a winning debut, while the Rovers secured the league title!
Squad
G - Morton
FB - Williams, Roberts
HB - Reeves, Jones, Brown, Lunnon
FW - Stokes, Gray, Race, Hallett, Dawson, Sloper
Transfers
In & out: Joe Sloper (Barford)
NOTE: The season summary is incomplete, there could be more matches after Wellingbury and I have no final score vs Stanport.
3 Comments
The Stanport match finished with a 4-1 win for Melchester, Race 1, Carter 3
ReplyDeleteIgnore that - I was looking at the following season, the match did still finish 4-1 to Rovers but scorers were Race2, Reeves and Hallet
DeleteThere was a match the following week after Wellingbury (6 apr) v an unknown opponent with a 4-2 win for Melchester, Race & Dawson scored 2, the others are unknown, I also have a player named Fenton as Roys replacement in the Wellingbury match, no first name given
ReplyDelete