Published at 08:55, Saturday, 09 June 2012

If it’s details about football teams, players, scores or even just a general chat about football from the 1950s onwards you want, then Bill Martin is your man. He isn’t just a football fan with utter devotion to one particular team though.

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Bill seems to have a detailed knowledge about most clubs and call reel off trivia at the mere mention of their name.

As a lad, Blackpool centre forward Stan Mortensen was his idol and when a rare piece of footballing history featuring the legend came up for auction recently, Bill couldn’t resist bidding for it.

Now, more than 60 years after it was made, a precious 78 rpm record featuring the voices of Mortensen and his team mates sits on the kitchen table of his Houghton home, where he lives with his wife Doreen.

The rare record features interviews of players from Newcastle United and Blackpool discussing their forthcoming FA Cup final in 1951.

A capacity crowd of 100,000 crammed into Wembley on April 28 and saw Newcastle beat Blackpool 2-0 – with both goals scored by Tyneside legend Jackie Milburn.

Interviews with football greats Stanley Matthews and Jackie Milburn as well as Bill’s beloved Mortensen are included on each three-minute side of the old record.

It’s a match he can remember well, huddled around a radio listening to the commentators paint a colourful picture of what was happening on the pitch.

After reading about the record in The Cumberland News Bill decided to bid over the phone for it when it went under the hammer at Eighteen Eighteen Auctioneers in Kendal in May.

Bidding started at £150 and climbed quickly.

“I could hear the auctioneer and I kept thinking that if I stop bidding, I won’t get to hear the players,” says Bill.

He didn’t expect to pay more than £200 for it, but as the bids kept rising, he continued to bid and eventually came out on top with his bid of £360, earning him lots of attention from news teams in Lancashire and the north east.

“I was very pleased to get it, but I didn’t realise it’d cause a stir,” he laughs.

Bill doesn’t own a 78 rpm player – although the News & Star took one along for him to listen to the record – and is now on the lookout for one.

“I’ve kept a lot of other 78s so I’ll be able to play them as well if I get a player,” he says hopefully.

His record has been lovingly added to a collection of scrapbooks he has kept from boyhood which feature cuttings from the Daily Express.

Bill was born in Laversdale, near Carlisle, and grew up in the Brampton area.

It was his dad, Willie, who was behind his passion for the game. He was a Carlisle United supporter and first took Bill to Brunton Park when he was eight.

The children were allowed to sit on the other side of the barrier to the rest of the crowd, so close to the action that he could hear what the managers were saying.

He would go to the ground early to get autographs from the players and after the match, Bill would look forward to reading the Carlisle Journal on a Tuesday and The Cumberland News on a Friday – always turning straight to the back page to read the football reports.

While Carlisle United was the team he regularly went to cheer, he also saw Newcastle United four or five times when he was a lad and the first big football match he went to watch was Newcastle United against Arsenal when he was part of a crowd of 70,000.

“It was very exciting,” he recalls. “It was such a big ground, it was tremendous.”

Bill sat behind the goal on concrete steps, where children were allowed to sit, while his dad sat higher up in the stand.

At the end of the game he looked up to find his dad but before he had time to identify him he was swept away by the crowd teeming down the terraces.

“I was lifted off my feet and carried for about 30 yards,” he remembers. “My dad was watching me as I was taken towards the exit!”

Bill was an avid reader of the football reports in the Daily Express and it was the skills of Blackpool ace Mortensen who caught his attention.

He had some relatives who had a boarding house in Blackpool and he saw Mortensen’s team play four or five times.

“Mortensen was fantastic,” he remembers. “He was very agile, like an electric eel. He was all go.

“When he scored I was behind the goal and I saw the look in his eyes.”

He still has clear memories of Blackpool’s 1951 FA Cup final appearance.

“There was a big build up to the match in 1951 in the newspapers,” he explains.

“I expected Blackpool to win and was disappointed but Newcastle were the better team on the day.”

Two years later, Blackpool beat Bolton in the Cup final.

Mortensen became the first player to score a hat-trick in a Wembley final, but the match is known as ‘The Matthews Final’ because of the brilliant performance by winger Stanley Matthews.

Bill went to a family friend’s house to watch the match on their black and white television.

“It was terrific,” he says. “The last 20 minutes was great as it was all Blackpool and Mortensen scored three goals. When Morty left Blackpool they were never the same.”

Bill enjoyed playing football and tried to emulate his hero. One of his great memories is of being coached by Ivor Broadis, who played for Tottenham Hotspur, Carlisle, Sunderland, Manchester City and Newcastle and was capped 14 times by England.

“I got two ‘well dones’ from Ivor,” he says, with a proud look. “I headed a corner and kicked a long cross field pass. I tried to be as good as Mortensen.

“I remember there were pictures of his moves in the Express and I tried to follow them.”

Bill’s childhood passion for the game continued as he started his working life – first selling groceries and then as a van salesman for Lyons Cakes for 30 years – and after years of playing in local teams, he’s now a prominent figure in the local junior and senior leagues, both as a manager and a referee, despite his years.

He worked at County Motors for a time and played for local village teams until he snapped a ligament in his right knee.

He started managing teams and if there was a player short he’d step in, despite his injury.

He ran the Under 18s team at Central Hall Methodists for 10 years and in 1969 he took his exams to be a referee and started in the Sunday Friendly League.

He has been secretary and manager of the Border City and General League and was treasurer for 17 years.

He managed the men’s team Northbank and says: “I used to take the strips home and wash them.

“It was good fun and there were lots of laughs.”

When he was asked to be secretary of Carlisle Youth League he started to write match reports and organise referees and since 1987 has been sending them in to The Cumberland News and News & Star.

“When I left school I realised I wasn’t going to play football and wanted to be a writer,” he says. “I persevered with it.”

His junior football results and reports now appear every Wednesday in the News & Star’s Junior Result.

He was awarded the Cumbria Service to Sport Award in 2006 but is modest about his devotion to local football.

“When I’m walking down the street someone might stop me and say ‘you probably don’t remember me but...’ and I usually remember who they are eventually,” he smiles.

“It was never hard work for me.”

Bill will be watching England’s first match in the European Championships on Monday.

“It should be a good one,” he says. “If England can defend well they might do well. I don’t think they’ll get through to the final, but they should qualify.

“There’s too much hype about Rooney. You need to have a balance in the team and I think Hodgson has the players to do this.”

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk