Billy TAYLOR (1983-91 ):
"Silly Billy" wasn't really a player, but his various antics ensured that moral within th Club was always high. Making sure that there
was a constant source of amusment, he was really silly. He even played with his glasses on. Having said that he always turned up with his boots which really were used in the 50's.
Always wore yellow luminous socks even with his best suit. Speaking of which, in the old days we used to train at the New River Sports Centre in
White Hart Lane. One day we used the redgra pitch at the back which was really dusty and gravelly. This did not put him off, he turned up in his suit - trousers tucked inside
his yellow socks and proceeded to slide tackle everybody, never once conecting with the ball of course. We were all in stitches as you can imagine. After, as we tried to keep on our feet from the laughter,
he was completely covered in red dust and gravel.
In about 1987 he finally bought some new boots, talk about lairy, you could see him coming a mile off. His first game, and he is waiting on the line as a sub eagerly waiting to enter the fray. One of our players goes down injured - "Billy" someone yells, "bring the bucket on".
He runs down the line to get the bucket. As he approaches the bucket, he stacks it - nobody quite knows why but his fall results in his right thumb connecting with the rim of the bucket - thus breaking it. The sub has to go to hospital.
Just picture the situation. Theres a player down injured waiting for the bucket and the magic sponge. Everybody else is on the touchline in fits watching poor old Billy writhing about clasping his thumb.
It turns out that the reason for his stumble is due to him doing his boots up with enormous loops. One of his feet was snared by the loop and "BANG" he's gone over. He said later, "I thought those laces were a bit long, not like my old ones"..... We still laugh today at that one.
However, every dog has he's day and he did have a fantastic moment in a game against Black Ash. They had this big bloke who was putting it about a fair bit. That was until he was tackled by our Billy that is. They collided and smack, he went down like the proverbial "sack of shite" and there he stayed.
Billy just got up and ran off quite unaware of the damaged he had just caused. I seem to remember that we went on to win the game.
He also once yelled "Make a wall" when we had a penalty - against us. Another one of his specials was "The game lasts for 90 minutes, not an hour and half". The best though was when he was pissed. He would stand there demanding your attention with a fag paper stuck to his bottom lip as he spoke. Slowly
opening his tobacco tin, his glasses slipped to the end of his nose, eyes hardly open as he says, "I'm not joking, I'm deadly serious".
His main duty, to which he really did well was putting up the net (with fag paper on bottom lip), putting out the corner flags at home matches and taking care of the kit. He literally did his nut when players came out of the showers and used the shirts/shorts as bath mats - right and all.
Last seen and still can be seen sweeping Archway Road (Suicide bridge area) for the council.
Dean TOMLINSON (1984-87 ):
Deano was a speedy right wing player, tall, swift, powerful, accurate and under the thumb - Hey! but what a thumb!!!! Penelpoe, his girlfriend/wife now, was a stunner so he didn't get too much stick.
His stunning pace and missile like crosses were fantastic. All we needed to do was get something on the end of them and they would fly in. We had a ploy when Dean played. At free kicks, we would have Ron Ashley, Alan Waddington and TD lined up on the edge of the box waiting for these exocet balls to come over.
We would all run in a staggered formation and more times than not one of us would connect. Deano was a smart well mannered young man and we were sad to lose him after he got married. He later moved up north and the last we heard of him was by phone, threatening to pop down for a game one weekend. That thumb is still very heavy it seems.
