The Interview 4!

As promised this is the last instalment (Questions 8 - 11) of Norman Clarke answers, to questions put to him by Omar. Norman has been true to his word and nothing has been left out, but then he is a gentleman and a legend and we have grown to expect nothing less from the Ballymena Boy. Happy Christmas to al our readers and all Sky Blue fans no matter where they be tonight and 'come on Sky Blues' (COSB)!


Question 8: Did you stay involved in football after your playing career ended?

I went back to Sunderland in March 1969 to work in Plesseys and played a few games for games for local junior sides in 69-70 season but I found my knee swelled up after every game so I had to pack in playing completely. I started to follow Sunderland and I became a homer, for I didn't attend away games, so I missed their FA cup win in 1973 against Leeds Utd at Wembley. I was working for Plesseys at South Shields and we had two children now. By the summer of 1978 Plesseys factory closed and was out of work for a few months. I started to work for Coral the bookmakers, but just after I started I applied for a job in the Gillette Razor company, they were looking for an O & M man and that was who I purported to be, to my total surprise I was offered the job and I moved to London in the summer 1978.

Geoff Twentyman was someone I kept in touch with and saw regularly and in 1967 Geoff had been appointed as a scout for Liverpool under the legendary Bill Shankly. When I moved to London in 1978, Geoff occasionally asked to go and have a look at a players for him. Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan followed Shankly. Then when Kenny Dagleish succeeded them he wanted more detailed reports than the previous managers and so during 1985-86 I was going almost every week to watch a team that Liverpool were to play soon. Liverpool did the double that season but early in the 1986-87 season Geoff phoned me to say he was leaving Liverpool, in effect he had been sacked. I thought that would be the end for me also, then Tom Saunders, an ex-teacher and Liverpool's football academy man, phoned me to ask if I would carry on, as Kenny Dagleish wanted me to do. Ron Yeats took Geoff's job and I worked under him until the of 2005 season, when the main scouting supremo, Frank McParland wrote to me to say that they wouldn't be using me any more.

I did nothing for about two seasons but towards the end of the 2006-7 season, a chap called Mick McGivern rang me to ask if I would help out a friend of his at Leeds Utd, Gwyn Williams, as Kevin Blackwell, the ex-manager of Leeds, had taken all his southern scouts with him to Luton. I agreed, but Leeds went into administration and were relegated. I had travelled to 6 or 7 matches but got no expenses, so I just put down to experience. At the start of 2007-8 season Leeds Utd phoned to say that they now could pay expenses and was I willing to carry on, which I did. Then just this July Gwyn Williams phoned to say Leeds had terminated his contract, as the new owners didn't want anyone associated with Ken Bates involved with the club. So that ended my association with Leeds Utd and in football in general, so I don't attend matches anymore.

Question 9: Do you still follow Ballymena's results?

The short answer is, unfortunately, yes. When I went back to Sunderland in 1969, I had to buy the Sunday Post to get the Irish league results. I didn't have a phone, like most people in those days. In more recent times at a game, I would watch  Sky Sports at halftime until they flashed up the Irish league half-times. Last season I went to see a number of games at Watford. After one game I went into a bookies to see the final results on Sky, I saw to my horror Ballymena 0 v 8 Cliftonville and a few weeks later at Watford again, I
went into the bookies to get the final results and saw Glenavon 7 v 0 Ballymena, I went home very deflated I can tell you.

Question 10: Do you have any thoughts on Glenn's performance to date?

Well we did win the County Antrim Shield under him which made me very happy one night last season, I am loath to criticise anyone trying to manage a part-time football team, but I'm bitterly disappointed we can't do better then 8th place in a 12 team league and at this moment in time we are actually lying 10th (14/11/13). I only ask if 'small clubs like Ballinmallard, Dungannon, Glenavon and even Crusaders' can get together players to finish in the top 6, why can't Ballymena, who have a much better support than any of them?

Question 11: Who was instrumental in giving you the chance to prove yourself?

Quite an easy one for change, Alex McCrae was the man who gave me the chance, he must have seen something in the leggy, shy sixteen year-old. He was a tremendous man to play with, an outstanding inside-forward (midfielder in today's parlance), great football brain, brilliant passer and no mean finisher, just having on the field was a great inspiration. Even at age of 37-38, he was a class above any inside-forward (midfielder), in the Irish league in his time at Ballymena. He led by example, never bawled any player out, he had great knowledge and experience of how the game should be played and he gave Ballymena a couple of very exciting seasons, with the team playing some excellent football!

It just remains for us at Sky Blue Sport to thank Norman very much  for the Interview and we consider a great privilege that he consented to answer our questions, truthfully and honestly and we have captured a legend's (The Ballymena Boy), thoughts on the World Wide Web!

Hush, I hear sleigh bells, Santa's on his way!

The Interview 3!

As promised here is another question answered here  in his own words by the Ballymena Boy, I'm sure he is hurting tonight, just like I am. Sky Blue till we die!

Question 7: What did it mean to you to play for your home town club?

I make no apologies for giving you a long winded answer here, When I was born, I was the youngest of four boys. My elder brothers were James (Jim), Arthur (Artie) and Noel (Nobby). Noel was born on Christmas day and wanted to be a football player above anything else. He was quite strongly built, determined and like me, a left-winger, he practised hard and trained hard. He played for the Ballymena Model school team, when they won the Schools cup in 1951 at Solitude. Like most boys at that time, he left school when he was 14 years-old and went to work at Harpurs garage, based at the Fair Hill. He played mainly BB football, till he reached 16-17 years. By 1954-55 season Ballymena had secured the services of Walter Rickett as player-manager, paying him £14 weekly (the fulltime players in England at that time were probably getting £12 a week). Rickett had been a left-winger with Blackpool and he had given Johnny Carey of Man Utd the run-around in the first-half of the 1948 F.A. cup final, when Blackpool led 2-1 at the interval. Man Utd came back and won 4-2 and the great Stanley Matthews was on the other wing for Blackpool that day.

Rickett was a firm believer in youth policies and he started a third team called Ballymena Strollers and my brother Noel got signed up and played left-wing for the Strollers. I used to go to watch the Strollers, they played on the big pitch and Noel did quite well, he was 17 by then and I was well into my 13th year. He had just got into the Reserves when Rickett was sacked and the Strollers folded then. Noel then signed for the Glens 2nds, but never made the first team. He had one senior for Cliftonville, but was on the wrong end of a 7-0 hiding from Linfield and just  drifted into junior football after that and signed for Harryville Amateurs. Now where is all this leading to you may ask? I was four and half years younger than Noel, tall, quite skinny and very reserved, probably as a result of being the youngest of and being in the shadow of my elder brothers and Noel was quite a dominating character. I was at Ballymena Academy and hating every minute of it, but by my second year I started to play rugby for the under 13s and started to grow in confidence. I was entrusted with the kicking at rugby and I was sending over conversions from the touchline on the pitches at the Waveny and was kicking them with my toe as you have to in rugby.

The only football I was playing between the ages 12-14 years-old was in the BB league in the summer. I think it may have been Arthur Stewart, who was at the Model school at that time and playing well for them, who mentioned me to the teachers that ran the Mid-Antrim schools team and suggested I be given a try at outside-left. Anyway I did a trial and was selected and played for the Mid-Antrim school team but we lost in the semi-final to East Antrim. I accompanied Arthur Stewart to several trials for the Northern Ireland schools team, Arthur was selected, but I wasn't, Jimmy McAlindens son, a pupil of Holy Cross got the nod instead. Anyway Noel was playing for the Amateurs and running the BB team. I played for the BB team by 1957 and was scoring some great goals at the Peoples Park and elsewhere, but still had no pretensions to being a footballer.

Noel it was I think mentioned my name to the Amateur's officials and several Saturday's I turned up to Coronation Park and then when I wasn't selected, rode my bike back down again to Albert Place. Then one Saturday, I think it was February 1958, I was picked to play against Broughshane and we won 4-0 and the next Saturday, we beat Moyola Park 5-3, I scored a hat-trick and Noel got the other two, but I missed a penalty. On the night before the Irish cup final, we played Gallahers at Ahoghill and not long after that game had started, Alex McCrae and United trainer Billy McCreadie entered the ground. I scored two goals in a 6-2 win. In one of the cups we played Old Bleach and the first match ended in a draw and for the replay at the Phoenix ground I volunteered to play at centre-forward. Before the game Kyle Lennox, one of the Amateurs officials told me that Coleraine were coming to have a look at me. The score at 90 minutes was draw but in extra-time we won 4-1 and I scored another hat-trick. As I was walking back to the dressing room Alex McCrae stepped out of the crowd (there were probably 400-500 at the game) and he simply
asked me if I would sign for Ballymena United? He produced a form and a pen and I duly signed for Ballymena United, on the bonnet of a car, according to big Tommy Patterson that was the start of it.

I played a couple of reserve games first and made my Irish league debut against Cliftonville on August 23 in a 3-1 defeat, Alex  rested me a couple of weeks later, but he brought me back  at outside-right about a month later, we won 5-1 and I scored the 5th, but for the life me I can't remember that goal, fancy that, not remembering your first goal in the Irish league for your home town team. In answer to your question of course meant a tremendous lot to me to play for my home town team. I was a Ballymena supporter first and
foremost and it was really a bit of a dream, a bit unreal. As that season progressed I was scoring quite regularly, often playing rugby in the morning before turning out for United in the afternoon. By Christmas that year all the popular papers, Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Daily Express were reporting that a host of English clubs were following my progress, Middleboro, Newcastle, Wolves and Arsenal, all a bit unreal with me still at school and studying for my advanced senior exam. We won a lot more matches than we lost in that season, got to the Irish cup final and came within an ace of winning it, Glenavon equalising in 83 minutes. Big Tommy Lowry, our captain and ace penalty kick taker, missed from the spot in the 2nd minute of the replay, a sad ending to that season.

I played for the Northern Ireland amateur team in the following season and also played for Great Britain team against a Caribbean X1 at Ipswich. Had trouble with groin and verrucas  that season and McRae left to go and manage Stirling Albion. In March 1960 Geoff Twentyman came from Liverpool and in the following season we won the Ulster cup and, were runners-up in the City cup, but lost to Ballyclare Comrades in the Irish cup. We beat Linfield every time we played them that season, (3 meetings) and beat Glenavon 6-0 a
week after they had beaten Linfield 5-1 in the Irish cup. The following season I was transferred to Sunderland for £6,000 and my one regret is that United didn't win more trophies in 60-61, when we were easily the best team in the league. But I was very pleased to be a home-town club man and couldn't really have brought myself to play for anybody else in the league.

The last instalment of the Norman Clarke interview will be aired on Christmas eve!

The Interview 2!

 As promised here another three questions answered by the Ballymena Boy, Norman Clarke!

Question 4: What do you think has changed in the game since your playing days?

Well of course there have been a lot of changes - many of them for the good of the game. Better playing surfaces, better equipment, e.g. balls that don't retain water and lighter boots and income from sponsorship and advertising, unheard of in my day. For me, a student of the old school, the biggest change is in the style of play. The team formations e.g. 4,4,2, or 4,3,3 or 3,5,2 etc, are prevalent in football today. The eleven positions that I grew up with are no more, play is condensed in tight areas, 80% of the space available is uninhabited. All players run and chases about and the managers and coaches have certificates to show how much they know, but the game by and large as a spectacle, leaves me cold. It takes 5 minutes to take a free-kick and at corners there's 16 or 18 players in the box, all jostling each other, more like rugby than football.

I have been going to games in the south of England for the past 30 years or more and in the past ten years I've noticed that its usually takes about 20 minutes plus before you have the first direct shot on goal. One of the few players I still keep in touch with is John O'Hare, who played for Sunderland, Derby County and Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough. John, scored 5 goals for Scotland, despite only being capped 13 times, a prolific striker of yesteryear. John does hospitality work at Nottingham Forest home games and the other week he told me he has timed the first shot on goal and its between 30-35 minutes and they call it entertainment. I personally think the spectators who watch football, are the victims of fraud.

Some qualifications to question 4 are needed: I know I've been a bit over the top in several of my comments, for instance I haven't acknowledged that the game is much faster, especially on the break, that greater thought goes into training and tactics and the players cover much more ground than ever before. The evolution of the human species, means people are running faster in all sports, better food and diet than in the past fifty years have contributed to this. You don't see many bandy-legged wingers or inside-forwards (midfielders), these days, if at all. Players tend to be athletes, instead of mere football players. The chances are that old style teams couldn't compete with modern teams, but I honestly believe that old style football, played in the formation 2,3,5 was generally much more entertaining to spectators. Of course the younger generation who grew up with today's style of play, wouldn't understand the eleven positions of old. So I don't want to be too hard on today's football or players, but because I have seen so many games since 1950, I definitely wouldn't pay today's prices to watch a game in England. It's different when I'm back home in Ballymena, I'll always gladly pay the admission price to watch the Sky Blues!

Question 5: Who was the best player you played with or against in your time at Ballymena?

I'm been asked this question many times and to be truthful no-one stands out in my memory, but let's look back at my career for Ballymena. Between 1958 and 1962 Ballymena had player-managers who had successful full time careers in England. The late great, Alex McCrea, played in England for Charlton and Middleborough playing 168 games and scoring 55 goals, while Geoff Twentyman played 200 odd games for Carlisle and 186 games for Liverpool, scoring 18 goals. So although they were at the twilight of their careers they were probably the best players I had played with at Ballymena. We had many great players at Ballymena in my time, Eric Trevorrow, Eddie Russell, Arthur Stewart, Smudger Smith and Hubert Barr. But they were part-time players and their records show that they never achieved anything like McCrae's or Twentyman's records.

Who was the best player I played against in the Irish league, I'd have to say the first player that comes to mind was Jackie Milburn, who was player-manager of Linfield when I started playing for Ballymena in 1958. Like McCrea and Twentyman, he was in the twilight of his career and he still possessed a tremendous shot and having played for England I reckon he was the best, although Bertie Peacock, the ex-Glasgow Celtic Captain, is certainly up there in my opinion. Linfield and Glenavon had strong Irish league sides, but that's what they were, Irish league sides. I played against them both many times and while they had many useful players, John Parke, Tommy Dickson, Bobby Braithwaite and Ray Gough for Linfield and Jimmy Jones, Sammy Wilson, Stuarty Campbell and Jackie Hughes for Glenavon. They weren't players that I could honestly say they had that something extra, there were just good solid Irish league players. When I came back in 1966, the one player that did impress me was Terry Conroy of Glentoran.


Question 6: Who was the best player you played with or against in your whole career?

I suppose the best players I played with at Sunderland were, Goalkeeper Jimmy Montgomery, Stan Anderson (2 England caps), Charlie Hurley (40 Republic of Ireland caps), George Herd (5 Scotland caps) and Harry Hooper (numerous England under -23 caps). I can't say that one was markedly better than the other, but as Charlie Hurley has been voted Sunderland's best player of the 20th century, I would probably have to favour him. Now for playing against, I've made a list but as before I find it hard to rate one above another. Playing for the Irish league against the Scottish league in 1960, the opposition included, Alex Young, Hearts (then Everton), George Herd, Clyde (then Sunderland), Andy Penman, Dundee & Rangers. Against the Scottish league in 1961, Eric Caldow, Pat Crerand, Billy McNeil, all Celtic, Alex Scott of Rangers and of course the legendary Slim Jim Baxter, Rangers. Under -23 against Wales included Mike England, Terry Hennessey, Alan Durban, Ronnie Rees, Coventry and Graham Moore, Chelsea & Man Utd. Playing for Sunderland, opposition players included, Alan Peacock, Middleboro, who went on to Leeds and won 3 caps for England, Jimmy Dickinson, Portsmouth who won 48 caps for England, Mike Bailey of Charlton, 2 England caps, Keith Peacock, the first ever sub in the football league and John Howie a south African born Scottish International fullback.

Two months after I was transferred to Sunderland, I played in a benefit match at Roker Park, for a Scottish International centre-half, Frank Brennan, who won two cup medals with Newcastle United in 1951-52. The two teams were an ex-Newcastle team and an All Stars team, I was drafted in at the last minute to play for the All Stars. The All Stars team included John Crossan from Stroke city, who was at that time playing for Standard Liege, Jack Charlton, Don Revie and Tommy Lawton. The ex-Newcastle team included Dick Keith & Alfie McMichael, both ex-Linfield, Bob Stokoe, Ivor Alchurch, Jackie Milburn, Jim Shackleton and Bobby Mitchell. A few months later I played in a 'save Ashington' benefit game at Gateshead (Ashington is a town in Northumberland, that fell on hard times), which I played for the all Stars team again which included Geoff Strong, Jimmy Adamson and George Eastham. So pick the bones out of that, I certainly couldn't, I was just lucky to have appeared briefly in such illustrious company.

Next week we will have Norman's answer to question 7, which deserves a page of its own, I think!

The Interwiew!

As promised here are the first questions I put to the Ballymena Boy and my friend, Norman Clarke, enjoy!

Question One: What was your favourite moment in football?

Like all questions I find this very difficult to answer. I'll list a few of my favourite moments. (1) Scoring the winning goal against Portadown in the Irish cup 2nd round replay in February 1959 with a 25 yard shot.
(2) Winning the Ulster cup  with Ballymena United at Grosvenor Park in November 1960, beating Glenavon 3-1. (3) Providing the cross for the legendary Brian Clough to score his first goal of the 1962-63 season for Sunderland and hearing the roar of the 48,000 crowd. (4) Scoring with a low 20 yard volley against Linfield, in January 1961 in a 2-1 win. (5) Playing for the Irish league at Ibrox Park, Glasgow

(6) Playing for Northern Ireland under23 team against Wales and being marked by Mike England in February 1962. (7) But being a Ballymena fan and from a family of Ballymena fans, my absolute favourite was watching my favourite team, winning the Irish cup at the Oval grounds Belfast in 1958 beating Linfield 2-0 and winning the cup for the first time in almost 20 years. I would truthfully say that when the final whistle blew that day, that would be my absolute favourite football moment. That team (Bond, Trevorrow, Johnstone, Brown, Lowry, Cubit, Egan, Forsythe, McGee, McRae and Russell), are regularly recited by men of a certain age (myself included) and it was a great thrill for me as a sixteen year-old, to see Ballymena win the Irish cup.

Question Two: What is your happiest memory from outside of football?

Well this is an especially thorny question, for my life outside and after football, has been rather unhappy. Quite truthfully I could say I haven't had one, but the birth of my daughter Kim in September 1965, brought some happiness. Even going back to my school-days at Ballymena Academy I have no happy memories.
Now let me stress here, I'm not an unhappy person, but if I were to detail the experiences I have had in the last 40 odd years, it really is a nightmare scenario, so I'll say no more than that. Martin Luther King said, 'Shattered dreams are a hallmark of our mortal life', I couldn't put it better myself.

Question 3: How did you adapt when your career was cut short at such an early age?

I was three days short of 22nd birthday when I received a very serious injury to my left knee, a complete rupture of the medial and anterior cruciate ligament and a displacement of the external cartilage. Any damage to the Cruciate ligament then, 50 years ago last March, meant your playing days were over, the cruciate ligament could not be repaired. So I knew that my career in fulltime football was over. Sunderland retained me during 1964-65 season to recover and keep training, with no chance of playing. I made as a good a recovery that was possible and when I was released in 1965 I was feeling confident enough and young enough to go play part-time football which I did for 30 months back with Ballymena.

I was in retrospect not the player I had been and my constant concern every-time I would go out on the pitch was what if I got a bad knock on my knee, I could be crippled for life, but I think I did quite well. The difficulty was, for various reasons, I found it impossible to get a decent job in Ballymena, so I returned to Sunderland in March 1969 to work for the Plessey Company. The late Alex Parker, who was Ballymena's manager at that time, had said he thought the way I was playing, he thought me the greatest winger in the Irish league, but I couldn't exist on part-time wages of £6 a week and with a wife and child to support I had to take a job which was going to pay at least £20 a week, good money in  them days. Human beings are quite adaptable and despite my obvious disappointment about my promising career, which had finished so early, I just had to accept that its all part of the game and had just been desperately unlucky.



Remember Norman answers another 3 questions next week, Tuesday 10 December, 2013