Category: Rob Sawyer

As a child, a shopping trip to nearby Stockport was not complete without a visit to the Sugg Sport emporium in the Merseyway Shopping Centre. Back then I was blissfully unaware of the link between the family giving its name to the Yorkshire-based retail chain and Everton FC. Frank Howe Sugg, like Jack Sharp and Harry Makepeace, was a notable footballer-cum-cricketer on Everton’s books. Born in Ilkeston, in 1862, Frank was raised in Pitsmoor, Sheffield from the age of four, along with his elder brother, Walter. The boys’ parents had designs on them following their father, Hubert, into the legal profession but, distracted by playing sport, they never became fully-qualified (although the knowledge acquired would prove useful in their business ventures). At six-foot tall and of stocky build, Frank was a big-hitting batsman who racked up 16 centuries in a seventeen-year career with Yorkshire, Derbyshire and, principally, Lancashire. He was selected for two England test appearances against Australia in 1888. Although cricket...

The Wirral has a proud tradition of producing high-calibre footballers who have graced stadia on Merseyside and beyond. For a period in the first half of the 20th century Tranmere Rovers became something of a centre-forward factory, producing some of the finest striking talent in the land. There was, of course, William Ralph “Dixie” Dean, but also Tom “Pongo” Waring, Bill “Nibbler” Ridding and Robert “Bunny” Bell (it appears that nicknames were mandatory in this era). The latter wrote himself into the record books by scoring a triple-hat-trick on Boxing Day 1935. More of which later… Bob, as he preferred to be known, was born on 10 April 1911, the son of Robert and Alice Letitia of 54 Woodchurch Road, Birkenhead. One of five brothers, Bob attended Temple Road School, a stone’s throw from Prenton Park (Jimmy Harris is another former Temple Road pupil). When the school-master was not looking, Bob’s gaze would be drawn towards Tranmere players training outside –...

Elie Hurel holds a special place in the footballing folklore of the Channel Islands. Decades before Graeme Le Saux and Matt Le Tissier became household names; Elie was the first man from those Crown dependencies to play football in the English top flight. His journey there — from being orphaned as a child to lining up alongside the legendary Bill “Dixie” Dean at Goodison Park — is a remarkable one. Elie, the fifth of twelve children born to Emile Andre and Marie-Francoise Hurel, took his first breath on April 10 1915. As their names suggest, Emile and Marie-Francoise were French nationals who had moved to Jersey in 1900 in search or employment. Emile would become a market gardener, specialising the growing of tomatoes. With his brothers Elie would regularly kick a ball on the beach or grass by Five Mile Road at St Ouen's Bay. Tragically, when Elie was just seven years old, his parents died from tuberculosis within a year of...