Jamie Yates
On the afternoon of Thursday 8 October 2026, Everton Football Club Heritage Society (EFCHS) members Jamie Yates and Lewis Royden travelled east from Liverpool Lime Street, over the Pennines to Kingston-upon-Hull, to take part in the first event of its kind on such a scale in the society’s history.
The story begins at Hill Dickinson Stadium on 19 February 2026, when around eighty members of the Senior Tigers Supporters Club made the opposite journey across to Merseyside for a stadium tour. Undeterred by one of their coaches having broken down on the way (turning a two and a half hour journey into a five hour slog!), the Senior Tigers party made it on time and split into two groups. Jamie – who has family in East Riding of Yorkshire and worked in Hull from 2005-2007 – was one of the guides on the first tour to set off. At its completion, after ninety minutes of laughter and good cheer (not to mention some top-notch stadium tour content, honest!) Jamie exchanged contact details with Ernie Addy, of the Senior Tigers committee, and a plan was hatched. Jamie and Ernie stayed in touch with a view to Jamie, in his role as an EFCHS member, visiting the MKM Stadium to give a talk on the various connections between Hull City and Everton over the years at some point in the future when he was over visiting his relatives.
In the meantime, Sergej Jakirović and his team – working under a transfer embargo and favourites for relegation from the Championship – embarked on a remarkable run of form, culminating in a last-gasp Play-Off Final victory over Hayden Hackney’s Middlesbrough at Wembley Stadium in May. As soon as the 2026/27 Premier League fixture list was published and Everton’s visit to Humberside was confirmed for early October – the weekend of Hull Fair to be precise, but more on that later! – Jamie and Ernie sprang into action, with the aid of Ernie’s Senior Tigers committee colleagues Rob Wilson and Richard Beachell.
The date was set for the Senior Tigers’ monthly meeting in October in the Kingston Suite, just a few days prior to Everton’s visit to the MKM, and Lewis Royden agreed to accompany Jamie to film the event for future broadcast on the EFCHS YouTube channel. Watch this space for that, plus accompanying articles going into greater depth about some of the players whom Jamie discussed in his presentation on the day.
Upon arrival at the stadium in glorious autumn sunshine, Jamie and Lewis, plus their special guests and Jamie’s family members, were treated to a viewing of the Hull City heritage wall in the players’ tunnel. There, the name of every player to pull on a Tigers jersey since 1904, listed chronologically with each individual assigned a legacy number, adorns one side of the corridor with pictures from great moments in the club’s history emblazoned opposite.
A lovely touch from our hosts saw bags of Everton Mints laid out on every table, with a collection of Hull City and Everton themed cuttings, programmes and memorabilia displayed. An accompanying digital feed of historical mementoes and full-page newspaper scans were on the wall behind, put together by Rob and other members of the club, under the guidance of Memorabilia and Heritage Coordinator Tony Conway.
(Lewis Royden in conversation with John Britton in the background)
At 2pm sharp, after club updates and announcements had been shared and a warm introduction provided by Hull City Club Chaplain and Chair of the Senior Tigers, the Reverend Allan Bagshawe, Jamie embarked upon his presentation, which detailed the many links between the Tigers and the Toffees since the formation of Hull City Association Football Club in 1904. During the in-depth research he conducted throughout the summer of 2026, there proved to be far more connections than he could possibly have imagined, dating right back to City’s earliest days, when they achieved their first ever win, 2-0, versus an Everton Combination (reserve team) XI, in only their third ever fixture, on 10 September 1904. Amongst the Hull City line-up that day was outside-left Fred Wolfe, the London-born son of a German immigrant father, who had until recently been on the books at Goodison Park. The relationship between the Tigers and the Toffees runs deep!
Among the audience were a group of special guests, relatives of three men with strong Hull City and Everton connections. John Britton is the youngest son of legendary Everton player of the 1930s Cliff Britton, who went on to manage both clubs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Siblings Caroline and Stephen Arnott are the great grandchildren of Anthony ‘Andy’ Browell, a Hull City stalwart in the club’s early years who followed his younger brother Tommy to Everton in 1912, making a solitary appearance for the Toffees while serving as vice-captain of the Combination team.
Tommy Browell, a teenage goalscoring sensation, had been on Everton’s radar for over a year, when the Toffees signed him for £1,600 in January 1912, plus the gate receipts from a friendly at Anlaby Road on Hull Fair weekend that year, which fell on 10 October – the same date as the 2026 Hull City versus Everton match was originally scheduled for before being moved for television and to avoid competition with the crowds heading to this year’s fair! Tommy scored five goals on his return to face his former club, who won by seven goals to four, with future Everton striker Stan Fazackerly scoring a hat trick for the Tigers!
Caroline brought along several newspaper cuttings, programmes and archive photographs from the collection of her father Doug, grandson of Andy Browell, who was unfortunately away on holiday the week of the event. Andy and Tommy, along with a third brother, George Browell, achieved the rare distinction of all playing together, in two Football League fixtures in 1911. Also in attendance was Roy Bly, son of legendary Hull City goalkeeper and Hall of Fame member, Billy Bly, who made 438 appearances for the Tigers and played against Everton during their time in the second tier – under the management of Cliff Britton – in the 1950s.
Included in the presentation was a prerecorded video interview expertly conducted by Richard Beachell with former Everton and Hull City player of the modern era, Nick Barmby, another of City’s Hall of Fame members. Possibly for the first time since his controversial move across the park to Liverpool in 2000, Nick was able to state on record some of his best memories of the four seasons he spent at Goodison Park at the end of the twentieth century.
After a short interval for tea and coffee, Jamie and Richard were joined onstage by John Britton, who spoke eloquently about his father, the man he was at home and at work, and the diligent, highly principled manner in which he conducted himself throughout his life. John’s recollections were rightly met with a huge ovation from an appreciative audience, many of whom witnessed Cliff Britton’s team win promotion from the third division in the mid-1960s and do battle with Everton in a belter of an FA Cup third round tie in January 1964, which reigning League Champions Everton only won narrowly in a replay at Goodison Park, after twice falling behind to their then Third Division opponents across the two matches.
Cliff Britton – A Life in Football
by Rob Sawyer
Click here for Rob Sawyer’s excellent biography of Cliff Britton on this website
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Jamie rounded off the presentation with thanks to all involved with the Senior Tigers, and the hospitality and liaison staff at Hull City on behalf of EFCHS. Pat Ellis, another of the Senior Tigers committee members who visited Hill Dickinson in February, took to the stage to return the compliment, before the Reverend Bagshawe brought proceedings to a close with a few warm final words.
After another hearty round of applause from all in attendance, Jamie and John Britton took on the important final task of drawing the raffle!
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Photos by Lewis Royden and Jamie Yates
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
With sincere thanks to Ernie Addy, Rob Wilson and Richard Beachell for making this event happen, and to the Reverend Allan Bagshawe, the rest of the committee and all members of the Senior Tigers who attended on the day for such a warm welcome. Huge thanks also on behalf of Jamie and his colleagues to all of you who visited Hill Dickinson Stadium for the tour earlier this year, it was lovely to meet you!
Please visit the brilliant Senior Tigers website www.seniortigers.org.uk to find out more!
Thanks to Nick Barmby for agreeing to answer questions from an Evertonian, and to Richard Beachell for asking them and hosting the talk onstage.
Special thanks to our guests, Hull City and Everton royalty!
To John Britton for his wonderful recollections of his father, the great Cliff Britton, and to Caroline and Stephen Arnott – and their father Doug! – for sharing some wonderful memorabilia from the careers of the brilliant Browell brothers. Watch this space for an in-depth article about them, coming soon!
The presentation would not have been possible without the outstanding www.oncloudseven.com website, compiled by leading Tigers historian Mike Scott. What an incredible resource, thank you so much Mike!
For all things Toffees please check out our own Steve Johnson’s utterly brilliant site www.evertonresults.com, and for a deep dive into the magnificent obsession of EFCHS founder Dr. David France, please check out www.evertoncollection.org.uk.
Below, some of the memorabilia put on display by Senior Tigers members:
