Rob Sawyer

For understandable reasons, Everton’s 1914/15 season team had less coverage and kudos than the other six to achieve the impressive feat of winning the Football League Championship. The season was played with the backdrop of the First World War, which had got underway in July 1914. Perhaps believing that the conflict would be over by Christmas, the regular Football League and FA Cup competitions went ahead. This was in the face of dissent from much of the population at large, who felt that young and fit men should be joining the armed forces, rather than earning wages through sport. When the Toffees duly landed the title in May 1915, both the level of celebration were decidedly muted.

Everton FC Heritage Society member George Orr went a long way to giving the 1914/15 squad the attention it merited when he wrote and published, Over the Top – an account of the season, featuring profiles the Everton players and club officials.
Here below, I go into a bit more in depth into the story of an unsung hero from that era, Alan Grenyer – one of the many excellent Toffeemen to hail from the Tyne and Wear region.
Alan grew up in North Shields. Born in August 1892 into poverty, this terribly shy boy excelled at football in his teens with junior side North Shields Collingwood. What stood him apart, aside from his clear ability, was the fact that he alone wore trousers, while his teammates and opponents wore shorts. Years later, he explained, ‘Whenever I played football, all I did was tuck my trousers in my stockings, put my scarf on and put it through my braces at the back – and I was ready for the game.’

As a seventeen-year-old-boy in 1908, he joined his hometown club, North Shields Athletic. After a mere fifteen appearances for the first team, the 5’10” tall player was spotted by Everton secretary Will Cuff and former captain Jack Taylor, who was assisting with scouting, having sustained a nasty throat injury in his final first team match. Come the autumn of 1910, Alan was brought to Merseyside for a fee of £125. A condition of the deal was that he should be permitted to complete his apprenticeship as a riveter with a local firm.
Along with fellow North-easterner, Ernie Gault, he lodged with a family living on Hahnemann Road, close to Goodison Park. His first team debut came at left-half against Nottingham Forest in April 1910 – a match that confirmed the Midland team’s relegation (in their ranks was Joe Mercer, father of Joe junior who would star for Everton in the 1930s). The Liverpool Echo stated that the debutant ‘showed up well, although lacking in placing power’.
He struggled to establish himself as a first team regular in his favoured wing-half position. Then his chance came, as he explained: ‘One day, when I was traveling reserve with the First Division side, Harry Makepeace, probably the greatest all-rounder the country has ever known, said: “What about giving Alan a game? He is getting stiff with all this traveling around and he will be too stiff when you want him to play.” They played me in the first team the following week, and Harry hardly ever played for Everton again.’ The recollection, given several decades later, was not entirely accurate – Makepeace (the dual cricket and football England international) remained a regular in the Everton side. Alan finally became a regular pick in the autumn of 1912, making thirty appearances that season, and twenty-two in 1913/14.

He lost his place six games into the championship-winning 1914/15 season, before being recalled in mid-March for a dramatic 3-4 home defeat to title challengers Oldham Athletic. Three days later, there were many khaki-clad servicemen in the crowd, who had been wounded at Neuve-Chapelle and were invited to take in a match by the Toffees’ board of directors (the club, aided by donations, supplied forty footballs to the various battalions of the Liverpool regiments, stationed at home and on mainland Europe). Alan was absent from that match, but was back in the side at the expense of Makepeace a few days later, when the Blues overcame Bolton Wanderers 5-3 (less than 6,000 were present, as the impact of the war became clear).
During the run in, an injury crisis saw Alan switched from wing-half to inside-forward for an away trip to Bradford Park Avenue. He obliged with what was described in the Evening Express as a ‘beautiful goal’ from a Sam Chedgzoy pass. It helped to secure two vital points. A further victory and draw, with Alan back at wing-half, saw the title come to Everton for the first time since 1891 (it was the first time the actual trophy came to Goodison Park). In all, Alan had made fourteen appearances.


Even before the last ball had been kicked in anger, the FA had announced that there would be no regular football competitions in the 1915/16 season due to the continuing conflict. During the war years, while enlisted on the home front, Alan made 199 appearances for the Toffees in regional competitions. After the wartime hiatus in Football League and FA Cup competitions, he picked up where he left off, as did clubmates like Sam Chedgzoy, Tom Fleetwood, Tom Fern and Bobby Parker. The latter had been injured in combat and was never the same player. Along with clubmate Tom Fleetwood and future Everton striker Jack Cock, Alan featured in a North V South England trial match played at Stamford Bridge in April 1919 (a 4-1 win for the North). Alan went on to gain international recognition seven months later in a Victory International match against Wales in Cardiff (not deemed an official England match in the record books). Sadly for him, in one passage of play, 45-year-old Billy Meredith evaded him and struck a cross-shot through the arms of goalkeeper Williamson to earn a 2-1 win for the Welshmen. Alan was also given honours in an English League v Scottish League match played in Birmingham. A family bereavement meant that he missed the return fixture at Hampden Park.

Back (left to right): James Jimmy Miller, Robert Bob Thompson, William Billy Wareing, Alan Grenyer, Tom Fleetwood, Joe Donnachie, J. Elliott (trainer).
Front: William Robinson (hat), Frank Jefferis, Ernest Ernie Gault, Frank William Mitchell, John Maconnachie, Herbert Bert Rigsby.
In spite of 14-years of service to the Blues, the North Shields man never the lost pangs to return to his native Tyneside, where he would typically spend his summers (the April 1921 Census found him at home with wife Ann and two children at 3 East Percy Street, North Shields). In August 1922, (a few months after his benefit match, against Aston Villa in a season in which he had made a modest thirteen appearances), he told the Liverpool Echo: ‘I have not re-signed and I want to play with Blyth Spartans in the North-Eastern League, but Everton have put the bar up. I think they might let me off, I was a loyal servant for many years and the time has come when I want to be near home. There is no complaint against me and I feel Everton might respect my desires.’

(with Alan standing far left)
In spite of a plea made in person to the club directors, they would not budge, and retained his registration. In spite of the Toffees’ reluctance to release the wing-half, the club only have him a bit-part role in the 1922/23 season – selected on just seven occasions, with his last outing coming at home to Chelsea in February 1923. Everton renewed his engagement, once more, the following summer. In the spring of 1924, he again asked for his release from the Merseysiders. Having initially refused, the directorate finally relented in the autumn, and granted a free transfer to South Shields of the Second Division. He left the Toffees having donned the Blue jersey 148 times, scoring nine goals.

He first kicked a ball in a competitive match for his new club in May 1925, and then had two solid seasons of football, before hanging up the boots after a home defeat to New Brighton in September 1928 – whereupon he focused on trainer duties as assistant to George Lillyerob. A year later, Alan crossed the river to become coach of his hometown side North Shields (his son, also called Alan, would, in time, make the same move to Appleby Park).
In spite of his drawn-out exit from Goodison, there was no lasting resentment on the former League title winner’s part. He recommended his nephew, John Cuff, to his former club, in the mid-1930s. Cuff never broke through to the Blues’ first team, but went on to become an accomplished rally driver. (See John Cuff – from Goodison Park to The Monte Carlo Rally by Rob Sawyer)

Alan also put Jack Hedley the Toffees way, the full-back making over fifty appearances for the Toffees before a dalliance with Colombian football and a spell at Roker Park.
Alan remained at North Shields for over 20 years, rarely being seen on the training pitch without a trademark flat cap on his head. His remarkable service to the Robins was recognised in two benefit matches staged at Appleby Park in the spring of 1950. In one, a Grenyer Select XI, included Jackie Milburn in the line-up. In imploring supporters to turn up in great numbers to assist with the fundraising, North Shields manager Charlie Ferguson lavished praise on the club stalwart: ‘Alan is the finest man I have ever met in football.’



Sadly, Alan was too ill to attend the matches in his honour, but conveyed his thanks via a piece in the local newspaper. Once recovered, he returned to duties as trainer ,until ill health forced him to finally step away, only a couple of months before his passing at home on 20 April 1953.
Sources:
The Grenyer Family
Liverpool Echo
Newcastle Evening News
Orr, George, Everton Football club, Champions 1914/15: ‘Over The Top’ (2014)
Corbett, James, The Everton Encyclopedia (2008)
Johnson, Steve, Everton: The Official Complete Record (2010)
Johnson, Steve, Everton Results www.evertonresults.com
Smith, Billy, Everton Chronicles bluecorrespondent.co.uk