Articles

Everton – The Chinese Links

Everton – The Chinese Links

Evertonians who know Liverpool well, will be aware of the longstanding historical links between the city and China. They may be less knowledgeable about the numerous players who have worn royal blue, but who also played in China at some point in their career, and how far the links go back in time. This article will give readers a flavour of the links between Everton and China over the years, and show how important some aspects of that relationship were intended to be. This introduction sets the scene and focusses on two players who represented Everton during World War Two.…
Read More
Son of My Father (part 19): Albert and Paul Holmes

Son of My Father (part 19): Albert and Paul Holmes

                              Holmes Sweet Holmes                                  Albert Holmes Albert Valentine Holmes was born on 14 February 1942, St. Valentine’s Day, hence the middle name Valentine. In his teens, Albert attracted attention for his football skills and was wanted by Rotherham United, but declined in order to prioritise his focus on his studies, which were more important to him. He started work by taking on an apprenticeship with British Gas (East Midlands Gas) as a gas fitter. The works had a football team for which Albert played. He was also involved in local football and, at the age of  sixteen, matched up against opponents…
Read More
Cyril Lello – Everton’s Shropshire Lad

Cyril Lello – Everton’s Shropshire Lad

By Rob Sawyer Ludlow, now the gastronomic capital of the beautiful county of Shropshire, is considered a football backwater, yet even seventy years after his sporting heyday, Cyril Lello is held in high esteem in the market town. In Everton’s dark days of the early 1950’s, with the team struggling to return to the topflight of English football, it was the Salopian, a quiet man with matinee idol looks, who brought authority, effort - and no little ability - to the Blues cause.  The road to Goodison Park was a long one: Cyril Frank Lello came into the world on…
Read More
The Story of Bellefield

The Story of Bellefield

From its Early Nineteenth Century Origin to a Seventy Year Association with Everton FC Mike Royden When Everton finally left Bellefield for the last time on 9 October 2007, it brought to an end an eight-decade association with the training complex which commenced in the 1930s. Previously, the senior side had utilised a variety of grounds, including Stanley Park and Walton Stiles, but from the turn of the century, training was centred on the Goodison pitch and the adjacent training ground behind the Park End stand. But how did the club come to use Bellefield and what was the estate…
Read More
Tommy ‘T.G.’ Jones by his former team mate John Cowell

Tommy ‘T.G.’ Jones by his former team mate John Cowell

Rob Sawyer in conversation with former Pwllheli goalkeeper John Cowell on his association with Everton and Wales legend T.G.Jones. Tommy G. Jones – often known by his initials, T.G., was idolised by Everton and Wales supporters in the late 1930s and 1940s. Dubbed the Prince of Centre-halves by devoted fans, Jones was described by Dixie Dean as the finest all-round player he had ever seen. A league title winner in 1939, Jones lost many of his best years to the war, and picked up a debilitating ankle injury in a Merseyside derby in 1944. Everton team in 1948 – TG…
Read More
Bobby Parker – an Everton hero

Bobby Parker – an Everton hero

Bobby Parker is an Everton hero. A real life, bona fide hero in the truest definition of the word. On a football pitch Robert Norris Parker was a goalscoring hero who struck at the rate of almost a goal a game. But off it he was a war-hero, a man who sacrificed a sparkling career for his country – cruelly a sacrifice precious few people were aware of. Everton’s history is littered with what might have been stories – but none is more tragic than the experience of a superb Scottish centre-forward who deserves a place near the top of…
Read More
Everton’s First League Match

Everton’s First League Match

Everton 2 v 1 Accrington Football League Division One, 8 September 1888 Anfield - Attendance: 12,000 - Referee: J Bentley Everton: Smalley, Dick, Ross, Holt, Jones, Dobson, Fleming, Lewis, Chadwick, Waugh, Farmer Accrington: Horne, Stevenson, McLellan, Haworth, Pemberton, Wilkinson, Lofthouse, Bonar, Holden, Chippendale, Kirkham It started with just twelve. A dozen trailblazers striking out to create what would become the greatest football league in the world (at least until the Premier League ruined the top flight with its orgy of consumption, its vapid razzmatazz, and its Jamie Carraghers). The 8 September 1888 represented a watershed moment in English Football. After…
Read More
The Goodison Bugler’s Last Post – The Life of Francis Hamill

The Goodison Bugler’s Last Post – The Life of Francis Hamill

Rob Sawyer Unlike many clubs, Everton FC has always eschewed the use of in-match music to spur on the team or celebrate a goal – or so I thought. Tom Walker A conversation with veteran Toffees supporter Tom Walker gave me this nugget about the late 1940s, "‘The Everton Bugler used to sit in the top of the Bullens Road stand and sound the charge if we were attacking." Further corroboration of the existence of a supporter (or supporters) bringing a touch of brass to Goodison comes from Sir Paul McCartney. When recalling his childhood for the mid-1990s Anthology project…
Read More
Derek Temple and The Story of Everton’s 1966 Cup Glory

Derek Temple and The Story of Everton’s 1966 Cup Glory

by Rob Sawyer with Derek Temple Derek Temple with his wife Maureen, pictured at home with Rob Sawyer in July 2023 As Everton kicked off their 1966 FA Cup campaign the omens were inauspicious, the club’s previous taste of cup glory had been 33 years previously when Dean, Stein and Dunn hit the goals to defeat Manchester City. A season of underachievement in the league had boiled over the previous weekend. In the aftermath of a 2-0 defeat on an icy pitch at Bloomfield Road, the infamous ‘Blackpool Rumble’ (© David France) took place in the car park. Some Toffees…
Read More
The Opening of Goodison Park! – A Picnic, a Firework Display, a Friendly, the First League Game

The Opening of Goodison Park! – A Picnic, a Firework Display, a Friendly, the First League Game

Mike Royden The year 1892 was iconic in the history of Everton Football Club, famous for the dispute with John Houlding, which cumulated in the potentially club-ending gamble of moving to a new, undeveloped site, in time for the opening of the forthcoming 1892-93 season on 3 September.  It was a tall order of course, but once the decision had been made, the directors and club officials went into overdrive to ensure their dream move would become a reality in the very short time available to them. Work began in May 1892, contractors were engaged, and the pitch area –…
Read More