My love of football

Some may be surprised that although I have spent most of my life associated with cricket, my early involvement in sport was with football – the soccer variety.

It is probably not a coincidence, as my forefathers loved football. My grandfather, George Moulding, played for Axminster and Lyme Regis – and during the war played for his Devon Regiment team.

My Uncle Cecil Moulding was a very useful footballer, who apparently played in the same Devon youth side as Cliff Bastin, who played for Exeter, Arsenal and England. Cliff Bastin was a legend at Arsenal, where he is still the third highest goal-scorer for the club.

When my father, Tim Moulding, came out of the Air-Force, I vaguely remember him playing football for Kilmington, although he appeared to be plagued by injuries. In that Kilmington team, I remember Ken Ebdon, Ivan Clarke, Jack Lavender – and I believe Bernard Hiscox was in goal, prior to his involvement with the Millwey Rise football club.

My father also occasionally turned out in carnival matches, in either a fancy-dress team or a veterans' side, playing with the likes of Cecil Sansom, Tusker Hoare and Sid Pascoe.

School Football

My first recollection of playing a competitive football match was at Primary School, playing in a house match against a team which included several older boys, who always seemed much bigger and stronger than me. However, I was given the job of man-marking the opposition's star-man, Malcolm Slade, who was an extremely pacey winger in those days. I must have done a reasonable job as Malcolm failed to score in that particular match.

Moving on to Colyton Grammar School, my football recollection is more about the school first team in 1957, than my own exploits in my early years at Colyton. As an 11-year-old, the first team players seemed like giants, both in stature and soccer prowess. The team included Keith Ham or Alan Griffin in goal, Michael Marsh in midfield (half-back in those days) and the majestic Martin Leach and Dick Sturch up front – banging in goals left, right and centre. I can't recall their record – but any opposing school side which beat them, must have been a bit special.

In the late fifties, all my spare time was taken up with football in the winter and cricket in the summer, utilising the Foxhill Playing Fields or the back yard of my good friend, Tony Kent's house in Alexandra Road.

Tony Kent and his father John were keen supporters of Exeter City and for a couple of seasons, John Kent would take us down to watch the City, who were then playing in Division Three South. They played good football and I won't bore you with a recital of each of the players. However, I particularly remember Johnny Nicholls, a former West Bromwich Albion player, who played twice for England and Gordon Dale, a stylish left-winger who came from Portsmouth. In the FA Cup, Exeter had been drawn at home to play against Luton Town, who were then a First Division Team and reached the Cup Final in 1959. Luton had done their homework and knew that all of Exeter's most penetrating moves stemmed from Gordon Dale, with pin-point passes from the left-wing. Former Northern Ireland international player and eventual manager, Billy Bingham, played right-wing for Luton and in the first ten minutes, he viciously tackled Gordon Dale three times, resulting in Exeter's star man being carried off (no substitutes in those days.) It made me realise what a cut-throat game football could be.

Axminster Town Football Club

I started to show an interest in Axminster Town Football Club – where I began watching the club playing in the Exeter & District League at Sector Lane. I remember a particular Axminster Hospital Cup match between Axminster Town and Seaton – not least, that my cousin, Peter King, kept goal for Seaton Town. This was the first time that I had seen Martin Leach in action – and he was still a schoolboy at that time. Martin played on the left wing – and he was scintillating. I believe Axminster won 7-1 and Martin Leach scored five. His speed off the mark was breathtaking. The Axminster midfield just fed him the ball, he beat his full-back with ease and crashed the ball into the net. Poor old Peter King – he didn't know what had hit him.

Axminster Tigers Youth Team

When I was f14, I became aware of an initiative by Axminster Town stalwart, Roy McLennan to run a youth team. Roy had been a brilliant player for Axminster, but was suffering from injuries and was winding down his playing career. Axminster always played in yellow and black stripes and so Roy Mac decided that our under 16 youth team would be called "The Tigers". We were playing in a newly formed youth league, which was just five teams, which I seem to remember were Axminster, Honiton, Seaton, Ottery St Mary and Lyme Regis.

Nothing surprised me more than Roy Mac deciding that I should be the captain of this Under 16 team, although I was two years younger than most of them. I remember the team well:

Dick Parris in goal

The late Barry Hutchings at left back

Terry Newbery at centre half

Derek Vincent or Johnny Mitchell at right wing

The late Barry Manley at centre forward

Patrick Spiller at left wing

I believe that Ottery St Mary won the youth league and they moved on to play in the Exeter and District Youth League, which made room for Beer Albion to join.

In the three years I played for the Tigers youth team, several other players joined the squad, such as Ray Self, Barry Heath, Terry Chown, Trevor Davis, Bernard Harding and Mike Sansom. Several of these players went on to give sterling service to Axminster over the years.

At the same time that I was playing Saturday football for Axminster, I also found my way into the first team at Colyton Grammar School, where we also had a strong team, which included such players as David Pavey, Terry Denslow and Roger Hurrell. Terry Newbery and Tony Kent from the Axminster Tigers were also in the school team.

Axminster Town Reserves

When I was 14 or 15, I started playing for Axminster Reserves in the Perry Street League, mostly at Sector Lane, but occasionally at the St Mary's Hospital (Box House) field. One of my first games was away at Crewkerne Reserves, where I received a press write-up from Pulman's Weekly News Sports Editor John Lukins, who was in goal for Crewkerne, and reported that "Axminster youngster Andrew Moulding put two past my 16-stone frame!"

Axminster Town First Team

It wasn't long before I was making my way into the first team, playing alongside John Deaves, Ron Ghost, Robert Broom, Derek Lecocq, Michael Marsh, Tony Rockett, Keith Wiscombe, Tony Vickery, Brian Truscott, Graham Gay, Chico Cozens and Kenny Vincent. Axminster Nub News Editor, Philip Evans will remember some of these players well, as a number of them hailed from Lyme Regis, as they wanted to play a better standard of football then they would get at Lyme Regis. – including Philip!

At 16-years-old, as I previously mentioned in "Moulding's Memories", I moved away to study in Cheltenham. Axminster Football Club had kindly contacted Cheltenham Town Football Club, who were then in the Southern League, and suggested that they might invite me to have a trial for the club. However, this was as during the 1963 winter and readers will remember that this was the winter when the country was under snow for several weeks (several months in some places). Football was curtailed and many matches were lost. Although I had received a letter from Cheltenham Town manager Arch Anderson, the trial unfortunately never took place.

College Football

During this time whilst at the North Gloucestershire Technical College, I plaed for the College football team, which was very enjoyable. In the same college team, I played with a lad called Mike Anderson, whose father was involved with Gloucester City, just nine miles down the road from Cheltenham and keen rivals in the Southern League (now equivalent to the Vanarama National League). Mike's father invited me to Gloucester City, where I trialled for the club and signed on in 1963.

Gloucester City Football Club

The club played at Longlevens, opposite the Gloucester Greyhound Racing Track. (The ground was subsequently sold for housing and in 1964, the club relocated to Horton Road, nearer the centre of the city). Coincidentally, Gloucester City AFC was generally known as "The Tigers".

Training was twice a week and I had no transport. Initially, I travelled to the ground by bus, but fortunately the Gloucester City reserves captain Johnny Rothin, lived in Cheltenham and was able to pick me up for training and matches. However, Johnny was a chimney sweep by profession and after a day's work he was black as a rook. His van was black, he was black - and by the time I arrived back in Cheltenham after training, I was black!

Our manager at Gloucester City was Tommy Casey, who played for Newcastle United and Bristol City, before he moved to Gloucester City as player/manager in 1963. Tommy Casey had 17 caps for Northern Ireland and played for his country in the World Cup in Sweden in 1958. He was a hard man – typical seasoned professional – and stood no nonsense! Amongst the first team players were Rob Coldray, who played for Gloucester City for 15 years, Gerry Horlock, later to be a goal-scoring legend at Cheltenham Town and Adrian Williams, a former Bristol City inside forward.

I played the whole of the 1963/64 season for Gloucester City Reserves in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League, against such teams as Forest Green Rovers, before they became a Football League team. The City reserves side had an average age of about 17 years and included young players who subsequently acquired professional contracts, such as Cheltenham Town goalkeeper Geoff Pellant and Gloucester City players, Ray Wixey and Geoff Medcroft. However, the young player who made the greatest impact in that Gloucester City reserves team as an inside left, alongside myself at left wing, and that was Rod Thomas.

At 16-years-old, Rod Thomas was an exceptional ball-player, but tall and skinny and easily knocked off the ball. However, I was not surprised that within a year, he had been signed by a league club – Swindon Town. For a couple of years, I kept my eye on the Swindon Town team list – Rod didn't seem to be selected - and then he appeared – but as a right back. Swindon had obviously turned a ball-playing, light-weight inside forward into a highly successful full-back. Rod was born and brought up in Wales and within a couple of years he was an international, eventually playing 47 times for Wales. Rod Thomas was with Swindon Town for a number of years and ultimately signed for Derby County by Dave Mackay, where he continued to develop and helped Derby to become First Division Champions in 1974/75.

Gloucester City Reserves came near the top of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League in the 1963/64 season. W won the prestigious County Senior Cup, beating the top Cheltenham League club, St Mark's 3-1 in the final, which was played at the Whaddon Road ground - the home of Cheltenham Town.

Cheltenham YMCA

At the end of the season, through travel difficulties and educational commitments, I decided to conclude my football with Gloucester City and played two seasons for Cheltenham YMCA in the Cheltenham League, which I thoroughly enjoyed – though not a great standard of football.

The Saints

In 1966, I moved to Birmingham where I was working with the building company C Bryant & Son. Initially, I was living in Harborne, travelling to and from Cheltenham at weekends, which curtailed my football. However, following my marriage to Mary in 1967, we settled in Edgbaston. Our home was conveniently placed and I could get to see Birmingham City in 20 minutes, Aston Villa in 15 minutes and West Bromwich Albion in 10 minutes (this was assuming that there was no heavy traffic.) This was the first time that I had watched First Division football, although at that time, West Brom were in Division One, whilst Birmingham City and Aston Villa were in Division Two. I therefore adopted West Brom as "my team" and that has been the case from that day onwards. West Brom were regularly in the top six of the league in the late sixties and performed well in cup competitions, resulting in a trip to Wembley. The players I particularly enjoyed watching at West Brom, during the four years I was in Birmingham, were Jeff Astle, Tony Brown, Asa Hartford and Colin Suggett. But most of all it was "Sir" Bobby Hope, a Scot, who was a brilliant creator of goals.

As I was keen to watch football on Saturdays, which also included trips to Wolverhampton, where Derek Dougan was the star. I decided to play Sunday football. In the Midlands, probably as a number of young footballers had a wish to watch league football, Sunday football was of a good standard. Through a colleague at work, I signed on for a team called "The Saints"! We were far from that – they were very good players, but they took "getting stuck in" to the n'th degree! We were probably the dirtiest team in the league and if we finished the match with a full team of 11, it was a miracle. I was about the only one, who placed good football above a good fight!

We were "managed" by Alan Deakin, a friend of one of our players. Alan Deakin was a former captain of Aston Villa and when he was available, he would take our training and watch our matches. It was during the last match I played for The Saints that my "football career" came to an end. Strangely, it was nothing to do with a dirty tackle, but a twisting of the knee when trying to body-swerve around an opponent. My knee "cracked" and I knew it was serious. I somehow managed to get home, visited my GP the next day and ultimately finished up in the Birmingham Orthopaedic Hospital, where I had a cartilage removed. That was it – no more football for me.

Back to the Tigers

On returning to live in Axminster to manage the family business, I tried out my knee on a couple of occasions and each time, the knee collapsed. I visited the Orthopaedic in Exeter to investigate the problem and was told that I need not have had the cartilage removed as I had torn my anterior cruciate ligament. In recent years, there may have been a possibility of a knee reconstruction, but in the early 1970s that was not possible, unless you were a professional sportsman.

I still loved my football, so I offered my services to Axminster Town Football Club as a committee member, alongside the stalwarts of the club such as Cecil Sansom, Roy McLennan, Eunice Beer and Jack Bagwell. I was able to help the club achieve planning approval for the Valley View development in Sector Lane, once the old timber grandstand was removed. This provided essential capital for ground improvements.

As a committee member, there were a number of roles required, including travelling with the team to away games – acting as "trainer" to go on with the "magic sponge", run the line, etc. In the mid-seventies, I was travelling to an away game with the Reserves. We didn't have a substitute, but I was running the line. Someone said: "Andrew, we haven't got a sub – we'll have to put your name on the team-sheet". I had some football boots, for running up and down the line – and lo and behold, someone was badly injured in the first five-minutes. "You're on Andrew", was the call – but would my knee survive? I can't say that for the rest of the game I had set the world alight – but my knee had survived. I suppose that five years of rest – no twisting and turning, had helpd to sort things out.

From thereon there was no stopping me. I trained to get fit – that wasn't a problem. However, the knee was extremely dodgy. I was never a good tackler, but I had certainly lost some confidence now. Body-swerves and side-stepping an opponent were precarious, but I was starting to enjoy my football. I had half a season or so for the Reserves and eventually found my way into the first team, playing with the likes of the Gage brothers, Trigger Morgan, Jerry James, Alan Seward, Pete Garner and of course, our captain, my old Tigers team-mate Ray Self.

Barry Doble

We had a couple of players from Chard in the club at that time. One of these was a certain Barry Doble, strong as an ox and aggressive with it. A story had gone around about Barry playing in a local derby between two Chard teams. Both sides were fired up for the game and Barry Doble had badly fouled an opponent and was sent off The referee tried to get him to leave the field, but he refused and grabbed the ref around the neck. This stimulated the opposition to remonstrate with Barry, who chased them across the field – and it was only after he had chased them for 30 yards, that they realised that Barry still had the referee under his arm!

Another tale about Barry Doble involved cricket, where he was playing at home for Chaffcombe. The umpire was the local vicar, who had given Barry out LBW. "I was never out", said Barry and refused to leave – and he carried on, "if I can't bat, nor can anyone else". He got hold of his cricket bat and hammered each of the three stumps into the ground, until there was only six inches of each stump left in the ground!

Off the sports pitch, you could not have found a nicer chap than Barry Doble, but once the red mist blew across him – that was it.

Axminster Reserves

I struggled in the first team and was soon relegated to the Reserves, where we were striving to put out a team. I even persuaded my good friends Phil Spong and Alan Jones from the cricket club to play. However, in the following season, the team started to come together with a good youth team policy and a mixture of old-timers and up-and-coming youngsters. We had some useful players – not least, our captain Brian (Robbo) Robinson, a former youth team player with West Brom. We were promoted and went a whole season unbeaten. In our side, we also had Charlie Perham in goal, Brian Hoare, Barry Ebdon, Colin Pitman, Les Bounds and other stalwarts.

The following season, we had started well in the higher division, but I was beginning to consider the potential risk of playing with a dodgy knee, bringing up a family, running a business, etc – and what would happen if I fractured a leg and was not able to work? Not least, I had turned up to play an away game on an awful ground, it was stingingly cold and pouring with rain – or was it hail?

I spoke to Brian Robinson at the start of the match and said "that's it Robbo – I will play this afternoon, but I will be hanging up my boots at the end of this game". He and others were a bit stunned – but I had made up my mind.

Axminster Youth Team – again!

Although the club had very good under 14 and under 16 teams, there was a place for the younger primary school children to be involved. My son Robert and his friends were playing at school and the Axminster Primary School team were having some success in school matches and inter-school tournaments. So, a group of us oldies (mostly parents) including Ken Froom, Bob Smith, Ian Spiller and Tony Pursey, set up regular coaching sessions for Under 11s. We roped in players like Brian McAuley, Dave Harding and Ray Self to provide specialist coaching for goalkeeping skills, defending and captaincy. We produced some good players for the future, such as Matt Smith, Ian Hall, Brian Morgan, Paul Miller and Shane Roberts.

Best players for Axminster[2H]

I encountered some excellent players at Axminster. I never played with Martin Leach – but what a player. My first experience of Reserve team football, brought me into contact with Roy McLennan, who must have been a fabulous player in his day – and what a lovely man. In my early days, as a youngster, I played a few games with Tony Rockett, a talisman in defence, who broke up attacks and set things up for his team-mates, in the manner of Bobby Moore. I also played occasionally with Kenny Vincent, an excellent ball player who could wriggle through a defence and score superb goals.

I knew Brian McAuley growing up, when we both lived at Foxhill, and I followed his career with Plymouth Argyle. When he came back to Axminster, we thought he would play in goal – but he played outfield, where he was able to direct things as a central defender.

Probably the most talented player I came across, in my final season was Mike Lorimer. Mike had played regularly for Manchester United Reserves as a full-back. At that time, he was one of the team's backs, whilst the other was Irish international Noel Cantwell. Mike had joined Axminster Town, when he had bought a garage business in the area. What a player. He would dominate the team from midfield and spray the passes around with ease.

[H2]Funniest incident

One of our Reserve team players was renowned for going down injured – but was generally OK in seconds. However, we were playing away at Combe St Nicholas and in the early part of the game, our player went into a tackle with one of the hard-men from Combe. Our man was pole-axed, writhing in pain, saying that his ankle was broken. This time – it was no joke. An ambulance was called for, whilst we kept him warm, with his legs strapped together. Thankfully, the ambulance arrived quickly, he was lifted carefully onto a stretcher and as we were playing in Somerset, the ambulance was soon on its way to Musgrove Park in Taunton. The match was then able to continue and half-time was reached. We had just begun the second half, when the ambulance returned. Our player stepped out of the ambulance, saying that his ankle felt a lot better – and he played the whole of the second half!!

Rugby

In more recent years, I have really enjoyed Rugby Union – although I'm afraid that I can't take to Rugby League whatsoever. Whilst I was at college, I played a bit of rugby. I didn't really understand the game – and kept away from the scrum – but was able to compete well in the three-quarters, as I was quite quick, with good ball handling, etc.

In the 1970s my building firm carried out some work for Mr Bob Pincham and his wife. They were a lovely couple and we became good friends. Bob was a Rotarian, a Freemason and treasurer of Cloakham Lawn Sports Centre – so I met with him on a regular basis. But also, Bob had been a bank manager in Twickenham – and his bank had the RFU account. Bob was obviously well revered as he could always get half-a-dozen tickets for the internationals at Twickenham. What a time we had at these matches. We would leave early and get a place in the Twickenham complex, where we would fire up the barbecue by about 11.00 am, with beer, wine and everything else. (Unfortunately someone had to be the driver) For about seven or eight years we never missed an international and we called our group ARSE – Axminster Rugby Supporters Emporium. Our group comprised a combination of Bob Pincham, John Playford, Richard Malcolm, Phil Spong, Nick Yool, Phil Taylor, Don Fell, my son Robert and myself. When away matches were being played, the ARSE group met up at one of our homes and watched the rugby on the telly. The matches we were able to get tickets for at Twickenham included the World Cup Final in 1991 when England lost 6-12 to Australia.

Our group always remind me of the incident in 1982, when the famous, well-endowed Erika Roe ran topless across the Twickenham pitch. Everyone was cheering Erika for her entrance onto the Twickenham arena. However, I appeared to be the only one who missed the ocasion, as I was watching a chap in a gorilla suit and wondered why everyone was cheering with such gusto. They have never let me forget that incident!

In the next edition of "Moulding's Memories" I am going to talk about my life in cricket.

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