There haven’t been many goalscorers in Albion’s history – nor in the wider game either – that can match the phenomenal scoring ratio that our first real post-war centre-forward, Ireland’s Dave Walsh, achieved. Rattling in 100 goals in 174 games is pretty extraordinary stuff and there are times when, as you talk to the lively 84 year old, still a religious golfer, where you don’t wonder if he could still nip on and get 20 minutes under his belt as an impact player.
-Dave Walsh-Sp&Gen.jpg "WBA Former Player Interviews")
Few players have made the impact that Dave made on the Albion, not just instantly, in his first few games, where he scored in each of the fist six he played, but enduringly thereafter, always up towards the top of the scoring charts. And remember, these were the days when footballers clumped around in what were little more than miners’ boots, and when defenders could thump you from every angle, front, back and side, the days when if the centre half hadn’t put the opposition forward at least in the crowd, and preferably in intensive care, he hadn’t done his job properly.
It was such an encounter that put a halt to Dave’s goalscoring streak at the beginning of the 1946/47 when the Throstles went to St Andrew’s.
“The centre-half at Birmingham, he was a nasty bit of goods, he caught me and I missed two international matches because of that, that September and October, so that was an introduction to the way they did things over here as well. We lost the game 1-0, that was the end of my run of scoring and I missed a few Albion games after that, out injured, twisted my knee. England played Northern Ireland in Belfast on the Saturday and won 7-2, then they played in Dublin on the Monday and Tom Finney got the only goal. I still went to watch the games but I was sad
to have missed a chance of playing in them.
“Even though we weren’t in the top league, we always came across some top sides. There were some massive teams in the Second Division then, Tottenham, Newcastle, Manchester City, Birmingham, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday. I remember, my first home game was against Tottenham, Vic Buckingham was at left-back that day, and we beat them 1-0.”
As the years go by, we all of us tend to look at the past through rose tinted spectacles, not least when the current crop of footballers are reported in a poor light for various transgressions. But it wasn’t all gentlemen and players and handshakes all round in the past either. It was just that things didn’t get so widely reported…
“In 1947, we went to Chesterfield on the Good Friday, then played Bury on the Saturday and Chesterfield at home on the Monday. The away game at Chesterfield, Jimmy Duggan was inside left to me, he was a local lad, a giant. The right half playing for Chesterfield, he absolutely belted Jimmy that day, he spent more time on the floor than playing. They wouldn’t get away with it today. Then we played them again on the Monday. So we lined up for kick-off, and Jimmy was opposite this fella, so he shouts, “All the best!” And this lad shouts back, “Aye and all the ****** best to you. And you’ll still get the same as ****** Friday!”
“We played at Millwall and George Drury and Peter McKenna were our inside forwards. We called him “My ball Pete”. That was all he ever said, “My ball!” Not “Pass it”, “Here” or whatever, it was always “My ball”. We went in at half time, those two were arguing a bit and we were in this tiny dressing room – the majority of the away dressing rooms weren’t up to much then. There was a square table in the middle for the trainer’s stuff and that was it. This row was going on and Peter swung at George, the door opened, Fred Everiss came through it as this haymaker was coming across and caught it. Peter went to Leicester about a month later!”
Fred Everiss continued his pre-war role as secretary / manager through those first two seasons, but football was changing and ahead of the 1948/49 season, the Baggies appointed the first manager in a role that we would recognise today. Jack Smith took the reins and, at the end of the 1948/49 season, the decision looked decent enough – Albion were promoted. That said, with the players we had, even the Lord Buck might have got us up…
“Ray Barlow was such a great player, but we had a lot of them then. Joe Kennedy was a terrific footballer, the Old Man, Billy Elliott was still playing as well, Len Millard became a great full back for us. Jack Vernon was a wonderful centre-half, as good as anybody in the game. Jack Haines was a player who had one great season for us and then disappeared, had an injury and spoke his mind quite a bit as well! We all got on great. I don’t think I ever fell out with any of them.
“Getting promoted was great, but we should have gone up as champions. I missed four open goals at Grimsby on the last day of the season and if we’d won that, we’d have finished top. I’ve never known anything like it because I was usually so sharp around the goals and the blokes were going to kill me! Saying that, we’d already got promoted and we had a right few jars on the Thursday night after we’d beaten Leicester to win promotion, so we probably weren’t at our best on the Saturday!”
That season, Albion transferred another forward player, ironically to Fulham, the team that came up with us. He turned out to be the most successful goalscorer in Football League history, not that he ever really showed it at The Hawthorns.
“Arthur Rowley only played a handful of games here before he went off and was a tremendous success at Leicester. He was outside left, all left foot he was, everything had to go down the left, I don’t think he ever kicked a ball with his right foot. But it’s amazing what you can do with one particular asset. David Beckham has had incredible success, but looking at it, he can’t tackle, he can’t head a ball, can’t kick with his left foot. But look at what he’s achieved with his right foot! Danny Blanchflower was the same. Couldn’t head or tackle but he was still a great player!” With Albion in the big time again, things should have been on the up and up for Dave, but in fact he was to play just 51 more league games for the club – 21 more goals – before he headed off down Island Road to play for the Villa.
“I never really hit it off with Jack Smith as the manager, all the time I was there. He was alright, but just not my cup of tea. That’s life. He left me out of the team for a bit. In fairness to him, he did a lot for my game when he came as regards coaching me to use my left foot more, small little things but they make you a better player. He wasn’t the only reason I decided to go, because at that time, I had to start looking to make a bit of money because I was getting older, I needed to put a few bob in my pocket because I was 27, nearly 28 then.
“I went to play an international in Dublin against Norway in the November, scored a super header, low down, threw myself at it, it went in the net like a rocket. At the dinner that night, the Chairman of Shamrock Rovers came over to me. He said, “Dave, you’re on the transfer list. Would you be interested in going to the Villa? They’re very interested in you, but I’ll let you know more later, because the party involved has to get in touch with the Albion!” So they were tapping me up basically!
“We had a chat later on, and he said, “How much would you be wanting?” So I told him and he said, “I’ll let you know. Two of my daughters will come down on Tuesday night as you’re going back on the boat and they’ll let you know what’s happening.”
“So Tuesday night, they come along and said, “Dad’s sent us. Everything’s alright, you haven’t even got to go back to the Albion. It’s all sorted out!” We got off the boat at Liverpool, got the train to New Street and got in at 11 the following morning because it was the overnight boat. I thought, “I’ve got to at least tell Jack Vernon!” So I went to the ground and Jack was just running round the track, and he came over, “I see you were lucky again getting a goal at the weekend!”
““I was just doing my job Jack! Anyway, I have a bit of news for you. I’m going to the Villa. I’ll be playing against you next year!””
International football was a big part of Dave’s career and he is one of the few who has the distinction of playing for two different countries – both sides of the Irish border.
“The international thing was very strange after the war Northern Ireland only really played in the home internationals and the south didn’t play very much at all so up to 1949, you could play for both. The when the World Cup started again after the war, going to the 1950 competition, the rule was that you had to play for the country where you were born and I was born in the south so that finished me with the north.”
So, which was the first foreign team to beat England on home soil? This ought to be a question on QI to trap Alan Davies, because the thousands of you that just said Hungary have got it wrong. The enduring image of Ferenc Puskas sending Billy Wright the wrong way at Wembley came from our second defeat to the terrible foreign hoards. The first beating came four years earlier, in September 1949, at Goodison Park.
“I was a member of the first foreign team ever to beat England in England – it wasn’t the Hungarians at all, it was Ireland, but nobody paid any attention to that! We won 2-0, against Billy Wright, Jimmy Dickinson, Neil Franklin, Bert Williams, Wilf Mannion, Tom Finney, great players. Con Martin played – he was at the Villa then – and he wrote an article in the Irish press about eighteen months ago, talking about that game and he said, “There was no fuss about it, we just came in, took our jerseys off and that was it. West Bromwich Albion had come down to watch the game and I just got on the bus back with Dave and the rest of them to the midlands. That was it, nobody thought anything about it.” But looking back, that was some win. I know that some of the writers reckoned that was the best football match I ever played, and I was told that that was why George Martin wanted to buy me for Villa when he went there as manager a year later.
“International football was very different to the way it is now. I remember one time, we played Wales in Belfast on a Wednesday night, and both teams met up in Liverpool to get the boat across. Matt Busby came down with Jack Carey, the captain at Manchester United - Matt always came to the games, and they were travelling across with us. The overnight boat, the bunks are tiny, it was just a little cubicle. Actually, the Albion looked after me very well in a lot of respects. If we went off to international matches, Fred Everiss would come with us if he could, Albion paid for our tickets and then we claimed it as expenses from the Irish FA. I think it was £12. Lavish!
“Anyway, Albion always booked us in for these bunks, so me and Jack Vernon were off to our cabin. On this particular night, the boat was packed. As me and Jack were looking for our cabin, Matt Busby came over and said, “I’ve got bad news for you two chaps. Jack and myself are doubling up in your cabin!” Four of us in this tiny little cupboard, we never got a wink of sleep!
“Playing for your country is some thing. And we’ve been rewarded for it, recognised I suppose you might say. The Irish FA awarded us all former players golden caps as recognition at a special ceremony and they came from all over the place to this dinner. There were over 300 players, from America, Canada, Spain, all over, they all came to collect their cap, it was some occasion. Johnny Giles was the instigator of it all I think. They flew us out there, put us in hotels, we went to the Wales game, and I never had to spend a penny while I was there! We had a green wristband and wherever you went, it was covered!”
Football was only a small part of Dave’s life of course, but the subsequent 40 or 50 years have been pretty busy too.
“After Villa, I was going to pack up completely because I’d started a sports outfitters business in Droitwich, but the Villa manager came to me and said, “Dave, we want you to do us a favour and go to Walsall for 12 months. You’ll get top money, but we want Billy Myerscough from them and we can only get him if you go”. So I had a year there, got top money and £1,000 for going, all above board. Then, Bill Jones asked me to go to Worcester. I said, “I’m an expensive devil!” I didn’t take any money, just my basic wage, but if you have all your gear from my shop, no problem. So that was another 12 months.
“We played Bromsgrove in the first round of the FA Cup and the ref was diabolical. At the end of the match, he came over towards me and I could see the crowd was angry. I said, “Get away from me, you’re in trouble!” I was walking away and bang, a brick flew from somewhere, hit me, knocked me out cold, because they’d chucked it at the referee and missed. I was in hospital, everything and that was it, I packed up in the December, didn’t kick a ball again. A bit higher, it would have killed me.”
Like a lot of players of his generation, Dave still carries the war wounds of a life in the game at a time when medical science was rudimentary to say the least. He was luckier than many, but one battle scar did leave a lasting legacy.
“We were beating Manchester City 3-1 with about 10 minutes to go, last day of the season. Billy Elliot crossed the ball onto the edge of the 18 yard box and I hit it first time and as I hit it, Bert Trautmann threw himself at me and caught me. I was going on tour with the Irish team for three weeks and I missed that and I was out through the summer. And that injury to my knee was the only one I’ve carried with me after playing. The swelling never really went down but it never bothered me so much as a player. I didn’t have that much trouble with it then but as I got older it started to be a problem and four or five years ago, it started to interfere with my golf and I couldn’t be having that!
“I decided to have it done, my doctor sent me to a good bloke, but it had to be done privately because otherwise I’d have still been waiting now for it. I spoke to Gordon Taylor at the PFA, “I’m in trouble with my knee Gordon. Albion against Manchester City, 1947.” He said, “I remember it David! That’s ok, you can have it done.” It was going to cost £7,000, and then, at the last minute, I decided against it because I thought I was getting better. Then a couple of years on, it really was bothering me. “I’m in trouble again Gordon!” It had gone up to £11,000 by then, so he said they’d pay £8,000 and I’d have to find the rest. So that was fine. But in the meantime, I bumped into Mick Martin and we were talking about it. “Leave that with me”, he said. And so the Players’ Association in Ireland came up with the other £3,000!”
Dave now lives in retirement in a beautiful house overlooking a Devon beach with a golf course just about a decent sand wedge from his front door. The pull of the south coast goes back a long way.
“I remember coming down to Plymouth one year, it was really, really cold in the midlands as we set off, frosty, we were all covered up in overcoats. We stayed overnight at the Grand Hotel - that was the day I met my future brother-in-law for the first time because he was in the Navy and he was stationed down there. Fred Everiss was terrific, he made a terrible fuss of him, he came to the match on the coach, it was great for him, he loved it. On the Saturday morning though, we went up on the Hoe at Plymouth, the sun was shining, and we were all in our blazers in this lovely, balmy day. It was amazing the change, I couldn’t get over how warm it was down here. I’ll have a little bit of that!
“We were going on holiday down to Devon one year with another couple and I couldn’t get away from the shop for some reason, 1976 it was. My wife came with them and the old hotel here was being turned into flats. She put our name down for one of them, so I came down, looked out the window and said, “That’ll do!” There was a golf course opposite and the sea, so we had a flat there eight years and then the house we live in now came up for sale, a bit closer still, and here we are.”
An hour in the company of Dave Walsh is the kind of privilege you can’t put a price on. Long may he continue to tear up the golf course.
Few players have made the impact that Dave made on the Albion, not just instantly, in his first few games, where he scored in each of the fist six he played, but enduringly thereafter, always up towards the top of the scoring charts. And remember, these were the days when footballers clumped around in what were little more than miners’ boots, and when defenders could thump you from every angle, front, back and side, the days when if the centre half hadn’t put the opposition forward at least in the crowd, and preferably in intensive care, he hadn’t done his job properly. It was such an encounter that put a halt to Dave’s goalscoring streak at the beginning of the 1946/47 when the Throstles went to St Andrew’s.
“The centre-half at Birmingham, he was a nasty bit of goods, he caught me and I missed two international matches because of that, that September and October, so that was an introduction to the way they did things over here as well. We lost the game 1-0, that was the end of my run of scoring and I missed a few Albion games after that, out injured, twisted my knee. England played Northern Ireland in Belfast on the Saturday and won 7-2, then they played in Dublin on the Monday and Tom Finney got the only goal. I still went to watch the games but I was sad
to have missed a chance of playing in them.
“Even though we weren’t in the top league, we always came across some top sides. There were some massive teams in the Second Division then, Tottenham, Newcastle, Manchester City, Birmingham, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday. I remember, my first home game was against Tottenham, Vic Buckingham was at left-back that day, and we beat them 1-0.”
As the years go by, we all of us tend to look at the past through rose tinted spectacles, not least when the current crop of footballers are reported in a poor light for various transgressions. But it wasn’t all gentlemen and players and handshakes all round in the past either. It was just that things didn’t get so widely reported…
“In 1947, we went to Chesterfield on the Good Friday, then played Bury on the Saturday and Chesterfield at home on the Monday. The away game at Chesterfield, Jimmy Duggan was inside left to me, he was a local lad, a giant. The right half playing for Chesterfield, he absolutely belted Jimmy that day, he spent more time on the floor than playing. They wouldn’t get away with it today. Then we played them again on the Monday. So we lined up for kick-off, and Jimmy was opposite this fella, so he shouts, “All the best!” And this lad shouts back, “Aye and all the ****** best to you. And you’ll still get the same as ****** Friday!”
“We played at Millwall and George Drury and Peter McKenna were our inside forwards. We called him “My ball Pete”. That was all he ever said, “My ball!” Not “Pass it”, “Here” or whatever, it was always “My ball”. We went in at half time, those two were arguing a bit and we were in this tiny dressing room – the majority of the away dressing rooms weren’t up to much then. There was a square table in the middle for the trainer’s stuff and that was it. This row was going on and Peter swung at George, the door opened, Fred Everiss came through it as this haymaker was coming across and caught it. Peter went to Leicester about a month later!” Fred Everiss continued his pre-war role as secretary / manager through those first two seasons, but football was changing and ahead of the 1948/49 season, the Baggies appointed the first manager in a role that we would recognise today. Jack Smith took the reins and, at the end of the 1948/49 season, the decision looked decent enough – Albion were promoted. That said, with the players we had, even the Lord Buck might have got us up…
“Ray Barlow was such a great player, but we had a lot of them then. Joe Kennedy was a terrific footballer, the Old Man, Billy Elliott was still playing as well, Len Millard became a great full back for us. Jack Vernon was a wonderful centre-half, as good as anybody in the game. Jack Haines was a player who had one great season for us and then disappeared, had an injury and spoke his mind quite a bit as well! We all got on great. I don’t think I ever fell out with any of them.
“Getting promoted was great, but we should have gone up as champions. I missed four open goals at Grimsby on the last day of the season and if we’d won that, we’d have finished top. I’ve never known anything like it because I was usually so sharp around the goals and the blokes were going to kill me! Saying that, we’d already got promoted and we had a right few jars on the Thursday night after we’d beaten Leicester to win promotion, so we probably weren’t at our best on the Saturday!”
That season, Albion transferred another forward player, ironically to Fulham, the team that came up with us. He turned out to be the most successful goalscorer in Football League history, not that he ever really showed it at The Hawthorns.
“Arthur Rowley only played a handful of games here before he went off and was a tremendous success at Leicester. He was outside left, all left foot he was, everything had to go down the left, I don’t think he ever kicked a ball with his right foot. But it’s amazing what you can do with one particular asset. David Beckham has had incredible success, but looking at it, he can’t tackle, he can’t head a ball, can’t kick with his left foot. But look at what he’s achieved with his right foot! Danny Blanchflower was the same. Couldn’t head or tackle but he was still a great player!” With Albion in the big time again, things should have been on the up and up for Dave, but in fact he was to play just 51 more league games for the club – 21 more goals – before he headed off down Island Road to play for the Villa.
“I never really hit it off with Jack Smith as the manager, all the time I was there. He was alright, but just not my cup of tea. That’s life. He left me out of the team for a bit. In fairness to him, he did a lot for my game when he came as regards coaching me to use my left foot more, small little things but they make you a better player. He wasn’t the only reason I decided to go, because at that time, I had to start looking to make a bit of money because I was getting older, I needed to put a few bob in my pocket because I was 27, nearly 28 then.
“I went to play an international in Dublin against Norway in the November, scored a super header, low down, threw myself at it, it went in the net like a rocket. At the dinner that night, the Chairman of Shamrock Rovers came over to me. He said, “Dave, you’re on the transfer list. Would you be interested in going to the Villa? They’re very interested in you, but I’ll let you know more later, because the party involved has to get in touch with the Albion!” So they were tapping me up basically!
“We had a chat later on, and he said, “How much would you be wanting?” So I told him and he said, “I’ll let you know. Two of my daughters will come down on Tuesday night as you’re going back on the boat and they’ll let you know what’s happening.”
“So Tuesday night, they come along and said, “Dad’s sent us. Everything’s alright, you haven’t even got to go back to the Albion. It’s all sorted out!” We got off the boat at Liverpool, got the train to New Street and got in at 11 the following morning because it was the overnight boat. I thought, “I’ve got to at least tell Jack Vernon!” So I went to the ground and Jack was just running round the track, and he came over, “I see you were lucky again getting a goal at the weekend!”
““I was just doing my job Jack! Anyway, I have a bit of news for you. I’m going to the Villa. I’ll be playing against you next year!””
International football was a big part of Dave’s career and he is one of the few who has the distinction of playing for two different countries – both sides of the Irish border.
“The international thing was very strange after the war Northern Ireland only really played in the home internationals and the south didn’t play very much at all so up to 1949, you could play for both. The when the World Cup started again after the war, going to the 1950 competition, the rule was that you had to play for the country where you were born and I was born in the south so that finished me with the north.”
So, which was the first foreign team to beat England on home soil? This ought to be a question on QI to trap Alan Davies, because the thousands of you that just said Hungary have got it wrong. The enduring image of Ferenc Puskas sending Billy Wright the wrong way at Wembley came from our second defeat to the terrible foreign hoards. The first beating came four years earlier, in September 1949, at Goodison Park.
“I was a member of the first foreign team ever to beat England in England – it wasn’t the Hungarians at all, it was Ireland, but nobody paid any attention to that! We won 2-0, against Billy Wright, Jimmy Dickinson, Neil Franklin, Bert Williams, Wilf Mannion, Tom Finney, great players. Con Martin played – he was at the Villa then – and he wrote an article in the Irish press about eighteen months ago, talking about that game and he said, “There was no fuss about it, we just came in, took our jerseys off and that was it. West Bromwich Albion had come down to watch the game and I just got on the bus back with Dave and the rest of them to the midlands. That was it, nobody thought anything about it.” But looking back, that was some win. I know that some of the writers reckoned that was the best football match I ever played, and I was told that that was why George Martin wanted to buy me for Villa when he went there as manager a year later.
“International football was very different to the way it is now. I remember one time, we played Wales in Belfast on a Wednesday night, and both teams met up in Liverpool to get the boat across. Matt Busby came down with Jack Carey, the captain at Manchester United - Matt always came to the games, and they were travelling across with us. The overnight boat, the bunks are tiny, it was just a little cubicle. Actually, the Albion looked after me very well in a lot of respects. If we went off to international matches, Fred Everiss would come with us if he could, Albion paid for our tickets and then we claimed it as expenses from the Irish FA. I think it was £12. Lavish!
“Anyway, Albion always booked us in for these bunks, so me and Jack Vernon were off to our cabin. On this particular night, the boat was packed. As me and Jack were looking for our cabin, Matt Busby came over and said, “I’ve got bad news for you two chaps. Jack and myself are doubling up in your cabin!” Four of us in this tiny little cupboard, we never got a wink of sleep!
“Playing for your country is some thing. And we’ve been rewarded for it, recognised I suppose you might say. The Irish FA awarded us all former players golden caps as recognition at a special ceremony and they came from all over the place to this dinner. There were over 300 players, from America, Canada, Spain, all over, they all came to collect their cap, it was some occasion. Johnny Giles was the instigator of it all I think. They flew us out there, put us in hotels, we went to the Wales game, and I never had to spend a penny while I was there! We had a green wristband and wherever you went, it was covered!”
Football was only a small part of Dave’s life of course, but the subsequent 40 or 50 years have been pretty busy too.
“After Villa, I was going to pack up completely because I’d started a sports outfitters business in Droitwich, but the Villa manager came to me and said, “Dave, we want you to do us a favour and go to Walsall for 12 months. You’ll get top money, but we want Billy Myerscough from them and we can only get him if you go”. So I had a year there, got top money and £1,000 for going, all above board. Then, Bill Jones asked me to go to Worcester. I said, “I’m an expensive devil!” I didn’t take any money, just my basic wage, but if you have all your gear from my shop, no problem. So that was another 12 months.
“We played Bromsgrove in the first round of the FA Cup and the ref was diabolical. At the end of the match, he came over towards me and I could see the crowd was angry. I said, “Get away from me, you’re in trouble!” I was walking away and bang, a brick flew from somewhere, hit me, knocked me out cold, because they’d chucked it at the referee and missed. I was in hospital, everything and that was it, I packed up in the December, didn’t kick a ball again. A bit higher, it would have killed me.”
Like a lot of players of his generation, Dave still carries the war wounds of a life in the game at a time when medical science was rudimentary to say the least. He was luckier than many, but one battle scar did leave a lasting legacy.
“We were beating Manchester City 3-1 with about 10 minutes to go, last day of the season. Billy Elliot crossed the ball onto the edge of the 18 yard box and I hit it first time and as I hit it, Bert Trautmann threw himself at me and caught me. I was going on tour with the Irish team for three weeks and I missed that and I was out through the summer. And that injury to my knee was the only one I’ve carried with me after playing. The swelling never really went down but it never bothered me so much as a player. I didn’t have that much trouble with it then but as I got older it started to be a problem and four or five years ago, it started to interfere with my golf and I couldn’t be having that!
“I decided to have it done, my doctor sent me to a good bloke, but it had to be done privately because otherwise I’d have still been waiting now for it. I spoke to Gordon Taylor at the PFA, “I’m in trouble with my knee Gordon. Albion against Manchester City, 1947.” He said, “I remember it David! That’s ok, you can have it done.” It was going to cost £7,000, and then, at the last minute, I decided against it because I thought I was getting better. Then a couple of years on, it really was bothering me. “I’m in trouble again Gordon!” It had gone up to £11,000 by then, so he said they’d pay £8,000 and I’d have to find the rest. So that was fine. But in the meantime, I bumped into Mick Martin and we were talking about it. “Leave that with me”, he said. And so the Players’ Association in Ireland came up with the other £3,000!”
Dave now lives in retirement in a beautiful house overlooking a Devon beach with a golf course just about a decent sand wedge from his front door. The pull of the south coast goes back a long way.
“I remember coming down to Plymouth one year, it was really, really cold in the midlands as we set off, frosty, we were all covered up in overcoats. We stayed overnight at the Grand Hotel - that was the day I met my future brother-in-law for the first time because he was in the Navy and he was stationed down there. Fred Everiss was terrific, he made a terrible fuss of him, he came to the match on the coach, it was great for him, he loved it. On the Saturday morning though, we went up on the Hoe at Plymouth, the sun was shining, and we were all in our blazers in this lovely, balmy day. It was amazing the change, I couldn’t get over how warm it was down here. I’ll have a little bit of that!
“We were going on holiday down to Devon one year with another couple and I couldn’t get away from the shop for some reason, 1976 it was. My wife came with them and the old hotel here was being turned into flats. She put our name down for one of them, so I came down, looked out the window and said, “That’ll do!” There was a golf course opposite and the sea, so we had a flat there eight years and then the house we live in now came up for sale, a bit closer still, and here we are.”
An hour in the company of Dave Walsh is the kind of privilege you can’t put a price on. Long may he continue to tear up the golf course.
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