Four years ago- on, or around his ninetieth birthday, I spent an hour or so chatting to Jack at his then home in Wibsey. I was eager to talk with someone who was- to my knowledge, the only person alive to have watched Northern play at Birch Lane, and though not in the best of health at the time, he was happy to reminisce about the players, games and times spent at the ground.
He told one story which will stay with me forever, when as child, his father asked if he was coming to the match. Jack responded, “I don’t want to go because they always lose”, to which Jack’s father replied, “You don’t go to watch them win or lose, you go to watch them play”. How times have changed.
With Jack’s death, go all memories of Birch Lane- unless someone knows differently.
RIP
