Open Writing

Any sporting ambitions I might have had were hard hit during the war years. Supplies of new footballs or tennis balls were non-existent, and like other youngsters I had to be content with kicking any old ball around the school yard or back lane. The only real football match I saw during these austere years was by occasionally watching Hexham Hearts playing on the Seal in a local Northumberland league.

Dad, in his younger days, had been a very good footballer, and played centre-forward in the South Shields Wednesday afternoon mid-week league. He evidently had been a prolific goal scorer and had trials with several league clubs. During an extended trial with Queens Park Rangers, he scored five goals and in a game against Tottenham Hotspur Reserves on the 23rd December 1933 the programme notes read:-"It is gratifying to note that both Scott and Murphy, the two young forwards on trial, showed very promising form at Leicester last week, but the obvious lack of training pegged them back somewhat during the later stages."

If the truth was known, dad didn't like living in London and was glad to return to his home town, his job in the grocery shop and to score two more goals in the local midweek league.

As I grew older and the war progressed, I missed my father very much. Although I was only four when he left for the army, I remembered a great deal about him and how we used to enjoy ball games together. He taught me a lot during those early years and nobody could tell me when he would be coming back.

My birthday on the 8th May 1945 was a very significant date. Not because I was nine years old but because that date marked the end of the war in Europe. Everyone rejoiced as the lucky servicemen returned from abroad. Unfortunately, almost three times the population of South Shields weren't so lucky and never came home. Thankfully my Dad arrived back safe and sound after taking part in the invasion of France and active service abroad.
By the time he arrived back home my mother and I had already returned from Hexham. There was an emotional reunion as we had not seen him for several years.

The South Shields we returned to in 1945 was, however, very different to what we had left four years earlier. The drastic effect of the German bombing was obvious by the debris throughout the town. 156 people had been killed, 564 injured and over 3,000 people rendered homeless due to the bombing. The result was a severe shortage of housing and once again we had to seek refuge with my grandparents.

The Government's answer to the housing shortage was to construct 'prefabs', a two bedroom prefabrication house on cleared bomb sites. We were allocated one in Marlborough Street in 1946. The 'prefabs' were much better on the inside than they looked on the outside and my mother was delighted to have a place of her own at last.

It was also the first time in my life I had a bedroom to myself in our own house. An added bonus was that it was very near Mortimer Road School and South Shields cricket ground.