2 Years Ago: #QPR's England Goalkeeper Ron Springett

Ron Springett obituary by Brian Glanville

Guardian


England goalkeeper who was a member of the 1966 World Cup squad, he spent his playing career with QPR and Sheffield Wednesday
Ron Springett in 1956 with QPR.
Ron Springett in 1956. He made his debut for Queens Park Rangers in 1953 as a teenager. Photograph: Colorsport/Rex Shutterstock

Brian Glanville

Monday 14 September 2015 07.45 EDT
Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 08.15 EDT



The 33-match England goalkeeping career of Ron Springett, who has died aged 80, encompassed two World Cup finals – the first in Chile in 1962, when he played in every match up to quarter-final elimination, and the second in 1966, when he was understudy to Gordon Banks, and eventually picked up a winners’ medal.

Springett made his debut for Walter Winterbottom’s England in 1959 and remained his country’s uncontested best in goal until Banks came to the fore in 1963. Banks was Springett’s deputy in Chile, where the latter played in all three group matches, against Hungary (which England lost 2-1), Argentina (a 3-1 win) and Bulgaria (0-0). In the quarter-final in Viña del Mar he was the author of a glorious point-blank save against the champions, Brazil, as he hurled himself at Amarildo to block the ball at his feet. It was a testament to his agility, courage and speed of reflex, but England lost 3-1 and went out of the competition.
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When England next played Brazil, in a May 1963 friendly at Wembley under the new managership of Alf Ramsey, Springett was replaced by Banks, who was two years his junior but had by then established himself as one of the finest ever goalkeepers. Although Springett was subsequently involved in warm-up matches for the 1966 World Cup – including on England’s successful European tour of that year – it was Banks alone who kept goal in England’s victorious World Cup finals campaign, and Springett’s last cap for his country turned out to be a 6-1 thrashing of Norway in June 1966 in Oslo, just before the finals.
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Although he was an important World Cup squad member in 1966 and was on the bench for all the matches, Fifa rules at the time meant Springett did not receive a winners’ medal. That was put right in 2009 when he and the other England reserves, whether or not they had played, received gold medals at 10 Downing Street.

Born one of six children to Caroline, a cook, and Percy, a chauffeur, in the industrial Sands End area of Fulham, south-west London, Springett was working as a fitter’s mate, “diving around on the concrete” as a goalkeeper in impromptu lunchtime matches, when he managed to get a trial with Fulham thanks to the intervention of a workmate, who wrote to the club suggesting that Springett showed promise. But the try-out was a farce, as he and another triallist were put in the same goal while Johnny Haynes fired shots at them. “Haynes was putting the ball in between us, so I was going for it and so was the other guy,” he said. “We looked like fools.”
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Fulham’s loss was Queens Park Rangers’ gain, as Springett had a more successful audition over in Shepherd’s Bush, and, despite breaking a finger during a trial match, was signed up in quick time. Standing at 5ft 10in — no huge height for a goalkeeper – he made his debut for QPR in 1953 as a teenager. With two years out for national service, including time in Egypt during the Suez crisis, Springett stayed at QPR, then in the old Third Division South, until he took the chance to join top-flight Sheffield Wednesday in 1958 for £10,000, a sizeable fee in those days, but a bargain nonetheless.

At Wednesday, where he spent nine years, he established himself quickly as one of the best keepers in the top division, and was rewarded in November 1959, at Wembley, with his first England cap, against Northern Ireland, saving a penalty from the inside-right, Jimmy McIlroy, as England squeezed out a 2-1 victory.

Springett was so well-regarded at Sheffield Wednesday that he was allowed the unusual luxury of continuing to live in London, training during the week at QPR and travelling up to join the rest of his team-mates on Saturdays. Although Wednesday were relegated to the Second Division in his first season, they were promoted as champions the next year and Springett was an integral part of a successful side that five times finished in the top six of the First Division while he was at the club. They also made it to an FA Cup final, losing 3-2 to Everton in 1966.

After 384 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday, he returned to QPR in 1967 to round out his career, joining in a part-exchange deal – believed to be unique – that involved him swapping places with his brother, Peter, who was an able goalkeeper himself. In all, Ron appeared 147 times for QPR in his two spells with the club.

Humorous, modest and genial, he was wryly amused when, having hurled himself fearlessly about his goal for England in Glasgow, against Scotland, on a bone hard-pitch one windswept afternoon, he found himself sitting on the coach taking the team to Glasgow airport, next to a member of the FA’s international committee. “Not much of a game, was it?” said the committee man. Springett responded that it had been difficult to compete on a hard pitch, in a strong wind. “Oh,” said the committee man, “were you playing?”

On retiring, in 1969, he opened a sports goods shop on the Uxbridge Road, not far from the QPR stadium. After three years he sold the business and then set himself up as an interior decorator. He maintained his links with QPR as a fan, regularly attending home games over many years.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara (nee Hillsdon), whom he married in 1958, and their daughters Terry and Robyn. Terry is QPR’s football secretary.

Peter died in 1997.

• Ronald Derrick Springett, footballer, born 22 July 1935; died 12 September 2015


www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/14/ron-springett