Post by QPR Report on Jan 18, 2009 11:25:06 GMT
[Which I'd never seen; and never knew]
Camden New Journal - September 11, 2003
Football’s striker wanted top money – £14 a week
NEWSPAPER seller Alfred ‘Nobby’ Parkinson, who has died aged 81, made almost as many headlines as he sold during his life.
As a professional footballer with Queens Park Rangers in the 1940s and 50s, the life-long Camden Town resident hit the back pages with his clever play – and the front pages when he was involved in a players’ strike.
That protest in 1951 led to his sacking by QPR boss Dave Mangnall in what newspapers at the time called “one of the longest breaches between club and player in memory”.
Refusing to be cowed by QPR, the father-of-four returned to the newsstand his family had run outside Mornington Crescent Tube station since the early 1900s.
He was still there 40 years later, arguing the toss with customers over the latest football results and the performance of his favourite team, Tottenham Hotspur.
“He was a character and was sports mad. If it didn’t have sport in it he didn’t want to know,” said his son Dennis. “He was always arguing with people on the paper stall about football, especially Arsenal and Spurs.”
A season ticket holder at Spurs, the former wing nobby was a regular at White Hart Lane until 1996 when he became ill with Alzheimer’s disease.
He left his home in Bayham Place for a care home in Barnet three years ago and died in Barnet Hospital on August 21 of bronchial pneumonia.
His four sons fondly recall a man whose love of sport began as a pupil at St Matthew’s School in Camden Town.
He played cricket for London schools at Lord’s in the 1930s, but football was his big love. He joined QPR as a 16-year-old apprentice and became a member of the team that won promotion to the Second Division in 1948, playing in Europe against the likes of Fenerbahce from Turkey and Ajax of Holland.
As with many footballers of his generation, the war stalled his playing career but while serving with the navy at Scapa Flow in Scotland he would head back to London whenever he could to play for QPR.
“Any chance of a weekend pass and he would always play,” said Dennis.
But by 1951 Nobby had fallen out with his club. He told The Star newspaper after refusing to re-sign at the start of the 1951 season: “I have been with the club longer than any other player. I felt I was entitled to top money. Other players who have not been there anything as long as I have are getting it.”
With three children to support and a fourth on the way, 30-year-old Nobby wanted £14 a week.
He was joined in the pay row by team-mates Horace Woodward and Des Farrow, but the protest finished his playing days and saw a return to the newsstand run by his mother Flo.
“That actually ended his career because in those days they said he would not play for another club,” said his son Jeffrey.
His sons say Nobby was upset by the dispute but never saw it as an own goal. “When they came down and said to him ‘come back’, he said ‘give me the money and I will’,” said Dennis. “They promised him something and he believed they should stick to it.”
www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/archive/n110903_4.htm
Camden New Journal - September 11, 2003
Football’s striker wanted top money – £14 a week
NEWSPAPER seller Alfred ‘Nobby’ Parkinson, who has died aged 81, made almost as many headlines as he sold during his life.
As a professional footballer with Queens Park Rangers in the 1940s and 50s, the life-long Camden Town resident hit the back pages with his clever play – and the front pages when he was involved in a players’ strike.
That protest in 1951 led to his sacking by QPR boss Dave Mangnall in what newspapers at the time called “one of the longest breaches between club and player in memory”.
Refusing to be cowed by QPR, the father-of-four returned to the newsstand his family had run outside Mornington Crescent Tube station since the early 1900s.
He was still there 40 years later, arguing the toss with customers over the latest football results and the performance of his favourite team, Tottenham Hotspur.
“He was a character and was sports mad. If it didn’t have sport in it he didn’t want to know,” said his son Dennis. “He was always arguing with people on the paper stall about football, especially Arsenal and Spurs.”
A season ticket holder at Spurs, the former wing nobby was a regular at White Hart Lane until 1996 when he became ill with Alzheimer’s disease.
He left his home in Bayham Place for a care home in Barnet three years ago and died in Barnet Hospital on August 21 of bronchial pneumonia.
His four sons fondly recall a man whose love of sport began as a pupil at St Matthew’s School in Camden Town.
He played cricket for London schools at Lord’s in the 1930s, but football was his big love. He joined QPR as a 16-year-old apprentice and became a member of the team that won promotion to the Second Division in 1948, playing in Europe against the likes of Fenerbahce from Turkey and Ajax of Holland.
As with many footballers of his generation, the war stalled his playing career but while serving with the navy at Scapa Flow in Scotland he would head back to London whenever he could to play for QPR.
“Any chance of a weekend pass and he would always play,” said Dennis.
But by 1951 Nobby had fallen out with his club. He told The Star newspaper after refusing to re-sign at the start of the 1951 season: “I have been with the club longer than any other player. I felt I was entitled to top money. Other players who have not been there anything as long as I have are getting it.”
With three children to support and a fourth on the way, 30-year-old Nobby wanted £14 a week.
He was joined in the pay row by team-mates Horace Woodward and Des Farrow, but the protest finished his playing days and saw a return to the newsstand run by his mother Flo.
“That actually ended his career because in those days they said he would not play for another club,” said his son Jeffrey.
His sons say Nobby was upset by the dispute but never saw it as an own goal. “When they came down and said to him ‘come back’, he said ‘give me the money and I will’,” said Dennis. “They promised him something and he believed they should stick to it.”
www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/archive/n110903_4.htm