Oct 14: My Spurs Player Autographs
Footballers who played cricket.
I was never much of an autograph hunter when I was young and my autograph book was only used on three occasions. Two of these were a couple of summer afternoons at Cockfosters Cricket Club, when Tottenham Hotspur played their annual cricket match against Cockfosers. I have kept the ten entries I obtained over those two occasions in 1958 and 1959 with great pride ever since.
They include eight of the seventeen-man squad which won the historic FA Cup and League Championship "Double" in 1960-61 (Medwin, Smith, Hopkins, Hollowbread, Baker, Jones, Allen and Marchi) and two favourite players who were soon to leave the Club (Robb and Brooks).
Four of them played in the 1961 FA Cup Final (Smith, Baker, Jones and Allen); four played in the 1962 FA Cup Final (Medwin, Smith, Baker and Jones); and four played in the 1963 European Cup Winners Final in Rotterdam (Smith, Baker, Jones and Marchi). All victorious, of course.
Six of them were full International players.
If they were playing in the English Premier League today, at their peak, the players would be worth up to a hundred million pounds, with the bulk of it being for Bobby Smith and Cliff Jones!
