The Contributors – Down Mexico Way

Born in Cheltenham in 1934, Jasper Cook (Phillip Gordon Cook) has served football, and particularly football in Gloucestershire, as a coach and administrator for over fifty years. He has lived in the town all his life apart from a period of National Service between 1954 and 1956 where he served as a Regimental Intelligence Clerk in the Royal Horse Guards. A fellow Horse Guard at the time was none other than World Cup winner Jackie Charlton.

When Jasper came out of the army he went to work for a company in Cheltenham whose Commercial Sales Manager was Ted Croker – later to become Secretary of the F.A. He also concentrated on gaining his F.A. coaching certificates before becoming manager of the county under-18 side.

Jasper Cook (extreme right) at a presentation with Geoff Hurst © Steve Cassidy

In the early 1960’s Jasper became manager of Cheltenham Town reserves and youth team. Appointed by club manager Dennis Allen, he would also serve under 1966 England World Cup squad member Terry Paine.

Jasper would later become chairman of Gloucestershire Football Association, and be the recipient of a long-service award from the Football Association. A Cheltenham Town fan through-and-through, he has served the club as Commercial Manager and today welcomes visiting team officials and their guests as Boardroom Host for the club.

A retired civil servant with HM Customs, Patrick Burke was born in Inverness, Scotland in 1942. His father was in the RAF and the family moved to England in 1949. Although not brought up in a football environment, Patrick became a Millwall fan in the 1950’s and has stuck by them through thick-and-thin for over fifty years.

He is probably one of a small number of football fans who have had the distinction of attending three World Cup Finals – 1966, 1970 and the 1998 final between France v Brazil for which he won tickets in a lucky draw. In the past Patrick was a keen runner and took part in no less than four London Marathons. He now lives with his wife Jane on the Barbican Estate in the City of London, though he doesn’t tell the neighbours about his love of Millwall in case it devalues the local property prices!

Born in Lewisham, South London in 1935 Peter Logan is another fan who has been lucky enough to witness three World Cup Finals – 1958, 1966 and 1970.

A retired telecommunications engineer, Peter spent his national service (1954 – 1956) in the Royal Signals and was stationed out in Germany where he regularly watched, amongst others, Borussia Mönchengladbach. He has supported Millwall since 1946 but, by his own admission, would often watch other teams to get his ‘fix’ of football. Widowed – today Peter lives in Bexleyheath in Kent but remains a season ticket holder at his beloved Millwall where, unbeknown to him until recently, he sits three rows behind another contributor, Patrick Burke.

Born in 1943, Stanley Lewis has lived in the Bermondsey area all his life. He left school in 1958 and, initially, worked at the local firm of ‘Meggazones’ – manufacturers of cough mixture and sweets. However, his dad insisted that he learned a trade, and Stanley eventually settled on becoming a painter-and-decorator for Bermondsey Council, where he remained until 1976.

Itching for a change, and on the advice of his brother who worked as a dealer in the city, Stanley became a messenger for the Cuban Bank – Havana International. After twenty-seven years with the company, he retired in 2003.

Aside from the trip to Mexico, Stanley has never been to see England in a full international. And apart from play-off finals with Millwall, he has only been to Wembley Stadium once. It was 1995, and he took his son to see England Schoolboys play Brazil Schoolboys. A youthful Michael Owen scored the only goal that day, and the Brazil team included a buck-toothed forward called Ronaldo. He would soon become better known to the football world as Ronaldinho.

Stanley is married to Jose who works as the Headteacher at a Rotherhithe primary school. His daughter, Jill, a fellow Millwall fan, fills the role of English Leader and Deputy Headteacher at the same school. His son, Dan, followed in his dad’s footsteps and is a messenger in the city – and obviously also a Millwall season ticket holder!

Born in Notting Hill Gate in 1941, Alan Mullery represented and captained both Fulham and Spurs in a league career spanning 18 years. Alf Ramsey first selected Alan for England in 1964, and he eventually dis-placed Nobby Stiles to become a regular in mid-field. His managerial career included stints at Charlton, Crystal Palace, QPR and – most notably – at Brighton & Hove Albion who, in 1976, he took to their first promotion into the top flight. His autobiography (written with Tony Norman) was first published in 2007 and has very recently become available in a Kindle edition.

CLICK HERE FOR Alan Mullery – The Autobiography ⇒

Dave Blake co-wrote Brighton Til I Die! – a play celebrating the centenary of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, The Belated Happy Birthday Mr Bowie Show which he also directed, and a series of football / barbershop-related monologues called Chair Talk for BBC Southern Counties Radio. In 2008 he had his first book The Football Fans Quizbook published. His second book, The Random Book of…David – a shameless stocking-filler for people with that name – was published in October 2009 – and a couple of years later wrote The Random Book of… Thomas (under the pen-name of Tommy Latrobe). Dave is also the originator of The Random Book of… series of books.