Sunderland AFC – Cecil Irwin

Yes, I know we all hate Facebook but if we are honest, we love it too! Yesterday was a loving day as I had the pleasure of “meeting” the grandson-in-law of one of Sunderland’s Legends, Cecil Irwin, in a football group. As often happens, the conversation develops and we learn that Cecil is not enjoying the best of health …. and that it’s his birthday soon.

Ben said, “Hi folks, bit of a long shot here but does anyone have any magazines, articles, memorabilia etc pertaining to Cecil Irwin who played for Sunderland in the 50’s & 60’s. Cecil is my wife’s grandad and is suffering a bit with dementia and other ailments, however loves to see and talk about things from his playing days. He has no problem remembering those days, so trying to get as much as I can for him.”

I have dug a few bits out and they are winging their way to Cecil as we speak. There were an impressive 74 comments, messages of support and a massive number of fond memories. The power of Facebook!

In the meantime, I called David Blight, my great friend and 60 year fan of Sunderland who said, “All I remember about Cec Irwin is the promotion team that he was part off in the early 60’s that remains imprinted on my mind… Montgomery…Irwin, Ashurst… Harvey, Hurley, McNab… Mulhall, Herd, Sharkey, Crosson, Usher I may have got which side the wingers were on mixed up – Mulhall and Usher; right or left – otherwise… to me, Cec Irwin was the biggest, baldest, full back in the league! Until Dick Malone came alone that is.” David kindly did a Sunderland overview recently….. here I have fond memories of Sunderland from the days of my cycling tour. It was indeed the first stadium I visited after the road “accident.”

Wikipedia does not offer too much but David did find a these fascinating articles “A Love Supreme” and “Northern Echo” (John Charles – who?)

11v 11 yielded this for the 63/64 season. The programme is for the last match of the season. Promotion was already assured as the Black Cats had wrapped it up with a home win over Charlton Athletic the previous week although Cec missed that match but he did start in 39 of the 42 games.

League Division Two table at close of 1963-64 season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAvg	GD	Pts
1	Leeds United	42	24	15	3	71	34	2.088	37	63
2	Sunderland	42	25	11	6	81	37	2.189	44	61
3	Preston North End	42	23	10	9	79	54	1.463	25	56
4	Charlton Athletic	42	19	10	13	76	70	1.086	6	48
5	Southampton	42	19	9	14	100	73	1.370	27	47
6	Manchester City	42	18	10	14	84	66	1.273	18	46
7	Rotherham United	42	19	7	16	90	78	1.154	12	45
8	Newcastle United	42	20	5	17	74	69	1.072	5	45
9	Portsmouth	42	16	11	15	79	70	1.129	9	43
10	Middlesbrough	42	15	11	16	67	52	1.288	15	41
11	Northampton Town	42	16	9	17	58	60	0.967	-2	41
12	Huddersfield Town	42	15	10	17	57	64	0.891	-7	40
13	Derby County	42	14	11	17	56	67	0.836	-11	39
14	Swindon Town	42	14	10	18	57	69	0.826	-12	38
15	Cardiff City	42	14	10	18	56	81	0.691	-25	38
16	Leyton Orient	42	13	10	19	54	72	0.750	-18	36
17	Norwich City	42	11	13	18	64	80	0.800	-16	35
18	Bury	42	13	9	20	57	73	0.781	-16	35
19	Swansea Town	42	12	9	21	63	74	0.851	-11	33
20	Plymouth Argyle	42	8	16	18	45	67	0.672	-22	32
21	Grimsby Town	42	9	14	19	47	75	0.627	-28	32
22	Scunthorpe United	42	10	10	22	52	82	0.634	-30	30

26 Dec 1963	Leeds United v Sunderland	D	1-1	League Division Two
28 Dec 1963	Sunderland v Leeds United	W	2-0	League Division Two
04 Jan 1964	Sunderland v Northampton Town	W	2-0	FA Cup
11 Jan 1964	Sunderland v Bury	W	4-1	League Division Two
18 Jan 1964	Manchester City v Sunderland	W	0-3	League Division Two
25 Jan 1964	Sunderland v Bristol City	W	6-1	FA Cup
01 Feb 1964	Sunderland v Swindon Town	W	6-0	League Division Two
08 Feb 1964	Cardiff City v Sunderland	W	0-2	League Division Two
15 Feb 1964	Sunderland v Everton	W	3-1	FA Cup
19 Feb 1964	Sunderland v Norwich City	D	0-0	League Division Two
22 Feb 1964	Sunderland v Derby County	W	3-0	League Division Two
29 Feb 1964	Manchester United v Sunderland	D	3-3	FA Cup
04 Mar 1964	Sunderland v Manchester United	D	2-2	FA Cup
07 Mar 1964	Sunderland v Middlesbrough	D	0-0	League Division Two
09 Mar 1964	Manchester United v Sunderland	L	5-1	FA Cup
14 Mar 1964	Newcastle United v Sunderland	L	1-0	League Division Two
21 Mar 1964	Sunderland v Preston North End	W	4-0	League Division Two
27 Mar 1964	Sunderland v Rotherham United	W	2-0	League Division Two
30 Mar 1964	Rotherham United v Sunderland	D	2-2	League Division Two
04 Apr 1964	Sunderland v Swansea Town	W	1-0	League Division Two
06 Apr 1964	Leyton Orient v Sunderland	W	2-5	League Division Two
11 Apr 1964	Southampton v Sunderland	D	0-0	League Division Two
18 Apr 1964	Sunderland v Charlton Athletic	W	2-1	League Division Two
25 Apr 1964	Grimsby Town v Sunderland	D	2-2	League Division Two

Now that’s what I call promotion form!

A win for Grimsby would have saved them – NO mercy!

I whipped over to The Fans Museum (shouldn’t every club have one?) and the Sunderland Who’s Who book “All The Lads.” He is featured with a comprehensive bio.

A local lad, with a long career at Sunderland. Are those days gone by? A partner with Len Ashurst who later became a Gillingham manager so another link with the Priestfield men. Yesterday it was Bradley Dack Who will it be tomorrow!

Here are a couple of views of the two Sunderland stadiums of the last 60 years from Papilios Creative that hopefully will bring back happy memories.

Roker

Please remember that the purpose of this 90 day challenge is to raise funds for the club and an equal amount for Prostate Cancer. As always, I HOPE you are all enjoying the tour of the UK and that you will consider a donation to support FC Deportivo Galicia and/or Prostate Cancer UK If everybody chipped in £1 I would easily hit my target of £10,000 and life would be easier in West London whilst the charity continued their great work. A HEARTFELT thanks, if you can.

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