Two footballers from Hull who found their way into the professional game via a pioneering feeder club will feature in a new book about its founder. Mark Crook’s Wath Wanderers team, based in South Yorkshire, was set up purely to supply Wolverhampton Wanderers with players from Yorkshire and beyond.
It operated from 1939-1970 and Crook took in trialists from around the county and if he felt they were good enough they were then sent to Molineux for further assessment by the likes of legendary bosses Major Buckley and Stan Cullis. They played as Wolves Juniors in the Northern Intermediate League and would have come up against the likes of Hull City, Newcastle United and the Sheffield clubs.
Two such hopefuls, Bob Hatton and Gerry Taylor, came from Hull and were among the longest serving of all Crook’s largely transient line-ups. Their recollections of those days in the early 1960s will feature in the forthcoming book Feeding The Wolves: The story of Mark Crook and the Wath Wanderers.
Hatton and Taylor, both teenagers at the time, worked jobs through the week and then headed to Wath, between Rotherham and Barnsley, on Fridays. They would then be picked up by Crook and put in digs overnight before playing on Saturday and then returning to Hull.
Crook. who passed away in 1977, had kept an eye on the players from their time playing for Hull Schoolboys and considered them long-term projects. The schoolboy friends were finally signed by Wolves in 1964 and both made it into the first team.
Striker Hatton made a storming start in a Wolves jersey, scoring seven in ten, but he was moved on by Wolves to raise enough funds to buy Derek Dougan. Hatton recalled the signing. He said: “I remember we had our picture taken and it was on the back page of the Hull Daily Mail.
“We got a lot of publicity for signing for Wolves. I can remember being as proud as punch. They were great days. I think we both had the chance to sign for Hull, our hometown club, but for whatever reason it never happened.”
Hatton went on to have a long career in football and of all the 111 professional footballers credited to Crook, he made the most football league appearances of them all with more than 600 and 200 goals. He became a talisman for Birmingham City, Blackpool and Sheffield United.
Full-back Taylor spent a decade with Wolves and played in the 1972 UEFA Cup final matches against Tottenham Hotspur. He later worked as a policeman and at RAF Cosford. The duo remain in the West Midlands and are still friends. But how many of the many players linked to Crook actually turned out for The Tigers?
Jeff Wealands would be the most recognisable to supporters. The Darlington-born goalkeeper was the City keeper for seven years and he, alongside Hatton and Taylor have been interviewed for the book.
Ken Knighton, who spent two seasons at Boothferry Park, is another of Crook’s former players to be interviewed for the book. Norman Corner, Jimmy Lee and Cyril Hannaby were other Wath Wanderers to play for Hull City.
Hull-born Peter Cook briefly played for Wath before signing for his hometown team just after the Second World War. A blue plaque was recently put up to celebrate Crook’s achievements at his team’s former home at Cortonwood Miners’ Welfare.
Of the 100 or more professionals he found, Ron Flowers, Roy Swinbourne, Alan Sunderland, Cyril and Peter Knowles and Steve Daley are among the most well-known. The book is being written by Barnsley Chronicle journalist Ashley Ball, whose own grandmother came from the Sculcoates area of the city.
It’s available to pre-order now for £12 with profits from the book going to Brampton United JFC and The Wolves Foundation.
To pre-order your copy visit: https://dondearneschoolfootball.wordpress.com/mark-crooks-wath-wolves/