STAN'S THE BIRTHDAY MAN.

February 2nd, 2022 the day AFTER Stanley Matthews' birthday. I could have named my son Stanley, I went for Matthew. Stanley was my hero footballer when I was a lad. My brother went for Tom Finney, the other great "winger" in England's football and another "Lancastrian". Matthews of course was born and bred in Stoke, but transfered to Blackpool in his pomp and stayed there was a long time before finishing his professional career-OVER 50 years old at Stoke, completing the circle!
Sir Stanley would have been 107 today; here he is in Stoke's "colours", his first club, showing the feint and body swerve of a skilful right winger. 

I have included Sir Stanley previously, in several blogs, because he is one of the true heroes of British (World) football-here are a few:-
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/matthews-win-is-nations-loss.html
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/two-more-football-league-founders.html
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/tailored-made-for-football.html
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/black-man-white-face.html
and some action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HRpvcRn0w
and something more for you to read, on a rainy day;
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2016/10/12/sir-stanley-matthews-and-the-story-of-englands-humble-wizard/

Somewhere above, I may have recorded that I met Sir Stanley a couple of times. The most exciting was when a teaching colleague of mine, whose family knew the Matthews' family well, persuaded Stanley to come and coach a Charterhouse XI made up from 1st XI schoolboys, Old Carthusians (Charterhouse old boys) and Staff, that played the Royal Military Academy XI at Sandhurst in Surrey! I played, Matthews coached, what a moment!

That afternoon, Sir Stanley was modest, intelligent and shared the occasion with us teachers, old boys, boys and military staff. I have no idea what the score was....probably a cleverly constructed draw with lots of goals. The Sandhurst Academy hospitality, as ever, provided a brlliant tea (cooked) and a bar  (even the lads supped a beer). What a perfect day!

David Miller, Old Carthusian, footballer (right winger) and noted author and journalist published Stans'  "authorised" biography. Matthews died 22/2/2000.