Your Matchday Programme Thread

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HodgysBrokenThumb

HodgysBrokenThumb

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image.jpeg An international break seems as good a time as any to set up a new thread which might stand the test of time for when United are not playing. I have come to appreciate recently how much there is of interest in old programmes, and that many of us have programmes lying around at home. I would like to encourage people to have a look at some of them - whether from last year or 50 years ago - and to talk about memories, opinions, anecdotes, photos, etc. I would assume it to be normally matches involving United, but rather like the Old Photos thread, a little leeway would be appropriate.
I start with a picture which could come from many programmes in the 1950s - the panel above the Lines from the Pavilion. I started going to the Lane at the beginning of the 1953-54 season, and recent references to SUFC's 130th anniversary have made me realise how remarkable the information there is: in the first 64 years, United won League 1, League 2, and the Cup 4 times, as well as being runners-up on various occasions. And for 10 of those years, competitions were cancelled because of World Wars. In the 66 years since, we have only won Division 4 and Division 3, plus promotions as runners-up. The decline is in depressingly stark contrast to the early years; but the optimist would say that there is a good chance that 2016 is the start of a new era: Champions in 2017, repeated in 2019?
 

I read a story that when John Harris was at Chester, there was a player he was interested in signing so the player was invited to the manager's office to discuss terms. As soon as the player entered the office, Harris could tell that the player had been drinking so he told him that he was no longer interested in signing him.

Looking at the names of those who were in the football committee, I see that Frank Melling was in our committee 60 years ago, I think he was one of our vice presidents in the 1990s, I have never seen a photo or a profile of him
 
image.png
Silent Blade said:
I read a story that when John Harris was at Chester, there was a player he was interested in signing so the player was invited to the manager's office to discuss terms. As soon as the player entered the office, Harris could tell that the player had been drinking so he told him that he was no longer interested in signing him.

Looking at the names of those who were in the football committee, I see that Frank Melling was in our committee 60 years ago, I think he was one of our vice presidents in the 1990s, I have never seen a photo or a profile of him
Click to expand...

I have attached a brief obituary from the Old Edwardians magazine, Feb 2005. He was clearly very much a Sheffield man. He deserves our forgiveness for scoring plenty of goals for Wednesday in WW2! Apologies if it is hard to read.
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
View attachment 51325 An international break seems as good a time as any to set up a new thread which might stand the test of time for when United are not playing. I have come to appreciate recently how much there is of interest in old programmes, and that many of us have programmes lying around at home. I would like to encourage people to have a look at some of them - whether from last year or 50 years ago - and to talk about memories, opinions, anecdotes, photos, etc. I would assume it to be normally matches involving United, but rather like the Old Photos thread, a little leeway would be appropriate.
I start with a picture which could come from many programmes in the 1950s - the panel above the Lines from the Pavilion. I started going to the Lane at the beginning of the 1953-54 season, and recent references to SUFC's 130th anniversary have made me realise how remarkable the information there is: in the first 64 years, United won League 1, League 2, and the Cup 4 times, as well as being runners-up on various occasions. And for 10 of those years, competitions were cancelled because of World Wars. In the 66 years since, we have only won Division 4 and Division 3, plus promotions as runners-up. The decline is in depressingly stark contrast to the early years; but the optimist would say that there is a good chance that 2016 is the start of a new era: Champions in 2017, repeated in 2019?
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this, I believe JB Holland was my dad's Uncle Jimmy, the first time I've seen his name printed in something Blades related so I really appreciate it mate. I think he worked in the steel industry but the familes were so big I get all the stories of the 20 odd great uncles all mixed up!

UTB
 
Dutch said:
Thanks for posting this, I believe JB Holland was my dad's Uncle Jimmy, the first time I've seen his name printed in something Blades related so I really appreciate it mate. I think he worked in the steel industry but the familes were so big I get all the stories of the 20 odd great uncles all mixed up!

UTB
Click to expand...
I will look out for any references to him, though my impression is that the directors didn't often get direct mentions in the programmes.
 
Silent Blade said:
I read a story that when John Harris was at Chester, there was a player he was interested in signing so the player was invited to the manager's office to discuss terms. As soon as the player entered the office, Harris could tell that the player had been drinking so he told him that he was no longer interested in signing him.

Looking at the names of those who were in the football committee, I see that Frank Melling was in our committee 60 years ago, I think he was one of our vice presidents in the 1990s, I have never seen a photo or a profile of him
Click to expand...


I met Frank Melling in the early seventies working for his auditors. An absolute gentleman and while a committed Blade, his true love was cricket.

https://oldedwardians.org.uk/newsletters/Feb05Newsletter.pdf
 
Sean Thornton said:
I met Frank Melling in the early seventies working for his auditors. An absolute gentleman and while a committed Blade, his true love was cricket.

https://oldedwardians.org.uk/newsletters/Feb05Newsletter.pdf
Click to expand...
If I wasn't similarly a gentleman, I would probably point out that I have already posted that. As I am a gentleman, I will recognise that your link is much easier to read than my blurred screenshot! And I never had the pleasure of meeting him.
 

Dutch said:
Thanks for posting this, I believe JB Holland was my dad's Uncle Jimmy, the first time I've seen his name printed in something Blades related so I really appreciate it mate. I think he worked in the steel industry but the familes were so big I get all the stories of the 20 odd great uncles all mixed up!

UTB
Click to expand...
He appears on the list from 1957-61. I’ll let you know if I find anything more detailed.
Were all your 20 great uncles odd?
 
HighfieldBlade said:
Eric Burgin and Frank Melling in this photo apparently. Do they look familiar?

View attachment 51327
Source:
www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/4970-local-cricket-heroes-post-your-memories33
Click to expand...

Eric Burgin was a lovely man, who I was lucky enough to get to know quite well in his later years via Sheff Utd Cricket Club (for whom I played, not very well at all, in my early 40s, and with whom Eric remained in touch as a spectator, a former Chairman, and the grandparent of a player, until his death in 2012).

Eric had a more or less lifelong connection with Utd, having represented the cricket club from his teens until his retirement, during which time he became the first Sheffield cricketer for 50 years to play for Yorkshire during the 1952 and 1953 seasons--opening the bowling alongside, among others, Fred Trueman. Eric also played with distinction at centre half for SUFC reserves during the early years of World War 2, and always maintained that he would have played regularly for the first XI were it not for another squad member keeping the management supplied with wartime vegetables (and chickens) from his allotment! He went on to captain York City.

I have a half-finished book about Eric and his career with SUCC/SUFC, grounded in 60-70 hours of recorded interviews with him before he passed. I really must finish that damn book! If anyone on here feels like encouraging me, please feel free.

In lieu, I'll copy and paste the obituary I wrote for Eric that was published in the Yorkshire Post. The editor changed my references to "Eric" to "Mr Burgin", to suit house style. And they cut the lines towards the end where I talk about "vested interests on the Yorkshire committee" and the Boycott-era "Yorkshire Reform Group". Otherwise, the paste below is as was published.


Eric Burgin (January 4 1924 – November 16 2012)

Eric Burgin, who opened the bowling for Yorkshire in 1952 and 1953, and who served on the Yorkshire Committee during the troubled “Boycott era”, has died in Sheffield, aged 88.

The first Sheffield cricketer to play for Yorkshire for 50 years, Eric was born in Pitsmoor in 1924 and grew up in a strict Methodist family in Shiregreen, where, by 1938, he was playing cricket for Low Shire Methodists in the Sheffield Sunday School League. The “Sunday School” was one of many amateur senior leagues in Sheffield that produced rich pickings for the bigger, more established clubs, and the following summer Eric moved to Sheffield United under the tutelage of Jack Elms and former Yorkshire all-rounder, Cyril Turner. By 1940 Eric was playing regularly for United’s 1st XI in the Yorkshire League in front of several thousand at Bramall Lane. In a debut he never tired of recalling, Eric’s first wicket was that of his boyhood idol, Bill Bowes, the Yorkshire and England fast bowler who played in the “Bodyline” Ashes series of 1932-33, who was guesting for York while on national service. Later that year Eric also signed amateur forms for Sheffield United Football Club, where wartime call-ups propelled him straight into the Reserves at centre-half.

Called up to the RAF in 1942, Eric went to Algeria in one of the biggest convoys of the War, where his company staffed a transit-camp shipping men and munitions for the African campaign and the Italian front. In Algeria, and in his subsequent posting to Italy, Eric played representative football for the RAF, including a memorable match in Milan where he was picked at full-back for Italy Combined Services South against Italy Combined Services North, and found himself marking the great Tom Finney.

Demobbed in 1946, Eric resumed his career at Sheffield United as a part-timer for the football club, for whom he played in the Reserves until 1949, when he left to captain the first team at York City. Appointed as bowling professional and senior bowling coach at the cricket club, Eric was running nets on the famous evening in 1947 when 16 year old Fred Trueman appeared off the streets at Bramall Lane.

Called up by the county in 1952, Eric played 12 times for Yorkshire—9 of them in the County Championship—including two matches against the MCC and one against the 1953 Australians. Bowling medium-fast inswingers and leg-cutters he took 31 wickets at an average of 25.64. Highlights included 6-43 against Surrey at Headingley, and 5-20 in the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1952, where he opened the bowling with his old protégé, Fred Trueman.

After captaining the Sheffield United side which played the last game of Yorkshire League cricket at Bramall Lane in 1973, Eric flung himself into cricket administration, leading Sheffield United as Vice-Chairman and Treasurer, and serving on the Yorkshire Committee from 1979. Eric’s optimism and courage were just what United needed during the difficult transition from life at Bramall Lane. The club found a new home at Bawtry Road and Eric began negotiations with Yorkshire to bring county cricket back to Sheffield. Plans to convert Bawtry Road into a County Championship venue were well-advanced when the venture was scuppered, Eric always felt, by vested interests on the Yorkshire Committee.

Voted off the Committee in 1984 by Yorkshire Reform Group members championing the cause of Geoffrey Boycott, Eric retained strong ties with Headingley as a founder of Yorkshire’s Old Players Association, and remained active at Sheffield United as a Committee member and Trustee of the cricket club. He is survived by his wife Betty, son Stuart, and grandson Matthew.


A few photos:-

Eric on debut for Yorkshire CCC vs Warwickshire, at Bradford Park Avenue, 1952.

Eric Burgin photo B.jpg



Eric, shaking hands with dignitary before Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan. May 25, 1946.

upload_2019-3-25_18-57-31.png



Eric (R), comprehensively skinned--by his own admission!--by Tom Finney (L), during Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan, May 25, 1946.

upload_2019-3-25_19-0-21.png


I have loads of photos, and scans of reserve team programmes for games Eric played in, and thousands of words of draft text from my book. V happy to be encouraged to post!

Eric Burgin. A proper gent. Much missed.

 
Last edited:
HighfieldBlade said:
Eric Burgin and Frank Melling in this photo apparently. Do they look familiar?

View attachment 51327
Source:
www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/topic/4970-local-cricket-heroes-post-your-memories33
Click to expand...

In fact, it makes me quite sad seeing that photo. Eric and his wife were stalwarts of the Senior Blades. They never missed an event, even when he was ailing.

Given his achievements, Eric's invisibility in the annals of the club are illustrative of just how far the cricket club has been Stalinised out of our records/public consciousness. Eric was always, resolutely, a "one club" man (i.e., the cricket and football sections, to him, were always "one club").

In terms of how we think about the history of SUFC, shame on 'us'.
 
ShockingBadBuy said:
Eric Burgin was a lovely man, who I was lucky enough to get to know quite well in his later years via Sheff Utd Cricket Club (for whom I played, not very well at all, in my early 40s, and with whom Eric remained in touch as a spectator, a former Chairman, and the grandparent of a player, until his death in 2012).

Eric had a more or less lifelong connection with Utd, having represented the cricket club from his teens until his retirement, during which time he became the first Sheffield cricketer for 50 years to play for Yorkshire during the 1952 and 1953 seasons--opening the bowling alongside, among others, Fred Trueman. Eric also played with distinction at centre half for SUFC reserves during the early years of World War 2, and always maintained that he would have played regularly for the first XI were it not for another squad member keeping the management supplied with wartime vegetables (and chickens) from his allotment! He went on to captain York City.

I have a half-finished book about Eric and his career with SUCC/SUFC, grounded in 60-70 hours of recorded interviews with him before he passed. I really must finish that damn book! If anyone on here feels like encouraging me, please feel free.

In lieu, I'll copy and paste the obituary I wrote for Eric that was published in the Yorkshire Post. The editor changed my references to "Eric" to "Mr Burgin", to suit house style. And they cut the lines towards the end where I talk about "vested interests on the Yorkshire committee" and the Boycott-era "Yorkshire Reform Group". Otherwise, the paste below is as was published.


Eric Burgin (January 4 1924 – November 16 2012)

Eric Burgin, who opened the bowling for Yorkshire in 1952 and 1953, and who served on the Yorkshire Committee during the troubled “Boycott era”, has died in Sheffield, aged 88.

The first Sheffield cricketer to play for Yorkshire for 50 years, Eric was born in Pitsmoor in 1924 and grew up in a strict Methodist family in Shiregreen, where, by 1938, he was playing cricket for Low Shire Methodists in the Sheffield Sunday School League. The “Sunday School” was one of many amateur senior leagues in Sheffield that produced rich pickings for the bigger, more established clubs, and the following summer Eric moved to Sheffield United under the tutelage of Jack Elms and former Yorkshire all-rounder, Cyril Turner. By 1940 Eric was playing regularly for United’s 1st XI in the Yorkshire League in front of several thousand at Bramall Lane. In a debut he never tired of recalling, Eric’s first wicket was that of his boyhood idol, Bill Bowes, the Yorkshire and England fast bowler who played in the “Bodyline” Ashes series of 1932-33, who was guesting for York while on national service. Later that year Eric also signed amateur forms for Sheffield United Football Club, where wartime call-ups propelled him straight into the Reserves at centre-half.

Called up to the RAF in 1942, Eric went to Algeria in one of the biggest convoys of the War, where his company staffed a transit-camp shipping men and munitions for the African campaign and the Italian front. In Algeria, and in his subsequent posting to Italy, Eric played representative football for the RAF, including a memorable match in Milan where he was picked at full-back for Italy Combined Services South against Italy Combined Services North, and found himself marking the great Tom Finney.

Demobbed in 1946, Eric resumed his career at Sheffield United as a part-timer for the football club, for whom he played in the Reserves until 1949, when he left to captain the first team at York City. Appointed as bowling professional and senior bowling coach at the cricket club, Eric was running nets on the famous evening in 1947 when 16 year old Fred Trueman appeared off the streets at Bramall Lane.

Called up by the county in 1952, Eric played 12 times for Yorkshire—9 of them in the County Championship—including two matches against the MCC and one against the 1953 Australians. Bowling medium-fast inswingers and leg-cutters he took 31 wickets at an average of 25.64. Highlights included 6-43 against Surrey at Headingley, and 5-20 in the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1952, where he opened the bowling with his old protégé, Fred Trueman.

After captaining the Sheffield United side which played the last game of Yorkshire League cricket at Bramall Lane in 1973, Eric flung himself into cricket administration, leading Sheffield United as Vice-Chairman and Treasurer, and serving on the Yorkshire Committee from 1979. Eric’s optimism and courage were just what United needed during the difficult transition from life at Bramall Lane. The club found a new home at Bawtry Road and Eric began negotiations with Yorkshire to bring county cricket back to Sheffield. Plans to convert Bawtry Road into a County Championship venue were well-advanced when the venture was scuppered, Eric always felt, by vested interests on the Yorkshire Committee.

Voted off the Committee in 1984 by Yorkshire Reform Group members championing the cause of Geoffrey Boycott, Eric retained strong ties with Headingley as a founder of Yorkshire’s Old Players Association, and remained active at Sheffield United as a Committee member and Trustee of the cricket club. He is survived by his wife Betty, son Stuart, and grandson Matthew.


A few photos:-

Eric on debut for Yorkshire CCC vs Warwickshire, at Bradford Park Avenue, 1952.

View attachment 51354



Eric, shaking hands with dignitary before Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan. May 25, 1946.

View attachment 51355



Eric (R), comprehensively skinned--by his own admission!--by Tom Finney (L), during Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan, May 25, 1946.

View attachment 51356


I have loads of photos, and scans of reserve team programmes for games Eric played in, and thousands of words of draft text from my book. V happy to be encouraged to post!

Eric Burgin. A proper gent. Much missed.
Click to expand...


Brilliant post.
 
ShockingBadBuy said:
In fact, it makes me quite sad seeing that photo. Eric and his wife were stalwarts of the Senior Blades. They never missed an event, even when he was ailing.

Given his achievements, Eric's invisibility in the annals of the club are illustrative of just how far the cricket club has been Stalinised out of our records/public consciousness. Eric was always, resolutely, a "one club" man (i.e., the cricket and football sections, to him, were always "one club").

In terms of how we think about the history of SUFC, shame on 'us'.
Click to expand...
This is a long shot, but when I was a kid at St.Barnabas school (Alderson Rd, opposite the Golden Lion) in the 1970s, there was a lady who used to play piano for us in assembly. Her name was Mrs.Burgin ( I don't know what her first name was). I wonder if she was related to Eric. Did Eric ever mention anything to you along those lines?
 
HighfieldBlade said:
This is a long shot, but when I was a kid at St.Barnabas school (Alderson Rd, opposite the Golden Lion) in the 1970s, there was a lady who used to play piano for us in assembly. Her name was Mrs.Burgin ( I don't know what her first name was). I wonder if she was related to Eric. Did Eric ever mention anything to you along those lines?
Click to expand...

Not that I can remember. Her name is Betty, if that helps (?). I’m afraid I can’t remember what she did for a living ...
 
ShockingBadBuy said:
In fact, it makes me quite sad seeing that photo. Eric and his wife were stalwarts of the Senior Blades. They never missed an event, even when he was ailing.

Given his achievements, Eric's invisibility in the annals of the club are illustrative of just how far the cricket club has been Stalinised out of our records/public consciousness. Eric was always, resolutely, a "one club" man (i.e., the cricket and football sections, to him, were always "one club").

In terms of how we think about the history of SUFC, shame on 'us'.
Click to expand...
This thread's only been going a couple of days, and already it's wandered way off topic... which is great. I had no idea it would go in this particular direction, but I hoped it would lead down all sorts of routes. I always liked cricket, but though I went to watch Yorkshire regularly, I never took much interest in the United cricket team. You are spot on in saying the cricket side has been written out of our history. Your piece was great to read - please add more, put up more pics, etc.
Eric Burgin was not related to Ted Burgin; is that right?
 
HodgysBrokenThumb said:
This thread's only been going a couple of days, and already it's wandered way off topic... which is great. I had no idea it would go in this particular direction, but I hoped it would lead down all sorts of routes. I always liked cricket, but though I went to watch Yorkshire regularly, I never took much interest in the United cricket team. You are spot on in saying the cricket side has been written out of our history. Your piece was great to read - please add more, put up more pics, etc.
Eric Burgin was not related to Ted Burgin; is that right?
Click to expand...

Nope, Eric and Ted not related. Which always struck me as odd. How many Burgin family chains can there be in Sheffield, right? :)

Thank you for suggesting I should upload more. Will do,
 
image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
My early years were mis-spent watching all manner of football, including may games I have totally forgotten. On these 2 programmes, there are 2 boys whose names will be familiar to just about all - Len Badger for Sheffield Boys, and Bob Wilson for Derbyshire. This was a route into professional football before academies were invented, and those 2 made good careers for themselves. Does anyone recognise any of the other names?
 
Silent Blade said:
I read a story that when John Harris was at Chester, there was a player he was interested in signing so the player was invited to the manager's office to discuss terms. As soon as the player entered the office, Harris could tell that the player had been drinking so he told him that he was no longer interested in signing him.

Looking at the names of those who were in the football committee, I see that Frank Melling was in our committee 60 years ago, I think he was one of our vice presidents in the 1990s, I have never seen a photo or a profile of him
Click to expand...
melling although involved with the footballing side was a cricket man really.
When cricket was removed I think his real involvement ended.Cricket moved to Dore I think
 
Does anyone know what happened to Carlisle United reserve striker Gary Madine? He sounded quite good. IMG_20190326_201332.jpg IMG_20190326_201300.jpg
 
image.jpeg image.jpeg image.jpeg
Programmes from a couple of young Blades matches from the 60s. I'm beginning to think I was a young Ball_Sup (Phil) ! They make you realise that we had a great crop of young players at junior and Under-23 level. Presumably Badger wasn't playing for the Under-23s because he was needed for the first team. There were interesting players for the England Youth team, as well.
And as the name Burgin has cropped up twice this week (Eric and Ted), it would be interesting to know if the no. 2 from Wednesday playing for The Rest in the junior match was related to either of the United Burgins.
 
ShockingBadBuy said:
Eric Burgin was a lovely man, who I was lucky enough to get to know quite well in his later years via Sheff Utd Cricket Club (for whom I played, not very well at all, in my early 40s, and with whom Eric remained in touch as a spectator, a former Chairman, and the grandparent of a player, until his death in 2012).

Eric had a more or less lifelong connection with Utd, having represented the cricket club from his teens until his retirement, during which time he became the first Sheffield cricketer for 50 years to play for Yorkshire during the 1952 and 1953 seasons--opening the bowling alongside, among others, Fred Trueman. Eric also played with distinction at centre half for SUFC reserves during the early years of World War 2, and always maintained that he would have played regularly for the first XI were it not for another squad member keeping the management supplied with wartime vegetables (and chickens) from his allotment! He went on to captain York City.

I have a half-finished book about Eric and his career with SUCC/SUFC, grounded in 60-70 hours of recorded interviews with him before he passed. I really must finish that damn book! If anyone on here feels like encouraging me, please feel free.

In lieu, I'll copy and paste the obituary I wrote for Eric that was published in the Yorkshire Post. The editor changed my references to "Eric" to "Mr Burgin", to suit house style. And they cut the lines towards the end where I talk about "vested interests on the Yorkshire committee" and the Boycott-era "Yorkshire Reform Group". Otherwise, the paste below is as was published.


Eric Burgin (January 4 1924 – November 16 2012)

Eric Burgin, who opened the bowling for Yorkshire in 1952 and 1953, and who served on the Yorkshire Committee during the troubled “Boycott era”, has died in Sheffield, aged 88.

The first Sheffield cricketer to play for Yorkshire for 50 years, Eric was born in Pitsmoor in 1924 and grew up in a strict Methodist family in Shiregreen, where, by 1938, he was playing cricket for Low Shire Methodists in the Sheffield Sunday School League. The “Sunday School” was one of many amateur senior leagues in Sheffield that produced rich pickings for the bigger, more established clubs, and the following summer Eric moved to Sheffield United under the tutelage of Jack Elms and former Yorkshire all-rounder, Cyril Turner. By 1940 Eric was playing regularly for United’s 1st XI in the Yorkshire League in front of several thousand at Bramall Lane. In a debut he never tired of recalling, Eric’s first wicket was that of his boyhood idol, Bill Bowes, the Yorkshire and England fast bowler who played in the “Bodyline” Ashes series of 1932-33, who was guesting for York while on national service. Later that year Eric also signed amateur forms for Sheffield United Football Club, where wartime call-ups propelled him straight into the Reserves at centre-half.

Called up to the RAF in 1942, Eric went to Algeria in one of the biggest convoys of the War, where his company staffed a transit-camp shipping men and munitions for the African campaign and the Italian front. In Algeria, and in his subsequent posting to Italy, Eric played representative football for the RAF, including a memorable match in Milan where he was picked at full-back for Italy Combined Services South against Italy Combined Services North, and found himself marking the great Tom Finney.

Demobbed in 1946, Eric resumed his career at Sheffield United as a part-timer for the football club, for whom he played in the Reserves until 1949, when he left to captain the first team at York City. Appointed as bowling professional and senior bowling coach at the cricket club, Eric was running nets on the famous evening in 1947 when 16 year old Fred Trueman appeared off the streets at Bramall Lane.

Called up by the county in 1952, Eric played 12 times for Yorkshire—9 of them in the County Championship—including two matches against the MCC and one against the 1953 Australians. Bowling medium-fast inswingers and leg-cutters he took 31 wickets at an average of 25.64. Highlights included 6-43 against Surrey at Headingley, and 5-20 in the Roses match at Old Trafford in 1952, where he opened the bowling with his old protégé, Fred Trueman.

After captaining the Sheffield United side which played the last game of Yorkshire League cricket at Bramall Lane in 1973, Eric flung himself into cricket administration, leading Sheffield United as Vice-Chairman and Treasurer, and serving on the Yorkshire Committee from 1979. Eric’s optimism and courage were just what United needed during the difficult transition from life at Bramall Lane. The club found a new home at Bawtry Road and Eric began negotiations with Yorkshire to bring county cricket back to Sheffield. Plans to convert Bawtry Road into a County Championship venue were well-advanced when the venture was scuppered, Eric always felt, by vested interests on the Yorkshire Committee.

Voted off the Committee in 1984 by Yorkshire Reform Group members championing the cause of Geoffrey Boycott, Eric retained strong ties with Headingley as a founder of Yorkshire’s Old Players Association, and remained active at Sheffield United as a Committee member and Trustee of the cricket club. He is survived by his wife Betty, son Stuart, and grandson Matthew.


A few photos:-

Eric on debut for Yorkshire CCC vs Warwickshire, at Bradford Park Avenue, 1952.

View attachment 51354



Eric, shaking hands with dignitary before Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan. May 25, 1946.

View attachment 51355



Eric (R), comprehensively skinned--by his own admission!--by Tom Finney (L), during Italy Combined Services North vs Italy Combined Services South. Milan, May 25, 1946.

View attachment 51356


I have loads of photos, and scans of reserve team programmes for games Eric played in, and thousands of words of draft text from my book. V happy to be encouraged to post!

Eric Burgin. A proper gent. Much missed.
Click to expand...

I once got a golden duck against Sheffield United in the Sheffield Junior League, 1983. I made up for it with 55 not out against Collegiate later on that season.
 

March 28th, 1959, and the beginning of a run of games that would now be unthinkable: Scunthorpe away, Saturday; Brighton away (Easter Monday, March 30th); Brighton home (Easter Tuesday, March 31st). How about that for a schedule?
Scunthorpe was easy to get to - the home programme the previous Saturday had details of the train, which was due in Scunthorpe at 2.25 for the 3.15 kick-off. We were in the ground on time - I don't remember ever missing the kick-off, and the only occasion for concern was the 6th round Cup-tie at Newcastle, when the engine broke down, but they still got us there in time. One up for the nationalised railways!
I liked Scunthorpe. The programme spoke really well of United and the players, and the ground was small but noisy. There is a 'quaint' advert for a shop in the programme -'More than half Scunthorpe shops at Fishers. Does your missus shop there?' And Marty Wilde was performing at the local theatre. It was my kind of town. They even had a player who I had a soft spot for - Ronnie Waldock, who they signed from us, and was their leading scorer. If I say he was the kind of player that Pinchy would have hated, you will get a sense of his approach. And we always seemed to beat them, which helps.
When I looked at the programme (pics in next post), I was delighted to find something I had completely forgotten - my older brother chose this moment to become the Deadbat of his era, and started inserting a match report in the programmes. I reproduce it below, without his permission - if he comes on here, he can tell me off! I now recall a conversation he had with my mother, where she pointed out the he would never willingly write an essay for school, but would spend his time writing these reports:

'It was a sunny day and United played in white shirts before a crowd of 12,353. United took the lead after 3 minutes when Pace, intending the ball to go into the left-hand corner, miskicked the ball into the other corner after Jones had failed to hold a shot from Hoyland. After 33 mins, Hodgson crossed the ball on the ground and Shiels ran in to hit it between Jones and the post. After 56 mins, Pace ran into the penalty area and then seemed to get the ball lost between his legs. Two Scunthorpe defenders were slow to tackle Pace and the latter had time to recover and push the ball back to Hamilton who smashed it into the roof of the net.
Harburn scored for Scunthorpe by bundling the ball into the net after Graham Shaw had been messing about. Pace scored, but was ruled offside and one of his shots struck Jones' leg.
The defence was rarely troubled, but the forward line could have been better. Nibloe, making his second appearance, was poor, and Hodgson was little better. Summers left the field for 10 minutes in the first half because of a cut right eye.'

He has never been nominated for a Nobel Prize for Literature.
 
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