Page 31 - 368603 LP250721 AWY AWY AWY Book (238pp A5)

nervous about pestering him. The door of the modest semi was opened by his beehive-haired wife and Bryan said, “Is Mr Hurley in?” Next thing Charlie himself was filling the doorway looking like he’d just finished off a cow-pie and had a quick shave with a blowlamp. He took our autograph books, disappeared behind the door and a few seconds later came back, thrust them in our hands and shut the door again with nary a word. After that great success we were so buoyed up that we wondered whose house we could visit next. We couldn’t top Charlie and we didn’t know where any of the others lived except occasional forward Willie McPheat, who was living near the General Hospital on Chester Road, but when we went round he was out, or hiding. Anyway, I must have intercepted him at a later date – mind you, his signature looks more like ‘Roger Wood’ to me.
In the same period our local off-licence on the corner of Durham Road and Derby Street, just next to where the Royal Infirmary used to be, was called Shack's. The owner, though I didn’t often see him there, was none other than football great Len Shackleton, the Clown Prince of Football, one of the most gifted and outspoken English footballers of the mid-20th Century. I was in there around 1963 with my Dad when he asked Shack if he would give me his autograph and I clearly remember the smile on his face as he obliged. I was quite surprised to rediscover recently the autograph book containing that signature and the others. Before I got this book it was the property of our Graham and he'd obtained a
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