Gather together the elder statesmen of the Belmont's Gas
Works End and they might argue over who was the best player ever
to wear the red and white shirt of Whitstable. Well.... they
might.... but I doubt it! Of course, a dozen hallowed names will
be reeled off from the Golden Era of the 1950s and, then with a
touch of awe, you will get the most hallowed of all.... one John
Conley. A little while ago Ian Johnson sent me the
following newspaper article from the Independent on Sunday. It
was written by Norman Fox shortly after the death of John Conley
in January 1991 and it so beautifully sums up both the player
and the era. We would like to thank the Independent who have
been absolutely brilliant in allowing us to reproduce the
article on the Simply Whitstable web site.....
Article
First published in The Independent on Sunday on27 January 1991
Reproduced with kind permission of the Independent
My first reaction to the item was that it
could not possibly have been written without first hand
knowledge of the Belmont of 1950s. Ian Johnson has since pointed
out that Norman Fox was a local lad and features in one of the
photos on our Sir William Nottidge School section.
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