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unwary users! And the Ditchburn family are also pictured at Butlins
alongside fellow Tottenham team mates Les Bennett, Ron Burgess
and Ernie Jones. That shot comes from July, 1949.
Ted’s Spurs and England team mate Eddie Baily used to organise
regular football training for holiday campers during the summer and
also acted in a liaison role as he brought other players along with him
and even negotiated their rates of pay.
A genuine ‘Chirpy Cockney’ personality, Eddie clearly enjoyed what
he did and was scrupulous in his planning, preparing for those fun
sessions with all the exactness that he would later show as manager Bill
Nicholson’s loyal coaching lieutenant when both retired from playing.
Eddie’s daughter Jane still has her father’s coaching notes in little
booklets, jotted down in advance as he planned ahead, alongside his
correspondence with the holiday camps in which he detailed the Spurs
players who would be joining him.
And I was delighted when she allowed me to have a look a year or
so ago.
Eddie clearly possessed the skills of a librarian and reading such
thorough preparation was like holding a mirror to the man and to a
more gentle time when a child smiling was payment in itself. May
that never change.
“Hi-de-Ho!”
Les Bennett, Ron Burgess, Ernie Jones
and Te d Ditchburn at Butlins in 1949
Eddie Baily
Te d Ditchburn in action