CAPTAINED ENGLAND AT SOCCER 34 TIMES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 88, 14 April 1945, Page 5 (Supplement)

CAPTAINED ENGLAND AT SOCCER 34 TIMES

EDDIE HAPGOOD, FAMOUS FULL-BACK, WAS FOOTBALL AMBASSADOR

QN October 27, 1927, a wiry, square - shouldered, West Country boy of 19 named Edris Albert Hapgood arrived at Paddington Station from Bristol. He was broke. The £10 he started out with had gone in a "find the lady" card session with seven "cheery" men he_ met on the train.

As he stood wondering what to do next, someone clapped him on the shoulder. It was "Punch" McEwan, Arsenal Football Club's popular, friendly little coach, who had spotted Hapgood by his provincially stylish pointed shoes and tight-to-bursting trousers.

That day marked "Eddie" Hapgood's start on the meteoric career which not only made him, in 10 years, the moat talked-off full-back in the history of the game and Britain's best-known professional, but brought him the most lavish array of honours any player has ever won. Capped for England 43 times, and 34 times captain of the national side, he played in 14 different countries before the war.

Starting as a spare time player for a local team (he was running a milk float for a local dairy at the time), he was picked out by a Bristol Rovers director who, impressed by his talent, offered him an £8 a week winter salary. Hapgood turned it down. But when Kettering's George Charlesworth offered him £4 a week winter wages and £3 in summer, he accepted. He also accepted when Arsenal offered him, shortly afterwards, a year-round salary of £8.

Recently, in Football Ambassador, a sporting handibook, an easy-going anecdotal recital of his adventures, Hapgood told the entertaining story of his life; the early schoolboy itch to kick a ball which landed him in Court on a charge of smashing windows; his first exciting games with the Kettering team; his tours in Germany, Italy and Switzerland; his meeting with the King. At 37 Hapgood has no regrets. Now a flying-officer in the R.A.F., he plans to go back to football after the war, and has already signed up as Blackburn Rovers' manager. He hopes his 15-year-old son, already an ardent fan, will rival his own outstanding record. A teetotaller and non-smoker, Hapgood says the secret of good football is training. "I hold strong views on training, and I think that a player should train hard until he is round about the 30 mark. Other Football Ambassador items: "Your whole life has to be regulated and purged of excesses. Soccer is a hard task-master." "My five great 'don'ts' are: Wrong meals on the day of the match, illfitting boots, lack of protection for the shins, wrong heading of the ball, and selfishness and lack of team spirit." "I still think that a top-class player is underpaid. A man should be paid on his talent and his gatedrawing capacity, and the ceiling of £8 a week maximum should be raised. I also think that a player should be given part of nis transfer fee providing a foolproof system could be worked -out whereby a player wasn't transferred every other week to increase his bank balance.