HARD TIMES AND HEADCASES
The fifth of Brian McClelland's compelling series of articles on significant figures from Glentoran's history. Many thanks to the Glentoran Supporters Committee (1923) for use of this material.
There is something wonderful, nay magical, about footballers of a different era.
Take Glentoran’s Billy “Flash” King, for instance. I saw him play when I was a youngster in the early fifties. He was a tall, lazily elegant type of player, the sort of full-back who would give his team mates nightmares playing his way up field against the odds with nonchalant footwork and slide rule passes.
Billy "Flash" King
I think that’s how Billy got his nickname, he was a bit flash on the field, though at times languid in style, prone to eccentric, unpredictable behaviour. Why boot the ball up field, was his attitude, when you could dribble your way out of trouble (with the odd mistake), slip the leather inside the opposing full back for your winger, usually “Danno” Feeney, to collect and provide a pin point cross for Sammy Hughes at the back post?
We all believed that Flash was a bit bonkers. Flash was a bit of a cult figure at the Oval, and certainly was with me and my pals.
Billy King? Flash was King Billy to us young fans. If he had led the team out on a white charger no one would have turned a hair. Between 1948 and 1956 Flash made 195 appearances for the Glens.
Let Sammy Hughes, a team-mate and friend for many seasons, take up the story:
What a character was Flash. I can see him yet...if he had dedicated himself he could have been one of the greatest footballers this country ever produced. After every game he would always say, no matter the result, “I played well again!” And he would be smothered in jerseys which the rest of the players threw at him – sometimes in victory, sometimes in disgust.
Once we were defeated 4-2 by Glenavon at Mourneview Park and he decided to be more generous in his remarks to the captain Noel McCarthy: “Sammy and I played well again today. Can we not get more money than the rest of the boys!” More jerseys, more acid comments, but everybody loved Flash.
Sammy Hughes
Background information about Flash is hard to come by though I did find a revealing pen picture of him in the 1952 Irish Cup Final programme: It seems that he was a native of Craigavad and played for the local team in the Amateur League. He came to the Oval from Crusaders and was originally an outside right. Flash took his chance in the back position when injuries struck the team.
I did say it was revealing information! So the bole Flash was originally an outside right! No wonder he took to wandering down the line – you might say he was a wing back before wing backs were invented. You see, in those far off days wingers were outstanding dribblers, Sammy Lowry was one, their main objective being to reach the corner flag and centre the ball for great centre forwards like Sammy Hughes and Fred Roberts to do the business.
Now full backs were a different bred entirely. Their idea was to put the winger over the by-line with a fierce tackle. Most were expert at trapping a high ball with the sole of their boot then dispatching it long and accurately into an opponent’s half. Glentoran had some magnificent exponents of striking a dead ball. Backs like Tommy Lucas, Noel McCarthy and John Dunlop (more of him shortly) had turned clean kicking into an art form. Sammy Hughes once remarked that Tommy Lucas was the best kicker of a ball he had ever seen.
Flash played in the Irish Cup Final of 1951, losing by the only goal of the game to Ards. He also appeared in that epic three game Irish Cup Final against Derry City in 1954, all of which I witnessed, along with a total of almost 100,000 fans. Flash had the task of marking another legend of the local game in little Arthur “Mousey” Brady. He was given a well deserved benefit game at the end of the 1955/56 season against Bedford Town at the Oval, but missed out on another three game Cup Final against Distillery.
Flash moved on the following season to Bangor, playing a blinder against his old team mates in a 3-2 victory at the Oval. Making his debut for the Glens that day was seventeen year old Jim “Bimbo” Weatherup. The last I heard was that Flash was living in Bangor’s bedsit land in the early nineties, victim of the demon drink.
In a magazine called Ulster Sports News of May, 1954, writer Joe L Douglas encapsulates the good and the bad of Flash in one short paragraph:
What can I write of Flash King, a sound back? No, a brilliant back! Sometimes on other occasions foolishly casual. An entertaining player, but I’m sure the Glentoran faithful have many a suspenseful moment when Flash decides to short-pass in the goalmouth.
Another Oval character around the same time was full-back John “Bap” Dunlop. While I saw Flash many times, I only saw Bap play a few games because his tenure at the Oval was a little earlier and somewhat shorter. Much later I would come across him in court. Perhaps I should explain. In the mid 1960s I was a young assistant court clerk in the Petty Sessions then situated in Chichester Street beside the fire station. Dunlop was an RUC detective sergeant, and consequently a frequent visitor to the courts. He would invariably introduce his arrival with his jovial, trademark phrases – “The Bap’s here” followed by “times are hard”.
John "Bap" Dunlop (right) with Danny Blanchflower
He was an imposing yet friendly figure. The black hair was receding, he was nearly bald, to be honest, when I knew him, but the pencil thin moustache was in place and his six foot plus stature ramrod straight like the regimental sergeant major I had always supposed him to have been in the war years. He was not a man to be crossed, however, if you know what I mean.
When I first started writing articles for the Gazette back in the nineties Bap was one of those interesting characters I meant to contact for a story. He had, of course, long since retired from the police but I knew he lived in the Bloomfield Road area. I managed to get his telephone number from someone, though it came with the ominous warning that the Bap was by now somewhat reclusive and a little bit irascible. So you’ll understand I was somewhat nervous in contacting him until it became too late, for, as I dithered, Bap passed on to that great football pitch in the sky. I have always regretted my reluctance in approaching this tremendous character, and tapping into his wealth of anecdotes.
Sammy Hughes played with Bap many times and knew him well:
Bap Dunlop always had class. At least he told you that anyway. One could not have wished for a more genuine colleague – both in my playing days and long after. Take that night in September 1967 when Glentoran drew 1-1 with Benfica at the Oval. A youngster at work asked if there was any chance of a ticket. I told him I would try for two and go along with him. So I wrote to Glentoran but, although promised the tickets which I wanted to purchase, they never arrived. I went to the main door, asked the commissionaire if any tickets had been left for me but the response was negative. I stood there for 20 minutes wondering if I should go on the terracing.
Some people recognised me, others didn’t. Then along came Bap, hale and hearty as ever. “Sammy ... can you not get in?” he asked. “Don’t worry, Bap, the tickets will be sent down,” I told him. But Bap insisted and he told the commissionaire: “Let that man in.”
Suddenly the scene changed. Stewards were all around me. Great to see you Sammy,” they said. Two tickets appeared like lightning and I was led up to the seats in the stand behind the Portuguese commentators. I never had a night like it. Nor had the youngster either.
Bap had a couple of spells with the Glens, first signing in 1939 and departing in 1942. He played just a few games for the first eleven in that period, signing again in 1947-48 season. He had a varied career, also playing for Glenavon, Coleraine, Crusaders, Bangor and Distillery. Cutting quite a presence on the field, he was an arresting figure, you might say. One of his specialities was the taking of free kicks, from which he quite often scored. Sammy Hughes tells of a game one day at Shamrock Park, Portadown:
We were awarded a free kick 30 yards out. Portadown formed a defensive wall which spoiled goalkeeper Ted McNeill’s view. Bap came up to take the kick, and as he did so McNeill shouted to his team mates, “Let me see it, let me see it.”
Bap stopped dead in his tracks, nonchalantly put his foot one the ball and said to the Portadown defence: “Come on lads, play the game, let him see it.” They made a gap which Bap, with a typical gesticulation acknowledged to the ‘keeper. You could almost have heard Ted say, “Thanks a lot.” Bap took his run and the ball went through the gap into the net. “Did you see it alright?” wisecracked Bap to McNeill, who was later transferred to Sunderland.
Bap would act the clown at times, his humour infectious, but his ability was unquestioned. Indeed, along with Flash King, he was one of the truly great characters of Irish football. Long gone are the days when the fans would ask “is so and so playing today”? When I was a boy players like Jimmy Jones, Billy Cush, Tommy Dickson, Sammy Hughes, Herbie Hegarty, Ossie Baillie, Flash King and Bap Dunlop, to name but a few, attracted thousands of spectators and made the game worth watching.
Currently, football, like all sports, is on hold. Times are hard indeed. But life in general, like football, is full of ups and downs. As Jimmy Greaves used to say, it’s a funny old game. Life will return to normal and Glentoran will return to the top, of that I am convinced.
So what’s to be done? Anyone for tennis?
6 Jan 1951 when the game at the Oval against Cliftonville was postponed. From left are Billy Crawford (groundsman), Frank Grice (manager), David McWilliams (secretary) and Bap Dunlop complete with rubber boots, scarf and soft hat acting the fool as usual!
