WE have really hit the jackpot this week with photographs of Lye-born Joe Scott, as a multi-talented sportsman.
We first featured him in a family photograph taken at Pensnett, in our 932 edition, and asked if readers could supply a photograph of him in his football kit (he played in the 1920s for Cradley Heath St. Lukes, Rotherham, Barnsley and Tottenham Hotspur, and also later, cricket for Lye C.C.
In fact, we are indebted to Dave Perks of Lye cricket club, for supplying this selection of photographs this week.
Some of these come from cricket club archives, which are gradually being added to again after a serious fire destroyed their pavilion and most of their records, a few years ago.
Writes Dave: “The large collection of Victorian pictures and teams through two World Wars to the present era were lost. The Victorian ones were sadly irreplaceable, but those from the 1900s up the the 1980s are turning up from various sources. The pavilion is now rebuilt, but the only link with the past is our older members and their personal stories and photographs, proving the importance of collections like ours for the local community”.
Regarding Joe, Dave has some persoanl memories of his own, “He was a silver haired gentleman who kept wicket for Lye second eleven when I left school and joined the cricket club in 1953.
“Youngsters like me could only play home fixtures (to make up teams), unable to play away because these teams were picked from members with their own transport.
“We did not fraternise with the senior players, who looked a lot older, with hair sleeked back by Brylcreem, smoking cigarettes or pipes, as was the fashion”.
“The club now has over 300 pictures converted to disc, by member Mike Clifford, which can be viewed on Saturday match days on our TV screen”.
(The picture below, of Joe in his Tottenham days, is reproduced from Dave’s father’s collection, and was personally signed by Joe).
He had served during the 1914/18 war for the Devonshire Regiment.
