[cynprifathro]

I knew Alan well from Grove Park. During the hard winter of 1962/63 when there was no football, Alan, Peter Clark, GVLTC and myself often used to play table tennis on Saturdays in the YMCA Building then Ministry of Labour in Hill Street. Alan's time at Everton was in the era of no substitutes. George Sharples and Alan would frequently line up as 'reserves' to travel with that star studded team. Adding to Glossopred, Alan was selected for the Welsh amateur team at 16 and listed as playing for Grove Park GS, a school team that also included Terry Hennessey, Ray Gilpin and Bill Maddocks, all then Welsh schoolboy internationals.