Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Alan Parkes[1] | ||
Date of birth | [1] | 12 January 1929||
Place of birth | Hartlepool, County Durham, England | ||
Date of death | 14 April 2013[2] | (aged 84)||
Place of death | Stockton-on-Tees, England | ||
Position(s) | Centre forward | ||
Youth career | |||
Sunderland | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
Sunderland | 0 | (0) | |
194?–1949 | Murton Colliery Welfare | ||
1949–195? | Charlton Athletic | 0 | (0) |
1950–195? | Tonbridge | ||
1955 | Darlington | 1 | (0) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Alan Parkes (12 January 1929 – 14 April 2013) was an English footballer who played as a centre forward in the Football League for Darlington and in non-league football for Murton Colliery Welfare and Tonbridge. He was on the books of Sunderland and Charlton Athletic without representing them in League football.[1][3]
Parkes was born in Hartlepool, County Durham, where he attended the Technical Day School.[4] He began his football career with Sunderland, but never progressed past the junior teams, despite the view of the pseudonymous "Argus" in the Sunderland Echo that "from what I have seen of him I would prefer him to at least two of the players I have seen leading both the Reserves and the A team in the past 12 months".[5][2]
He moved on to North Eastern League club Murton Colliery Welfare, from where he was transferred to First Division club Charlton Athletic in September 1949 for a £1,000 fee, "easily a record in the history of the Murton C.W. club".[6] He scored 49 goals in his first season for Charlton's reserve and A teams, and was allowed to join Southern League club Tonbridge under a "gentleman's agreement" between the two clubs.[7][8] He made an impressive debut in the FA Cup win against Gravesend & Northfleet: "though he did not score himself his astute handling of the Gravesend defence and his distribution of the ball had much to do with the Tonbridge superiority".[9] A few days later – he was on National Service at the time – he was the only non-league player to be selected for the Army XI to play the Civil Service.[10]
Parkes never appeared for Charlton in a league match, and returned to the north-east of England where he signed for Darlington.[1] On 26 March 1955, at the age of 26, he made his Football League debut, in a 3–0 defeat away to Bradford City in the Third Division North. It was his only league appearance.[11]
Parkes died in Stockton, County Durham, in 2013 at the age of 80.[2]