| I am
a Librarian at Pilton Community College in Barnstaple,
North Devon. My husband, Alan, has been a staunch
supporter of Wolves since he was a young boy (he is now
55). Billy Wright and the Wolves football team used to
come to Barnstaple and stay at the Barnstaple Road Hotel
owned by the Brend Group, which is just around the corner
from Pilton School. Mr. Peter Brend, a good friend of
ours, introduced my husband to Billy Wright and all the
players at the time. Alan became friendly with the team,
in particular Stevie Bull. We went to various social
events with them all in the Barnstaple area. Billy Wright
agreed to let his team train at Pilton Community College
where they trained with our pupils. After the training
Billy and the team came into my Library at Pilton and had
a photo shoot. Billy Wright is in the centre of the photo
alongside Cyrille Regis, Steve Bull etc. One of the
pictures is still in pride of place on the Library notice
board where all the children and visitors to the school
can see it. Billy will be remembered by Pilton as a
genuinely sincere nice guy who spent time coaching and
encouraging our footballers of the future. My husband
still never misses a match! LYN FRIEND Barnstaple, North Devon In 1951 I was a schoolboy in Folkestone, Kent, and Wolverhampton Wanderers were in town training. I remember going to watch them at the local club ground. I managed to get most of the teams autographs such as Norman Deeley, John Short, Bill Shorthouse, Roy Swinbourne, etc., all stars of the time. Waiting for them to leave the ground later I was standing at the rear of a small crowd of fans, when out came Billy Wright, my hero and captain of England. I had only read about him or seen clips of him on the newsreels at the cinema (no TV then). I was unable to move as everybody had moved forward to get his autograph. When he had finished signing and was about to move away, he looked up and saw me still rooted to the spot way at the back, and said, 'Come here, son' and he signed my book. To me that was the measure of the man; he could quite easily have ignored little old me at the back. I still have and treasure his autograph to this day. I am now 65 and warmed by the memory more than 50 years on. TREVOR ROBBIE Acton, West London Billy Wright was my footballing hero and Wolverhampton Wanderers is my favourite team. Billy always conducted himself both on and off the field in an exemplary manner. He was a most gifted player and captain with an excellent playing record for Wolves and England. At that time it was good to see players shaking hands after scoring a goal rather than the ridiculous tactics of today when some players jump on the backs of goal scorers or pull their shirts up over their heads and run blindly towards their fans. Such stupidity could result in injury to themselves or to their team-mates, but managers just seem to ignore these antics despite the huge fees attracted by many of today's players. It was all so different in Billy's day, and much more gentlemanly and sporting. MALCOLM TAYLOR Alresford, Hampshire William Wright was a player that I never actually saw play. But having said that it feels as though I've seen him play a stack of times. The reason for this is that I am only 30 years old myself, but I have read an awful lot about him, and my Dad – an avid Wolves fan of close to 60 Years – has informed me of virtually every game he saw him play. This man not only played the game very fairly(not even being BOOKED in his career) but seemed to be Mr. Wolverhampton Wanderers. Old gold and black blood obviously ran through his veins. Cheers Bill, all the very best wherever you ar' kid ... Wish I'd av sin ya play, Bill LES and JOHN STAITE Bentley, Walsall |