Gingerbreads legend Terry Bly dies
GRANTHAM Town legend Terry Bly has died at his home, aged 73.
GRANTHAM Town legend Terry Bly has died at his home, aged 73.
Below is a statement released by the club this morning:
"It is with great sadness that the club learnt last night (Thursday) that Terry Bly had died suddenly at home. The term 'legend' is often overused in football, but in Terry's case it was the only appropriate word to describe him.
"Born 22/10/1935 at Fincham. Footballing legend who was known as 'Billy' to his team-mates and played for Bury Town and Norwich City, making an FA Cup semi-final appearance after the team defeated Spurs and Manchester United, following which national headlines of 'Bly, Bly Babes' was made. He then went on to score 52 goals, a seasonal record in Division 4, during Peterborough United's inaugural Football League campaign, followed by moves to Coventry City and a 13,000 transfer to Notts County.
"He failed to impress though at The Magpies and after a total of 159 goals in 243 senior appearances during his Football League career, Terry arrived at London Road as Player/Manager for 'a four figure sum', with Jimmy Rayner going in the opposite direction. He achieved the best possible start, scoring on his Grantham debut in the Midland League game against Retford Town in October 1964 and finished this first season at London Road with four hat-tricks to his name. During the next two years he played in the majority of the league games and every FA Cup match, including the ties against Swindon Town, Wimbledon and Oldham Athletic.
"The following two seasons, 1967/68 and 68/69, Terry was missing for several of the league games but both times he finished as the club's joint highest scorer, firstly with Mike Alexander and then Ernie Nixon. In this time he had added another hat-trick to his name during the September 1967 game at Worksop Town and scored four times in the home games against Loughborough United and Barton Town. Other highlights had included more appearances in the FA Cup Proper, with ties against Altrincham, Chelmsford City and the return of Swindon Town, plus victory in the Midland League Cup. In his final season Terry played only a limited number of games, although he did appear in the highlight of another FA Cup game against Oldham Athletic, before bowing out in the Midland League game at Alfreton Town in April 1970.
"Of course this was by no means the end of Terry's Grantham career as he then guided them to three consecutive league championships, FA Cup games against Stockport County, (the club's first victory over a Football League side), Rotherham United, Bradford City, the epic victory over Rochdale and a Third Round Proper encounter with Middlesbrough. Those following few years also included an FA Trophy Quarter-Final tie against Yeovil, another Midland League Cup victory and a Lincolnshire County Cup win at Scunthorpe United. If that was not enough, at the pinnacle of his managerial career Terry still found time to run the Mace shop at Morton, but after his departure from the club in the Autumn of 1978, even the youngest of Granthamians will remember him as the man behind Plamore Sports in town. He finally retired in 2002, and in recent years became once again a welcome and familiar face at Grantham Town games, including last Tuesday night against Quorn. Terry was one of Grantham's true greats.
"The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Terry's family at this sad time. The club will mark Terry's passing at Saturday's game against Witton Albion."
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Weather for Grantham
Saturday 13 March 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C - 8 C
Wind Speed: 14 Knots
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 2 C - 10 C
Wind Speed: 18 Knots
Wind direction: North west
