Teeth came out but Oxford City footballer played on

He had a good reason – he had been accidentally struck in the mouth and had had two teeth knocked out!

He recalls: “It happened when I was about 15 during a match at the White House ground. I nodded the ball and team-mate Tony Bricknell’s foot came up and hit me. A few bits of tooth fell out, but I played on.

Memory Lane this week

“I went to the dentist and my mum Connie was quite cross when I came home with two teeth missing. I had to have false ones.

“The picture was taken soon after the incident and I was trying to conceal my missing teeth.”

John played inside right or centre forward for Headington United, the forerunner of Oxford United, as well as Oxford City, and had trials with Chelsea.

He admits he was football-mad as a youngster, playing with his mates in the streets around his home in Rymers Lane, Cowley. They played so often that the bladder inside their ball became worn, meaning they had to stuff the ball with newspaper to keep playing.

• Oxford City players, from left to right, Cliff Allen, Doug Buswell and John Farr, with Doug (surname unknown) in front

His skills as a footballer while a pupil at Temple Cowley School were quickly spotted by officials of the Oxford Boys’ team, for whom he played for two years. He also attracted the attention of Chelsea, who signed him on amateur forms at the age of 15.

He tells me: “I travelled on the coach with Oxford City, who would have a game in London most weekends, either the first or reserve teams.

“They would drop me off and I would travel across London to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s ground, on my own.

“I travelled on the train sometimes with Cliff Holton when he was playing for Arsenal – he lived not far from us. The only problem was I was earning 25 shillings a week at Pressed Steel and the return train fare was 27s 6d.”

John’s flirtation with Chelsea ended after five months and he then concentrated on playing for City and later, when the family moved to Risinghurst, for Headington United.

One Headington game he particularly remembers was in January 1955 at Merthyr Tydfil when he earned two mentions in the match report in Sports Mail, the Oxford Mail’s Saturday evening sports paper nicknamed the ‘Green ‘Un’ because it was printed on green paper.

It reported that “Farr flashed the ball into the Merthyr goalmouth where a header by Wilson just scraped the crossbar” and “from a dropping shot by Johnstone into the Merthyr goalmouth, Farr almost equalised”. United lost 1-0 to a penalty given away by skipper Frank Ramshaw.

John’s younger brother Eric also played for Oxford City Colts, at inside right or on the right wing. (See photo, above.) The club chairman would collect him in his car when Saturday morning lessons at the City of Oxford High School ended and drive him to City’s ground off Abingdon Road.

Eric also played in a winning Oxford University football team against Cambridge in the annual Varsity match at Wembley.

The boys’ father, also called John, was keen that his sons should learn a trade as well as pursue their sporting interests.

John, now 79 and living in Winchester Close, Banbury, took a five-year apprenticeship at Pressed Steel to become an engineer, set up his own business and later, with his wife Marion, ran a nursing home at Drayton, near Banbury, for 21 years.

Eric studied in Edinburgh and Oxford and became a successful scientist. He died seven years ago.

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