Middlesbrough 1949/50

Some people find it very annoying when someone has turned down the page of a book to mark their place or, even worse, scribbled notes in the margins. I am one such person. Perhaps the worst ‘sin’ of all would be to tear out the final page of a ‘who done it?’ mystery. You will have to be pretty old to remember an episode of Hancock’s Half Hour where that was precisely the plot as Tony Hancock made increasingly desperate efforts to track down an intact copy of a book to find out who had ‘done it’ – indeed many readers may not have a clue what or who I’m talking about!^[1]This might help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hancock)

But football programmes are different and we are indebted to the anonymous person who bought a programme for the Fulham vs Middlesbrough game on 6^th May 1950 and very carefully noted the team changes. Thank you, whoever you were!

That person’s dedication to historical accuracy means that we know Lindy Delapenha was originally listed to play at inside left (which is what wearing the No.10 shirt meant in those days), but swapped with Wilf Mannion.

This was Lindy’s debut for Middlesbrough and he made it wearing the No.8 shirt. And it was, of course, the first time a black player had represented Middlesbrough in League or Cup.

Our diligent scribe has noted that Stevens scored from the penalty spot for the home side but failed to note the two second half goals that won the game for the visitors. I think we can probably assume the programme’s owner was a Fulham fan!

Lindy Delapenha was the first black player at no less than four clubs but he spent the bulk of his career, nine seasons, on Teeside. He made 270 appearances and scored 92 goals during his time with the club. You can follow his story, spread over four chapters (Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Mansfield Town and Burton Albion), in Football’s Black Pioneers.

Looking at the half time scores prompted me to wonder what had happened at full time in these games.

Bad news for one of the author’s of ‘Pioneers’ as the full time score of Walsall vs Crystal Palace was a 3-1 home win. Better news for co-author, Bill Hern, in that his Sunderland team beat Chelsea 4-1.  I say ‘his’ Sunderland, but neither of us had been born when these games were played!