Marvellous: Neil Baldwin - My Story. Neil Baldwin
got locked in the dressing room. They forgot I was there. I also had a trial at Crewe Alexander when Alan A’Court was in charge there.
MALCOLM
George continues:
Neil used to clean cars for the players to raise a bit of money. One time Terry Lees decided to pull Neil’s leg by pretending he wasn’t satisfied and saying, ‘I’m not paying you, you haven’t done it right.’ Neil was horrified and challenged him to a fight. Terry said, ‘Take your jumper off’ and pretended to accept the challenge, but of course he wasn’t serious. All the lads loved Neil. He was part of the scenery.
We never let anybody take things too far, but Neil had a lot of spirit and always gave something back. He made quite an impression on my life.
We were once driving past Keele in Dave Hughes’s car. It was pouring down at half past midnight and we spotted someone walking down Keele Bank to Newcastle town centre. It was Neil. We asked him where he was going and Neil just replied, ‘You’re taking me where I’m going!’ Dave had a mannequin from the Just Jane dress shop in the back, so he sat Neil in the back with a naked woman. They were an interesting pair of passengers.
The former Stoke player John Ruggiero recounts the time when the famous England international George Eastham signed for Stoke. George had been in England’s 1966 winning World Cup squad and some years later was to score the winning goal for Stoke in the 1972 League Cup final at Wembley. He now lives in South Africa. John recounts the tale as told to him by George:
When George signed for Stoke City, the club put him in a house in Sneyd Green. He’d been there a few days when there was a knock on the door and he opened it to see a vicar standing on the doorstep. George thought, I’ve only been here a week and they’ve sent the local vicar round to make sure I’m all right and settling into the local community.
He really appreciated this gesture and invited the vicar in for tea. George produced some tea and biscuits and then noticed that the vicar had taken out large number of books and magazines and asked George to start signing them. George thought this was very odd. Eventually, he discovered that it was Neil, not a real vicar. He took a great deal of ribbing from the other players about that, but George has a great deal of time for Neil and, whenever he rings up from South Africa, always asks, ‘How’s Nello?’
George was neither the first nor the last to be taken in by Neil’s occasional dog collar. I had done the same on my first meeting with Neil a couple of years earlier at Keele University. In those days Neil also occasionally used to wear it while hitchhiking.
NEIL
I used to hitchhike to visit old Keele friends, circuses, church services and football matches. I found that wearing a dog collar was a very good way of getting a quick lift, because drivers liked to pick up someone in the church. My ministry’s very important to me. In those days, all the students used to hitchhike, but nobody does any more. I haven’t been hitch-hiking for a long time. I find it’s better to just to ask friends for a lift.
MALCOLM
Betty Cartwright, a longstanding member of St Mark’s church in Birkenhead, which Mary and Neil used to attend when visiting her family, recalls an incident in the late sixties or early seventies:
Neil wore a dog collar, which led our minister, Canon Maurice Marshall, to believe he was a vicar and he invited him back to the church to preach at a later date. The family had to go round to tell Maurice the truth.
Denise recalls her mother Iris saying, ‘I just can’t believe our Neil has fooled Maurice.’
Cousin Brenda confirmed that Maurice was a ‘rather stiff ’ person who wasn’t too pleased that he had been misled in this way.
It was during the sixties that Neil started to turn his childhood interest in circuses into an adult reality. Norman Barrett MBE is one of the circus community’s most famous members, a ringmaster and former bareback rider who is also famous for his act with trained budgies. Norman recalls:
I first got to know Neil in the 1960s. He came to visit my mother, who invited him for a cup of tea and gave him some circus programmes. And he became a regular visitor after that. On one occasion he came with a dog collar and a Bible. He came to see us at the Tower Circus in Blackpool, and also to Zippos in Stoke and down to shows in London.
He took my retired budgies and I still give him budgies because he takes great care of them.
He’s a circus lover; he visits circuses all over the country, and indeed the world. He goes to the annual get-together of the circus community and the circus fans’ association. He still phones me regularly.
Phillip Gandey of Gandeys Circus says, ‘Neil used to visit my father’s circus as a young man and always visited my mum and dad. We see him at family funerals and know him as a friend. He is part of the wider circus family.’
Andrew Edwards is a local funeral director with strong connections to Stoke City. He recalls:
A few years ago, we did the funeral of Mary Gandey, who was prominent in the circus community. Mourners came from all over the country. I was very surprised to see Nello there, but I shouldn’t have been, because it was obvious he’s a friend of the family and knew loads of people from the circus families very well.
NEIL
Norman and Phillip are very good friends of mine. Norman is one of the most famous circus people and has one of the best acts in the country. I have been pleased to look after his retired budgies. I have known Phillip’s family ever since I was young, and in 1974 I performed in a show of theirs at Stoke Polytechnic as a clown. All the Gandey family are good friends of mine. I went to Mary’s funeral at Brereton. That was sad. It was organised by Andrew Edwards, who is a big Stoke City fan. He is a nice man who is very good at running funerals.
I see a lot of my old circus friends at the annual national circus reunion. A circus is the most exciting form of entertainment you can have. I love making people laugh.
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