SYD THOMAS. By David Wyn Davies.

2011 1st edition. 8vo (153 x 216mm). Ppiv,74. B/w photographs. Laminated boards.

"There wasn't much of Syd Thomas, the Welsh international winger who helped Fulham rise to the top flight of English football in 1948-49, but on his day he was a captivating entertainer. Standing 5ft 6in and slight of build, he looked as if he might be eaten alive by some of the brawny full-backs plying their trade in the immediate post-war era, but often his sleight of foot and sudden bursts of acceleration, allied to a fierce determination which belied his diminutive stature, would leave them toiling impotently in his wake. ...Thomas, a former baker's boy in the small Welsh market town of Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire, built a local reputation as an outstanding teenage footballer and played for Wrexham reserves in 1937-38, but was not offered a contract. However, his breakthrough was not long delayed. In August 1938 he was invited to take part in a trial game by Fulham of the Second Division and so impressed the Cottagers' watching manager, Jack Peart, that he was signed from the Welsh League club Treharris at half-time, thus completing the first 45 minutes as an amateur and the second period as a professional. A thrilling future beckoned, only for the Second World War to intervene. At either end of the conflict he made a handful of appearances for Fulham in unofficial emergency competition and he played frequently during his RAF service as a driver at an airport construction site in Africa's Gold Coast, but his senior debut was delayed for eight years. It finally arrived in a home draw with Tottenham Hotspur in November 1946." From the Independent, 02/02/2012.