Northern Notes

By Debbie Orme

Notes

Billy to repeat his World Cup odyssey in Malmo next summer

Although all Northern Irish eyes will be firmly set on Northern Ireland's campaign to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, one Randalstown man’s eyes will be firmly set on the team’s campaign of more than 60 years ago!

Eighty-eight-year-old Billy Hunter was one of a handful of fans, who travelled to Malmo in Sweden for one of Northern Ireland’s most successful World Cup campaigns and he is hoping to mark the occasion by returning to Malmo with his daughters this autumn!

It was in the spring of 1958 when the then twenty-six year-old baker decided to follow his team to Sweden.

‘As a young man, I played football myself,’ says Billy, ‘but I was never going to be a top-class player – I was too small and light, and too easily hurt,’ he laughs. ‘I’d joined the Boys Brigade as a boy and I played on its football team. I wasn’t bad – in fact, I was the only player who was transferred to 3rd Bangor BB and then I worked my way up to the 21st Belfast BB.

‘I used to travel every Saturday morning on the bus to play and then I joined the Army Cadets. In 1946, I played at outside right for their team against Wales.’

Billy was a baker by trade and moved around a lot. His longest job was the two years he spent at the Inglis factory in Eliza Street in Belfast’s Markets area, making pancakes, soda and potato bread and snowballs. ‘Ninety per cent of the workers were girls,’ Billy laughs, ‘hence my reason for working there the longest!’

A lifelong Northern Ireland fan, Billy was delighted when the team qualified for the 1958 World Cup finals and so he decided to travel over as a spectator. Since he’d known that the World Cup was coming up, Billy had been saving for two months and had raised the princely sum of £200 - £2000 in today’s money – so he had enough to stay for a fortnight. ‘Like the others, I’d nothing booked,’ Billy continues. ‘I just wanted to get to Malmo for the opening round. I travelled to Liverpool, then took the train to Dover and then the boat to Ostend, another boat to Skattegat and then to Malmo. The whole trip took two days’

On the boat to Liverpool, Billy had met up with Stanley Mahood and Ian Malcolmson – both of whom played for Coleraine – and got into conversation with them. When the three arrived in Malmo, they headed for the Irish team hotel. The Mayor of Belfast – Alderman Cecil McKee – who was already at the hotel with the team, thought it was brilliant that the men had taken the trouble to travel so far and insisted that they stay in the hotel at the expense of the Irish Football Association. ‘Mikey McColgan and Davey Nicholl had set up a tent in the grounds of the hotel,’ says Billy, ‘and we thought we’d be staying there, so this was a nice surprise. Needless to say, it didn’t take us long to settle in. We were treated like kings. On the first night, for example, there was a long table laid out with every type of food you could imagine. We were spoilt for choice and were licking our lips. The next minute we were sharing our tea with seventeen players and twelve assistants. It was a dream come true. ‘I filled my plate to the brim. It was only later I realised that this was just the starter! I thought to myself that I could live here rightly. Perhaps unsurprisingly the table was cleared,’ he laughs.

Billy was to spend the next two weeks in the company of the team, observing training sessions and dining with them afterwards. It was during one of the training sessions that Billy was to witness an innovative tactic. ‘Danny Blanchflower had got a free kick just inside own half,’ he says. ‘Peter McParland was standing on the corner of the eighteen-yard box tying his laces, letting on that he wasn’t involved in the free kick at all. All of the other players were marking each other, but Peter just stood outside of it all. As soon as Blanchflower went to take the free kick, Peter started running towards the corner of the box. Blanchflower had kicked it at head height and Peter headed it like a bullet past the goalkeeper. It was amazing to watch.’

One of the Northern Ireland players at the time was Manchester United’s goalkeeper, Harry Gregg.

‘I really felt for Harry,’ says Billy. ‘The Munich plane disaster had only happened in February of that year – just four months before the finals - and so Harry shared a room with one of the trainers – Gerry Morgan. Harry was still having nightmares about the disaster and so the team was having a religious service before each match. There was no ‘green’

Billy Hunter: looking forward to repeating his memorable trip to Malmo next summer

The 1958 Northern Ireland World Cup football team. Captain Danny Blanchflower is seated middle front with goalkeeper Harry Gregg behind him

or ‘orange’ about the team or about the service, it was just done Swedish style. The whole team just knitted.’

The 1958 World Cup finals marked a special moment for the teams of the British Isles, since it was the first – and indeed only – time that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland had all qualified for the same championship.

In a tournament that was to witness the début of a small, swift striker from Brazil named Pele and France’s Just Fontaine score a ground-breaking thirteen goals, Northern Ireland’s chances were not considered to be high.

In footballing terms, the Northern Ireland team of 1958 wasn’t as good as other teams technically, but in terms of work rate, as Billy says, ‘they would have died for each other’.

That camaraderie was going to be sorely needed, in light of the fact that Northern Ireland were in a ‘group of death’ – one which featured Argentina, West Germany and Czechoslovakia – a formidable combination. To put it mildly, the team’s chances of emerging victorious from the group were slim..

Fortunately for the team, however, they had most of the opening venue of Halmstad cheering for them. That was down to a local Swedish boy named Bengt Jonasson, who had been acting as a runner for the team, passing on messages within the camp and translating for Gerry Morgan. The team’s affection for Jonasson was such that he actually referred to Morgan as ‘Uncle Gerry’, but the affection was reciprocal and Jonasson had whipped up support for the team among the locals. When the team stepped out in their opening match against Czechoslovakia, most of the crowd was cheering the team on. Spurred on by the home fans – and to everyone’s amazement - Northern Ireland beat the Czechs 1-0, with Derek Dougan and Harry Gregg playing starring roles.

The team’s luck was to run out in the follow-up match, losing 3-1 to Argentina, but things improved again in the third match, with the team managing a very respectable 2-2 draw with West Germany – one of the goals a repeat performance of the tactic Billy had seen Danny Blanchflower and Peter McPartland practise in training. off was to be held in Malmo, more than 100 miles from Halmstad, but, again, to everyone’s amazement, the team overpowered the Czechs by 2-1.

‘It was absolutely amazing that Northern Ireland were able to beat a powerful team like Czechoslovakia,’ says Billy, ‘particularly because the team had only been able to afford to take seventeen players for the tournament. Five had to be left behind because the FIA couldn’t afford to take them, so the manager didn’t have a big pool to choose from. The team was absolutely racked by injuries by the time they got through to the quarter finals.’

Billy had booked two weeks’ holidays for the first round of the finals as he – like everyone else – didn’t expect the team to progress to the quarter finals.

‘I was ready to come home,’ says Billy, ‘primarily because I hadn’t saved enough money for more than two weeks. When I told the guys that I was going home, however, the players and officials had a whipround and gave me the money so that I could stay for the extra week in the hotel.’ Unfortunately, Northern Ireland lost 4-0 to France in the quarter finals and so the team had to return home. Nevertheless, their heads were held high, with the team’s captain, Danny Blanchflower, to say later, ‘In years to come, when we reflect with the judgment and enchantment that distance leads to these things, we may marvel at the most impossible feats we achieved..’

Billy returned to the Inglis factory on the Monday morning and was left to face the foreman, Dan Magee, about the fact that he was only supposed to have taken two weeks’ holiday. Billy asked Dan if he could have his ‘cards’ ready for him for 5pm.

‘I’d no fear about walking away from the job,’ says Billy. ‘After all, I was single and unattached and so I’d no issues with not having a job. I’d lived the dream by travelling to Sweden and spending time with the team. When you’ve been in heaven, it’s very hard to come back to hell.’

Billy is hoping to return to ‘heaven’ this year – pandemic allowing – accompanied by daughters Jane and Judith.

‘We’re not sure if we’ll be able to go just yet due to the coronavirus,’ says Jane, ‘but we’re hoping to take Dad over to reminisce. That trip to Sweden – and the time he spent with the team – is one of the highlights of his life, and we’d love to let him relive all of those memories.’

Drive to raise awareness of oesophageal-gastric cancers

More than 400 people per year were diagnosed with oesophageal-gastric (OG) cancer each year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, a Northern Ireland charity - OG Cancer NI – has launched a new campaign to encourage people with symptoms of oesophageal and stomach cancer to contact their doctor as soon as possible.

OG Cancer NI Chair, Helen Setterfield - herself a survivor of oesophageal cancer – feels that it’s vitally important that patients contact their GP if they’re troubled by persistent heartburn that doesn’t go away, have trouble swallowing, regurgitation or recurring hiccups.

‘Recent figures show that there has been a drop in the number of those referred by their GP to the hospital due to showing symptoms in 2020 compared to previous years, so we want to make sure that we reverse that,’ Helen told Northern Notes. ‘Early diagnosis leads to a much better chance of survival from this cancer - which has a 20 per cent survival rate of five or more years - according to the NI Cancer Registry 2019.’

Lorraine Pinkerton was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer at 59. gradually had more and more symptoms so I adjusted my diet to really bland food and I cut the wine because it was irritating it. Then, about August time, I started having really bad indigestion and the indigestion pain was going into my back. It was progressing, not getting any better, and I was just trying to treat it myself with a bland diet.

‘In the September I started to feel really sore when I was swallowing. The food wasn’t sticking, but it was sore going down. Eventually, on the fourth occasion, the GP referred me for a scope. I was diagnosed with quite a big tumour in that location. I had an oesophagectomy in February 2014 and two lots of chemotherapy beforehand. The chemotherapy enabled me to swallow again and then I had my surgery in the February. I’ve now been in remission for seven years.’

‘When it comes to OG cancer,’ says Helen Setterfield, ‘I think one of the key words is ‘persistence’. It’s about getting symptoms taken seriously. We advise everyone that, if their symptoms are persistent, then the patient should be persistent. It can be the difference between life and death. Pharmacists may, at times, be best placed to spot recurrent symptoms in patients.’

Oesophageal cancer survivor, Lorraine Pinkerton

Helen Setterfield (centre, Chair, OG Cancer NI) with (from left) : Louise Collins (OG Clinical Nurse Specialist, Belfast Trust); Maureen Toner (OG Clinical Nurse Specialist, Belfast Trust) and Ray Kennedy (surgeon, Belfast Trust) at the launch of the OG Cancer 2021 Catch It Early campaign.

Pets provide unconditional love. Your pet never judges you. Your pet does not ask why you’re home late, why you’re in a bad mood or why you’re sad. Your pet is happy to just sit with you when you are having a bad day and just be there with you, be your friend! Your pet loves you as you exactly as you are and all they ask for in return is that you love them back. Who would not want this? Is this relationship not invaluable when it comes to our mental wellbeing?

Your relationship with your pet is an uncomplicated relationship. Your pet will always be loyal and will always forgive you. A pet has a huge presence in and impact on every household. Making a commitment to a pet, whilst being a huge responsibility, is a rewarding commitment that can have a highly positive impact on a person’s mental health.

Pets provide a source of routine. They need regular mealtimes, regular exercise and lots of play time. Often, unaware to ourselves, we fall into a routine that is set out by our pets. Having a daily routine can have a positive impact on our mental health. It is suggested having a routine can help cognitive function, protect against cognitive decline, and reduce the likelihood of depression. Now more than ever, due to theimpact of Covid-19, having a routine has become even more important for our mental health.

A big part of our routine as a pet owner is taking our dogs for a walk. This routine not only provides exercise for our furry friends but also for us humans! Exercise is something that has a huge impact on our mental wellbeing. Exercise releases endorphins which make us feel happy. Exercise has positive effects on our physical health benefiting our heart, blood pressure and muscles. All of this helps our mental health, improves self-esteem, and helps with depression.

Having a pet is wonderful for children, it helps to teach them care and compassion from a young age. Pets provide companionship and that unconditional love that can help children with their confidence and self-esteem. Again, going on walks with a pet provides a fun and easy source exercise for children as well as adults. Exercise is increasingly important for children in an era of technology. A lot of recent studies are showing that pets can help children with autism, learning difficulties and children that find communicating and relationships with other children difficult. Of course, in these cases choosing the right pet for a child is extremely important and should always be done with advice from a professional. The list of benefits that pets provide when it comes to our mental wellbeing is endless and growing. It is important to remember that a pet is a lifelong commitment and a financial commitment. For anyone that is considering getting a pet it is important to do your research and where possible rescue a pet that needs a home. As a pet owner of two rescue dogs, I can tell you, everything you give to your pet you get returned tenfold!