Profile: Burt Murray

Lucky life for one of Docherty’s Diamonds; Bert Murray

Before Beckham was even a twinkle in his mother’s eye, another lad from east London had donned the number seven shirt and was making great strides for England and Chelsea.

Bert Murray was born into a family of 9 from Shoreditch and made his way through the football schoolboy ranks. In 1958 his breakthrough moment came when he scored 2 goals for England Schoolboys against a Scottish side including Billy Bremner who they beat 3.1 in front of a crowd of 100,000 at Wembley. The side included Terry Venables and Alan, brother of ‘Chopper’ Harris. Jimmy Thompson, chief scout for Chelsea, responsible for taking Jimmy Greaves and Terry Venables to the Club, made

Bert an offer which was to see the lad play 170 games for the side.Trainer, Dickie Foss changed Bert’s postion from centre forward to right wing, “ one of the best things anyone has ever done for me” Bert recalls. For 2 years he played for the Juniors and then at 18 years old he was promoted to the first team having been a member of the FA Youth Club winning side. One of Docherty’s ‘diamonds’, the team was relegated to the 2nd division for one year, promoted in the next. Altogether he scored 44 goals for the Club including in games at Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Man U. between 1958 and ‘66. In that auspicious footballing year, Bert was to go to Birmingham for a happy 4 years.He then signed for 3 years at Brighton where his youngest child, Jamie was born at home in Saltdene.

“Bobby Charlton, was the best player I ever played against” remembers Bert, “but I was also lucky enough to play against Dennis Law, Dave McKay, Georgie Best and Jimmy Greaves.”

At the end of his footballing career, Bert was approached to play for Posh by Noel Cantwell and has fond memories of playing with Chris Turner, Freddie Hill, John Cousins, Tommy Robson, Jack Carmichael and Jim Hall for 3 years.

Sponsorship and 6 figure paypackets were long into the future and £40 per week was considered by Bert to be a decent sum when playing for Docherty at Chelsea. “But we had to pay for all our clothes to look the part, keep a car and telephone, it all added up. Johnny Haines promoted brylcream on TV and things started to change with Georgie Best.”

“Bobby Charlton, was the best player I ever played against”

months they were approached to take the Winning Post at Market Deeping. A second career spanning forty years unfolded for this couple, born in the sound of Bow bells and Bert has been at the White Horse and at the Bull, many of his customers following him and staff including Vonney and Maureen have worked for him for nearly 30 of those years. There are fond memories of his two shelties, Harvey and Ben, who would loyally follow him as he did chores in the Market Place and of all those bar games; pool, crib, darts, where he has partnered Wolfie, at which he has proved a tough opponent..

“A lucky life is how I would describe it “ reflects Bert “ Eileen has been a God send and I have a happy family. As a baby I survived meningitis when a Doctor prescribed drugs which he said would make me a cabbage or Sir Winston Churchill. You can judge the results for yourself! When playing for Birmingham my car turned over on the M1 and the roof caved in completely, I got out without a scratch.”

With a game of golf to look forward to, a race on the TV and convivial company in the bar. A lucky life indeed.