Ivor
Allchurch
Ivor Allchurh was born on 16 October 1929
in Swansea. His parents were natives of Dudley who had
moved to Swansea. He was educated at Plasmarl School, Swansea, but left at
fourteen to work first in an office, then as a fish market porter.
Allchurch's extraordinary football talents were spotted in September 1944 by a scout from
Swansea Town. He became a member of the club's ground staff in 1945 and a full
professional two years later. National service with the army from 1947 to 1949
delayed his entry into league football, although he played at a high non-league
standard as a guest with Shrewsbury Town and Wellington Town. 
He made his
Football League second-division début on 26 December 1949, away to West Ham
United, and made an immediate impact as an elegant, ball-playing inside-forward.
Roy Paul, a Swansea team-mate, recalled that ‘Even as a youngster he had the
hallmark of greatness’. Within weeks of his début Allchurch was
the subject of transfer speculation, and in less than a year he was a Welsh
international, capped against Ireland at Sunderland on 15 November 1950.
Tall, slim, and fair-haired—characteristics that led to his being described as
Swansea's ‘Golden Boy’. He was described by the
Scottish journalist Bob Ferrier as ‘the complete natural intuitive
inside-forward—the Mozart of football’. Jimmy Murphy, who managed the Wales national team
in the late 1950s, said: ‘Ivor had the lot. He was two-footed: a superb runner
on the ball with a glorious body swerve. He could shoot hard and accurately with
both feet, and he was very good in the air’.
Allchurch
continued to play for Swansea until 1958. Some observers argued that his
decision to stay with second-division Swansea led to his not fulfilling a
remarkable talent. There were
years of press speculation, much predicting that his transfer would set a new
British record.
His international performances, particularly in
the 1958 world cup, when Wales, after qualifying for the first time, were
remarkable. Santiago Bernabeu,
president of Real Madrid, then the dominant club in Europe, called him ‘the
greatest inside-forward in the world’.
In October 1958 Allchurch finally left Swansea for Newcastle United. He stayed at Newcastle until 1962, then
moved to Cardiff City before returning to Swansea Town in 1965. He played his
694th and last Football League match—at the time the third-highest career
total—in May 1968. He sco
red 245 goals, including 160 (a club record) for Swansea. The
first man to play more than fifty times for Wales, his sixty-eight caps and
twenty-three goals remained national records for many years following his last
cap in 1966. He was appointed MBE in the new year's honours list of 1966.
Allchurch went on playing non-league football until the age of fifty. He then worked as a
storeman. He died at his home in Swansea, on 9 July 1997, of cancer. A
life-size statue of Allchurch was unveiled outside the Swansea City ground in
2005.
