Ivor John Allchurch (16 October 1929 – 10 July 1997) was a Welsh professional footballer who played as an inside forward.
Known as the "Golden Boy of Welsh football", Allchurch began his career playing for his hometown side Swansea Town, where he spent over 10 years, captaining the side for several seasons and scoring over 100 goals in all competitions. He attracted attention from numerous clubs during his early years with Swansea, but chose to remain with the club until the age of 28, when he joined First Division side Newcastle United. Signing in 1958 for a fee of £28,000, he formed a prolific strike partnership with George Eastham and Len White. In 1962, he joined Cardiff City for £18,000, where he spent three seasons, before finishing his professional career with a second spell with Swansea Town. His two spells with Swansea saw him become the club's all-time top goalscorer.
During his career, Allchurch won a total of 68 caps for Wales, a record which stood until 1986 when it was exceeded by Joey Jones. He also jointly held the record number of goals scored for Wales, along with Trevor Ford, 23, which was eventually broken by Ian Rush. His talents were more widely recognised after his performance for Wales during the 1958 FIFA World Cup, in which he scored twice and helped them to reach the quarter-finals. His brother Len was also a footballer and the pair played alongside each other for Wales on several occasions.
Early life Ivor John Allchurch was born on Waun-wen Road in Swansea on 16 October 1929. His parents, Charles Wilfried Allchurch and Mabel Sarah Allchurch (née Miller), were originally from Dudley in Worcestershire but had moved to South Wales during the Post–World War I recession in search of work, following Mabel's parents to the Swansea area. His father had worked as a banksman in Dudley but found employment in Swansea as a furnace man.
Allchurch was the sixth of seven children, with two sisters and four brothers, who grew up in a three bedroomed house on Landeg Street in Plasmarl. Including his parents and his siblings, the house was home to eleven people, including his step brother Willie and his niece Christine who was raised by Allchurch's mother. As a child, he attended Plasmarl School, leaving at the age of 14 to find work. After leaving, Allchurch worked in an office at Baldwin's Foundry, a company that manufactured bomb casings, but grew frustrated in the role and quickly looked to move on. He instead took up work as a porter in a local fish market, after noticing that the younger boys working there were frequently allowed early finishes during winter time due to a lack of stock in wartime which allowed them to play football on a regular basis. The job also allowed him to supplement his income as each worker was allowed to take any remaining stock to sell of their own accord once a week, a task that Allchurch would undertake with his brother Len.
Allchurch's brothers were also keen footballers, Charlie and Arthur both played football in local leagues, Arthur represented Wales at amateur level and Len played professionally for Swansea Town, Sheffield United and Stockport County as well as representing Wales.
Playing career Youth and wartime Allchurch was playing local youth football at under-18 Cwm Level Park when he was spotted by Joe Sykes, a scout who worked for Swansea Town under the management of Haydn Green. Following a match, Sykes approached Allchurch, who was only 14 at the time, and asked for his name and address, visiting the family home soon after where he reached an agreement with Allchurch's father that he would join the club when he turned 15 as an amateur and train two days a week. During his time as an amateur at the club, Allchurch was approached on two occasions by scouts from Football League sides to sign for different clubs but turned the moves down as he did not want to break the verbal agreement that he and his father had made to sign for the Swans.
In 1948, when he had turned 18, Allchurch was called up to start his National Service and enlisted as a gunner in the British Army. Stationed in Oswestry, he continued to play football for the representative sides of his unit and Western Command. His performances for the teams in November 1948 attracted the attention of Shrewsbury Town manager Leslie Knighton who signed Allchurch to represent the side in the Midland Football League during his military service, describing him as "a future star". He made his debut at Gay Meadow in the same month and remained with the club for the rest of the 1948–49 season. During his time at the club, Knighton turned down numerous offers from Football League sides for Allchurch, as he was still registered to play for Swansea Town, and described him as a "second Charlie Buchan." At the start of the following season, Allchurch also played for Wellington Town before he was demobilised from his military service, allowing him to return to Swansea.
Swansea Town He returned to Swansea in 1949, where manager Billy McCandless had already received offers for Allchurch even though he had not made his professional debut. Despite the interest, Allchurch joined a side that had won promotion comfortably from the Football League Third Division South the previous year and the favoured attacking partnership of Sammy McCrory and Billy Lucas meant that Allchurch continued to play for the club's reserve side in The Football Combination. He eventually received his first call up to the first team on Boxing Day 1949 at the age of 20, making his debut in a 3–0 defeat to West Ham United. Although the Swans lost, Allchurch impressed enough to be handed a second start on 7 January 1950, scoring his first senior goal for the club in a 3–0 victory over First Division side Birmingham City in the third round of the FA Cup. In the next round, Swansea suffered a 2–1 defeat to eventual winners Arsenal but Allchurch again made headlines for his performance with Arsenal player Joe Mercer later commenting that he "nearly frightened us to death" as McCandless and the Swansea board were again forced to fend off offers from several clubs. He also claimed a Welsh Cup winners' medal at the end of the 1949–50 season, playing in a 4–1 victory over Wrexham in the final on 27 April 1950.
During this period, Swansea suffered from financial difficulties which saw the sale of several first team players such as McCrory, Jim Feeney and Roy Paul. This allowed Allchurch and a number of other youth players, including Terry Medwin and John King to establish themselves in the squad, Allchurch becoming the youngest player in the club's history to be ever present during an entire season, having played in every league game for the club, during the 1950–51 season. Further approaches from Liverpool, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City were also rejected by the Swans. However, the side struggled to perform in the Second Division, finishing in 18th and 19th positions between 1950 and 1952, and Allchurch contemplated a move away from Vetch Field after being encouraged by some teammates at international level to move to a First Division side.
Allchurch was persuaded to remain at the club, encouraged by Sykes and McCandless' belief in a number of local youth players making their way through the Swans setup, including Cliff Jones, Harry Griffiths and Allchurch's brother Len. In September 1952, Swansea rejected a bid of £30,000 from Arsenal for Allchurch, the bid just £5,000 below the British record transfer fee that Sheffield Wednesday had paid for Jackie Sewell a year previously. He finished the 1952–53 season as the club's second highest top scorer with 15 goals, including his first career hattrick during a 3–2 victory over Brentford on 6 April 1953. The Swans attacking trio of Allchurch, Medwin and Griffiths accounted for more than half of the club's league goals during the season.
In 1955, the club was rocked by the sudden death of manager McCandless, days after the players had returned to pre-season training. The Swansea board decided against appointing a permanent replacement, instead establishing a three-man selection committee consisting of Allchurch, Ron Burgess and Joe Sykes, with Burgess being given the title of "team manager". Under the guidance of the trio, the Swans were able to mount a serious promotion challenge, going unbeaten in eleven games between September and December 1955. However, following a serious injury to defender Tom Kiley, the committee fell out with the Swansea board over their refusal to provide funds to secure a replacement for Kiley, Burgess having transfers for Bob McKinlay and Jimmy Dugdale rejected by the board. The loss of Kiley and the conflict with the board saw Swansea lose 7 of their last 8 matches of the season, eventually finishing in 10th position. His growing frustration at the club's refusal to invest in the squad and a strained relationship with new manager Trevor Morris led Allchurch to announce his decision to leave the club, stating in his own newspaper column "I am ready to admit that I had high hopes that my own club would get promotion a couple of years ago [...] then I would have been happy to end my career in the town [...] But that dream does not look like coming true". Morris later used the money from Allchurch's transfer to sign Colin Webster and Reg Davies.
Newcastle United First Division
Allchurch's decision to leave the Swans saw a large amount of interest, with Liverpool offering to fly a private plane to South Wales and meet any valuation Swansea placed on him. Liverpool chairman Tom Williams and manager Phil Taylor also travelled to meet Allchurch, but were rejected as he wished to move to a team in the First Division. Aston Villa had an offer accepted, but Newcastle United chairman Alderman McKeag quickly offered an increased amount of £28,000. On 10 October 1958, Allchurch travelled to Manchester to meet Newcastle manager Charlie Mitten, where he was convinced to join Newcastle, signing his contract on a luggage trolley at Manchester Exchange railway station. Despite having never met his new teammates, he made his debut for the club, his first match in the First Division, the following day against Leicester City, scoring twice during a 3–1 victory. He joined the club's established strike partnership of George Eastham and Len White, the trio going on to score 48 of the club's 81 goals during the course of the 1958–59 season with Allchurch finishing as the club's second top scorer behind White despite missing more than a quarter of the season.
Despite early season optimism, Newcastle began the 1959–60 campaign in poor form, suffering a 5–1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day of the season and found themselves in 18th place by October having lost 8 of their first 15 matches. With the club struggling, the board denied Allchurch permission to be released to play a fixture for Wales in order to focus on the club's fortunes, which saw an aggrieved Allchurch hand in a transfer request as he believed the club had "broken their word" after a verbal agreement between himself and Mitten that he would be released for any international fixtures. After a number of changes by Mitten, Newcastle were able to return to form and his transfer request was eventually dropped as the Magpies finished the season in 8th position, Allchurch again reaching double figure league goals during the season for the second consecutive year in the First Division.
Decline