by Neil Baldwin
NEIL
It was Lou’s and Winnie’s idea, and also John Rudge, who was at the Vale at that time. But it was only a joke. George is still a good friend of mine.
MALCOLM
He is indeed. Today George says:
I have some great memories of Nello. Once we set up a race round the ground between him and Bernard Painting, the physio, with Nello given a big start, which was hilarious. You cannot but like him. He’s a terrific guy who has made friends wherever he goes. He is welcome at Port Vale and Crewe and made friends at all the clubs Stoke City visited.
Lou allowed the local media to go on the team coach and I have great memories of some of those trips, particularly if they involved overnight stays when Lou would open his box of tricks involving Nello in some joke or other. Once he arranged for a large wet fish to be left on Nello’s pillow. But he allowed him to get his own back on the team coach by walking round giving the players a clip round the face with this fish, until it disintegrated. Sadly, it just couldn’t happen today.
It’s amazing the way things have turned out for him, and you wonder how he got to certain places. Now he is just drawing on the warmth of the local people and the whole country, which is great.
MALCOLM
Lou’s second spell at the club lasted for two-and-a-half years. A mid-table finish was followed by a play-off place when we lost over two legs to Leicester City, before it was back to mid-table in 1996–7, the last season at the Victoria Ground. The emotional last ever game at our historic home against West Bromwich Albion – the Baggies – also turned out to be Lou’s last game in charge of Stoke City.
The Britannia Stadium was opened by Sir Stanley Matthews, who missed the goal when he was supposed to be symbolically putting the ball in the net. It was a bad omen for the season, which ended in relegation, made worse for many Stoke fans by the fact that Port Vale escaped relegation on the last day of the season. Stoke had three managers that season: Chic Bates, Chris Kamara, who won only one game out of fourteen, and Alan Durban.
But, throughout all this, Neil was a constant, looking after the kit and trying to keep the players amused in a disastrous season.
NEIL
That first season at the new ground was shocking. I don’t know what the players were playing at. Of course, I’d known Chic for years as he was already at the club. He was very nice to me. Chris Kamara was very happy with me, too, and, when we played at Oxford in March, he let me leave the team hotel to go and watch the circus.
Alan Durban was also OK. But it didn’t do any good having three different managers. I offered to take on the manager’s job but they didn’t take me up on it. They would have won more games if I had been manager.
CHAPTER SIX
MORE TIME TO SPEND AT KEELE AND LOOKING AFTER MUM
NEIL
While I was Stoke City kit man, my mum was getting quite frail, and had to go to hospital for long periods. Stoke signed the Welsh international goalkeeper Neville Southall for the last couple of months of the season in 1998. Neville had been one of the best goalkeepers in the world, though he was getting a bit old when he came to play for us. In fact he was the third-oldest player ever to play for Stoke City.
When I was away because we were playing at Reading, my mum was taken to hospital. I was really worried and kept trying to ring the hospital to find out how she was, but I couldn’t get through.
Big Neville Southall asked me what was wrong. After I told him, he went away and came back with enough money for a taxi to take me all the way back to Stoke, which was a lot of money. I told him he didn’t need to do that and that I couldn’t afford to pay him back. He said, ‘Don’t worry about that, Nello. I don’t want the money back. That doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you should get back to Stoke as quickly as possible to see your mum, so go and get that taxi.’ And I did. I have never forgotten how kind he was to me that day. I don’t forget good people like that.
Most of the players were very nice to me. There are too many to mention them all. Peter Thorne was another player who was always very kind to me, and gave me some money sometimes. Andy Griffin was always very friendly to me. He was an exciting young full-back who was sold to Newcastle United a month after Southall arrived. After he had left Stoke I went up to Newcastle to see him. I rang up to tell him I was coming. He met me at the club and took me to his house. He said I could stay for a few days, so I did. I met the striker Alan Shearer while I was there, so he became a very good friend of mine.
As Mum got older and not so well, I had to do more to look after her, but I didn’t mind because she had been such a good mother to me. We were a good team, like Stoke City. She taught me how to look after myself. Les and Mary Bailey are very good friends and helped us a lot.
MALCOLM
Neil was by now very well established in his flat, getting by with more than a little help from his friends – and his mum. Mary was trying to prepare for the day when she might not be around or at least could not cope so well. She became friends with Les and Mary Bailey, who were to play a significant role in Mary’s and Neil’s lives. Mary recalls:
We first met Mary in 1993 through the Christadelphian church and became very good friends. When we first knew her, Neil was already in his flat. She had originally done all Neil’s shopping, but then she took Neil shopping with her, and eventually found she needed him with her. Finally, she gave him a list and he did the shopping. He slowly took it over and it was fascinating to watch, to the point where one day we remember him saying, ‘What about some of that fresh fish like we had last week?’ and ‘I will get in some bacon.’
Les adds:
Neil came to us with his problems. Once he had a huge fuel bill from Npower. He had been with Midlands Electricity but someone persuaded him to change – we suspect it was a salesman at the door. He had been buying fuel stamps and the lady at the post office knew how much he had to put in, but after he had changed to Npower, they had been estimating his bills for over a year.
Neil didn’t understand about estimating at all and kept saying that he had been paying enough at the post office but Npower couldn’t care two hoots about the problem. We got through to somebody; they just said, we must have Mr Baldwin there before we talk to you. Eventually we managed to get Neil there at an agreed time to start to sort it out.
Then there was another big incident. Neil read the meter, but he got two digits the wrong way round with the result that a bill came in for over two thousand pounds. I don’t know why computers let these ridiculous bills go out.
Mary had a solicitor from Market Drayton to look after her affairs and set up a trust fund for Neil and the church after she had gone. The solicitor never wanted to charge for her visits, so Mary always used to take a sponge cake to the solicitor.
NEIL
That business with the electricity bills upset me because Mum always brought me up not to be in debt. I had been doing my best to pay the proper amount at the post office. They should have known that I must have made a mistake reading that meter. Anybody can do that. Malcolm makes mistakes and forgets things all the time.
MALCOLM
My family were friends with Mary as well as Neil. They came to visit us in Sale. I remember the look of shock on the face of my youngest daughter, Lisa, on one occasion in our car when she was a young teenager and Neil announced, ‘One of my birds has had a baby’ – until it dawned that he was talking about the feathered variety. Lisa wrote letters to Mary and has unearthed a couple of Mary’s replies from May 1998, when Lisa was aged fifteen.
May 19th 1998
Dear Lisa
Please forgive me for not writing sooner. I meant to before you finished your exams for I expect they are over now. I hope so, so you can enjoy this lovely weather. This suits me fine. Anyone with heart trouble feels a different person. It is the warm air. It is really wonderful to feel as well as I am. One gets a different outlook.
And I’m pleased for Neil. He is enjoying tidying up his
flat (in his way I expect) and comes to me for lunch. Then on to Keele. My friends come tomorrow for the fortnightly clean to change his bed etc.
He went to the meeting at Stoke last night. Brian Little [Stoke manager] was guest speaker. It was held in the ground with it being so nice. It said on Radio Stoke there were 500 fans there. No Moxey, Coates or Humphries and he [Brian] is seeing about [Danny] Tiatto, I think that’s how you spell it, joining the squad. He told Neil to report for work July 1st. It’s earlier than expected. Neil is a bit sorry I think but he’s having 2 whole weeks in Cambridge and the last weekend [in June] at Lichfield where he goes each yr. It’s nice company for me to see him every day and he sees to Jess [the dog].
Now dear I hope you’ll accept this little present. I don’t bother with much jewellery now, so want you to accept this for your very kind thoughts to me. I was so taken up when you came to the hospital with Dad. It really made my day seeing you both and it’s all thanks to dear Neil that I know you all.
The chain is real gold and I bought the pearl a year or so ago to brighten it up. Of course you may not wear it. I don’t know what young teenagers like but it is just a thought Lisa. Enjoy your outing on Sat. with Dad. Love to mum, Zoe and Zara also Dad of course. My love and best wishes especially to you.
From
Mary and Neil x x
The friends coming to clean Neil’s flat and change his bed were Les and Mary Bailey. We had been to see her in hospital. Her heart condition was causing her some difficulty. Brian Little had been appointed as the new manager of Stoke City but, as we shall see, things didn’t work out for Neil under the new regime in the way Mary and Neil were anticipating.
The Saturday outing referred to was to see England v. Saudi Arabia in a ‘warm-up’ game at Wembley, prior to the World Cup that summer. The game turned out to be a boring goal-less draw, as Mary notes in her next letter after Lisa sent her a match programme. The letter gives more detail on the support Neil was by now giving to his mum.
May 31st 1998
Dear Lisa
What a thoughtful young lady you are. I can’t say thank you enough. How delightful of you to send me your special programme. I was thrilled Lisa but now I have read it you must have it back in memory of the occasion, although it didn’t sound a very thrilling game but just to be there with the atmosphere must have been quite an experience. Neil wasn’t interested in that game Lisa. It’s the proper one he likes at the end of the season.
I’m so pleased for you that your exams are over. Now you can relax and look forward to a holiday. This next week will be Neil’s 4th week on his holiday at home then next Mon. June 8th he hopes to go to Cambridge for 2 weeks then he has a week and 3 days till he start[s] work on July 1st.
He has enjoyed being at his flat Lisa. He says ‘it’s his own’ but he’s a fabulous son. He has come at 7.30 every morning to take Jessie, but then he goes back to bed and gets up about 11 a.m. and has been coming to me for lunch. I’m really tired now Lisa for we both have salads but it takes me ages to get both ready, as I am just beginning to get meals, as my friends have been preparing for me. I have no energy in the winter, but now I’m on these new tablets they really are great. Neil then goes to Keele at 2.30pm. Then comes home at 8.30pm to take Jess for her last walk. I am able to take her in the afternoon. My walking is improving Lisa which is a good thing, for I will be taking Jess 4 times per day but am looking forward to it.
It will be a nice change to be on my own. No washing or ironing for Neil for 2 weeks. It will be a real holiday for me Lisa and if the weather is not too hot I can take Jess sometimes in the car. Anything to get out of the house although I have a lovely back garden and am busy putting bedding plants in. It is good therapy for me Lisa. I can relax. It’s a real joy to me. I like things just so. It does not matter how long it takes and when the weather is nice its good to sit in nice surroundings. Jess likes being in the garden like me.
Well dear friend I will close now. Excuse the scribble near the end but I am tired now it’s 5.45pm so am going to have my tea. Please give my love to Dad and Mum and your 2 sisters also the lovely horse. We have 4 horses in the field on Gallowstree Lane by Keele roundabout. It’s on a hill and I can see them from my window with my Binocs. They have had 1 foal each. What a joy it’s given me to be able to see them. Neil took his camera. It cost him £6. He’s a lovely boy, but they are good pictures.
Cheerio dear. I am delighted you like your little gift. When its appreciated its worth giving it away. Bye
Love from
Mary, Neil and Jessie x x x
NEIL
Then something happened at Stoke City that was upsetting. Before the start of the 1998–9 season, when Brian Little took over as manager, Jez Moxey, the chief executive, called me into his office, gave me a cup of tea, and told me that I was no longer needed at the club. I was very upset, because I loved my job. But after a little while I decided not to worry about it, but just carry on doing all the other things I like. You just have to get on with life. It gave me a lot more time to look after Mum and go up to Keele.
MALCOLM
Seventeen years on, Jez Moxey had no clear recollection of exactly why that decision was taken or who instigated it but told me that he would definitely not have done that unless the manager had asked for it or at the very least was happy with it, and that the Board were too.
NEIL
The following year another very good friend of mine, Kevin Keegan, became England manager. He was a great player. I once visited him at his house in Southampton when he played for Southampton in the early 1980s and I was down there with the circus. After he became England manager in 1999, he used to get me tickets when England played at Wembley.
MALCOLM
I remember telling some Stoke City friends about Neil’s friendship with Kevin Keegan. They didn’t really believe me. Then, after a game at the Britannia Stadium (I think it may have been the FA Cup game against Newcastle United in January 2008, just before Keegan went back for his second spell as Newcastle manager) we were all walking past the main entrance foyer, and there was Keegan sitting down with his arm round Neil. They believed me then.
Around this time Neil also got a further honour from the Keele Students’ Union at a ceremony I attended along with Mike Sheron and one or two other Stoke players.
Mike recalls: ‘My wife and I went up to Keele for the opening of Baldwin’s Bar when they named one of the bars in the Students’ Union after him, which was very appropriate, given how long he had been going there.’
NEIL
It was great to have that bar named after me. Quite a few players came to the ceremony, as well as Malcolm and a lot of my friends. I was really sorry when they changed it to something else many years later. That sometimes happens with students. One group leaves and the new ones do something else. They should always take my advice. After all, I’ve got a lot of experience up at Keele, and I’m older and wiser than they are. Maybe now I am even more famous, they will name the bar or something else in the union after me again.
MALCOLM
Peter Whieldon, who twenty years previously as a child had played football with Neil in Horwood Hall, was by now visiting Keele on business. He recalls:
I was working for Imperial Tobacco and had to visit the Keele shop. I was astonished to see Neil sitting there in his chair in the Students’ Union dressed as Father Christmas. His very first words were, ‘Peter, can you get me a half of beer?’ It was as though I had never left. He’s just a fixture in the union. After that I saw him every Christmas.
NEIL
It’s always marvellous when my old friends come back to Keele. They all want to see me because they know I won’t be far away. Peter is a lovely lad, just like his mum and dad were. They looked after the students, just like I do. I was very sad when Peter’s father Harold died in 2012. I went with Malcolm and Lesley to his funeral, where it was good to see both Peter and his older brother Tony again.
MALCOLM
Jo
nathan Hughes recalls his early encounters with Neil as a student at Keele in the late 1990s, when, for a while, he harboured hopes that Neil might be able help him with furthering his own football career:
I studied physiotherapy at the university between 1997 and 2000. From the age of eight I was a member of Oldham Athletic Centre of Excellence and in 1995 was offered a YTS at the club, which, on the instruction of my parents, I turned down to continue with my studies.
Whilst representing Stockport Boys town team I played alongside Dean Crowe, who, whilst I was at Keele, was starting to make a name for himself at Stoke. [Dean Crowe was a young Stoke striker who broke into the Stoke team in the 1997–8 season.]
Still harbouring hopes to make it in the game, one of my mates mentioned that there was ‘a bloke’ who worked at Keele who was linked to Stoke. That ‘bloke’ turned out to be Neil.