by Neil Baldwin
Has often said
Nello was the best signing
He ever made.
CHORUS
Now maybe it’s time
Her Majesty
Called on our Nello,
‘Come and see me.’
He’ll kneel before her
And with delight
Mister Neil Baldwin
Will be a knight.
CHORUS
I was invited by Newcastle College to do a talk to students who have problems, and to join an assembly at the St John Fisher Catholic School. I was also asked to meet Keele students who don’t go out and meet people, undergrads who are lonely. They come and see me.
One of the nicest things has been that I was invited to open the new ground of Leek County School Old Boys (CSOB) Football Club and to be their manager for their first game.
I gave the team talk for the start of the game and I told them, ‘To win games you need to score goals.’ And the team were 3–0 up at half-time, when I gave them another talk and said, ‘I want more goals from you.’ And the final result was 5–0, so it worked.
MALCOLM
The CSOB goalkeeper, Phil Bruce, recalls:
Neil was the very first official guest at Poynton’s Park. The lads had got to know him; he had been to our Halloween Party. After the game we took him to the Black Lion pub, where players had their pictures taken with him and he signed menus.
I’d known Neil for about two years; I just fell in love with the guy. You could talk to him about anything. He phones me most days, and he asked me to be a coach for the Neil Baldwin Football Club, which I’m delighted to do, so we have training sessions every Friday afternoon.
Bolstered by the effect of the film, the Neil Baldwin Football Club goes from strength to strength. I think Neil is going to find it a challenge to give all the players who have now signed up for his club a game.
Jack Harding is a current player in his fourth season playing for NBFC. He recalls:
It was my first weekend at uni when I met Neil. He said, ‘Do you like playing football?’ And I’ve been playing for NBFC ever since. I prefer playing for NBFC because I don’t want a whole load of football club politics, although I have played for the Keele University fourth team. Neil is just part of the family here. It’s a two-way thing: he looks after us and we look after him. We played a game against St John’s Theology College and other teams.
I think my first game was against Exeter University and we lost 7–1. It was a bit of a mismatch.
When giving him a lift on one occasion I was a bit taken aback when he suddenly asked me to pull up and ‘buy me some bird seed’. He has a warm personality. I went down to Imperial College to play in the Neil Baldwin Cup.
Yes, the Neil Baldwin Cup, started by Neil Baldwin and his old friend Neil Mosley, the head of sport at Imperial College, is still going. Neil Mosley tells me, ‘Last time he was here he said he wanted to meet the Imperial College chaplain, Andrew, so Andrew came along and Neil worked the usual Baldwin magic on him.’
Neil Mosley has been having cancer treatment, and, typically, Neil Baldwin phones him regularly to find out how he is. ‘Are you any better now? I’m praying for you,’ he says.
NEIL
We did really well this year and won the cup. We won the first game 9–0.
MALCOLM
Who was that against?
NEIL
My second team.
MALCOLM
These days Neil spends a lot of time in the Keele University Sports Centre, which has become one of his established bases. Richard Whitehead works there:
I’ve known Neil for twelve years; he has an unofficial office here. When he doesn’t turn up we want to know where he is. It’s great to see returning students who remember Neil.
Over the years he has given many students the chance to play football. This includes different standards and all groups; they come and train every Friday and the Neil Baldwin Football Club is a registered society in the Students’ Union.
I know he’s been to big clubs such as Manchester City because I’ve seen photographs of Neil with Robbie Fowler, Kevin Keegan, David James and Steve McMahon.
Jack adds:
His team talks can be hilarious. He’ll just shout instructions. He shouted, ‘Sykes, get the ball’ on one occasion when Sykes was actually on the bench. Once, when I was getting changed, he said ‘Jack, you’re a sex beast’ when I took my shirt off. That has stuck as a nickname ever since.
Richard adds, ‘When the local kids come here for the local Football Tournament, you can hear them saying, “Is that Neil Baldwin?” We have an annual Christmas meal, when Neil will tell them all what he thinks.’
On 26 January 2015, Neil attended the ordination of Bishop Libby Lane, the new Bishop of Stockport and the first ever female bishop in the Church of England. There is a picture of Neil, Bishop Lane and the Archbishop of York.
In March 2015, Gandey’s Circus arrived in town on the car park of the Britannia Stadium. In an astute marketing move, they invited Nello the Clown to return to the ring. It played to full houses, and Nello got the biggest cheer when he took to the ring. As ever it didn’t faze him at all.
At one point the ringmaster says, ‘So you’ve made a return to the ring, Nello. What’s it like?’ And he replies, ‘Marvellous!’ It brought the house down.
Neil accepted an invitation to be in the pantomime at the Regent Theatre at Hanley in winter 2015–16. Once again, he is expected to be an important magnet for bringing in audiences.
Meanwhile back at Keele, the Neil method of making friends hadn’t changed. One new friend was a young man who had come to work at the university, Brad Gurney, who told me:
I first met Mr Baldwin when some people who I work with were interviewing him to go on the Keele website. I’d heard the name Nello talked about around The Britannia Stadium and by various other people, but never quite understood the history and legacy that he had. So there I was, sitting quietly, waiting for him to come in to be interviewed.
He came into the chapel, sat down, looked at everyone, then turned his attentions to me and gave me a firm nod; I nodded back.
‘Who’re you, then?’ he asked.
Hesitantly, I replied, ‘Oh I’m just Brad – big Stoke fan, though.’
There was something about this man that intrigued me. As I listened to his responses that he gave to the questions in the interview, I wanted to know more. This guy seemed like he’d seen it all and that nothing seemed to surprise him. So I did what I wanted, I got to know more.
I often spent my lunch hours talking to him about the Stoke matches that had been played and the ones that we had coming up. We’d talk about various players and different performances. It wasn’t long before the errands started: ‘Can you nip to the paper shop for me?’; ‘Can you go and get me a Diet Coke?’; ‘Can you go and post these for me?’ I don’t know what it was about him, but I just couldn’t say no, it was as if he was asking them as rhetorical questions – he must’ve known I was going to say yes. If it was anyone else I’d have probably said, ‘Go and do it yourself, I’ve been bloody working all day!’ But no, this wasn’t possible with Neil (and still isn’t).
Within the space of a few weeks, I was named assistant manager of his football team, I attended evenings with [football manager] Barry Fry and various other sporting icons.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE PILGRIMS
NEIL
It’s getting difficult to fit everything into the diary. I get invited to all sorts of things, and people come to the Potteries especially to meet me. I like all that.
In December I was invited to give one of the awards at the BBC TV Midlands Sports Personality of the Year at Villa Park in Birmingham. I was pleased that it was held at Villa Park because that was the ground where I made my appearance for Stoke City. I was giving the Newcomer of the Year Award. I went down on the train with Malcolm and I was recognised at Stoke Station and on the train by people who
had seen the film and said how marvellous it was. When we arrived at Villa Park, I was very surprised to see Lou Macari there. Lou didn’t let on why he was there, but it turned out that they were also giving me a surprise award, presented by Lou. It was a great night which I really enjoyed.
MALCOLM
On the train down, Neil told me that the previous evening he had been at a function with the police in Stoke-on-Trent. He had been asked to say a few words at the end so I asked him what he had said.
NEIL
I told the police that I pray for them every night and that the cuts that David Cameron is introducing in the police services are disgraceful. I got a great round of applause. I think Malcolm wasn’t sure I ought to have said that but it was what I thought.
MALCOLM
It’s not surprising that Neil’s comments went down so well with the local police force. But on the way, I told Neil that as this was a televised sporting occasion, not a political occasion, perhaps it would be a good idea not to have a go at David Cameron. Neil said he understood and completely agreed.
Neil gave his award as planned, and we were both surprised at the end when they got Lou Macari up on the stage. It was only then that we realised why Lou was there – to give Neil his special award. Neil got interviewed on stage; the presenter asked if he had been busy since Marvellous had been on television. Neil replied, ‘Yes, I have. I have something on almost every day. For example, last night I was with the police in Stoke, and I told them that what David Cameron is doing to the police force…’
The presenter looked a little uncomfortable, but Neil will do what he fancies doing. When I looked at the recorded highlights of the evening on television later, I noticed that they hadn’t included Neil’s contributions to current political debates.
At New Street Station, another passenger asked Neil if he was Neil Baldwin. Hearing that he was, she asked if she could take a selfie with Neil to send to her partner. She had absolutely loved the film, and her partner would never believe that she had met the real Nello at the station.
NEIL
People now recognise me all the time. I went to Beverley in East Yorkshire for a Service of Ordination in Beverley Minster. When the man in the small hotel where I was staying found out who I was, he was very excited, and it even ended up as a story on the front page of the local paper with a picture of himself and me.
At Hull Station on the way home, I saw a young man looking at me. He came forward and asked if I was Neil Baldwin. When I said yes he wanted a selfie photograph to send to his friends because he said they would not believe he had met Neil Baldwin on Hull Station. He was a student returning to Nottingham University and we had a good chat on the train.
I was also invited as a guest at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in Glasgow. I went with my friend Brad from Keele. I was one of the guests of honour and it was great to enter the arena along the red carpet.
MALCOLM
I turned on the TV to watch the BBC News channel that evening when they did an outside broadcast from the Sports Personality of the Year. The very first people I saw were Neil and Brad walking along the red carpet behind the presenter who was doing a preview of the evening’s event.
NEIL
It was a great night. Gary Lineker, who is the President of the Neil Baldwin Football Club, saw me and gave a cheerful wave. I was sitting near to Judy Murray and Susan Boyle, who gave me a kiss. It was great to be part of the ceremony.
Brad loved it too.
MALCOLM
Brad certainly did. Here’s his account of the occasion:
By November, it was routine for me to go down to Neil at lunchtime, sit with him, eat our food and give him a lift to the Sports Centre. One day he produced these two shiny tickets that read ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014’. I’d watched this on telly plenty of times before, the first ticket was addressed to Neil ‘Nello’ Baldwin and the second to ‘Bradley Gumbey’ (it’s Gurney, not Gumbey, thanks Nello, that name has stuck for life). ‘We’re going to Glasgow, Brad!’
Yes Neil, we certainly are…
So there we are, Saturday, 13 December, in the bitterly cold morning waiting for our train. I hadn’t got a small suitcase, so I had to borrow a friend’s. The only trouble was, it was bright pink. As soon as Nello laid eyes on it, he just laughed at me. There I am, walking round Stoke, Crewe and Glasgow train stations with this bright pink suitcase, getting very funny looks from both men and women. But we didn’t care. We were going to Glasgow to meet our sporting heroes!
Neil was like a kid in a sweet shop, we both were, we were on countdown now. Only another eight hours until we were meeting people we had seen on the telly and had heard about through various sporting competitions.
We got to the venue and showed them our tickets. ‘Right this way Mr Gumbey.’ I was too polite to say, ‘It’s Gurney!’ I didn’t care though, you could call me every name under the sun and it wouldn’t affect me, I was at the Sports Personality Awards!
Neil and I met various people such as Susan Boyle, Robbie Savage, Sir Chris Hoy, Gabby Logan, Clare Balding, Kenny Dalglish and Jonny Wilkinson. Every famous person Neil met, he introduced himself with the same line, ‘Hello, I’m Neil Baldwin, have you seen my film? It was called Marvellous on BBC2. It’s on again Christmas Day, so watch it if you haven’t seen it and watch it again if you have.’
NEIL
I was also invited by Lou to go with him to the National Journalism Awards in London. Pete Bowker was there and Marvellous was getting an award.
We went down on the train from Stoke-on-Trent. When we arrived at Euston, we were walking down the platform when we heard two ladies, and one of them was saying: ‘It is him, yes, I am sure it’s him.’ They then came forward with a camera and asked if they could have a picture. Lou smiled and said, of course, and they handed the camera to Lou and asked him if he would mind taking a photograph of them with Neil Baldwin. I think Lou thought he was the one who had been spotted. So I’m now more famous than Lou.
At the ceremony, Lou arranged for me to be wearing the chicken suit.
MALCOLM
Lou told me: ‘After the ceremony we had time to spare so I said to Neil, “Would you like to go to the cinema? You can choose the film.” He jumped at the chance and chose Paddington.’
NEIL
I loved it. Lou fell asleep which meant he missed a lot of a great film.
Since the film, I’ve been invited to a lot of sporting dinners and lunches for ‘an evening with Neil Baldwin’ type events. There’s usually a clip from the film and a Q and A with Lou, Terry Conroy or Malcolm. I suppose I’m a celebrity on the after-dinner circuit.
One of these was at Alsager Golf Club where two of the members present were Andrew Edwards, the local undertaker and Stoke City supporter who’s an old friend of mine, and the former Stoke City striker, Jimmy Greenhoff. Jimmy was such a great player that I let him sign his autograph in the front of my Bible.
Andrew’s golf must have improved a lot since that time in the Isle of Man when he broke a glass table practising his golf swing. He probably practised with that children’s golf kit I brought him. He is a very nice man and organises very good funerals. The funerals of Sir Stanley Matthews and Mary Gandey were marvellous, even though they were very sad.
One of the things I’m most pleased about was meeting a young Tottenham Hotspur supporter called Reuben who has sadly been ill with a form of cancer. He watched Marvellous on television and loved it. His mum wrote to Stoke City to ask if there was any chance of meeting me. He wasn’t well enough to travel up to the Potteries.
As it happens, Stoke City were playing away at Spurs a few weeks later. The two clubs made all the arrangements for me to go down on the supporter’s coach and meet Reuben before the game. Spurs looked after us both and gave us a nice meal. Tiger Aspect were wonderful and gave the clown shoes and a clown outfit that was actually used in the film for me to present to Reuben. He loved it and it was a really good day.<
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Reuben and I have kept in touch since then. He also came with his mum to see us play for the Baldwin Cup at Imperial College, and he won the penalty competition. I am pleased to say that he is feeling much better. That’s one of the very best things that’s happened to me since the film.
Brad came along with me that time.
MALCOLM
Brad was delighted to be asked. He says:
One lunchtime, he said, ‘Eh Brad, come here! I’ve got some news for you! I’m going down to London to watch Stoke play Spurs and meet a little lad who’s seen my film, he’s got cancer and wants to meet me.’
‘Bloody hell Neil, that’s great! That’s this weekend isn’t it?’ I replied.
‘Oh, ah, it is, and you’re coming with me.’ I thought he was winding me up, why would he invite me? Yeah, he knew I was a Stoke fan, but why wouldn’t he take someone else? I obviously jumped at the chance.
So we went down, we got the coach on a very early Sunday morning, he introduced me to the Stoke team, the backroom staff and various people he knew. I couldn’t believe it.
NEIL
Two city councillors in Stoke proposed that Neil Baldwin and the great Gordon Banks should be made Freemen of the City of Stoke-on-Trent. It was carried unanimously. It’s a marvellous honour. Can you imagine what my mum and dad would have thought of that? I’m really pleased to have been given it on the same day as the great Gordon Banks, who is one of my footballing heroes.