Beddy Jezzard

[WhiteJC]

would have been 84 today

[bog]

He will always be in my top line up. He will never be forgotten by me. That inside forward trio of Robson, Jezzard, Haynes was good enough for all play to for England at the same time. Add Stevens and Mitten on the wings and all 5 could have. But for an ankle injury aged 27 I have no doubt either that he would still have been the club's record goal scorer.

RIP Beddy.   

Never forgotten.

[Peabody]

My favourite Fulham player. Never made a fuss and made the art of goal scoring look easy.

[jarv]

I never saw him play, but my stepfather raved about him, actually all 3 in the picture. What a great photo. :54:

[CorkedHat]

I was watching Fulham before the legendary Johnny made his debut and the reason I chose Fulham was because of the number 9 I saw playing for us on that day in 1951.
Beddy Jezzard was not only a great player, he was also a great bloke

[Jack Fulham]

Played and managed for us to great success, another great player that we have little footage of. Shame he resigned because it looked as though he was a top manager for us.

[RidgeRider]

look at those socks and boots................classic.....and that ball!

Thanks for the photo. I love the old nostalgic stuff.

[richie17]

Well before my time but I read quite a lot about Jezzard in researching the WFWF book and he really did come across as a decent bloke.  You are never quite sure with these things: Haynes' character was questioned in various ways by a good number of people, Robson wasn't always the loveable legend we know him as now, but Jezzard in almost every case seems to have acted with integrity and decency. He put up with an awful lot of nonsense under Tommy Trinder but carried on until the Mullery sale, at which point he decided he'd had enough and went to run a pub in Hammersmith. 

Good player, of course, although never hit the heights in the top division (contrast with Leggat who did all his damage in div 1).  Certainly an integral part of the club's history though, and were there to be another statue (say, on the Riverside Walk) he'd probably be a candidate - seems to embody what we're all about quite nicely.

[CorkedHat]

Well before my time but I read quite a lot about Jezzard in researching the WFWF book and he really did come across as a decent bloke.  You are never quite sure with these things: Haynes' character was questioned in various ways by a good number of people, Robson wasn't always the loveable legend we know him as now, but Jezzard in almost every case seems to have acted with integrity and decency. He put up with an awful lot of nonsense under Tommy Trinder but carried on until the Mullery sale, at which point he decided he'd had enough and went to run a pub in Hammersmith. 

Good player, of course, although never hit the heights in the top division (contrast with Leggat who did all his damage in div 1).  Certainly an integral part of the club's history though, and were there to be another statue (say, on the Riverside Walk) he'd probably be a candidate - seems to embody what we're all about quite nicely.

Never hit the heights? he was capped twice by England when we had good centre forwards coming out of our backside. I reckon that was pretty high 092.gif

[richie17]

Well before my time but I read quite a lot about Jezzard in researching the WFWF book and he really did come across as a decent bloke.  You are never quite sure with these things: Haynes' character was questioned in various ways by a good number of people, Robson wasn't always the loveable legend we know him as now, but Jezzard in almost every case seems to have acted with integrity and decency. He put up with an awful lot of nonsense under Tommy Trinder but carried on until the Mullery sale, at which point he decided he'd had enough and went to run a pub in Hammersmith. 

Good player, of course, although never hit the heights in the top division (contrast with Leggat who did all his damage in div 1).  Certainly an integral part of the club's history though, and were there to be another statue (say, on the Riverside Walk) he'd probably be a candidate - seems to embody what we're all about quite nicely.

Never hit the heights? he was capped twice by England when we had good centre forwards coming out of our backside. I reckon that was pretty high 092.gif

Yeah, good player, but he was prolific in Div 2 but (relatively speaking) didn't score many in Div 1.  Leggatt was prolific in Div 1, hence the comment.

[TonyGilroy]

Jezzard was before my time but he was very young when he played in the 1st Division and an exceptionally prolific goalscorer in Division 2 thereafter. Injury stopped him getting a further chance in the top division but his record in Division 2 is comparable to Brian Clough who also had his career ended early and never really got much of a chance at the top level. Both won two England caps.

As a one club man he'd be high on my list of candidates for a statue.

[Peabody]

Well before my time but I read quite a lot about Jezzard in researching the WFWF book and he really did come across as a decent bloke.  You are never quite sure with these things: Haynes' character was questioned in various ways by a good number of people, Robson wasn't always the loveable legend we know him as now, but Jezzard in almost every case seems to have acted with integrity and decency. He put up with an awful lot of nonsense under Tommy Trinder but carried on until the Mullery sale, at which point he decided he'd had enough and went to run a pub in Hammersmith. 

Good player, of course, although never hit the heights in the top division (contrast with Leggat who did all his damage in div 1).  Certainly an integral part of the club's history though, and were there to be another statue (say, on the Riverside Walk) he'd probably be a candidate - seems to embody what we're all about quite nicely.

Never hit the heights? he was capped twice by England when we had good centre forwards coming out of our backside. I reckon that was pretty high 092.gif

Yeah, good player, but he was prolific in Div 2 but (relatively speaking) didn't score many in Div 1.  Leggatt was prolific in Div 1, hence the comment.


Sorry to disagree with you Ritchie but as you say, you never saw him play and never saw just how effective he was. You can of course point to any statistic and build an impression from them but when we were in the Ist Division, we did not have that good a side and therefore Beddy was not given the service that strikers need. As an indication of this, take Artur Rowley, prolific for us when we won promotion in 1949 but very ineffective in our first season, went on to Leicester and low and behold, finds his shooting boots again. So please, please, do not judge a player on stats alone.

[richie17]

thanks Peabody - good to hear this, valuable information. Take the point and appreciate the correction. 

I suppose it might have been different had Jezzard been of the same age as Haynes, etc, peaking in the sixties with such a talented group.

Arthur Rowley is another interesting one isn't he?  Scored more goals than anyone else, ever, I believe.

[CorkedHat]

In those days there wasn't the big divide between the first and second divisions as there is today. Until Johnny came along you could earn in the second division what you earned in the first division so many second division clubs had some great players. John Atyeo, Geoff Bradford, Albert Quixall, Alick Jeffrey and so on come to mind.
Beddy and Graham Leggatt were different type of players. It is like trying to compare Tom Finney with Nat Lofthouse but that said, Leggatt is an all time hero of mine.

[Peabody]

Rowley was prolific wherever he played and also played until he was comparitively old. Along with Allan Clarke, he also went to Leicester.

[bog]

I would like to have seen Beddy in Div 1 in our second spell. To have seen him with the Maestro in the top flight, Haynes, Leggat and Jezzard together.....mind you it was Beddy who signed the briliant Graham so he may never have come otherwise.    

[HatterDon]

re-Clough -- when you look at his goal-scoring record it's amazing that he only got capped twice. The reason given was that "All he can do is score goals." I assume this means that he didn't pass well, run off the ball, or even pretend to defend. Everything I've read about Jezzard indicates that he was a complete player.

Sounds to me as if the Clough-Jezzard comparison ends at the paucity of caps.