Meet England’s oldest surviving international who worked down the pit, snubbed Man Utd and paved way for millionaires
IF ENGLAND go to the Euros this summer and flop, the players won’t get off as lightly as Tommy Banks did in 1958.
The Bolton full back was leaving Moses Gate station after the final leg of his journey home from Sweden, where Walter Winterbottom’s team had failed to make it out of the group stage.
A woman who had known “Banky” since he was a child saw him in his smart England blazer, suitcase in hand, and asked: “Have you been to Blackpool for your holidays?”
Banks, 94, is now England’s oldest surviving international.
He explained: “It weren’t the same as now.
“In Bolton all they worried about was Bolton, not England.”
In 2017, Banks put down his book of crosswords to welcome SunSport into the front room of his house, which stands just 200 yards or so from his birthplace in the district of Farnworth.
In his playing career, his 5ft 7 ½ in frame carried 12 stone of winger-worrying muscle.
Much has changed since Banks represented his country.
But The Times’ description of the 1-0 defeat by the USSR in a play-off to reach the quarter finals will sound familiar to England fans: “…morale and stamina in full measure; skill only in a modicum; and of luck, none at all.”
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Banks admits: “We should have done better than what we did.”
But there was a tragic reason, of course, for the Three Lions not roaring.
Just four months before the World Cup, on February 6 1958, the Munich Air Disaster had claimed 23 lives, including those of Manchester United and England trio Roger Byrne, Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards.
Banks says: “It were terrible. I went into the paper shop and that’s where I got to know it.
“It were a shock. They were a good team, all young lads.
“Duncan Edwards, he could defend and play. Tommy Docherty said he was the best player he had ever seen. Tommy Taylor was the best in his position.
“Never mind what’s-he-called, Pele, never mind him. He wouldn’t have shone like he did.
“They would have won Cup. And I would have been nowhere near going.”
It was the death at Munich of England left back Byrne, the United captain, which opened the door for Banks to play for his country.
But Banks himself could have been a United player.
As a teenager, he had worked in Mosley Common Pit, near Tyldesley in Greater Manchester.
While he was still on shift one afternoon, a man with a Scottish accent turned up at his widowed mother’s door and asked her to ask her son to come down to Manchester United for a trial.
It was former miner and new United boss Matt Busby. Tommy explained to his mother that it would mean him taking a bus to Salford Cathedral, as she often did, and then walking to Old Trafford.
Banks remembers: “She said: ‘It’s a long way that, Thomas.’’ So I didn’t go.”’
Garrincha didn’t play. I must have come into that. They didn’t want him to get injured. But I could play football, too, honest.
Tommy Banks on Brazil legend avoiding him at the 1958 World Cup
Instead, he signed amateur forms with Bolton in November 1946, where brother Ralph already played.
After completing his National Service, during which he captained his regimental team, Tommy signed professional terms in 1953.
He missed out on playing with Ralph in the Matthews FA Cup Final of the same year.
But it was his performance in Bolton’s FA Cup triumph over United in May 1958 which sealed his England call-up.
There was confusion when the train carrying the team home the Monday after the final made an unscheduled stop at Rugby.
The stationmaster told Banks the FA had sent a telegram asking him to turn round and head back to London to join the squad for the friendly against Portugal.
He did not feature in that game or the 5-0 tour defeat by Yugoslavia in Belgrade, but made his debut against the USSR in a warm-up for their later meetings at the World Cup.
Tom Finney played a bit too well in the 1-1 draw in Moscow and paid the price when the sides met again in Gothenburg a few weeks later.
Banks says: “Tom Finney was our Messi. They kicked him to death, the Russians. They were dirty buggers.”
Finney scored a late equaliser from the penalty spot in a 2-2 draw but was unable to play again in the tournament.
In their wisdom, the FA had taken only 20 players to Sweden instead of a full 22-man party and, in any case, had left Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen, the best potential replacements for Finney, out of the squad.
But one good decision was to take Bill Nicholson as Winterbottom’s assistant. Nicholson, who would take over as Tottenham boss later in the year and lead them to the Double in 1961, came up with the tactical masterplan which enabled England to hold eventual winners Brazil to a goalless draw in their next group game.
Banks and fellow full back Don Howe played key roles and Banks reckons his tough-tackling reputation went before him.
He recalls: “We were ready for ‘em.
“Garrincha didn’t play. I must have come into that. They didn’t want him to get injured. But I could play football, too, honest.
“We could have won that game. We should have beaten Austria as well.”
But they didn’t, drawing 2-2, and so had to play the USSR yet again for place in the last eight. They lost by a single goal and home they came.
Banks was to play just one more time for England, his sixth cap coming just 139 days after his first.
He says: “I got injured against Northern Ireland, my hamstring.
“Nothing you can do about it. Today they have ways of training that build it up, but not then.
“We may have played too often.”
Banks continued to represent Bolton until 1961 when he played a small but vital part in abolishing the maximum wage and so paving the way for the multimillionaire footballers of today.
The Professional Footballers’ Association was threatening to strike over the £20 per week limit but at a regional meeting at The Grand Hotel in Manchester, the Bury delegate said it would be wrong to earn more than his dad did down the pit.
Former miner Tommy was having none of it. According to his biography “Ah’m Tellin’ Thee”, written by former Bolton player Ian Seddon, his response, in local dialect, amounted to: “There won’t be thirty thousand watching him dig out coal on Monday morning, there will be thirty thousand paying good money on Saturday at Burnden Park to see me try to stop Brother Matthews here.”
Banks’ little speech, which ended with him pointing to Stanley “Brother” Matthews, is said to have swung the mood in favour of the proposed strike.
Weeks later the Football League caved in and almost overnight Fulham made Tommy’s former England team-mate Johnny Haynes the first £100-per-week player.
Banks admits: “I had a lot to say. I’d worked down the mine.
“I could get that money down pit and more. But they couldn’t run around and play like we did.
“All that money on the gate – none was coming back to us. It wasn’t right.”
But Banks could not escape another of football’s old-fashioned employment practices. Later in 1961, fourth division Oldham came in for him but Bolton demanded too high a transfer fee.
Under the retain and transfer system, even if clubs chose not to renew a player’s annual contract, they could refuse to release his registration to another professional side if they were not offered enough money.
Am I ‘eck jealous! I enjoyed every kick of the game while I were playing. It were wonderful.
Banks on players of today
Banks had served Bolton as a supporter and player for most of his life.
He had even been at Burnden Park on March 9 1946 when, unbeknown to him and many others in the 85,000 crowd, 33 Wanderers fans were crushed to death during the FA Cup tie against Stoke in the worst football ground disaster in England until the 1980s.
After 233 league appearances for Bolton, Banks combined playing for non-League Altrincham with grafting as a hod carrier, proudly wearing his 1958 cup final shirt at work until he started to wear away the shoulder.
He finishing his playing days at Bangor City, then had his own construction businesses.
Banks’ football career had enough tales on its own.
His smile convinced Gillette to pay him to be the first sportsman to advertise on television in Britain, in 1960.
So modern stars can thank him for blazing that trail as well as paving the way for their eye-watering salaries.
Banks, who particularly enjoys watching fellow full back Kyle Walker, has sympathy for England players who are crucified for every failure at a major tournament.
But he would only be human if he envied their wealth, wouldn’t he?
He said: “Am I ‘eck jealous! I enjoyed every kick of the game while I were playing.
”It were wonderful.”