Peter Vasper.
It’s a great name isn’t it? It sounds like one belonging to a 1970s TV detective; a man who likes to operate not only outside the law but also, with his unfeasible perm, heavily flared trousers and penchant for the naffest of the naff music of the time with the likes of Paper Lace, Middle Of The Road and Clout, outside the realms of good taste as well.
Maybe it would have been called Vasper and starred Robin Stewart – car of choice a Triumph TR7, drink of choice… Worthington E?
He was, of course, a goalkeeper. A Norwich City goalkeeper.
Vasper was one of a cluster of hopefuls doomed to spend time at the club hoping upon hope that they would, one day, supplant the one and very only Kevin Keelan in both the side and the hearts and minds of Canary fans.
Faint hope indeed.
He started his football career as an apprentice with Orient but, finding it hard to break into the O’s first team (the club only recently having been relegated from the top flight when he joined them) he signed for non-league Guildford City.
He earned himself a reputation as one of the finest goalkeepers in non-league football during his time at the club, earning himself a Southern League Cup Winners medal as well as playing his part in an FA Cup run that saw Guildford just 90 minutes away from a place in the FA Cup 3rd round in the 1967/68 season.
It was enough to garnish the attention of some football league clubs, one of which was the Canaries.
Peter signed for Norwich for just £5,000 in February 1968, making his league debut in a 3-1 win over Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on March 2, and going on to play in all but one of the Canaries’ remaining 12 league games that season. That run that included, unfortunately for him, a 6-0 defeat at Crystal Palace that Easter.
Lol Morgan stuck with him however until the last game of that season, a scrappy 1-0 win over Cardiff City that saw Ken Foggo get the winner, but, more notably, the return to first-team duties of Kevin Keelan, fit and ready to go after injury.
Keelan started the following season as first choice and remained so until March 1969 when he was, again, ruled out for a period of time due to injury. Being Keelan, it would have been no routine knock or strain; his physical fitness and durability was as strong and renowned as were his skills as a goalkeeper; reasons, you would think, for Vasper, regarded as a keeper of some promise, to soon grow weary of his role as perpetual understudy and want to move on.
But not so. Not even after that run of ten games he got towards the end of the 1968/69 season, one that included two clean sheets in those ten games and five more that saw he and his defence (one that included Dave Stringer and Duncan Forbes) concede just one goal.
Impressive stuff, but would have been even more so had he and that defence not then been on the end of two consecutive defeats that saw nine goals conceded.
The fit-again Keelan duly threw away his latest plaster cast in order to appear, again, in the club’s last game of the season. Another win, another returning hero, another guaranteed run of games for The Cat from the beginning of the following season – 22 to be exact. That is, until the game at Charlton Athletic on December 13, 1969; one which saw him fracture his arm as he attempted to make a save from opposing striker Ray Treacy.
Off went Keelan, on came yet another plaster cast and, after a valiant attempt at goalkeeping by Clive Payne in Keelan’s place, in came Vasper again. Another run of games, a run that, just as the previous two had been, only came about because of an injury to main man Keelan.
Vasper knew that the second Keelan declared himself fit again, he would return to the side which he did; Vasper’s run of games this time around only extending to nine.
He duly saw the footballing light and, that same autumn, left Carrow Road to join Cambridge United having made just 31 league appearances in three seasons for City.
The unenviable role of Keelan understudy fell, upon Vasper’s departure, at the feet of Diss-born Mervyn Cawston who waited three years for his league debut, making 169 appearances for the club’s reserves in the meantime.
Like I said, understudy to Keelan was an onerous task.
A man who made considerably more appearances for the Canaries was Charles Dennington.
Charles played for Norwich at a time when the players would enjoy a pre-match pint or two whilst puffing away on a pipe full of the very best shag tobacco. Beccles-born and stout of heart and frame, early descriptions of him note that he was “imposing”, a man who was as adept at dealing with high balls as he was opposing forwards.
He made his Norwich debut in a 1-1 draw against QPR at The Nest in August 1922, replacing William O’Hagen for that game and, after having seen off both him and crowd favourite Ernest Williamson, was an ever-present in the Canaries side. He missed just 20 league games over the following five seasons, becoming, in the process, the first Norwich goalkeeper to make over 100 league appearances for the club.
His departure from Norwich is shrouded in mystery, however. Having played in the side that beat Watford 5-2 at The Nest on May 2, 1929, he was immediately transfer listed with a fixed fee of £500, the club explaining that his imminent departure was for “intemperate habits”.
Maybe Charlie was rather too fond of the odd ale and is an early example of a footballer falling foul of the dreaded booze? He played just one more game for the club, a 2-2 draw at Newport County, before joining Bradford City just ten days later.
Antonio Gallego’s Norwich City claim to fame is that he was almost certainly the club’s first overseas goalkeeper. Born in San Sebastian in 1924, Gallego came to Britain as a refugee from the Spanish Civil War, playing for both Cambridge City and Cambridge Town before joining Norwich in March 1947.
Gallego was one of five different keepers that City used that campaign, the first in England since the end of the Second World War.
It was not a good Division Three South campaign for the Canaries, who ended it joint-bottom of the table, just ahead of Mansfield Town (who were not re-elected to the league) by a difference in goal average of just 0.14; the Canaries having conceded 100 goals in their 42 league games.
Gallego made just one appearance but how crucial that might have been; the 3-3 draw with Bristol Rovers worth an all-important point to the Canaries. Had they lost that game? Well, things might have turned out very differently.
Another one game goalkeeping wonder for Norwich City was Brian Ronson; his sole Canary appearance coming in the 3-2 win over Swindon Town on November 7, 1959, a season that ended with the Canaries promoted to the Second Division as runners up to Southampton.
Ronson, who was a dart-playing regular at the Elm Tavern in Norwich, gets his mention here not only for that but because, like Vasper, he was the understudy to a near-permanent fixture in the Norwich ranks. In his case it was Sandy Kennon (another overseas keeper for the club, having been born in South Africa) who was a patient but ultimately rewarded understudy himself to the one and only Ken Nethercott.
Sometimes all that patience pays off.
It did for Kennon (in header pic) who went onto make 255 League and Cup appearances for the Canaries having initially been signed as cover for Nethercott. Yet, for the likes of Vasper, Ronson and many others, it did not and their playing time at the club is as fleeting as their reputation and place in the club’s history.
Yet they are part of it and should not be forgotten for the roles that they played at the club, always ready and waiting yet rarely in the spotlight.
[A role that one Ralf Farhmann was unwilling to undertake… – Gary]
A fascinating read, Ed. What’s in an understudy….
for my introduction to Norwich, it was messrs Walton and Howie that were your Vasper and Gallego. Forever doomed to be the ‘nearly men’. I actually got to see Scott Howie play – the reserve cup final in 2001 when he was playing for Reading and we had Danny Gay in goal. Incidentally – we won!
I suppose Robert Green would be the modern equivalent to Sandy Kennon.
Absolutely great read Ed – I especially like the line about “a pipe and a pint”.
Just to get in before everybody else I’m going to mention Roger Hansbury who was with us during something like 1975-80, I’d guess.
Des O’Connor had a hit single with “Careless Hands” in the early 70s and it’s not surprising that dear old Roger quickly became known as “Careless Hansbury” on the terraces.
I only saw him play once or twice but I’ve not heard much great praise for him from any of my peers.
The only one in your article I’d ever even heard of is Peter Vasper.
Undoubtedly an article of some clout Ed though unfortunately the link to the video ‘no longer exists and is not available in our country’ I have an image in my head of some vast labyrinth in the vaults of Couzens-Lake towers filled with reams of information reminiscent of the libraries of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Where on earth did you dig out Brian Ronson from ? and yet there he is, listed in the ranks of Barry Hugman’s footballers as having played 83 games in total, was his career cut short by some bulldozer of a centre forward crashing into him ? Goalies were certainly not well protected back in the day, think Bill Trautman. Roger Hansbury though had, shall we say, an unfortunate grasp of the game, but the worst example was Leeds goalie Gary Sprake somehow throwing the ball into his own net, another video that has sadly bitten the dust. Those were the days.
Thanks Dave-both my house and mind is something of a Canary archive cum museum so you’re not too far out! The here and now of our club will always be the most important thing and there are many excellent writers out there covering just that. But we shouldn’t completely forget our past; the players and events that shaped what was to come-my piece due to appear on here at the weekend is, in effect, a ‘prequel’ to another significant part of the clubs history. Will keep writing about it as long as people are interested.
And I for one will avidly read your contributions, keep it up Ed !
Dave B, wasn’t it Bert Trautman not Bill. And on the Sprake matter, it was always a mystery as to why Revie persevered with him. In that great, but filthy, dirty, cheating and all-round horrible team, he was clearly a very weak link. Surely he could have persuaded a decent keeper to head to Leeds. Mind you they’d have been even better, and more unpopular, if they’d have won more trophies with a real keeper in.
That’s a fun article to read. The first understudy keeper I remember was Roger Hansbury. Of those you mention, Sandy Kennon played in the 1961-62 team that won Norwich’s first major trophy in the year when two of the three main titles ended up in East Anglia. By the way, Cambridge Town and Cambridge City are the same club. When Cambridge received City status in 1951, both of the town’s clubs applied to the FA to be “Cambridge City”, but Cambridge Town got theirs in before Abbey United. The latter chose to rename themselves anyway, as Cambridge United.
I have a Southend supporting friend who claims Mervyn Cawston as a Shrimpers’ legend.
When I was about 18 I was seeing a girl from Leigh-on-Sea and we once went to Roots Hall to see her elder brother play for Southend. The surname was Fuller I think, but as always I could be wrong on that.
My old man used to occasionally take me to Southend for a ride on the pier train and a fish dinner, both of which were far superior to the football experience.
The ground was a dump back [1976?] then. Dunno about these days. I’ve never been back to find out!
Hi Ed
Sandy kennon as you mentioned was born in South Africa but played international football for Southern Rhodesia and was picked up by a Huddersfield scout.
He also player rugby for Beccles after retiring from football an all round sportsman.
I watched him play for Gorleston Town a couple of time just like another great from city Martin Peters
Onwards and upwards
OTBC
Hi Ed.. I was a long time Cambridge City Supporter and remember them winning the Southern League with a team of ageing stars, Johnny Gavin among them and some top non league players bought by the owners “Ridgeons the Builders” and managed by Oscar Hold, Their wages, then about the highest in non-league just below Peterborough, were supplemented by part time employment in the company.
Anyhow that aside I thought Peter Vasper played for City at one time, am I mistaken?.
When I was about nine me and some little mates were allowed out by our parents to get the 86 [?] bus from Chadwell Heath to Romford where we saw Cambridge City beat Romford 3-2.
I’d guess it was around 1967. About a month before I saw my first NCFC match at Carrow Road for sure. Southern League? Probably.
None of us cared who won – we all liked Spurs, Arsenal or West Ham at the time. Or in my case, Norwich and Spurs.
It was a great day out for us temporarily empowered kiddies with a few bob from our parents to buy sweets and a fizzy beforehand and then chips on the way home.
That era will never return.
Peter Vasper was in goal when I saw the Canaries for the first time (1969 v Huddersfield). If I remember correctly David Stringer was playing right back that day. The player who impressed me most was the tricky wide man Ken Foggo, a goal scoring winger of the old school type.
Remember Peter Vasper, nice chap very quiet. Played a few games of cricket for CEYMS