Former Hoops player-manager Wally Hinshelwood, who made over 400 appearances in the Football League, has died at the age of 89.
The skilful winger, whose sons Martin and Paul also played in the Football League, started his professional career with Fulham in 1947 and then went on to play for Chelsea, Fulham, Reading, Bristol City, Millwall and Newport County. He joined City from Reading for a transfer fee of £15,000 in 1956, which was a sizeable fee in those days, and went on to make 149 appearances at Ashton Gate during a four-year spell.
After leaving Newport in 1962 he made a handful of appearances for Dartford, Canterbury and Sittingbourne before joining the Hoops the following year and scored their first ever goal in the Southern League on his debut against Ashford Town in August 1963. Wally also played in Deal’s last-ever game in the Southern League at Bath City in May 1966, when he was the club’s player-manager after succeeding Larry Baxter seven months earlier.
He stepped down from the player-manager’s role at the end of that campaign but continued playing at the Charles Ground for one more season and was in the side that beat East Ham Utd 2-1 in the 1968 Greater London League Cup final.
Hinshelwood then joined Battersea for one more season before retiring and the move to south-east London led to Martin and Paul both playing for Crystal Palace during their professional careers while Martin later went on to become manager of Brighton.
Hoops chairman Dave Chmura “It was with great sadness when I heard that Wally Hinshelwood had died. He was Deal Town’s answer to George Best, a great winger with skills and class and probably the most famous player ever to have won a Hoops shirt.
“It also brought back so many memories of playing football as a kid at North Deal playing fields. Two of our gang were Martin and Paul, and I used to go round to Wally’s house in West Street and call for his boys to come and play football at every available opportunity.”
“Another former Hoops player, Jimmy Nokes, and myself then formed a junior team in 1964 and played under the name of North End Rangers, training and playing five-a-side in the Duke Street hall and full games at North Deal playing fields.
“Wally helped us with a bit of training and refereed a couple of games and I can still remember being devastated when he told me he was moving to London to improve his boys’ chances of becoming professional footballers. The next time I met Martin was as a guest of his at Crystal Palace when he had just played against Spurs, so Wally’s decision to leave Deal certainly proved the right one.
“My last meeting with Wally was back in our old clubhouse in 2013 when I was able to give him a copy of an old North Deal Rangers team photo which was taken by Basil Kidd for the “East Kent Mercury”.
Back row: Martin Hinshelwood, Richard Bayliss, Les Barrow, Laurie Brind; Middle row: Billy Gough, Des Snashall, Russell Morrison, Jack Twyman; Front row: Pat McNicolas, Dave Dillon, Jim Nokes, Dave Chmura, Daryl Brown; Floor: Gary Kerlacky, Paul Hinshelwood.
Photo: Basil Kidd
4 Responses
Sincere condolences to Wally’s family.
As a person who still considers Deal my home town even though I left many years ago.Being a Palace season ticket holder, knowing about Paul & Martin well, it’s fantastic to read about this connection. My condolences to the Hinshelwood family at this sad time.
Sad news about Wally: not only do I remember him from his stay at Deal Town but he also was a decent cricketer whom I played with (alongside Larry Baxter) at Deal Victoria CC
Very sad to hear of Wally’s passing, lovely man lovely footballer. Played with him for Deal town in Southern league days, Best wishes and condolences to his family.