A Phil Tooley photo of murals at Dalymount Park that celebrate former Bohemian FC greats. Something like that with a CFC theme would look very tasty along that elevated Tesco loading bay wall in the south-east corner of our ground.

Black-Eyed Peas have let themselves go a bit.

This fellow troubled me for years. A. Broomhead, halfback, with us between 1933 and 1939 without making a Football League appearance. Clearly, we thought highly of him, but could never get him to sign more than a part-time agreement for £2 a week. 1/5

"We go again,' as they say in the trade.

Tonight's officials for France / Morocco: (You still have an hour or two to lump on Morocco.)

A 30-year mystery solved. In between Jim Smallwood and a fabulously young-looking Gerry Sears on this bit of a 1952-3 team group is a chap I only knew as Seager. He trained with us in pre-season and played five "A" Team games. I found myself confused by his mid 20s facial appearance 1/3

The Barrow forward Harry Roberts joined Chesterfield on 26/6/1926 for a £50 fee and a wage of £4 per week. Released to Lincoln after a couple of unremarkable seasons, he netted 23 times in 33 games there and moved to Millwall, where he was capped for England against Belgium in 1931. 1/2

I received my copy of this today. I really like it. Enjoyable and entertaining. Can't read the bit where the author interviewed *him,* though! 😁 I don't suppose he's ready to confess!

Yeah, why don't we have more shots from distance?

The Derbyshire & England fast bowler Alan Ward, who has recently passed away, trained with us in preparation for (I think) to the 1970-1 Ashes tour. He is pictured here leading a run at Pitt Street with Alan Stevenson.

Since it is World Cup time and we all like a list, here's a certainly incomplete list of international players who had some playing involvement with CFC without playing first team, competitive football for us. Three of them went on to the World Cup!

I start a new file for neutral games on The Rec, and am immediately sidetracked by this. 1869. Come to The Rec to see the latest in crapper technology, for only a shilling. So favourable was the response that the toilets remained in use until the ground's closure in 2010.

Died on this day in 1884: George Whomersley, post office clerk and Chesterfield’s first goalscoring hero. From his debut in 1870 he played regularly and scored freely until breaking an arm in 1875-6, making sporadic appearances thereafter while serving on the club's committee. 1/2

John Henry Unwin was found fatally wounded at his house in Clay Cross on this day in 1907. He was the Clerk to the Clay Cross schools and had gone up to his bedroom to change a collar before returning to work after lunch. His wife heard a bang and rushed upstairs to find him bleeding 1/4

Ah, BBC. I would say the clue is in the picture, wouldn't you?

before a transfer to Grimsby Town. War work – he was a fitter at the BSA factory – took him to Birmingham, where he played in the extensive Works League set-up before sadly passing away at the age of 35, from ulcerative colitis. He is pictured here in a Grimsby kit. (2/2)

Here's what I've included:

Every April 25th game (all three of them!) at the new ground has attracted an attendance of at least 9,500.

Went to visit the grave of Herbert Munday in Eckington Cemetery. He rests in an unmarked grave, entirely unbefitting of the greatest player in our history, in my opinion. I wonder how much a headstone costs? Too much for my pension, I'm sure.

Chesterfield FC's 1921 Finance Committee minute book. May 1921 transcribed; let's turn the page and start on June 192.... Ah.

The loss of seven players through injury might constitute a crisis nowadays, but in a season (1929-30) when the club got through at least 105 players across its three teams, it was but a scratch. Any reluctance on Bob Dennison's part to jump for headers might finally have been diagnosed!

Born on this day in 1887 in Northumberland: Robert Gibson, outside-right with English and Scottish clubs between 1907 and 1920; at Chesterfield Town in 1913-14; winner of the Powderhall Sprint in 1915 under the pseudonym of "Stevens," which, curiously, was the name of his opposite winger at CTFC.

From Facebook. Made me chuckle.

Liam Mandeville has made at least 40 league appearances in each of the last five seasons for Chesterfield. The last outfield players to do that were Albert Holmes and Kevin Randall, between 1967-8 and 1971-2. Hat-tip to Paul Kellett for the stat.

Derbyshire are enjoying a fine opening game, which makes you wonder how much better they have to do to avoid being confused with Northants by The Guardian.

We are at Barrow on April 5th. It can be a swine to get to, and it still was when we made the trip for a game on April 5th, 1930, despite having three different railways to choose from! Teddy Davison's lovely handwriting in his personal minute book explains it all.

Here's a photo from a 1939 newspaper of centre-half Jack Seagrave. I have no idea whose kit he is wearing; he'd been with us for two and a bit seasons by then, so it should be ours. A white-ish shirt, black shorts and one broad band of colour around each arm. Curious half 'n half hooped/plain socks.

but there are only half a dozen possibles, per the attached image. The closest to 19 years old in 1912 was from Barrhead, Renfrewshire. Not Glasgow, but if you come from Chesterfield, it’s near enough for jazz. Bad news for my chums on Memorial Garden duty, though, if him: (3/4)