Punished by blowing up footballs

Trevor Browns Puma football boots bought in 1967. Even they are heavy compared to todays boots.

Trevor Brown, of Eastern Road, Portsmouth, tells me about one of the sports teachers at Kent Street School in the 1950s.

Mr Verney would punish the boys by making them re-lace and inflate all the old leather footballs, a wearisome job. If they were not to his satisfaction they had to be done again.

Trevor says his first pair of boots were like the Mansfield Hotspur type of which I published a picture. The late Sir Stanley Matthews soon got fed up with them and introduced a lighter style of boot.

The last pair Trevor bought, back in 1967, were made by Puma with a moulded stud. He used them well into the 1970s playing for the Eldon Arms, Southsea.

Mind you, even they would be looked upon as heavy boots compared to today’s carpet slippers.

Trevor still has them and they have pride of place in his home where they are still Dubbined and polished.