The Pit boy from Denaby Main, is now in Wales.

March 1963

South Yorkshire Times, March 16.

The Pit boy from Denaby Main, is now in Wales.


£1000 a Year Non– League Club Chief has tough Fight

Denaby born Arthur Willis, former Spurs and England left back, and now £1000 a year manager of Welsh league side Haverfordwest County is a man with a problem.

East Timor at the bottom of division one of the Welsh League with only eight points from 16 games and the talking point among their supporters is “is Willis’s wage justified?”

“Do you think, if you were a committeeman, that you would keep a £20 a week. Manager will so far as only got eight points out of a possible 32?” He was asked this week.

“That’s up to them isn´t it,” replied 43-year-old Mr Willis, former Mexborough Schoolboys player, were spotted at 15 while he was working in the pits by Spurs manager, Arthur Rowe.

Despite being told to give up football following operations on a duodenal ulcer, you play with Tottenham for 15 years for moving to Swansea with Ron Burgess, who became manager. There, and then to his present post.

He has also answered rumours that is going to Andy is notice.

“Certainly not,” he said, “I have no intention of leaving the town. If the management decide they do not want me. Then I will look for other employment. Whatever I do I will always work for the club, and more than anything. If that happens, I shall want to serve on the committee. I would still coax a club and do everything possible to help it. There comes a time in a man’s life when he has to settle, for his pharmacy. We all love the town and we wouldn’t contemplate moving.”

No crisis.

He said, “of course I am worried about the team, but it isn’t a crisis. In a normal season at the end of February, I would think it was a crisis, but as things are this season we are not halfway through our fixtures. Nobody is more disappointed than I, but I cannot honestly, fathom out why we are in our present position. I wish I could.”

He added: “I’ve got no excuses. I’d just asked for a bit of patience and help from the supporters. We won’t go down – if we do, it will be over my dead body.”

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