Obituary - Allan Ball, long-serving goalkeeper with Queen of the South

Died: July 21, 2018

ALLAN Ball, who has died of cancer aged 75, was a footballer who in his adopted homeland of Scotland was even better known than “The Other Alan Ball”, the youngest member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning football team.

While “Ballie”, the Lancastrian hero of 1966, was a small, often snarling bundle of red-headed aggression, County Durham-born “Big Allan” was a quiet, reserved goalkeeper, who enjoyed a very long career between the sticks with Queen of the South.

He did not begin as a goalkeeper, but was kept there after deputising successfully for another future super-stopper, Sunderland cup final hero Jim Montgomery, for County Durham schools. Montgomery went to Roker Park and early stardom; Ball went down the pit at his native Hetton-le-Hole, as an apprentice electrician, playing for local club Stanley United, after turning down a chance to play for Blackpool.

Queen's chairman Willie Harkness travelled to Hetton to sign Allan, for the huge fee of £100 – in the colliery canteen at 2am, during his break from a night shift. The manager, the former Scotland goalkeeper George Farm, put him straight into the team, to play Falkirk, on 14 December 1963.

The Doonhamers lost 6-3, but Ball stayed on, going on to make a grand total of 819 games, before he left in 1982. These games included a run of 507 in succession and, during his long spell at Palmerston, he was only booked once. Even this was unusual, Tom “Tiny” Wharton, booking Ball for “blasphemy”, after he muttered “Jesus Christ” during one game. Perhaps it was the fact it was a Christmas Day fixture which caused the great “Tiny” to react so disapprovingly.

At first, Ball travelled to and from Palmerston from County Durham, before relocating to Dumfries, where he opened a garage which he ran for many years. These were largely fallow years for the club, but, Ball had his moments, such as being part of a promotion winning team, out of the Second Division in 1981.

He once broke his ankle in the first half of a cup tie at Somerset Park. There were no substitutes back then, so he had to play on with the ankle strapped, even saving a Johnny Graham penalty in the second half.

His long service to the club saw him awarded two testimonials, but, rapidly approaching 40, he realised himself, it was time to go. He had intended playing on with Bishop Auckland, for whom he had briefly played as a teenager. But, he was persuaded to sign instead for Gretna, with whom he carried on his career into his forties, finally hanging up the gloves, aged 42, following a late cameo with Dalbeattie Star, as a favour to well-known football administrator Dick Shaw.

He was immensely popular with his fellow players. Allan Ross, the Glasgow-born goalkeeper, who had almost as long a career with Carlisle United, was a regular golfing partner; while he was held in high regard by such greats as Danny McGrain, not to mention fellow Queen's legends such as Billy Houliston, Jimmy Paterson and Ian McChesney, his team mate on many occasions.

He continued, after football, to live and work in Dumfries, and was a regular at Palmerston, before, in 2001, the club invited him to become an honorary director, a position he still held when he died.

He enjoyed these years, with the run to the Scottish Cup Final in 2008 and the trip to Denmark in the UEFA Cup the following season being particular thrills. He was also voted Queen of the South's Greatest Player and was naturally one of the founding inductees into the Queen of the South Hall of Fame.

His last few years were difficult as he bravely battled cancer, encouraged by his wife Olive, son Keith and the wider family, who survive him. He will be missed well beyond Dumfries.

MATT VALLANCE