A Meal Invite To Cap Them All

How handy it is when business trips provide opportunities for catch-ups with good pals. Regular Wolves Heroes contributor Charles Bamforth shares his delight at meeting up again with Alan Hinton and family on America’s west coast….

It was my good fortune that a speaking engagement at a brewing meeting in Seattle enabled me to pay a visit across the water to Bellevue to see my friend, Alan Hinton.

The former Wolves and Derby winger was in fine form when I joined he and his regular companions at his favourite pub, Angelo’s.

In the corner where we sat are two photos of the great man on the wall. Everyone who came across to chat referred to him as ‘Coach’.

Alan is revered in these parts as the legendary leader of the Seattle Sounders. One of the group was his former player and assistant, Bernie James, a USA international, and very much a larger-than-life character.

He was one of the many who had regaled me with anecdotes for the Triumph and Tragedy book, on which I was proud to work with one of my boyhood heroes a few years ago.

It was lovely to then head over to the beautiful home of Alan and Joy’s daughter, Tania, for more banter and conversation over a delicious meal.

There were so many stories, including the Hintons’ trip a year ago to the 50th anniversary celebration of Derby’s championship-winning side of 1974-75.

As Alan knows, I fervently wish that he had still been wearing a gold shirt in those glory days. He has also been made aware more than once that I regard his 1964 transfer to Nottingham Forest in exchange for Dick ‘Flip’ Le Flem to be the lowest moment in Stan Cullis’s otherwise scintillating managerial career.

Note that in the 1962-63 season, Hinton was Wolves’ top scorer with 19 goals from the left wing. Imagine that in this day and age!

It was as a 19-year-old at Molineux that he played his first game for England in October, 1962. Tania showed me the tribute cap and letter that the Football Association sent to Alan recently. What a wonderful gesture to the players all these years on.

The team for the European Nations tie against France that day at Hillsborough read: Ron SPRINGETT, Jimmy ARMFIELD, Ray WILSON, Bobby MOORE, Maurice NORMAN, Ron FLOWERS, Mike HELLAWELL, Chris CROWE, Ray CHARNLEY, Jimmy GREAVES, Alan HINTON.

England’s goal in the 1-1 draw was from Flowers, the sixth penalty he had taken for his country, all of them successful. Yet it was Alan’s pal, Terry Wharton, who had the spot-kick job at the time at Wolves.

One wonders who would have taken the kick that day if Terry had been selected, the rumour beforehand being that the Bolton lad would also get a cap rather than Birmingham’s Hellawell. That would have made it four Wolves players in the line-up, with Flowers, Crowe and Hinton already in there.

And, of course, let’s not forget that, at Derby, the fair-haired Hinton was most definitely the master from 12 yards, as Wolves found to their cost at least twice.

Alan would play twice more for his country, the second of them immediately after his wedding to Joy. That call-up meant they spent their wedding night in different hotels; material for more wonderful banter!

It was just one of the fabulous memories we shared around Tania’s table and I felt honoured to be there.