Lee On Centre Stage With Chelsea Favourite
It’s approaching 40 years since Wolves last played at Torquay but many of the club’s supporters still enjoy a break on the English Riviera.
Which is why the next charity evening being organised by Torbay-based Colin Lee is surely worth a plug on here.
We wrote on this website last summer about how the former Molineux boss had raised more than £2,600 for the Willow Foundation, the charity set up in 1999 for terminally ill young people by Bob Wilson and his wife, Megs, in memory of their daughter, Anna.
That fund-raising night came around a decade after Lee started staging an annual evening in Devon for good causes.
Now he is teaming up later this summer with his former Chelsea team-mate, David Speedie, to continue the good work.
They are putting on a q&a night at Torquay’s Livermead Cliff Hotel on Saturday, August 15 and will no doubt be reflecting on Chelsea triumphs together more than 40 years ago, notably when they won the Second Division in 1983-84.
“We lived close to each other in Camberley and I took him under my wing as he was a bit younger than me,” Lee said. “He had been signed from Darlington, so the area and level were new to him.
“We travelled in together for training and matches and were room-mates as well. We became close friends and loved playing up front together but Kerry Dixon was an unbelievable goalscorer and John Neal spotted my ability to play almost anywhere, so he moved me to right-back.
“When Kerry was injured just before the Full Members Cup final against Manchester City, ‘Speedo’ and me were paired together and he got a hat-trick and I scored twice. We won 5-4, so that was some day!
“He had a terrific five years or so at Chelsea and scored plenty of goals in partnership with Kerry, not forgetting Pat Nevin. He was popular with the fans because of his workrate and commitment and I’m looking forward to seeing him down here.”
Speedie’s fiery nature did not always endear him to opposition supporters, nor, on occasions, to his team-mates. Nevin, who we drove to an appearance alongside Speedie in Brierley Hill nearly 18 months ago, gave readers an insight into the Scottish forward’s temperament in his autobiography, The Accidental Footballer.
“In my time, there were plenty of fist-fights at Chelsea during training and travelling,” he wrote. “I can clearly recall David Speedie fighting with Colin Lee, David Speedie fighting with Kerry Dixon, David Speedie fighting with Joe McLaughlin, David Speedie fighting with Paul Canoville – you will see there is a bit of a pattern developing here.
“David was usually part of it and usually ended up losing but he was incapable of backing down, even though he was six inches shorter and two or three stone lighter than his opponent. But he was an excellent player.”
The August 15 event on Torquay sea front takes place in a hotel almost directly opposite the one Wolves used for their Sherpa Van Trophy area final tie against The Gulls in 1989 and is in aid of the special needs department at the town’s Sherwell Valley Primary School.
Tickets cost £50 and are available through ringing the Livermead Cliff Hotel on 01803-299666. The purchase price includes a three-course dinner, an appearance by singer guitarist Dawn Harding, a raffle and a sports auction conducted by compere David Fitzgerald.