Description
Torrential rain had pounded the faces and bodies of all twenty-two players, as the wind swirled relentlessly, without mercy, across the football field for the entire duration of the game. It was a football match of no major consequence in the grander scheme of things in the football universe; a mid-1960’s non-league match. The players were grateful to hear the shrill of the referee’s whistle to signal the end of the match. However, it also marked the beginning of a journey for the Turner family that within ten years would lead to the devastating and untimely passing from Motor Neurone Disease at the tragically young age of forty-six of one of the finest goalscorers to grace the football league in the 1950s and 1960s.
As the players left the field of play having been lashed and battered by mother nature’s fury. One player in particular had to be helped by his teammates and the trainer from the field of play. He hadn’t taken any knock during the game, none more so than the usual treatment dished out to former football league players ‘big time Charlie’s’ by jealous Southern League ‘journeymen’ defenders. No, it wasn’t a knock that was causing concern to Gordon, but he felt utterly dreadful and could hardly walk or think straight, he later told his wife, Margaret, that he knew something was very wrong.
By his mid-thirties, Gordon Turner, still playing semi-professional football, was also the co-owner of the immensely popular and successful sporting goods supplies store ‘Shanks & Turner’ based in the heart of Luton, and little more than a stone’s throw from the Kenilworth Road stadium, whilst continuing to ply his trade scoring a hatful of goals in the English non-league game with Wisbech, Kettering Town and Bletchley Town.
As a professional footballer in the English football league, Gordon Turner had been a one club man with Luton Town; his goalscoring tally of 276 goals in 450 games during his fifteen years in the lilywhite jersey and black shorts of the provincial Bedfordshire club secured a goalscoring record; one that still stands to this day at Luton Town. His deadly goalscoring partnership with ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Jesse Pye spearheaded Luton Town to their first ever promotion to the top tier of English football at the end of the 1954/55 season.
“GIVE IT TO GORDON!” was the popular cry from the excited and expectant home crowd at Kenilworth Road whenever the Hatters attacked – such was the feeling that Gordon Turner would always score. He was immensely popular both on and off the football field with his team mates as well as supporters of all ages. How he was overlooked for a full England cap still puzzles those who witnessed his powerful forward play.
