Christmas Book-ing For Legendary Nursery
A framed family photo of Mark Crook….the name most synonymous with his beloved Wath Wanderers.
An in-depth book about one of English football’s most famous nursery clubs is on the way in 2025.
Wath Wanderers clearly have a place in more than only Wolves history because the project is being undertaken by the South Yorkshire researcher-and-writer team of Chris Brook and Ashley Ball.
And the duo are determined to leave no stone unturned. A list of around 80 men who went on to play in the Football League after appearing for the legendary Mark Crook at Wath has been compiled and the plan is for as many of them as possible to be interviewed.
We at Wolves Heroes have offered our support to the project and have provided contact details for two of the graduates, Bob Hatton and his good friend Gerry Taylor, who we reunited several years ago.
Hatton has already spoken at length to the production team and shared many recollections from his formative years in the game.
The club were based for decades at Cortonwood Miners Welfare, which also has roots in the miners’ strike of the 1980s.
Crook, a 1930s winger who played 81 first-team games for Wolves, later ran Wath while also keeping a fish and chip shop and then an off licence.
Major Frank Buckley was the first Wolves manager to benefit from the flow of talent Crook oversaw but more players poured into Wolverhampton from the north and east during Stan Cullis’s reign.
Wath ‘graduate’ Peter Knowles in relatively recent years.
‘The Iron Manager’ wrote in his ‘All For The Wolves‘ book: “Wath is probably the first football club ever formed for the primary purpose of finding outstanding youngsters to pass on to a parent organisation and it is almost worth its weight in gold.”
We have previously named Ron Flowers, Roy Swinbourne, Peter Knowles and Steve Daley as the star pupils of a hugely successful operation that leaned on membership of the Northern Intermediate League to further harden the tough players Crook loved and demanded.
But there were several dozen others who graduated to careers in the professional game at Wolves and elsewhere, many of whom are mentioned in this link tinyurl.com/crookwwfc
The unveiling of a blue Wath Wanderers plaque is planned in South Yorkshire in the spring, with the book following in time for next Christmas.