Hancocks’ Heroics Had Some Down-Turns, Too
Charles Bamforth, no stranger to digging out the more obscure stories, goes back to the time when the career of one of the true Molineux greats was seen to be under threat from a student fresh from non-League football.
Johnny Hancocks…..Shropshire boy made very good.
May 18, 1946. A very short, barely noticeable piece on page seven of the Wellington Journal and Shrewsbury News was headlined: “Hancocks Goes to Wolves.”
It stated that Oakengates native “Jack Hancocks, one of the best wingers in football today, has been transferred from Walsall to Wolves at a record transfer fee for the Saddlers.”
The article pointed out that the wee winger was just as comfortable on the left as the right and that he had been a great favourite when guesting for Shrewsbury Town while stationed during the war across town at the Infantry Training Centre.
Thus, it was that in Wolves’ 6-1 Molineux slaughter of Arsenal on the opening day of the 1946-47 season, the winger partnership of Hancocks and Jimmy Mullen appeared in a competitive game for the first time.
They would go on respectively to play 378 and 486 matches for the club, with the diminutive Salopian using those rockets in his tiny boots to score 168 goals compared with Mullen’s 112. Not bad hauls!
Hancocks was the more temperamental of the two. For one thing, he was terrified of flying, so missed out on playing in many overseas games, in which his usual deputy was Les Smith. For another, the shirt he really wanted had a no 11 on the back, not 7. But there was no shifting the Geordie.
More than once, Hancocks asked for a transfer. The first time was in December, 1949 after he had played a couple of times for England on the left flank. He informed Stan Cullis that this was where he should be playing for the Wanderers but nobody told the manager what was right and what was wrong.
Jimmy Mullen…..the hugely popular left-winger who, like Hancocks, delivered goals in huge abundance.
Wolves refused the request and Hancocks was given the opportunity to cool down in the reserves, although he was soon back as first choice.
Moving on to December 22, 1952, celebrated journalist John Camkin wrote in the News Chronicle: “Pint-sized John Hancocks, the holder of three England caps but now a Molineux reserve, is the subject of a very substantial offer from Sheffield Wednesday.”
The fee on the table was purported to be £20,000 and the word was that Hancocks was wanted in the left-wing berth that he coveted. Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City were also reported to be keen.
Camkin went on say: “A week or two back, Cullis told me: ‘At his best, I would bracket Johnny with Matthews and Finney’.”
And it was at this time that Cullis oversaw one of the transfer deals that didn’t work out. He turned to Southern League Tonbridge and a certain Derek Dimmer, who was still a student and had joined the club from Portsmouth, where he still resided.
Derek Dimmer.
His nippiness was attracting a fair bit of attention. He had recently featured on the right wing for Tonbridge in a stirring first-round FA Cup tie against Norwich that the Kent club were unlucky to lose in a replay.
To pick up the story as related by Camkin: “Hancocks’ future is very much tied up with young Derek Dimmer (20), late of Portsmouth and now of Tonbridge. I understand Wolves will pay Tonbridge a cheque of £4,000 for the Portsmouth student. A dozen other Football League clubs are deeply interested. If he makes an adequate understudy to Leslie Smith, I fancy that Cullis will listen to overtures for Hancocks.”
Wolves duly signed Dimmer on Christmas Day, 1952. In the Boxing Day Central League game at Sheffield United, Hancocks was on the right wing. Twenty four hours later, Dimmer made his debut in the no 7 shirt in the reverse fixture, which finished 1-1. Wolves fielded Nigel SIMS, Eddie STUART, Len GIBBONS, Ron FLOWERS, Peter RUSSELL, Bill CROOK, Derek DIMMER, Doug TAYLOR, Ken WHITFIELD (1), Colin BOOTH, Ron STOCKIN.
The reserves’ next game was on January 3, a 4-2 defeat at Derby. Smith was on the right wing because Hancocks was in the first team no 7 shirt for the defeat against Charlton. And that’s where the wee man stayed for the rest of the season.
Dimmer played seven Central League games that term, two of them on the left wing. But it was more frequently a case of third-team football for him in the Birmingham & District League, where he played 11 games and scored four goals.
On March 14, he even found himself squeezed into the fourth side with little Norman Deeley in the A team. Dimmer, who had played for Gosport before joining Portsmouth, was done at Molineux. He was not freed but put on the open-for-transfer list and, on July 1, signed for Gravesend. He later played for Fareham.
And Hancocks? It wasn’t until the arrival of Harry Hooper from West Ham in 1956 that his star at Molineux finally fell. Bill Holden, writing in the Daily Mirror on August 10, 1956, in an article with the banner headline “Hancocks will be leaving Wolves”, said that Notts County manager George Poyser – previously a Wanderers coach – wanted the little man at Meadow Lane.
Hancocks, happy to have his feet on firm ground, faces the camera as Wolves’ players prepare to depart for a 1951 FA Cup tie at Sunderland.
The piece pointed out that Wolves not only had Hooper, but also another ex-Hammers winger Mickey Lill, who had signed aged 17 in 1954.
Hancocks did not become a Magpie. He stayed at Wolves for the duration of 1956-57 but was confined to the Central League side, as often as not ensuring that Lill was in the third team. In fact, Johnny missed most of the second half of the season but appeared in the last second-team game, a 3-2 Molineux defeat against Albion. He scored one of the goals in this team: Fred DAVIES, John TIMMINS, Cyril BEAVON, Ron HOWELLS, Maurice KYLE, Peter CLARK, Johnny HANCOCKS (1), Bobby THOMSON, Harry MIDDLETON, Alan JACKSON, Des HORNE.
Early in July, 1957, “Jack” Hancocks went back to Shropshire and became player-manager of Wellington Town of the Cheshire County League.