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HAYDN MORLEY - DERBY COUNTY'S FIRST EVER PLAYER

The You & Yesterday football archive continues to grow. Here our regular sporting sleuth Peter Seddon unearths a previously unpublished photograph featuring Haydn Morley. He was the first ever player signed by Derby County. And he was also a distinguished member of the 'Derbyshire Double' breed - those rare few who played both football for the Rams and cricket for Derbyshire.

The recently-unearthed photograph from 1884 - Haydn Morley (seated) with his Derby County colleague George Bakewell - they were the first and second signings made by the club. Both wear the chocolate, amber and sky blue shirts which were the first Derby County colours, Morley's with sleeves rolled up and covered by a sweater

Derby-born Haydn Morley has an unassailable claim to fame - after Derby County Football Club was formed in the summer of 1884 he was the first man to sign for them, and can be rightly designated 'the Rams first ever player'.

When the club played their opening fixture - on 13 September 1884 away to the Bolton side Great Lever - Morley was in the side and was also appointed the club's first captain. Alas the day proved rather a disappointment - Derby County were soundly thrashed by six goals to nil.

The recently-discovered photograph shown here was taken in 1884 soon after Derby County was formed. In fact the historic image shows the club's first two signings - Haydn Morley seated and with him George Bakewell, also born in Derby.

Not a great deal of detail concerning Haydn Morley's life has come to light, but this is what is known.

Haydn Arthur Morley was born on 26 November 1860 at 43 Regent Street in the Litchurch area of Derby.

His father was the Nottingham-born railway clerk William Morley, who in the 1890s became Chief Clerk to the Midland Railway. He had married Derby-born Ann Slater on 17 June 1848, and the couple raised a large family.

William Morley is an important figure in Derbyshire sporting history - in the 1880s he was an influential committee member of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club, and along with his son William Morley junior is considered the co-founder of the cricket club's football section - namely Derby County Football Club. Now there's a thing - William Morley - founder of the celebrated Rams - was born in Nottingham!

With such strong sporting associations in his family, it was always likely that Haydn Morley would cultivate an affinity with sport. True to form - no doubt encouraged by his father William senior and older brother William junior - Haydn Morley agreed to become Derby County's first ever player as soon as the club was formed. He filled both full-back and half-back berths with equal aplomb.

He was then aged 24, single, and living with his parents - who had by then moved from Regent Street via Wilson Street to Bingham Lodge, Litchurch. Haydn was then employed as an articled clerk in a firm of Derby solicitors. He was soon to qualify as a solicitor in his own right, a profession he pursued until a grand old age.

He had previously played foootball for the very strong railway side Derby Midland, formerly the leading team in Derby, but one which subsequently folded when the 'young upstarts' Derby County assumed pre-eminence in the town.

Despite his historical significance as a 'Derby football pioneer', Haydn Morley's career with Derby County proved fairly unremarkable in the scheme of things.

Between 1884 and 1888 he played in 6 FA Cup games and many 'friendlies' - and when the Football League was formed in 1888 he added 4 League games to his tally - that made a total of 10 'official' games, and no goals scored.

During 1888 he also played two Football League games for Notts County, and after severing his playing links with Derby County he joined Sheffield Wednesday - it is believed that by then he was employed as a solicitor in Sheffield.

He made his Wednesday debut on 20 January 1890 and played his final game for them on 29 March 1890 - a short association embracing only 5 games at a time when The Wednesday (as was then their official name) had yet to join the Football League.

However, his 'final' game on the 29 March 1890 was aptly labelled - it was the FA Cup Final against Blackburn Rovers at the Kennington Oval, London. Although Wednesday were humbled 6-1, Haydn Morley was said to have played a heroic game at right full-back, and at the final whistle was chaired shoulder-high off the field. A nice ending to his first-class football career.

He was also a cricketer of no mean ability, but played only two games of real significance.

The first was at the County Ground, Derby, on 14 July 1884, when he was part of the 'Gentlemen of Derbyshire' eleven which beat their visitors from America the 'Gentlemen of Philadelphia'.

The second was his sole game for Derbyshire County Cricket Club, a defeat at the hands of Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in May 1891, when Derbyshire were out of the first-class rankings. A right-handed batsman, he enjoyed only three innings - scoring 1, 12 and 8 - and was 'caught' out on each occasion.

Notwithstanding the paucity of his cricket career it was sufficient for him to become a 'Derbyshire Double' - one of just seventeen men to have played both football for Derby County and cricket for Derbyshire.

Little is known of Haydn Morley's later life save that he lived in Hathersage, in the Derbyshire Peak, and continued to practise as a solicitor. But two archive snippets are worth relating.

The first concerns the 1948 FA Cup semi-final between Derby County and Manchester United. The game was played at Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday. Haydn Morley was then aged 88 but the contest naturally caught his imagination - he expressed a wish to attend.

Although tickets were in huge demand he fondly imagined that at least one of his old clubs - Derby County or Sheffield Wednesday - might kindly oblige. Yet in the event his polite written approaches to both were unduly rebuffed! One can only suppose that 1948 and 'two World Wars' later must have seemed an awful long time away from the 1880s - but it is a sorry and rather poignant tale.

So too is the closing episode in Haydn Morley's life. He had maintained remarkably good health, and early in 1952 when in his 90s was still actively engaged in his solicitors' practise in Sheffield. But later the same year a seemingly innocuous scratch to his leg became infected, and the one-time footballer and cricketer had to have the leg amputated.

Morley reluctantly gave up work at the age of 91 and died in Hathersage the following year in May 1953.

The wherabouts of Haydn Morley's grave have not come to light, but it seems reasonable to suggest that his final resting place may be in Hathersage, Derbyshire. If anyone can confirm this or can add to the article, just click 'edit' or 'discussion' to make a contribution.

                                                                   HAYDN ARTHUR MORLEY
                                                DERBY COUNTY FOOTBALL CLUB'S FIRST EVER PLAYER
                                                        LATE DERBYSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB                         
                                                      BORN DERBY 1860 - DIED HATHERSAGE 1953
                                                                                R.I.P.

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County:  Derbyshire