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RAYMOND ALAN PARRY, known in football as plain Ray Parry, was one of the select group of men born in Derbyshire to play association football for England. He was one of a rarer group still - those England internationals born in Derby itself.

He was born in Derby on 19 January 1936 and showed great promise at football as a youngster. When he played for Derby Boys it seemed a natural progression for him to be signed by Derby County, but the club made a costly slip by being too slow to react, and Bolton Wanderers snapped Parry up when he was only 15.

An intelligent inside-forward, he played just six reserve games for Bolton before being given his first-team debut on 13 October 1951 against Wolves at the tender age of 15 years and 267 days. That made him the youngest player ever to pull on a Bolton first team shirt, and the youngest to play in the First Division. Derby County must have realised then that they had overlooked a home-grown gem.

Between 1951 and 1960 Ray Parry played 270 League games for Bolton and scored 68 goals. He gained an FA Cup medal with them in 1958 and won two England caps in 1959 and 1960. He left Bolton in 1960 to sign for Blackpool, playing 128 League games and scoring 27 goals, before making a final move to Bury in 1964. He stayed there until 1971, making 137 League appearances and scoring 17 goals.

Ray Parry's long and distinguished career had embraced three decades - his overall record was 535 League games and 112 goals.

Derby County's failure to sign Ray Parry is put into sharper focus through the fact that the Parry family became a veritable football dynasty. Of seven brothers in all, three more played to a high standard. Ray's brother John 'Jack' Parry did sign for the Rams, playing 516 times from 1948-65 and scoring 110 goals - that's some compensation at least, for Jack Parry is one of the Rams' all-time greats. Another brother Cyril played for Notts. County, and yet another Glyn was with Gresley Rovers and had a number of games in the Derby County reserves side.

Ray Parry went into coaching when he finished playing and settled in Bolton. He ran a newsagents business in the town and died there of cancer on 23 May 2003, aged 67.

• Three Lions On Their Shirt - England Footballers Born In Derbyshire

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County:  Derbyshire

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