A FORMER Cornwall and Liskeard footballer celebrates his 90th birthday today (May 10).

Graham Earle, the son of Elsie Earle, who owned The Crows Nest and The Red Lion, Liskeard, also played football for Darite, Pensilva and many more teams around the world.

His daughter Sue, explained: “Dad has been in a care home in Swindon for 18 months.

“I have only been able to see him for 45 minutes once a week for the past six months.

“Dad was born in The Crows Nest Pub on May 10, 1931.

“We have loads of newspaper cuttings from the Cornish Times – my Gran would cut them out and save them for Dad.

“He joined the RAF as a boy entrant but continued to play for Cornwall, coming home every Saturday from Ireland for a number of years. He only gave up Cornish football when he was posted to Singapore in 1961. Bit too far to commute!

“He still gets the Cornish Times posted up to Swindon to his care home each week.”

Below are extracts from an autobiography Graham’s cousin Brian Otway put together.

Brian wrote: “Graham was born in the Sun Inn, a Public House in the village of Crows Nest near Liskeard, and was the second son of his parents Elsie and Abbot George Earle, and the younger brother to Raymond, who was born March 21, 1929. Frederick, his younger brother, was born on May 14, 1939.

“Graham was a fabulous footballer and at the age of 13 was playing in junior football with men, whilst still playing for Pensilva under-16s, who were a very successful youth team. He started with a local village team called Darite and, for a short time, with Moorswater. Both these teams played their football in the Liskeard and District League.

“Graham quickly became my idol and, as soon as I was allowed, I attended all the matches when he played for Darite.

“After joining the RAF at the age of 17, Graham played for Darite when home and I always remember the excitement for me and the supporters when Nipper (as I called him) was home and playing for his club in their green and black striped shirts. He brought excitement into my life, plus great improvement to the team.

“Playing football with the RAF station team at a higher level greatly improved his football skills and made him a local star, to the extent that many Cornish senior teams were doing their best to sign him.

“For a few years he remained loyal to his junior club Darite, no doubt greatly influenced by the great character and enthusiasm of neighbour Charlie Wilson, whose life was running the Darite football team.

“I remember when Darite had a home match in the cup against Pensilva, and Nipper was home on leave from the RAF for the game. Pensilva were red hot favourites and I cycled to the match and remember the unbearable excitement as, for the first time in my life, I saw Darite achieve a draw with Pensilva at two goals apiece. Graham was the star of the match, scoring the equaliser in the last minute.

“While still playing junior football with Darite, Graham was selected to play in a friendly for Cornwall, and became the first junior footballer to play for the county.

“Right after playing for the county, all the big clubs in the South Western League really put the pressure on him, and only his loyalty to Darite stopped him from moving club earlier on. He joined St Austell and played for a couple of seasons for them before Liskeard Athletic persuaded him to transfer to his local town club.

“He made his full County debut in 1956 at the age of 24, shortly after he had signed for Liskeard.

“I proudly travelled with Raymond up to Holsworthy and saw Graham score one of the goals in Cornwall’s 2-1 victory.

“Liskeard just went from strength to strength and over the next five seasons won every competition that they entered. Nipper was a star around the town, and even to this day is still recognised by the old fans when he returns home.

“Following his appearance as a county schoolboy footballer, Graham was successful, at first stage trials with Torquay United. He was invited back for further trials, leading to an offer to turn professional, but his mother persuaded him otherwise and he opted for joining the Royal Air Force.

“Graham’s football at home was continuously interrupted by the RAF having first claim on him. After completing his trade as an aircraft frame fitter, he was posted overseas to Egypt for three years, before returning to Cornwall at RAF St Mawgan, with 42 Coastal Command.

“Graham played many times for Cornwall and one of his greatest matches was against Oxford when he scored four goals and received terrific write-ups in the press.

Around this period, two football league clubs, First Division sides Portsmouth and Burnley, were trying to get him to go professional, but he remained with the RAF.

“Despite the tempting offers, he signed amateur forms only for Portsmouth. He was aged 28 at this time.

“One of Graham’s greatest nights had to be, when Bodmin Town AFC arranged a star football match to celebrate being the first club in Cornwall to have floodlights. To mark the switch-on, they arranged for a Cornwall Select XI to play Blackpool in the presence of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was flown into the ground by helicopter.

“Blackpool were the biggest team in England at that time, and had recently won the FA Cup at Wembley in 1953. They had many famous players, none more so than Sir Stanley Matthews.

“Graham was picked for the County Select XI. At half-time, Matthews removed his famous tangerine Blackpool shirt and exchanged the shirt with a Cornish player and they swapped sides, thereby giving Graham the wonderful experience of playing in the same forward line as Matthews.

“Of all my wonderful football memories, I think the most outstanding was the night at Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park, when Liskeard played Brixham United in the Senior Cup final. Nipper scored a great header at the Devonport end, which won the cup for Liskeard.”